# Strava!



## 768Q (Jun 23, 2012)

Any one else playing with this when you ride? I started with map my rides but recently switched to Strava a week and a half ago on the Droid and it is pretty cool, maps all my rides, shows segments in my area and how I compare to others and shows me when I do better then before! All this and it was a free App. Just another way to get motivated and have fun right?

Keith


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## Deeyetoo (Jun 19, 2012)

I have 2 peeve's with Strava. One is it doesn't show real time speed, how dumb is that.
Second, no resume of current ride if battery dies and one gets replaced. Oh, and a third one which is no merge of 2 saved rides (same day) due to no resume


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## 768Q (Jun 23, 2012)

I don't really care about real time speed as I have my Sigma for that , but one thing that does peeve me a bit is when I do better on a new segment and I go back to the last same segment to see how much better I did ( I know I did better because it gave me a trophy! , LOL) it has already updated that previous time to my new best and ranking? , but for a free app that I haven't payed to upgrade, I am not complaining! ;-)


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## EHietpas (Feb 9, 2012)

I do upload my rides and runs to Strava, but my Garmin is way more accurate. When I upload to Strava the calorie burn count is WAY off. But it is a nice tool to share information with friends.


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## AndrwSwitch (May 28, 2009)

I don't use Strava mid-ride. I get a kick out of it, so I usually turn it on before I ride and then have a look at it afterwards. Since it's based on position, and somewhat inaccurately, its instantaneous speed is pretty bogus. I wish they gave a way to normalize that - I bet averaged over three data points, it would be reasonably good.

When you use a full-sized computer to look at your ride, for any given segment you can click "my results" and see all your recorded times for it. So you can see how much better you did.


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## robdamanii (Feb 13, 2006)

EHietpas said:


> I do upload my rides and runs to Strava, but my Garmin is way more accurate. When I upload to Strava the calorie burn count is WAY off. But it is a nice tool to share information with friends.


Calorie count is off on everything unless you're utilizing a power meter.

Period.


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## BostonG (Apr 13, 2010)

I haven't gone with a fancy schmancy garmin yet, but I want one. I use a regular old wireless bike computer and heart rate monitor. I sometimes use Strava because it's fun but I do take the info with a grain of salt. Not that it's disgustingly innacurate, but I wouldn't call it very accurate either. 

Still, I haven't used it a ton so I don't know if it is reliable. And I am using "reliable" in the scientific sense, meaning that if Strava reports the grade of a hill as being say 7% but it is really 5%, would Strava report that innacurate 7% grade each time? if so, then at least it's reliable - I can always count on that same innacurate reporting.

Other thing about Strava that I like is the competing aspect. Accurate or not, I can see where I place against others on the same innacurate stretch of road or hill.


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## vtecgreen (May 3, 2012)

I've used strava since I started cycling - first on my iPhone 4, but the accuracy was horrible. So I picked up a garmin 205 watch, and it made a huge difference. So now I use my sigma for real time data (Cadence and speed, distance and time) and have the garmin to provide the tracking for the ride. 

Other than the calorie amounts, strava has been pretty good accuracy wise w/ speed and distance. Not sure how accurate elevation is but as others pointed out, it's free!


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## cxwrench (Nov 9, 2004)

EHietpas said:


> I do upload my rides and runs to Strava, but my Garmin is way more accurate. When I upload to Strava the calorie burn count is WAY off. But it is a nice tool to share information with friends.


hold on...you think it's Strava's problem that your Garmin is not even close to accurate on calories burned? :shocked:
you must have strava on the phone, yeah?


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## vtecgreen (May 3, 2012)

cxwrench said:


> hold on...you think it's Strava's problem that your Garmin is not even close to accurate on calories burned? :shocked:
> you must have strava on the phone, yeah?


Not sure about OP's, but the Calories on my Garmin are changed by Strava - they calculate it using the information in your profile. Same w/ the Garmin... I usually just trust the Garmin and/or average the two out (difference of about 200 calories on an hour long ride w/ elevations)


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## AndrwSwitch (May 28, 2009)

BostonG - Strava's accuracy, reliability and precision all depend a lot on the device you're using.

If you're using a dedicated GPS device with its own altimeter in an area with clear signal, you should have excellent performance on all three.

I use a smart phone. I actually seem to be getting smoother tracks since the last version, but my tracks are individual data points with location only, taken every three seconds. The precision's not great, and in a hilly area, that means that elevation data can also be way off if the road or trail I'm riding goes across a grade, rather than straight up or straight down.

Actually, I have a track that I think is a really good illustration of how precise Strava is and isn't as recorded by a smartphone GPS.

Bike Ride Profile | NOT pissing off IATC near Seattle | Times and Records | Strava

I was looking for a route that somewhat mimicked the demands of a MTB race I'm doing later, that's four laps of a course that I can do in about 25 minutes, with a mixed climb that takes me about 11 minutes to start with. So I rode the hilly loop that's the bulk of this ride four times. You can see that the elevation data isn't consistent from lap to lap.

I think that as long as nothing like GPS drift messes it up, the position data is pretty accurate. I think people who beat my times (a lot  ) do it by being legitimately faster, and I think if I did the same segment at the same rate several times in a row, I'd get it to within +/- 6 seconds on my device, or +/- 2 seconds on a dedicated device. So when people record particularly short segments, I think it's a bit of a misunderstanding of the resolution of the device.

Because changes in fitness level can be pretty small, all this is why I don't see Strava as a serious training tool. I think Strava results are ballpark correct, but if you're already riding at a level where your improvements in time are going to be 5% or less, or you're competing with people who are very close in fitness, you really need segments to be pretty long to get that kind of accuracy - on the order of several minutes, at least, for smart phone users.


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## mpre53 (Oct 25, 2011)

vtecgreen said:


> Other than the calorie amounts, strava has been pretty good accuracy wise w/ speed and distance. Not sure how accurate elevation is but as others pointed out, it's free!


I can tell you that---not very. Sometimes the elevation numbers are close, sometimes they're miles off.

Not sure on the time/distance. Last Saturday I was on an organized century for Bike MS, and when I looked at the other rider info, their mileage had variations of up to about 1.2 miles. Even allowing for different rest stops, etc, it shouldn't have varied by over a mile.

I also notice that my running time, when I take it out of my jersey pocket and stop the clock at the end of a ride, is always shorter than the final recorded time after I save the ride.


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## Banks246 (Jul 3, 2011)

768Q said:


> I don't really care about real time speed as I have my Sigma for that , but one thing that does peeve me a bit is when I do better on a new segment and I go back to the last same segment to see how much better I did ( I know I did better because it gave me a trophy! , LOL) it has already updated that previous time to my new best and ranking? , but for a free app that I haven't payed to upgrade, I am not complaining! ;-)


Under Full Leaderboard, you will see "My Results." This will have all of your previous times for that segment. I use a Garmin 500 and always uplaod to Strava to see how I did on my segments!


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## Deeyetoo (Jun 19, 2012)

768Q said:


> I don't really care about real time speed as I have my Sigma for that , but one thing that does peeve me a bit is when I do better on a new segment and I go back to the last same segment to see how much better I did ( I know I did better because it gave me a trophy! , LOL) it has already updated that previous time to my new best and ranking? , but for a free app that I haven't payed to upgrade, I am not complaining! ;-)


Thats just the point. Why should you have to mount another device just to get real time?
What if Strava actually didn't offer cadence or HR and you had another device that did. Are you going to add a 3rd device on your bars?

Lastly, as you're discovering segments as you ride you will soon want to re-ride it to try better your last. The segment data online will show your speed.
When you go to ride that segment again how do you know if you're doing better or worse if there's no real time on Strava. Its just dumb on Strava's part to not have real time.


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## vtecgreen (May 3, 2012)

mpre53 said:


> I can tell you that---not very. Sometimes the elevation numbers are close, sometimes they're miles off.
> 
> Not sure on the time/distance. Last Saturday I was on an organized century for Bike MS, and when I looked at the other rider info, their mileage had variations of up to about 1.2 miles. Even allowing for different rest stops, etc, it shouldn't have varied by over a mile.
> 
> I also notice that my running time, when I take it out of my jersey pocket and stop the clock at the end of a ride, is always shorter than the final recorded time after I save the ride.


Have you noticed your elevation changing? I know on my garmin software I'll be at 1,400 for example. When i upload to Strava, it will put it at 1,250. Now I know that the Strava servers don't use actual gps data for elevation, but rely on geographical and topographical data to "estimate" elevation, so I usually go by what the Garmin said.

However, more recently, I'll notice that strava will display the 1,250, and a day later show 1,185. It's weird. But again, free app, and I don't really care - I'm just out there having a good time, not training for anything specific. If I go 1 mile further so be it.


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## vtecgreen (May 3, 2012)

Oh by the way, this is why I went w/ a Garmin as opposed to my iphone 4:

http://app.strava.com/rides/8756082

I'm not talented enough to ride on the Missouri River....


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## SMK-SLC (May 3, 2012)

*Strava Safe*

The Strava team is always open to suggestions. I think it should allow a user to map a manual ride to cover for the times you forget to turn on your GPS device. And agree that it would be nice to link two separate rides. 

Love Strava for the individual competition, but you have to understand there will always (in most cases) be someone faster, stronger, or lighter who most likely will kill your KoM. And if not in town they'll import Levi or Taylor to kill them for you. And always, always ride safe. Your arms, legs, riding career and life are worth more than a jump in ranking.


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## AndrwSwitch (May 28, 2009)

Adding missed rides to Strava is a non-issue if you have a real training diary.

Just saying.


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## mpre53 (Oct 25, 2011)

vtecgreen said:


> Have you noticed your elevation changing? I know on my garmin software I'll be at 1,400 for example. When i upload to Strava, it will put it at 1,250. Now I know that the Strava servers don't use actual gps data for elevation, but rely on geographical and topographical data to "estimate" elevation, so I usually go by what the Garmin said.
> 
> However, more recently, I'll notice that strava will display the 1,250, and a day later show 1,185. It's weird. But again, free app, and I don't really care - I'm just out there having a good time, not training for anything specific. If I go 1 mile further so be it.


Yes, and sometimes the changes are even more dramatic than that. Like from 1800' down to 300', on a route where I know that one hill has 250' of elevation change all by itself.


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## duffin (Jun 11, 2012)

How can I get the most accurate calorie count from Strava with my Garmin 500?

Why should I buy:
A) Speed/cadence sensor for road and mtb?
B) Heart rate monitor?
C) Ant+ power meter?

I road bike and mountain bike for training use want to use Strava as my social performance share with friends.

FYI - KOM and leader boards are fun, but worthless given the variance in devices and especially the poor route mapping Strava does which allows people to take short cuts yet gain positions on leader boards.


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## robdamanii (Feb 13, 2006)

The only way to get a decent calorie count is with a power meter.


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## duffin (Jun 11, 2012)

robdamanii said:


> The only way to get a decent calorie count is with a power meter.


But earlier, someone posted or eluded that Strava doesn't take power meter measurements to calculate their calorie count. That is what is confusing.

If it does, what is an economical ANT+ device for road and MTB?


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