Strava Bubble Burst?

meanredspider

There's a distinct abandoning of Strava amongst my circle of friends and, amongst those still on it, several have turned completely private. Anybody else noticing the same thing?

pastryboy

No but then I don't have any friends.

eddiefiola

not noticed that but the 2015 KOM and PR thing pisses me off to the point I cancelled my Pro membership (not that that will change anything but it made me feel better ).

sloppyschleckonds

I've been saying this for 3 years, what Strava needs is new users to create more segments

itboffin

As my Garmin connect links to strava and endomondo I don't really care, I also upload to mapmyride and ridewithgps.

The strava interface is okay but lacks detailed stats and is too focused on segments especially now with those rediculous 2015 KOMs

pblakeney

Too many people cheating to get KOMs meant I gave up a couple of years ago.

iPete

No, 100,000 new users each week.

http://pelotonmagazine.com/feedzone/str ... 2014-data/

meanredspider

iPete wrote:

No, 100,000 new users each week.

http://pelotonmagazine.com/feedzone/str ... 2014-data/

Interesting. It's not clear where or who these people are though. Definitely a massive drop-off in my circle of riders which is represented in the little bright patch on the map around Inverness. In fact, of those people I follow, there's now almost no recorded activity in that area. Two or 3 years ago, it was buzzing. I'm only uploading the more interesting rides - normally those with pictures - too.

iPete

Apparently I raced with 61 people yesterday, that's a healthy % of the field.

It's a tool people love to have a dig at, a bit like Rapha. Can't say I'm overly fussed about KOMs, 2015 badges or leaderboads these days but its certainly not burst.

Are the friends in your cycling circles back on Garmin connect, something else or don't bother with GPS anymore? You have me curious, is there an easy way to shift 3 years of Strava back to Garmin?

dhope

iPete wrote:

is there an easy way to shift 3 years of Strava back to Garmin?

Can download all your activities in Strava from the button at bottom-right of settings

I upload using Garmin Connect now and have it auto sync with Strava

diy

All the time you are beating personal bests or ranking high on a popular segment its great, but then a closed road race comes along and you drop 30 or 40 places due to the benefit of a closed road, or simply the onset of age means you are no longer improving.

meanredspider

iPete wrote:

Apparently I raced with 61 people yesterday, that's a healthy % of the field.

It's a tool people love to have a dig at, a bit like Rapha. Can't say I'm overly fussed about KOMs, 2015 badges or leaderboads these days but its certainly not burst.

Are the friends in your cycling circles back on Garmin connect, something else or don't bother with GPS anymore? You have me curious, is there an easy way to shift 3 years of Strava back to Garmin?

I'm certainly not having a dig - I think it's a great concept: I'm a bit surprised Garmin or someone else didn't buy them out a few years ago (I'm glad they didn't because Garmin would have screwed it up). I'm glad it's still going strong - anything that encourages cycling.

I'm just trying to understand the phenomenon around my way - most of my Strava buddies are around Inverness but on my activity board there's California, Edinburgh and Luxembourg (and me in NL) and nothing from Inverness. And it's not to do with the weather as it's milder there than here (besides, everyone is used to it). I know people are still riding but they've ditched Strava (or gone private). As I meet up with them I'll just have to ask and see if there's any theme emerging.

pblakeney

meanredspider wrote:

I know people are still riding but they've ditched Strava (or gone private). As I meet up with them I'll just have to ask and see if there's any theme emerging.

As I was miffed at getting my KOMs stolen by cheats* I decided to do something.
I created a couple of long segments as that makes it harder to cheat, and certainly harder to spot target.
The segments created automatically defaulted to private. That may have something to do with it.

*As an example of cheating, someone took one of my KOMs up a 1 mile incline at an average speed of 40mph and a heart rate of 130.
Edit:- I wasn't miffed by the loss of a KOM as I know that I am far from the fastest out there, but the obvious cheating got my hackles up.

ugo.santalucia

Even if the bubble had to burst, it would be replaced by a new more invasive game... when people got bored of smaller and smaller mobile phones, they just moved to bigger and bigger smart phones.

Man Of Lard

iPete wrote:

You have me curious, is there an easy way to shift 3 years of Strava back to Garmin?

Tapiriik.com will do it with least effort. Copymysports.com might do it too...

iPete

Thanks,Tapiriik. synced 2015 stuff but not 2014 but enough data none the less.

I didn't really give it a chance but 5 minutes of using Garmin Connect & I'm very happy with Strava again.

Man Of Lard

Tapiriik will do it all given time. Strava has some pretty aggressive limits on its API (as used by tapiriik &c to copy the data over)

rick_chasey

I only use it to record mileage and to get an idea of how the club run has gone - i.e. data recording.

Not bad considering it's free.

I don't really get much of the competitive element anymore - not that I did all that much to start with because, I'm not actually friends with anyone who cycles seriously.

Any London segment is pointless.

turbotommy

I think the inclusive nature of stravas concept, I.e sharing ride information with a massive network of people, means there will continue to be a lot of interest in it. I also think the fact it isn't tide to any one equipment manufacturer obviously broadens its appeal.

Having said that I'm not sure there is any way to stop people if they're determined to cheat segment times so this will probably frustrate certain people to the point where they loose interest in it

meanredspider

Talking to one person, he said he stopped because it started to take over his cycling a bit and spent too long on it (similar, I suppose, to what some people have said about Facebook). Both he and his missus were on it and he also commuted, raced (MTB & CX) and went on family rides. He still uses it to record but keeps it all private and doesn't post on anybody else's rides.

markhewitt1978

Rick Chasey wrote:

I only use it to record mileage and to get an idea of how the club run has gone - i.e. data recording.

Not bad considering it's free.

I don't really get much of the competitive element anymore - not that I did all that much to start with because, I'm not actually friends with anyone who cycles seriously.

Any London segment is pointless.

Same here, mostly data recording, to see how I've gone after a ride, but also for historical information, when I did I last do that ride that went along this way? But a very important part especially for someone part of a club is the social aspect of being able to see and comment on others rides, even if they were off on their own that day.

iPete

Yes, its very handy for keeping in touch with club mates and new riders.

My biggest use isn't trying to get up leader boards but the gradually improving tools for checking long term data, really dig the fitness and freshness output and "Your recent efforts" chart, very quick/easy and saves me having to learn/upload everything to Golden Cheetah.

spasypaddy

im in an interesting place in regards to strava.

i've never taken any notice of the segments as they really dont interest me. however the fact that their data analysis is coming along so well puts me in a difficult place.

ive just swapped my home laptop for a chromebook (we'll cover the issues with loading my garmin 910xt data onto the chromebook at another time). So i'm looking at using more info in the cloud which means i can't use golden cheetah...

so currently i have a strava premium account, but im considering moving to training peaks online for my data analysis which will be about the same cost per annum (after discounts)...

markhewitt1978

I mostly like the way that Strava is (almost) universal these days. There is very little of people only putting their rides on MapMyRide, Endomondo, etc etc, if someone is GPS tracking it'll be on Strava.

iPete

spasypaddy wrote:

so currently i have a strava premium account, but im considering moving to training peaks online for my data analysis which will be about the same cost per annum (after discounts)...

Keep us posted, interested in doing the same but like you say, the Strava analysis is getting better.

okgo

Nope, I still find it as useful as I did on day one.

il_principe

It's a useful enough tool for keeping an eye on progress - particularly if you tend to have a few favorite training routes. I don't have a PM so Strava helps me to see where I am in terms of fitness etc. I also quite like being able to test myself against others on proper segments - i.e laps of Richmond Park, European climbs. Also good for working out potential routes in areas where you don't know much about the roads etc (Turkey in my case)

The 2015 PR/KOM thing is hugely annoying though and if you are in/around London there are now stupid amounts of segments.

markhewitt1978

Yeah seeing 2015 PR's for every segment I did yesterday, because that's the first time I'd ridden that way this year.

wandsworth

Il Principe wrote:

The 2015 PR/KOM thing is hugely annoying though and if you are in/around London there are now stupid amounts of segments.

+1. Strava, please at least let users switch that off.

tgotb

I only ever used it for RaceShape (and only ever uploaded actual races). Since RaceShape was bought out by Strava and stopped being free, I haven't bothered. I use WKO+ and Golden Cheetah for everything else, and for that one feature the subscription's too high for me to justify.

schlepcycling

PBlakeney wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

I know people are still riding but they've ditched Strava (or gone private). As I meet up with them I'll just have to ask and see if there's any theme emerging.

As I was miffed at getting my KOMs stolen by cheats* I decided to do something.
I created a couple of long segments as that makes it harder to cheat, and certainly harder to spot target.
The segments created automatically defaulted to private. That may have something to do with it.

*As an example of cheating, someone took one of my KOMs up a 1 mile incline at an average speed of 40mph and a heart rate of 130.
Edit:- I wasn't miffed by the loss of a KOM as I know that I am far from the fastest out there, but the obvious cheating got my hackles up.

Strava does have a way for you to report suspicious activity on a segment, I've done it a couple of times where someone has forgotten to stop their ride on the Strava app then driven somewhere, subsequently uploaded the ride and taken all the KOMs with obviously stupid times/speeds.