Not to be bragging (honestly) but I am wondering how accurate Strava's speedometer is, and what kind of things could make it go wrong, because looking at my speed stats for today's evening ride one can deduce that there is either something far wrong with Strava, or I really am capable of propelling 15 kilos of 52 year old British steel to 29.3 mph, on a fairly flat road. Can that be true?
Strava Speedometer?
- Thread starter mikeyboyo
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are you talking sustained speed, average speed, or some instantanous top speed?
Also phone app or a gps computer uploaded to strava.
Usually software has a degree of smoothing to the gps data, but that doesn't mean that the software you're using can't get spikes, you can get drops in the satellite signal, then when it picks them back up it will instead of saying you went from A to B to C, it will think you just did A to C but also thinking you went to D as well.
Also phone app or a gps computer uploaded to strava.
Usually software has a degree of smoothing to the gps data, but that doesn't mean that the software you're using can't get spikes, you can get drops in the satellite signal, then when it picks them back up it will instead of saying you went from A to B to C, it will think you just did A to C but also thinking you went to D as well.
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It's as accurate as your phones GPS/GLONASS signal.
Putting it in a pocket and having it move around doesn't help either.
Run along the trace and check it is sustained and the rest seems accurate.
It does glitch in funny ways, there is a segment near me where the average speed for ranking purposes is impossible as it was never attained at any point during a segment. But the lead in or out measurement caused it too error, not sure if they have improved the calculations as its been a long time since I read up.
If you think it looks wrong, report it to strava and see what they say.
It's as accurate as your phones GPS/GLONASS signal.
Putting it in a pocket and having it move around doesn't help either.
Run along the trace and check it is sustained and the rest seems accurate.
It does glitch in funny ways, there is a segment near me where the average speed for ranking purposes is impossible as it was never attained at any point during a segment. But the lead in or out measurement caused it too error, not sure if they have improved the calculations as its been a long time since I read up.
If you think it looks wrong, report it to strava and see what they say.
There was a you tube video last year with a guy hitting a claimed 130 kph on a mountain descent.
Turns out at one random point on the descent the GPS signal had flicked him 200 odd metres sideways into the forest, then back on to the road......... With that point deleted, he had a much more reasonable 80kph (which is pretty easy to hit on an alp......
Tho to be fair, 29.3 isn't *that* fast to be hitting for a few moments. I've had an indicated 38 mph in a bunch sprint on the flat (which I didn't even place in!) and 30+ indicated in a (race winning) attack on an uphill drag....... Nearly saw my lunch again.
Turns out at one random point on the descent the GPS signal had flicked him 200 odd metres sideways into the forest, then back on to the road......... With that point deleted, he had a much more reasonable 80kph (which is pretty easy to hit on an alp......
Tho to be fair, 29.3 isn't *that* fast to be hitting for a few moments. I've had an indicated 38 mph in a bunch sprint on the flat (which I didn't even place in!) and 30+ indicated in a (race winning) attack on an uphill drag....... Nearly saw my lunch again.
When the satellites are at very obtuse angles the accuracy degrades. My marine GPS has a warning for this, along with an estimate for the accuracy at any time. A good example is a track I recorded on the phone whilst sailing last week - my height varied by 8m over the hour...
Add in loss of satellite signals by riding under trees or when signals are lost behind hills, in narrow valleys etc then the positional accuracy is even worse. Some software tries to use the accelerometers in the phone to give inertial estimate; these may be better or worse.
Add in loss of satellite signals by riding under trees or when signals are lost behind hills, in narrow valleys etc then the positional accuracy is even worse. Some software tries to use the accelerometers in the phone to give inertial estimate; these may be better or worse.
Thanks for the feedback and stories of your experiences with this, and it was the top speed for the whole ride, normally I had been getting around 22-24mph, though yetserday I set a new personal best on those segments. I never knew you could get strava on a bicycle computer, what is it like? I don't really want to get another smartphone so that could be my way to still be able to Strava.
You don't actually "get" strava on your bike computer. You just up load the file from the bike computer to the strava site.
I use a Garmin 605 and 810 and the Garmin connect website. This is linked to strava, so all pretty much automatic.
You'd have to check what the process is for whatever bike computer you have/want is.
I use a Garmin 605 and 810 and the Garmin connect website. This is linked to strava, so all pretty much automatic.
You'd have to check what the process is for whatever bike computer you have/want is.
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mikeyboyo":15mejzk2 said:
Using the app or website (website being easier) you can scan along the route and zoom in on area (easier if it is a segment) you can then see the speed along that route and see if it was a possible glitch or a nice ramp up to some fast peddling.
A mates phone always use to be about 10% in distance more than all of ours until he bought a new phone. That must have translated into speed as well as I think time was correct.
So never take comparisons seriously but as a bit of fun (for anyone using segments and miles).
We also found iPhone tended to calculate and locate slightly different to other devices, so much that a few segments around here became labled iPhone routes. No idea if the newer iphones are still the same.
A list of devices are here https://strava.zendesk.com/entries/2092 ... PS-Devices
Strava can be a computer* but then you need to mount a smartphone or maybe some of the devices to you bars. Most people use garmins or stick it in a high place in a backpack.
*but not in the cateye sense as it doesn't display instant speeds and info. More a route logging on a map or directions.
But you can of course pop a cycle style screen app on it.
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