Strava abroad - anyone used it?

daysofspeed

Off to the Ventoux - would love it on my Strava page but fearing bandwidth hell and monster charges from O2.

Anyone got Strava (I'm on iPhone & O2) to play ball overseas without getting smashed for charges?

inseine

Just buy a Garmin! What is it you want exactly? Can't you buy a French SIM or buy a couple of hours before you leave?

springtide9

How does Strava behave without a data connection? Will it still record the GPS data?
If not, just use one of the other GPS tracking apps (My Tracks) - and manually upload the data once you have a data connection?

alihisgreat

just turn off roaming (or set your phone to airplane mode if you don't want to use it at all -> you should also be able to turn off mobile networks under settings)

then it will only use GPS, and won't upload rides until you get a wifi connection (i think? but if you're set data roaming off it wouldn't be able to upload anyway).


lots of people set their phone to airplane mode/turn of mobile network whilst using strava to save battery.

a phone burns through battery when you are on the move as it keeps having to search for and pick up different signal.

ronny123

You only need an internet connection to upload the ride once you're done. I always switch data off on my phone before recording a ride with Strava, after a bit of trial and error it actually returns more accurate results (no more corner cutting and dropped signal).

daysofspeed

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

ots of people set their phone to airplane mode/turn of mobile network whilst using strava to save battery.

a phone burns through battery when you are on the move as it keeps having to search for and pick up different signal.

Wasn't sure it worked with Airplane mode as I thought that switched off GPS. I'm aware of the battery issue, was more talking about whether it would need 3G and then kill me with charges.

Re buying a Garmin, no money, not an option.

Re different apps - again, nice idea but was after getting it on Strava if possible.

Thanks for all the assistance.

daysofspeed

ronny123 wrote:

You only need an internet connection to upload the ride once you're done. I always switch data off on my phone before recording a ride with Strava, after a bit of trial and error it actually returns more accurate results (no more corner cutting and dropped signal).

Excellent. Many thanks for that!

alihisgreat

daysofspeed wrote:

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

ots of people set their phone to airplane mode/turn of mobile network whilst using strava to save battery.

a phone burns through battery when you are on the move as it keeps having to search for and pick up different signal.

Wasn't sure it worked with Airplane mode as I thought that switched off GPS. I'm aware of the battery issue, was more talking about whether it would need 3G and then kill me with charges.

Re buying a Garmin, no money, not an option.

Re different apps - again, nice idea but was after getting it on Strava if possible.

Thanks for all the assistance.

yeah i was just using that as an example of people using it without using phone signal

slowondefy2

My advice - buy 'MotionX GPS'. Download the maps you need in advance, then when you go abroad make sure the phone has roaming data switched off so you avoid the silly charges. Simply save all your tracks in MotionX, then when you get home upload the .GPX files onto the Strava website.

Airplane mode disables the GPS which isn't much good, but you can individually switch off mobile data, 3G, roaming data, wifi and bluetooth as necessary.

Personally I think the Strava iphone app is rubbish, but I love using the website.

daysofspeed

slowondefy2 wrote:

Personally I think the Strava iphone app is rubbish, but I love using the website.

Agreed - the app is a power muncher and I only really enjoy the notion of the segments and the website-based stats etc.

Thanks for the tip re 'MotionX GPS'.

pdsalmon

Tried to use Strava with my htc wildfire - its seems, so I'm told, that my phone has a GPS transmitter, and not a GPRS? one, which results in the Strava app not working correctly (Its hit and miss), so I'd recommend checking your phone.

Airplane mode on my htc allows me to still have GPS on, and that works great with my tracks with no 3G, therefore saving battery. I'd suggest my tracks or similar.

For the record, I brought a garmin once I got pee'd off with losing battery on long day rides.

VDH

Hi,

Sorry for bringing this old thread back up but I was wondering if the Strava app for Android's also capable of recording multiple rides without data roaming/network connection, and was hoping you experienced guy's could help me out.
I'm leaving for a week long holiday abroad and won't have WiFi available between rides. I know from experience Strava doesn't need a data connection to record a ride but what about multiple rides? Could free data space on your memory card become an issue? How big are the files Strava records? I can't imagine them being large. Anyone got any experience with recording multiple rides without data connection?

Many thanks and all the best,
Ramon

schweiz

It's fine. I used it in South Africa last year and loaded up all my activities whenever I had free Wi-Fi. Just save the ride/run at the end and it will be stored on your phone ready for upload.

VDH

Thank you, Schweiz, a fine reassurance. With Spring finally visiting Europe next week, all good things seem in place. Ciao.

Daz555

pdsalmon wrote:

Tried to use Strava with my htc wildfire - its seems, so I'm told, that my phone has a GPS transmitter, and not a GPRS? one, which results in the Strava app not working correctly (Its hit and miss), so I'd recommend checking your phone.

Airplane mode on my htc allows me to still have GPS on, and that works great with my tracks with no 3G, therefore saving battery. I'd suggest my tracks or similar.

For the record, I brought a garmin once I got pee'd off with losing battery on long day rides.

Smartphones typically have a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver so they can track their location via the signal from GPS satellites. GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) is a communications service used my mobile phones for sending and receiving data.

The two are not related.

anto164

o2 give 15mb of data for £2 if you have the o2 Travel bolt on.

I cba ever turning data off because of this.