Anyone use Strava? Do you like it, or find it beneficial?

My friend and I started loading up our data on it, but it's almost taken the fun out of riding... Turning every dang ride into a "segment" race - leaving us guessing which parts of our rides are segments, and if we can place on the 1st page.

Guess it's good for training, but the entire concept is blown when you have someone carrying a GPS, while riding a gas powered bike, 30+ mph down the road.

Anyhow - thoughts?

I like it, although I really only use it to keep up with mileage. I don't really look at the segments or how I rank. They are bogus anyways. There is a 5 mile long segment along my commute with lots of stop lights. Even at 5 am, no traffic and catching every green, the best I have done is avg. 18mph. The record holder averaged 31 mph. Sorry, I just don't buy that. But, if you want to compete on a segment, compete against yourself.

Don't get too hung up on segments and placings. Strava can be fun at first and of course it's nice to have KOM's. It's also fun for friendly competition and a way to meet other local riders. All in all, it's just another social site unless you making all of your rides private and using it for training. If that is the case, there are much better tools for that.

The segment hunters can really beat you up. I have guys half my age riding in groups seemingly going out of their way to take some of my segments. Due to an accident, I am off the road for the foreseeable future, but I am improving and hope to come back stronger and take some back. I use Strava as motivation sometimes.

If it's fun or useful to you, use it. If it's neither, don't. I love it. YMMV.

I love it. Especially between my friends and I. Battling each other for segments is one of my favourite parts of riding! It adds a little competitive spirit and motivates me to push myself harder.

That being said, it's gotten to the point where a lot of the common segments are untouchable and take a perfect storm of conditions to beat (tailwind, leadout, no obstructions).

Still. I'm very happy that it's free and will definitely continue to use it. And yes some people will cheat. To them I say who cares!

It's fun. Don't compare yourself to everyone on Strava. Compare your recent run to previous runs, and maybe just the people you are following.

+1

I also find it a motivator to see my mileage for the year climbing. After the first 1000km, it's "Can I get to 2000?", then "Can I get to 3000?" and so forth.

I have one segment I ride on my commute, and I get a kick out of seeing my time improve and speed go up, but I'm so far behind the KOM it really is just competing against myself.

If you're going to use it, use it to compete with yourself. Or at most a friend at the same ability as you are.

I use Endomondo on my BB10, and I get a bigger kick to see my own improvements. It can post and compare against my friends, but I never actually use that feature.

I use it to track my miles.

I use it to track miles on my rides. I do wish they would enable support for cadence sensors over blue tooth so I don't have to buy a computer

I downloaded it and tried it once on a 4 hour road ride just to see if I was missing something. I was missing something alright, power. My phone battery was totally dead 3 hours in.

Delete. Move on.

Its all about comparing Data , in competition with others .. like on-line Gaming.

I could care less.

it depends on what you use it for, i generally just use it to keep track of my mileage

im also a map nerd so i like to use it to remember/discover new roads

most people that use strava dont race, as they say "strava is for those who dont race"

of course it is exciting to see your progress on some segments and a kom is always a nice surprise, but not everyone uses it for competition

[MENTION=338718]rms13[/MENTION] you can use ant+ sensors with the app if i remember correctly

That's why I removed my computer from my bike...

... I do use mapmyride (on the computer afterward) to record routes and do my mileage tracking elsewhere, but never speed/time. Once in a while I will fire up My tracks and record a ride live.

I agree with most everyone here: I use it to track my mileage, compare commute route times and see what my friends are up to.

I've never intentionally chased down a segment - its fun for me to run into them by surprise!

Some racer friends of mine were aguing about a Strava segment that they were competing over. I told them maybe they should actually ride it at the same time and see who actually wins.

I like it. I have a lot of friends on it and I like to see how and where they're riding. It's helped me discover some new to me routes.

It can be fun to compete with segments, but I mostly commute so I'm not going to beat some guy in spandex on his carbon fiber bike whose riding that segment just to get the top time. It's just an added bonus when I do beat one of those guys.

I, like others, mostly use it to keep track of my rides and miles. It does that better than most of the other apps and has a good interface.

I have a blast w/Strava, and it helps me improve my riding.

I just used it for the first time today. I was mostly curious about the power calculations. I'm not too sure I hit or exceeded 1000 watts four times in four miles like it said.

I have found the Strava phone app to be inaccurate at times and drain the battery pretty fast. I use a dedicated GPS for commuting and long road mileage tracking with Strava.

I love Strava as a training tool. It's a great way to track my mileage and progress, and pushing myself on segments just adds to the ride. When I don't feel like pushing or riding fast, the app doesn't kep me from enjoying a nice afternoon of meandering, but it does let me have a handy map for the next time i want to ride that route.

Crux of the matter: Nobody can make you obsess on competition or the other guys. If that takes the fun out of riding, for you, then don't focus on those things, regardless of whether you use Strava, MR, or any sort of computer.

Yeah - I use my Garmin for it.. It's fun getting a KOM at times.... only have one - but it's most likely because only 9 people have ridden it.. lol.

My commute is only 10 miles roundtrip with only 2 segments that I've found, and it seems like a few hundred others use them pretty frequently as well!

How old-fashioned!