TimothyH

What makes Strave Premium worth $60/year for you? What do you get for the money that you would really miss if you didn't have a premium membership?

What about someone who doesn't use power in any way? Still worth it to you?

From a very practical perspective, how has it made you able to ride faster/stronger/longer?


-Tim-

dim

I can see how I am doing against people in my age group who ride the same segments as me .... (I'm old)

RPK79

I don't use it year round. I pick it up in the spring when they offer the free trial and carry it on as a paid subscription until fall. I like the heart rate breakdowns and the suffer scores. Is it worth $6 a month? Maybe not, but I use Strava enough to not mind paying them for their otherwise free service.

jtaylor996

It is for me. But a big part of that is I do zwift in the winter, and with Strava premium you get 2 months of free zwift... which is just enough for me to get through the winter.

I don't have power yet, but I've got a meter in the mail as of yesterday. So that will just make things even better.

GuitarBob

That's why I do it too. I don't use the extra features much, but I pay as a way to support the general service.

trainsktg

I just started using a power meter, and I suspect that the analysis provided to Premium members will be a nice feature to supplement my training, but for the most part I pay for my membership as a way to support a valuable (to me) service.

Keith

PepeM

I got a year for free and I like the easy access to TSB and the power curve, but I don't think I'll bother renewing, I can get those for free on Golden Cheetah and apart from that I can't think of any other advantage of premium.

mvnsnd

The information on power, suffer score and the use of segment intensity make premium an easy decision.

K.Katso

I train with power. $60 is peanuts for the useful information that I get from premium. I also pay for TrainingPeaks premium, and I have a coach. However, for someone who just wants to track how many miles they ride in a year, it's probably worthless to upgrade.

RJM

I believe Premium members can download someone else's gpx file too, so you can get it into your garmin without having already ridden it. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. I've been a Premium member for like two years now and forget what the difference is.

The power and heart rate analysis, personal heatmaps, suffer score, training videos, and personal goals are worth it, IMHO.

Doge

I like the fly-by. I can essentially replay a race/ride.

LesterOfPuppets

This is the part I'm hooked on. Still haven't ridden every road in my county. Someday...

LesterOfPuppets

Great for figuring out who that arrogant roadie that didn't wave was!

RPK79

This isn't a premium feature.

Seattle Forrest

It's not. Honestly I don't see what makes the free service worth my time to use. Which is funny because I use their heat map all the time. But the Fred racing doesn't interest me.

With power, they have a PMC; TrainingPeaks is $90 a year to get the same feature. Golden Cheetah has it for free, but you have to update it after every ride. The Cheetah has some other features I like, though.

Seattle Forrest

I do this with MapWindow GIS. Mine aren't heat maps, it's a consolidated map of everywhere I've ridden. And hiked. And kayaked. And skied.

Divtos

I pay for it because it gives me a cheap power profile. I like some of the other features but prolly wouldn't pay for them if I didn't have a power meter.

LesterOfPuppets

BITD I did that with Thomas Guide + HiLiters!

So what's your workflow with MapWindow GIS?

I have a feeling I'd have to download gpx files from strava/ridewithgps/etc, then import them into MapWindow. I dunno if I'm that dedicated to the cause these days.

WalksOn2Wheels

I think I'm between these two. Bordering on the "I want to get a powermeter and maybe do some racing" but for now it's mostly tracking rides and seeing how I do on segments. I think I'm going to wait for the free trail offer and see how I like it.

smarkinson

Good question.

I don't have a power meter but I do have a heart rate monitor and it is nice to see the analysis of that.

Pretty much everything else like the training plans, trophy case, filtered leaderboards, being able to compare multiple riders on a segment etc etc I found I used them a couple of times and then never again. I wouldn't miss them one little bit.

aubiecat

All the reasons already mentioned plus having a premium account gave me a two month free subscription to Zwift. This has opened up a new world of training and workouts for me. I don't mind giving them $60.00 a year to help keep up future development of the program.

anotherbrian

For whatever reason I got a second round of three free months after my first three that came with the Edge 520 ended. I've been meaning to try Zwift's free access this time around.

I used it for years for free (coming to it from SportTracks and Golden Cheetah), and it doesn't provide anything useful compared to GC, and potentially Training Peaks, for training with power. All the Strava power functionality is a joke compared to the others.

I do like the Premium ability to compare efforts to others ... I think free allows comparison to the single KOM holder while Premium lets you compare against friends/those in your clubs, and pick a half dozen at the same time.

Also if you file a support ticket (fixing an upload) when Premium gets you ~24hr response. Good luck hearing back within a week if you are a free-loader.

Planned to try the every street in the city personal heatmap, but that was just being silly. Ability to take anyone's ride as a GPX seemed nice as well but never got to it.

Unsure if I'll pay to keep it going when my second trial ends ... definitely wouldn't pay for the Live Segments after using them, and that's what originally sucked me into thinking I wanted Premium.

dr_lha

The free version of Strava basically does almost everything I need, plus doesn't bombard me with ads unlike MapMyRide does at the free level. This is why I pay for it.

ctpres

I gave up on Strava premium. Age discrimination. Am I getting better? How do I stack up with peers? At some point in the ageing process real improvement over the previous year becomes an impossible feat. Based on last reply from Strava there are not even plans plans to add age groups above existing. I moved over to mapmyride.com premium for a lot less money. Not as many bells and whistles but enough stats to keep me happy. Maybe someday Strava will admit over 65 year olds can put in a decent ride. Or maybe they will miss all the premium $ from protesters like me.

RJM

Fred racing...lol. So true. So, so true.