5 ms·

As a mountain biker Strava feels just silly. It's a leaderboard for imaginary races that can be trivially cheated, be it via GPS idiosyncracies or by using an e

by vemv 6y ago

As a mountain biker Strava feels just silly. It's a leaderboard for imaginary races that can be trivially cheated, be it via GPS idiosyncracies or by using an electric bike. I reckon the features oriented towards navigation/discovery are ok, but it's a crowded space with a relatively low barrier to entry. I wouldn't be surprised if one only can make marginal gains with those 110M, but with a high pressure for ROIng which will inevitably backfire. A case like Medium comes to mind.

timerol 6y ago
The leaderboard aspects of Strava are the worst part. I like it as a personal training log, and as a way to keep up with friends who are also being fit. The social aspects are really nice, as it's fun to be asked about your run through X over the weekend, or to know who to ask about running routes in a certain park. It's also a nice nudge to go work out. "I don't have anything on Strava yet this week, I should go for a bike ride over lunch today" is really helpful mentally.
- voisin 6y ago
  It would be nice to be able to look at month by month rather than week by week, and not just sequentially but year over year to see improvements.
  - adamjb 6y ago
    Veloviewer's good for that.
  - Slimbo 6y ago
    It keeps your history on segments and rides for years. Really good for that in fact.
Wonnk13 6y ago
It blows my mind that after a decade of user data, they still can't automatically detect when someone accidentally uploads a bike ride as a run activity. Like yea, kudo phil for knocking out those... 3 minute miles for two hours. \rant
- ogre_codes 6y ago
  One of my big frustrations. They can't even figure out that I put my bike on the roof of the car and drove away. My heart rate goes down, yet I'm going 40-60 miles per hour... and Strava still thinks I'm riding my bike. They rely on other users to flag my activity as bogus because I busted some random KOM. It should be reasonably straight forward to suggest auto-cropping, particularly when I start and stop a ride in the same place. This is one of the reasons I gave up Strava, they were solving for issues I don't have (I don't need a bike/ social network), and ignoring the big obvious ones I do.
  - ahi 6y ago
    I have lost a couple 30 mile rides because location tracking died for a minute and they had me going 90mph. Did I get a PR on the dozen other segments? Who knows.
    - ogre_codes 6y ago
      you could probably have salvaged those rides by cropping them.
voisin 6y ago
I find the discovery features frustrating. They focus on Segments of runs rather than complete routes. Compare to AllTrails for best in class IMHO.
- nradov 6y ago
  Strava does have a curated list of complete routes for selected cities. https://www.strava.com/local https://www.strava.com/local
  - voisin 6y ago
    In Canada they have two cities, excluding our largest, Toronto, and many other major cities (Montreal, Halifax, Ottawa, Edmonton, Victoria, Winnipeg, etc etc). Having a curated list like this that excludes huge cities when you have millions of users running in these cities and smaller seems ludicrous. What are they adding by curating? If something of value then add a “Strava Approved” badge, but for the love of god let people post full routes and rate them!
count 6y ago
I know a ton of people using Strava. They use it entirely for socializing runs/rides/swims. Friendly pressure, kudos, complaints about the humidity, etc. Literally none of them pay attention to the 'KOM/QOM' more than a 'haha, check that out' bit. It's a hardware vendor neutral (looking at you GarminConnect) way of socializing with fellow athletes, and is super popular for that.
- emerged 6y ago
  Can confirm, I use it daily and like giving and receiving kudos, sharing photos of my rides and seeing other people's photos. It's fun and provides motivation. The KOM stuff is mostly useful to measure your own progress vs other riders you know or at least have some confidence aren't cheating.
- benofsv 6y ago
  Entirely the same for me - It's more to see what others are up to (finding out what routes I could take), and it's fun exchanging kudos for what it's worth. Once in a while, it's fun to see what segments I've improved on as well or just how I'm doing in general compared to my past rides.
CarelessExpert 6y ago
> As a mountain biker Strava feels just silly. And this remark feels unconstructive. As a touring cyclist I absolutely love Strava. The tracking and logging is excellent, the community aspects are fun, and overall I find the product very easy to use. Do I think it's worth a 100M investment? I'm not sure. I wouldn't have expected Peloton or Mirror to exist. But there's clearly a demand for social fitness products and who am I to argue against the market?
- tmpz22 6y ago
  Its about the opportunity cost of parking hundreds of millions of dollars into fitness tracking software - which is trivially FREE via a variety of apps on iOS and Android. That money could be deployed much more effectively, IMO.
polote 6y ago
> I wouldn't be surprised if one only can make marginal gains with those 110M Strava is a social network. Like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit. The day you have hundred of millions of users you stop the bullshit with premium features and you start putting ads and you make money. I'm not worried for them at all
- nradov 6y ago
  Strava has had ads in the form of sponsored challenges for years. But those are mostly for brand building rather than selling specific products.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
762236 6y ago
I love it for both mountain and road cycling. I pay for it, to use its modeling to help avoid over training. I like the social aspects of it. I learn new routes by following people, including the local pros. It's a treat when people write entertaining ride reports. It's hard to imagine that GPS errors help cheating, unless you're paying attention to really tiny segments. I'm interested only in segments that are at least 5 minutes, but normally 20 to 40 minutes. It would be really hard to reliably cheat to your followers who get to see how you grow over time and gain an understanding of the performances you can deliver. And if you track heart rate, cadence, and power, it becomes really easy to see what is legit. I have power meters on my mountain and road bikes.
nextaccountic 6y ago
I don't want to compare my performance against other people, I want to compare with my former self.

by vemv 6y ago

timerol 6y ago

The leaderboard aspects of Strava are the worst part. I like it as a personal training log, and as a way to keep up with friends who are also being fit. The social aspects are really nice, as it's fun to be asked about your run through X over the weekend, or to know who to ask about running routes in a certain park. It's also a nice nudge to go work out. "I don't have anything on Strava yet this week, I should go for a bike ride over lunch today" is really helpful mentally.

voisin 6y ago
It would be nice to be able to look at month by month rather than week by week, and not just sequentially but year over year to see improvements.
- adamjb 6y ago
  Veloviewer's good for that.
- Slimbo 6y ago
  It keeps your history on segments and rides for years. Really good for that in fact.

Wonnk13 6y ago

It blows my mind that after a decade of user data, they still can't automatically detect when someone accidentally uploads a bike ride as a run activity. Like yea, kudo phil for knocking out those... 3 minute miles for two hours. \rant

ogre_codes 6y ago
One of my big frustrations. They can't even figure out that I put my bike on the roof of the car and drove away. My heart rate goes down, yet I'm going 40-60 miles per hour... and Strava still thinks I'm riding my bike. They rely on other users to flag my activity as bogus because I busted some random KOM. It should be reasonably straight forward to suggest auto-cropping, particularly when I start and stop a ride in the same place. This is one of the reasons I gave up Strava, they were solving for issues I don't have (I don't need a bike/ social network), and ignoring the big obvious ones I do.
- ahi 6y ago
  I have lost a couple 30 mile rides because location tracking died for a minute and they had me going 90mph. Did I get a PR on the dozen other segments? Who knows.
  - ogre_codes 6y ago
    you could probably have salvaged those rides by cropping them.

voisin 6y ago

I find the discovery features frustrating. They focus on Segments of runs rather than complete routes. Compare to AllTrails for best in class IMHO.

nradov 6y ago
Strava does have a curated list of complete routes for selected cities. https://www.strava.com/local https://www.strava.com/local
- voisin 6y ago
  In Canada they have two cities, excluding our largest, Toronto, and many other major cities (Montreal, Halifax, Ottawa, Edmonton, Victoria, Winnipeg, etc etc). Having a curated list like this that excludes huge cities when you have millions of users running in these cities and smaller seems ludicrous. What are they adding by curating? If something of value then add a “Strava Approved” badge, but for the love of god let people post full routes and rate them!

count 6y ago

I know a ton of people using Strava. They use it entirely for socializing runs/rides/swims. Friendly pressure, kudos, complaints about the humidity, etc. Literally none of them pay attention to the 'KOM/QOM' more than a 'haha, check that out' bit. It's a hardware vendor neutral (looking at you GarminConnect) way of socializing with fellow athletes, and is super popular for that.

emerged 6y ago
Can confirm, I use it daily and like giving and receiving kudos, sharing photos of my rides and seeing other people's photos. It's fun and provides motivation. The KOM stuff is mostly useful to measure your own progress vs other riders you know or at least have some confidence aren't cheating.
benofsv 6y ago
Entirely the same for me - It's more to see what others are up to (finding out what routes I could take), and it's fun exchanging kudos for what it's worth. Once in a while, it's fun to see what segments I've improved on as well or just how I'm doing in general compared to my past rides.

CarelessExpert 6y ago

> As a mountain biker Strava feels just silly. And this remark feels unconstructive. As a touring cyclist I absolutely love Strava. The tracking and logging is excellent, the community aspects are fun, and overall I find the product very easy to use. Do I think it's worth a 100M investment? I'm not sure. I wouldn't have expected Peloton or Mirror to exist. But there's clearly a demand for social fitness products and who am I to argue against the market?

tmpz22 6y ago
Its about the opportunity cost of parking hundreds of millions of dollars into fitness tracking software - which is trivially FREE via a variety of apps on iOS and Android. That money could be deployed much more effectively, IMO.

polote 6y ago

> I wouldn't be surprised if one only can make marginal gains with those 110M Strava is a social network. Like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit. The day you have hundred of millions of users you stop the bullshit with premium features and you start putting ads and you make money. I'm not worried for them at all

nradov 6y ago
Strava has had ads in the form of sponsored challenges for years. But those are mostly for brand building rather than selling specific products.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

762236 6y ago

I love it for both mountain and road cycling. I pay for it, to use its modeling to help avoid over training. I like the social aspects of it. I learn new routes by following people, including the local pros. It's a treat when people write entertaining ride reports. It's hard to imagine that GPS errors help cheating, unless you're paying attention to really tiny segments. I'm interested only in segments that are at least 5 minutes, but normally 20 to 40 minutes. It would be really hard to reliably cheat to your followers who get to see how you grow over time and gain an understanding of the performances you can deliver. And if you track heart rate, cadence, and power, it becomes really easy to see what is legit. I have power meters on my mountain and road bikes.

nextaccountic 6y ago

I don't want to compare my performance against other people, I want to compare with my former self.