do you folks use Strava?

[AngryScientist]

i finally took my new Garmin out of the box and am ready to start using it. i used an edge 305 for a long time and liked it a lot, but never used any web upload service.

i just got an edge 200, and am thinking about uploading stuff to Strava, do any of you do that?

is there any other service i should be looking at instead? tips and tricks?

[ergott]

I'm Er Gott.

Look me up. It's good stuff. I like the segment comparisons.

[AngryScientist]

cool.

i see there is a "Serotta Boards" club, i like it.

[fungusamungus33]

I have been using ridewithgps.com for a couple of years. I've never been so frustrated as to find a different/better way to map rides and document data...

Stava looks nice but I have never used it...

CCB

[itspeedmoore]

strava is lots of fun. i would use it more if i had more free time... kids and work take that away. But it is fun to see the local climbs and who has done what on them.

[phcollard]

Hey I didn't know Strava. Just signed up (and following Ergott). Looks very cool :)

Anybody know if their iPhone app sucks batteries like all the other ones?

[maxn]

I've been using it since Spring -- very fun and motivating IMO. I also just joined the serotta boards club!

[Lovetoclimb]

Rapha seems to promote it for all of their online community challenges. I often wonder if they would accept my poorly hand written training notes for something like the Festive 500 instead of Strava data . . .

[fourflys]

I like it... I'm "Chris Fly", not very original... :D

didn't know about the Serotta Club...

[phcollard]

I like it... I'm "Chris Fly", not very original... :D

didn't know about the Serotta Club...

Following you as well. Cheers!

PS : It's snowing here so nothing to see in my account until next Spring... just sayin'

[russ46]

I really like it. The auto climb identification (segments) is great & the ability to track your own times against yourself & others is fun. Keeps my ancient competitive jucies flowing. They recently added the ability to search out climbs. I've added a few climbs I had missed to my completed bucket list using the search.

[fourflys]

Following you as well. Cheers!

PS : It's snowing here so nothing to see in my account until next Spring... just sayin'

cool... I'm not that impressive to follow though... ;)

Stay warm!

[fkelly]

I use SportTracks which runs on your PC. Occasionally I will load a ride up to ridewithGPS but with historical data I would rather have the data on a PC than in the cloud. You never know when a cloud provider is going to go out of business.

Been able to convert 5 years of Polar data over to Sporttracks also.

[ergott]

I've added a few climbs I had missed to my completed bucket list using the search.

Wow, finally. I was waiting for that.

I'm doing beta on their Android app now. Not a programmer, just a user providing feedback. I don't know how long, but they keep making improvements to it. I use it on shorter rides, but it doesn't seem to drain much battery with the screen off in my jersey pocket. Compared to my Garmin 705 it is very close. If you don't need to stare at the screen, I would possibly recommend using your phone gps instead of buying a gps dedicated to the bike. It really depends on the amount of riding you do and stuff like that.

[neiltron]

Strava reminds me how slow I am, no matter how fast I feel on a particular ride. Love using it to keep track of mileage, elevation gain, max HR, etc. Easy way to see progress on regular routes I take. I'm on there as neilberrett if any of you care to join in on the fun.

[kramnnim]

I've been using it since I got my Garmin...I also log all my rides on Ridewithgps and Garmin Connect. I really like Strava's segment feature, just wish there were more users in the area.

[jasond]

I use it and enjoy it. I like how it automatically recognizes segments you or someone else sets up and you have a comparison of each time you did the segment. I also like to following a few pros. The phone app is no better or worse than others I'd suggest an actual GPS for accuracy but in a pinch the phone app works for me. A nice feature they just added to the iPhone app is now you can view your "News Feed" from within the app.

[tiretrax]

Hey I didn't know Strava. Just signed up (and following Ergott). Looks very cool :)

Anybody know if their iPhone app sucks batteries like all the other ones?
Any GPS app will draw down power, unfortunately.

[tiretrax]

Rapha seems to promote it for all of their online community challenges. I often wonder if they would accept my poorly hand written training notes for something like the Festive 500 instead of Strava data . . .
Strava accepted my manual input for the Turkey Take Off. There was a manual entry option in the download menu.

[rab]

I have been using strava for about 6 months with an android system. Works well and I honestly haven't noticed a major power drain effect for some reason, unlike when using other gps/mapping functions.

It does screw up elevation from time to time, frequently come back from rides with exaggerated elevation gains initially but these auto-correct shortly, guess it has to estimate elevation based on mapped elevations (USGS) vs. pressure etc.?

Overall I like it, fun to compare segments. Some people seem to get a little too wrapped up in their KOM status though, seen a couple cases where people are blowing stop signed intersections to build up speed going into short climbs, which can thus significantly change their average speed. kind of weak in my mind.

[Bob Loblaw]

I use Strava and connect.garmin.com. I like the data layout of Garmin Connect (and it's free), but the competitive comparisons and KOMs of Strava are fun and worth the few dollars a year.

BL

[maxn]

Strava is also a nice anti-sandbagging tool. Most people don't want to admit that they got their butt kicked on anything but a 20% average HC climb, so they will give it the old "not so bad" rating… and then you roll up and it turns out to be extremely hard.

I also like how I can roughly estimate how long it will take on various cols based on what other people have done, since the climbing sections are usually defined as segments. This is another place where I have historically gotten sandbagged.

[kramnnim]

I use Strava and connect.garmin.com. I like the data layout of Garmin Connect (and it's free), but the competitive comparisons and KOMs of Strava are fun and worth the few dollars a year.

BL

Strava is free now...the paid "Premium" version adds information that isn't very useful.

[AngryScientist]

OK, i'm in Angry Scientist!

:beer:

[dauwhe]

Did my first Strava ride today (with iPhone app). Very cool, although now I'm in last place on four different segments. Can I blame the headwind? :)

[benitosan1972]

Did my 1st Strava ride today too,
but I don't have a USB cord to upload the data.
When I find one, it'll be interesting to see where I rate vs local speed demons like Chris Phipps, Andy/Ben Jacques-Maynes, Ryan Sherlock, Levi Leipheimer, and Chad Gerlach? Oh, the suspense! :banana:

[1centaur]

To be a Strava Lantern Rouge is the only goal most of us can aspire to. Who wants to be mid-pack when you can be really slow and have lots of people wonder how anybody could be that slow?

[SkyeCAAD]

Did my 1st Strava ride today too,
but I don't have a USB cord to upload the data.
When I find one, it'll be interesting to see where I rate vs local speed demons like Chris Phipps, Andy/Ben Jacques-Maynes, Ryan Sherlock, Levi Leipheimer, and Chad Gerlach? Oh, the suspense! :banana:

The ones you need to watch out for are James Wingert, Nathaniel English, Freddie Rodriguez, and Kevin Metcalfe. FAST.

[dauwhe]

To be a Strava Lantern Rouge is the only goal most of us can aspire to. Who wants to be mid-pack when you can be really slow and have lots of people wonder how anybody could be that slow?

I was the slowest on both uphill and downhill segments!

[rice rocket]

Who times downhill segments?

Not Andy Schleck, that's for sure.