Thoughts on Strava Summit

vpnikolov

So strava have introduced a new pricing structure essentially making us pay for some features that have been free before. Are they ever going to introduce anything new? Maybe more detailed analysis of rides? I expect next they find a way to stop access for addons such as Stravistix which provides so much more meaningful stuff. :roll:

craigus89

People still pay for Strava?

dinyull

vpnikolov wrote:

Something, something Stravistix, something, something

What is Stravistix? Features, benefits and how it works - app or desktop only? etc.

Seen it mentioned a few times recently.

vpnikolov

Desktop only, Google Chrome addon. Connects to Strava and gives detailed analysis of rides, also has fitness trends and yearly progressions. Completely free.

Example from RideLondon.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

vpnikolov wrote:

So strava have introduced a new pricing structure essentially making us pay for some features that have been free before. Are they ever going to introduce anything new? Maybe more detailed analysis of rides? I expect next they find a way to stop access for addons such as Stravistix which provides so much more meaningful stuff. :roll:

I've seen the notification in Strava app for Android, saying something new perks are coming to Premium, but no details.

Is there a link to the details, including making some currently free features require payments?

edit: https://www.strava.com/summit/join ... At a brief look, there's not much there that isn't covered by the freebies below

Stravistix (for Chrome) https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta ... pckn?hl=en is a great freebie for extra details about your rides, including a fitness guide and breakdown of things like speed; gradient; elevation; power; ascent speed. It's data-tastic!

I can also recommend https://power-meter.cc/home for power meter owners (although just very recently the Google Maps feature for showing where your power efforts were has been covered up by a box, but you can still work out where it was by zooming out) and https://cricklesorg.wordpress.com/ (for lots of details about ride, including LTHR and fitness guide even if you weren't using a power meter or heart rate monitor) as other good freebies.

grenw

vpnikolov wrote:

So strava have introduced a new pricing structure essentially making us pay for some features that have been free before.

What's been taken away? I Just assumed they were allowing you to upgrade piecemeal so didn't look to closely

kingstongraham

I stopped paying when their app went downhill, but am tempted by the analysis one for £1.58 a month.

vpnikolov

Hmm, my post might have been a bit premature as apparently nothing free goes away, but the way some features were worded did imply that, namely segment efforts, for example.

Still though, they should focus on more meaningful upgrades to their platform.

cgfw201

Downgraded from Premium a few months ago (have had it on/off for last 5 years).

Have re-upgraded today, the Analysis pack seems worth £2 a month or whatever it is, and it removes the "UPGRADE TO PREMIUM HERE" messages which are everywhere in the app and on the site when you switch back to free.

Strava Live Segments are worth paying for I think too.

Used to pay for premium because I wanted to support this nice little entrepreneurial website which I liked using and thought they could do with help to keep the lights on but not really the case any more.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

I was hoping the exciting news might be leaderboards based on power meter readings and weight, rather than time, to catch out all those tailwind segment hunters and sneaky groups drafting each other.

dannbodge

What's the difference?
I can't find any info on their site as to what the differences are

Broono83

Craigus89 wrote:

People still pay for Strava?

I just started a couple months ago.

I realisesd that rather than buy a garmin I could just buy an out front mount for my phone (its waterproof) then strava will give live metrics from HR, speed and cadence sensors plus live segments.

Finally the beacon thing shows the missus that i've not fallen off.

Not bad for all that in my book. Not delved much into the data analysis yet.

gweeds

They’re adding a million users a month. They’re doing something right.

It’s a very sound move to get some of those who wouldn’t pay the full amount each month to pay a couple of quid instead.

awavey

yeah but I bet their issue is 99.9% of those million users arent paying Strava a dime to use it, so to keep up with the capacity and loads all those extra users generate each month, to stop the whole thing crashing down, its costing Strava more and more per month just to stand still.

its the archetypal web 2.0 app problem, how do you get users to pay for something theyve been getting primarily for free, which is why they try to get into that big data monetising thing by selling heat maps to city planners/researchers.

whether more might be tempted to pay a few quid, could be tempered with just as many deciding to pay less, I dont know it seems weird they have a bunch of subscribers paying monthly instead of annually no doubt on their thinking being if they cancel they only lose a months subs, but I bet most carry on paying through the year anyway.

MiddleRinger

The outgoing Premium membership is basically all three of the new packs - no new features - and Free users still get the same as they got before so no changes there either. The difference is now there's much cheaper entry into the paid platform with these different packs for different uses. You can choose one, two or all three. Interesting change. I'm sure they've done their market research on this!

Gweeds wrote:

It’s a very sound move to get some of those who wouldn’t pay the full amount each month to pay a couple of quid instead.

Yes. I got rid of Premium a year or two ago as I wasn't seeing the benefit of Premium over the features that I got for free. With this new pricing scheme there's a small chance I could be tempted by one of the packs. I'd still like to see some actual new features though...

peat

I think the bigger thing is that they are now charging device OEMS for integration rights. Seeing as Strava us amongst cyclists is so ubiquitous, this'll be pretty lucrative.

sloppyschleckonds

NitrousOxide wrote:

I was hoping the exciting news might be leaderboards based on power meter readings and weight, rather than time, to catch out all those tailwind segment hunters and sneaky groups drafting each other.

A few years ago one of the cycling mags did a feature on people with zillions of strava KOMS, one of those featured neglected to say he had a riding buddy who led him out for every segment.

DeVlaeminck

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

NitrousOxide wrote:

I was hoping the exciting news might be leaderboards based on power meter readings and weight, rather than time, to catch out all those tailwind segment hunters and sneaky groups drafting each other.

A few years ago one of the cycling mags did a feature on people with zillions of strava KOMS, one of those featured neglected to say he had a riding buddy who led him out for every segment.

Isn't that part of the fun? I've got one where I displaced a couple of local domestic pros on a 2-3 mile uphill segment, the fact I was tucked in behind some kind of farm machinery was just luck!! OK actively getting someone to help you is a bit extra but they are just a bit of fun - I know if those two pros wanted to drop me up there it'd take them a hundred metres of effort - unless another tractor came by.

dinyull

DeVlaeminck wrote:

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

NitrousOxide wrote:

I was hoping the exciting news might be leaderboards based on power meter readings and weight, rather than time, to catch out all those tailwind segment hunters and sneaky groups drafting each other.

A few years ago one of the cycling mags did a feature on people with zillions of strava KOMS, one of those featured neglected to say he had a riding buddy who led him out for every segment.

Isn't that part of the fun? I've got one where I displaced a couple of local domestic pros on a 2-3 mile uphill segment, the fact I was tucked in behind some kind of farm machinery was just luck!! OK actively getting someone to help you is a bit extra but they are just a bit of fun - I know if those two pros wanted to drop me up there it'd take them a hundred metres of effort - unless another tractor came by.

Never really knew how seriously some took it until a mate's Garmin did something strange to a gxp file. Flattened his ride to 15mph average, meaning all segments read 15mph.

Loads of the local "leaders" were commenting and complaining flagging the ride etc as he'd took all their uphill KOM's.

Absolute melts haha.

bflk

Dinyull wrote:

DeVlaeminck wrote:

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

NitrousOxide wrote:

I was hoping the exciting news might be leaderboards based on power meter readings and weight, rather than time, to catch out all those tailwind segment hunters and sneaky groups drafting each other.

A few years ago one of the cycling mags did a feature on people with zillions of strava KOMS, one of those featured neglected to say he had a riding buddy who led him out for every segment.

Isn't that part of the fun? I've got one where I displaced a couple of local domestic pros on a 2-3 mile uphill segment, the fact I was tucked in behind some kind of farm machinery was just luck!! OK actively getting someone to help you is a bit extra but they are just a bit of fun - I know if those two pros wanted to drop me up there it'd take them a hundred metres of effort - unless another tractor came by.

Never really knew how seriously some took it until a mate's Garmin did something strange to a gxp file. Flattened his ride to 15mph average, meaning all segments read 15mph.

Loads of the local "leaders" were commenting and complaining flagging the ride etc as he'd took all their uphill KOM's.

Absolute melts haha.

Weird, I saw a ride the other day just like that. It was about 120 miles all at 14.8-15.2mph uphill and downhill. I thought at first it was one of those e-bike things till I noticed it went down hill so slowly. Had to flag it of course. It messed up one of the local leaderboards.

davebradswmb

For me it will work. The old premium price was just a little too much to justify the value I would get from it - which for me is really just the live segments. I can't be bothered with training plans and the Beacon feature can be replicated for free with Google Maps on your phone. Now I can have live segments for less than £2.00 a month - bringing it into line with the kind of money you have to pay for a phone app - I will be signing up very shortly.

kingstongraham

davebradswmb wrote:

For me it will work. The old premium price was just a little too much to justify the value I would get from it - which for me is really just the live segments. I can't be bothered with training plans and the Beacon feature can be replicated for free with Google Maps on your phone. Now I can have live segments for less than £2.00 a month - bringing it into line with the kind of money you have to pay for a phone app - I will be signing up very shortly.

Same. Just signed up for £18.99 a year. £1.59 a month.

I don't mind paying for something, especially when they have never filled the thing with ads.

davidof

awavey wrote:

its the archetypal web 2.0 app problem, how do you get users to pay for something theyve been getting primarily for free, which is why they try to get into that big data monetising thing by selling heat maps to city planners/researchers.

I was working on a project for a tax service and we were looking at Strava data to track when people were in the country for residency status (we also have mobile phone data, loyalty cards, electricity usage, tollbooth data, credit card usage).

Beatmaker

awavey wrote:

yeah but I bet their issue is 99.9% of those million users arent paying Strava a dime to use it, so to keep up with the capacity and loads all those extra users generate each month, to stop the whole thing crashing down, its costing Strava more and more per month just to stand still.

its the archetypal web 2.0 app problem, how do you get users to pay for something theyve been getting primarily for free, which is why they try to get into that big data monetising thing by selling heat maps to city planners/researchers.

whether more might be tempted to pay a few quid, could be tempered with just as many deciding to pay less, I dont know it seems weird they have a bunch of subscribers paying monthly instead of annually no doubt on their thinking being if they cancel they only lose a months subs, but I bet most carry on paying through the year anyway.

"The company won't release the percentage figure for the number of premium users, but commentators say it is likely to be around the 20% mark."

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41186824

davidof

Beatmaker wrote:

"The company won't release the percentage figure for the number of premium users, but commentators say it is likely to be around the 20% mark."

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41186824

Maybe people could post how many Strava friends they have here and the number of premium users, that would let us guestimate the % wouldn't it?