Fun or Speed: Whats your choice?

lawman

RockmonkeySC wrote:

The worst thing about Strava is the straight lines and short cuts appearing on trails where strava users are trying to save seconds rather than learning to ride.

That does annoy me a little bit, but if you're not bothered about the time, the "main" line is still there for you to ride, so it's swings and roundabouts. The fact people have now straight lined a section of trail that also kinks between a few trees that took real skill to thread through and they still can't beat my KoM despite taking a much more direct and faster line is hilarious

.blitz

Have never owned a speedo or been in the slightest bit concerned about time/distance. I have to go and do my own thing and just 100% enjoy it

ednino

lawman wrote:

The ClimachX Trail in Machynllyth has the longest descent of any centre in the UK, yet I ride there all the time and I could probably count on my hands how many other people I've seen there.

and its pretty natural out there
Used to love ClimachX & Nant-y-arian when I lived out that way

Don't try to be fast too soon. You'll end up falling on your face. Try to be smooth and speed will follow

coulddobetter

What's Strava?

paul.skibum

I think its an italian chain restaurant - I like their carbonara.

junglist_matty

On my MTB I use Strava, don't really care so much about speed, more so I like to keep track of the routes I rode and how many miles I've ridden.... I ride for fun, and don't take Strava seriously.

On my road bike, I like to use Strava to keep track of new routes (when riding with new people on roads I don't know), and as a general motivational tool to keep riding on the road bike to keep myself fit as I'm a MTB'er at heart, and living in Cambridgeshire MTB'ing here is almost non-existent and un-inspirational.

Festerfeet

I haven't used Strava but will tomorrow.

Where I live there are no trails, everything is natural and I spend hours on Google Earth finding likely good places to ride. I often get lost find other interesting routes on the way but then have to find them again!

I thought if I used Strava I could Geolog as I go so I know where I have been

I wouldn't worry about the straight lines, they could be made by someone using a phone rather than a Garmin, theses things log the Gps signal a lot less often and create straight lines by joining the points when a signal is caught. Used to happen when I used a phone on run keeper.

smegg40

Fun or Speed !,Trail centre or out on the natural stuff,i am on the bike and that is all that matters !

As for Strava never used it never will,sounds a bit like willy wanging ?,but hey its a free world

stubs

Strava is a good tool for logging rides but its unfortunately used by too many cheating billy no mates to race other cheating billy no mates. The next time someone screams STRAVA at me because I am ruining his chance of becoming a KOM is going to be visiting A&E to have his smartphone removed from where the sun dont shine.

I like fun and I like fast but fast isnt essential.

Lewis A

I mountain bike because it is fun and because I want to keep fit, I will be more fit if I ride faster, and the adrenaline (one of the main fun parts) increases with speed. So both.

ednino

stubs wrote:

The next time someone screams STRAVA at me because I am ruining his chance of becoming a KOM is going to be visiting A&E to have his smartphone removed from where the sun dont shine.

Nobody shouts Strava :roll:

ednino

RockmonkeySC wrote:

The worst thing about Strava is the straight lines and short cuts appearing on trails where strava users are trying to save seconds rather than learning to ride.

I've not seen any of this :?:

and I ride Coedybrenin, nantyarian, climachX, bike park wales, afan, coed trallwm, forest of dean...

stubs

ednino wrote:

stubs wrote:

The next time someone screams STRAVA at me because I am ruining his chance of becoming a KOM is going to be visiting A&E to have his smartphone removed from where the sun dont shine.

Nobody shouts Strava :roll:

Apart from the bellend on the Ranger path Snowdonia yesterday morning.

rockmonkeysc

ednino wrote:

RockmonkeySC wrote:

The worst thing about Strava is the straight lines and short cuts appearing on trails where strava users are trying to save seconds rather than learning to ride.

The
I've not seen any of this :?:

and I ride Coedybrenin, nantyarian, climachX, bike park wales, afan, coed trallwm, forest of dean...

More of a problem on unofficial single track. It is a problem at Ashton Court trails though, I know the trail maintenance team there have had to spend time blocking off strava lines.

cooldad

stubs wrote:

ednino wrote:

stubs wrote:

The next time someone screams STRAVA at me because I am ruining his chance of becoming a KOM is going to be visiting A&E to have his smartphone removed from where the sun dont shine.

Nobody shouts Strava :roll:

Apart from the bellend on the Ranger path Snowdonia yesterday morning.

I ride up behind friends and shout strava, but they ignore me because I am pretty slow, and don't use strava anyway.

Kowalski675

stubs wrote:

to have his smartphone removed from where the sun dont shine.

Manchester?

njee20

The worst thing about Strava is the straight lines and short cuts appearing on trails where strava users are trying to save seconds rather than learning to ride.

If you honestly think Strava caused that you're even more of an idiot! Corners have been cut since there were corners! It really is nothing at all to do with Strava!

poah

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Forget Strava, it sucks all the fun out of riding and turns reasonable people in to arseholes.
Ride for fun, find a natural flow and speed will come naturally.

no KOMs then I take it lol

I like strava as it records what I've done and I can compare runs it also lets you find trails that aren't marked on maps.

rockmonkeysc

I ride with a local club once a week and none of the fast group riders use strava. The strava users are always talking about their latest kom in the post ride pub yet none of them can keep up with the fast group.
I have never used strava, I prefer to go to a race (xc, enduro and dh) if I want to ride against a clock.

njee20

What's your point? The world XC champ uses Strava. He'd probably keep up with your quick group.

benpinnick

No-ones ever shouted 'strava' at me, but maybe thats because I know how to get out of the way and have some awareness of my surroundings.

Maro

I ride for fun and get that from the sensation of riding fast, or at least the feeling of riding fast, its relative really isn't it?

I don't use strava but my mate does, after our first trip together to BPW he said our times down the blues and reds were within the top 30%. I'm happy with that but I could live without knowing how we compare because I had so much fun.

Kowalski675

benpinnick wrote:

No-ones ever shouted 'strava' at me,

Me neither, but I'd deliberately not get out of the way if they did, lol. We were stopped at the top of the Hope Line at Gisburn one day in summer and a coupple of guys started talking to us. One looked like he was a big fan of pies, but was banging on about all the trail centres he'd ridden and strava this, strava that, and what a pain in the ass it is when slow riders get in his way when he's going for a strava time. What a tosser.

lawman

RockmonkeySC wrote:

I ride with a local club once a week and none of the fast group riders use strava. The strava users are always talking about their latest kom in the post ride pub yet none of them can keep up with the fast group.
I have never used strava, I prefer to go to a race (xc, enduro and dh) if I want to ride against a clock.

That's one group though and doesn't represent the whole picture. I figure Strava is a bit like social networking (facebook etc) It's all good fun until somebody takes it too seriously and it can get out of hand. Yes there are some people who take Strava too seriously, I'd say the majority don't and the majority of the time it's good if used correctly. Comparing times with your mates brings a fun, competitive side to your rides, which is great if that's what you like. Riding back home with a group of 7-8 people, it's nice to be able to compare your rides and have a chat about the awesome descent and see the areas you need to work on, and you get to see the progress over time. If you just want to long rides and learn new trails it's great for that too.

The problem with racing is it's bloody expensive. I looked into entering an enduro race round my local trails at Mach and it was £60... for a days riding that seems pretty high to me. If you haven't used Strava try it, what have you got to lose? It costs you nothing, nobodies gonna point at you and whisper

stubs

benpinnick wrote:

No-ones ever shouted 'strava' at me, but maybe thats because I know how to get out of the way and have some awareness of my surroundings.

Are there awareness courses I can go on because the next time I am slogging to the summit of Snowdon, granny ringing it past the 700 meter contour on the Clogwyn ridge on the verge of throwing up I dont want to get in the way of the KOM.

stubs

lawman wrote:

That's one group though and doesn't represent the whole picture. I figure Strava is a bit like social networking
(snip)

I agree its a good app and I have used it many times to look at routes. Its the 1% as usual who screw it up for everyone. I ride a lot at Rivington and one of the United Utilities wardens hates MTBers (and Horses but he wont get far trying to ban them) apparently he has been heard muttering about trying to ban bikes, Strava racing idiots give him another tool to beat us over the head with.

cooldad

stubs wrote:

benpinnick wrote:

No-ones ever shouted 'strava' at me, but maybe thats because I know how to get out of the way and have some awareness of my surroundings.

Are there awareness courses I can go on because the next time I am slogging to the summit of Snowdon, granny ringing it past the 700 meter contour on the Clogwyn ridge on the verge of throwing up I dont want to get in the way of the KOM.

What he forgot to mention is that not many people can catch him (no one I know), and Ben is too well mannered to shout at anyone.

rockmonkeysc

The problem with racing is it's bloody expensive. I looked into entering an enduro race round my local trails at Mach and it was £60... for a days riding that seems pretty high to me.

£60 for a race is expensive. BDS races are around that price for a days uplifted practice and race day. FoD races and a lot of other regional level races are around £25 - £30

mike hunts alpine

No choice just ride and what needs done gets done.

And on the subject of strava sounds like there are a lot of stravasworths out there.
Do they suffer from stravarage if someone slow is in front.

njee20

People who shout at slow riders are dicks, whether they're using Strava is immaterial, and to think its an app that makes them dicks is pretty naive!