Chiefsandme

I'm helping a buddy that lives in a town with no segments. I went on the website and made 6 routes . Does anyone know how to put them into effect?? How to make them useable for anyone on strava riding in this area???

Jakedatc

he needs to click on the course then Export. That will download either the GPX or TCX file (depending on his garmin)

rms13

I see a lot of KOM in his future

smarkinson

I can't find any easy way to search routes. I end up using google and typing in something like "strava <route name> route".

You can try this though:

Log on to strava and select Dashboard - My Routes

Select one of the routes you have made (make sure it isn't a private route, private routes have a little padlock next to the name. If it is private use the edit function and save the route again, this time making sure it isn't private.)

Copy the URL address. It should look something like this:

https://www.strava.com/routes/169022

Repeat for each of your routes and email your friend the list of URL's. He can then download them if he wants or just browse them online.

Chiefsandme

Haha yes!! But actually for me , cuz Im way faster, lol

rms13

Haha. I see your motivation for helping him

chaadster

Routes are not segments.

K.Katso

^This. To create a segment, you have to ride it first. Also, just because you are the segment creator it doesn't necessarily mean you are automatically the KOM. If someone rode through there faster before the segment was created they will be gifted a free KOM and you'll have to challenge for it.

For routes, anyone can make them, and they can make them public for anyone to see and download.

cydewaze

Do we know this is true? I created a segment out of a local climb, and I had KOM for a couple of weeks before getting knocked off, and it's on a popular cycling road, so I know tons of people have ridden it. Maybe none of them happened to be on Strava?

Then for most of this summer, the KOM belonged to some lunkhead who drove up the climb with his bike on the back of his car, because the average speed was 30mph (for a ~15% grade).

K.Katso

Yes, it's true. When you create the segment, the Strava backend will match all existing rides to the new segment. It takes into account all rides uploaded since the beginning of Strava, and the process generally takes about 24 hours for all of them to show up. If you have the fastest time, you get the KOM. If not, you show up in the leaderboard wherever your time fits. I've done it several times and I know it to be true.

chaadster

Yes. Same here.

cydewaze

Thanks, that's good to know.

What probably happened was that before it was a segment, people just cruised it. Once they realized it's a segment, they hammer.

Actually, I should have that engraved on my headstone, since I'll probably suffer a coronary chasing some silly PR somewhere.

Dan333SP

I would say less than half of the roadie types around here are active Strava users. Example- Did a race with a field of about 30 riders a couple weeks ago. Strava's little "(your name) and X others" said I rode with 9 people.

In my experience, it's most popular with people that aren't super serious about racing (so Cat 3-4-5), or don't race for whatever reason but like validation that they're "fast". That's not to say that Cat 1s/pros or "C group" rec riders don't use it, it just seems much less common among those crowds than the decently fit wannabe badass crowd.

Disclaimer: I fit my description of strava wannabes to a T, so no judgement passed.

cydewaze

For sure I don't race, but I also get little validation that I'm fast. But for me, I find it's helped me improve my riding by trying to best my own PRs. I don't care about how fast other people are on a segment, I care about how much faster I was this time than the time before. There's no way I push as hard without the carrot dangling in front of me. That said, I prefer to ignore segment alerts and wait until I get home to see if I beat a PR.

Dan333SP

That's why I don't use the strava app during a ride, I only upload data to the website afterwards. If I had something telling me in real time how much slower/faster I am than some other ride, it'd drive me nuts. I only "play" strava when people I know really well go out and nab KOMs from me, and then when I'm feeling strong-ish and the winds are favorable, I'll go troll them and take it back, if I can. All in good fun.

Mumonkan

you can also disable being "tagged" in group rides in privacy settings, iirc

cydewaze

For me, segments flash up on my Garmin 510, and I can't remember (or figure out) how to disable them. By the time I get back from my ride, I can never remember to google it.

asiantrick

I have to agree. I was surprise to find out that most of the fast guys in my area do NOT use or even know about Strava.

CliffordK

I decided to create a few Strava segments for some personal training.
Snagged quite a few people that were just riding along....
Now I have to work hard to get "King of the Mile" in my own segments

It is interesting, however, to see the variation in estimated power vs recorded power. I have to wonder if those people with fast times just riding along may have had a strong tailwind.

RPK79

Most KOMs around my area are taken on windy days or a group will paceline it when moving through the area and take the top few spots. I really only look at the actual hills and on those I struggle to maintain top 10 since there are some fast climbers in my area.

Always fun to get a new PR though.

Seattle Forrest

They've got to be uploading their data to Strava, and it has to be good data. Garmin units can save a point every second, or the computer can decide when to save a point to show a significant change in speed or direction; that can potentially mess the timing up enough to make it look like you were slower through the segment than you really were (because your Garmin waited 15 extra seconds before saving a point outside its boundary).

RJM

Pacelines are probably the reason. Most, not all, of the segments around me are taken during paceline activity on a club ride.

And, if you are involved in these your PRs get all screwed up too. I like PRs to reflect my own performance during solo rides, but if I am in a paceline during that segment sometime it is usually going to be a higher average speed for the segment. So, going back out to best my PR on that segment gets screwed up because it gets quite difficult to do that solo.

Not that any of this really matters...it's just for fun and entertainment. I dig the social aspect of it and like to see who is riding what routes a lot. I don't like it enough to upgrade my Edge 500 to something with live segments though. In the end, it has helped me push myself more and I have gotten faster this year...

Seattle Forrest

I'm not a Strava member (love their heat map though!) but I've created a handful of Garmin Connect segments. My data winds up there anyway with no effort on my part, and the segments let me know when I've beat my best time up a hill I ride a lot. Means I'm doing something right. (Since getting a power meter, I've been beating a lot of best hill times.)

Anyway, Garmin's segments don't go back to the beginning of time. I created one from a ride I did a couple years ago (right before I went out and rode it again) expecting to see myself halfway down the leader-board. Instead, it said no one had ever ridden it. Apparently they only go back a few months to fill that data out. Here's Old Blewett Pass, like with Strava you can't create a segment until you ride it, and Garmin thinks no one has ever been on this stretch of road.

RPK79

Luckily for me all my group rides are out of a different city than my solo rides.

K.Katso

Go for segments that have multiple turns and/or elevation changes in them. Tailwind trophies will always fall to windsurfers and group rides.