"Most cell phone GPS tracking solutions utilize cell towers to determine location. This means you know which cell phone tower your employee is closest to, but you employee could actually be hundreds of feet or even miles away Even those that use triangulation services can't provide complete accuracy."

How old is that article? This hasn't been true for years.

-mr. bill

I use Runtastic Road Bike. All the same features I want as Strava, but its free or $4.99 for the Pro version.

I started with iPhone but bought a garmin 510 and am pleased with the choice.
My iPhone 3gs battery life was short and I can't read it in sunlight so I needed another computer anyhow.
The iPhone shuts off at temps 105+. It does better turned off in a jersey pocket where it is out of the sun.
I had to put an external battery and a cable into a ziplock bag with the iPhone to get through a 35 mile ride when running a GPS app.
My iPhone is in a otter case that prevents me from using an Ant interface and it doesn't have bluetooth. So I couldn't integrate heartrate data or cadence, nor power if I choose to buy a powermeter.
I also used to accidentally discard rides with the iPhone strava app. There was a delay after touching the save/upload hotspot and I would accidentally tap it a second time which deleted the data. No problems with that on the garmin.
I do miss the ability to immediately upload data post-ride, and the need to use a computer and USB connection.

I actually met azcyclist on the Hemet Double last year! I have finished 60 doubles and DNF'd on 4.

Much more fun with Garmin and Strava, at least for me.

Rick / OCRR

It was a pleasure to meet you Rick, and one of the guys I was riding with knew Isabelle too. I agree, Rick, that tracking rides on Garmin and Strava is much more fun. My challenge now is to create my own database (in Excel or Access) using the csv you can download from Garmin Connect.

More than just logging my rides I'd like a training tool to analyze my effort and measure my (hoped for) performance gains.
Currently reading one of Joe Friel's training books and considering using Training Peaks as the training tool.

Anyone have any opinions about Strava v Training Peaks v Map My Fitness as a training tool?

I'm still using a manual toothbrush.

Interesting, my samsung galaxy, I just did a metric century on new years day and hardly and my battery was not even a third used. DO you have other programs, bluetooth, etc running in the background to drain the battery?

I tried Strava with my iPad while commuting this year, but have since bought a Garmin FR110 watch. I still use Strava for results. The watch was supposed to be for my wife's running, but since we frequently go out at the same time she always lets me take it on the bike. I don't need no stinkin' maps, although I wish I had an altimeter. The Strava results are spotty on elevation sometimes.

I have tried both an HTC phone, not sure what model and my iPhone 3gs. Granted newer tech phones have better battery life however they also come with a steep price tag. My phones cost me nothing up front, just a two year extension and my cell rates are somewhat competitive considering the free phone. Where I live and ride is very rural and low density population. The phone is often using battery power searching for a signal and the gps based apps also suck battery power. Runkeeper, MapMyRide and Strava all impact battery life about the same. When i used my phone to track rides I had nothing running in the background, just the phone and the cycling app. I was having problems with apps crashing with the HTC so I "upgraded" to the iPhone, only to experience the same app errors. If anything the HTC had a better battery.

My point is I've used both and for me Garmin has much better battery life. It also if you buy the mid level or higher has other valuable add ons such as HRM and speed/cadence. I works for me. I'm glad your phone works for you.

We dunt needs no stinking strava. I still carry a folding map in a plastic bag. It goes with the territory of a Luddite.

I use my iPhone but I can't stand the Strava app and use Cyclemeter instead. I find it to be much more programmable with settings and options that Strava doesn't even come close to having. Using Cyclemeter, I can do a century and still have over 60% of my battery life at the end of the ride. I also like the fact that it displays the route map on the main screen and moving from screen to screen (11 of them) is just a swipe of the finger and not a menu or button choice. It can also display all the information that Garmin and Strava display on their web site. It will also send me and others an email at the end of my ride that contains my stats and a link to web site. If you have an iPhone 4s or 5, it has real time tracking so that anyone you have set up can follow you on your ride on another device or PC, which I don't think that Strava can do. And there's much more ......

As for the accuracy of the GPS unit in a phone vs a Garmin, I can tell you that there is a lot of misconception in this area. I did a lot of GPS based software development for an engineering company that contracted to FEMA. The software we developed had to be extremely accurate for what we were doing. The primary device was a Symbol handheld computer connected to external GPS units via BlueTooth. We tried several external GPS units and found that the accuracy between them was miniscule and that included the Garmin external receiver that we ended up using. Where the difference that you actually notice comes into play is: 1) the number and location of satellites whose signal the device is receiving, 2) the way the development software converts the binary data sent by the satellites, 3) the way the programmer parses the converted data sent from the GPS receiver, 4) the way the device's CPU handles the floating point numbers parsed by the programmer. BTW, the only reason we ended up using the Garmin receivers is because they were the only ones with a magnetic base that could be attached on a metal plate mounted to a hardhat. The larger the GPS receive, the more accurate it is (and more expensive). For what you get in a Garmin cyclometer vs a smart phone, you're not going to see large differences, if any.

Which one is more social, STRAVA or Cyclometer?

I just recently started using Strava. I have used a Garmin Edge 705 for several years after I kept getting lost in the Texas Hill country. I have been using Garmin Connect and when I went on Strava it downloaded a couple years data from my edge. I like it as a training tool as I look at where other 65+ riders are on segments I ride. I follow some that are a little better on most segments and try to beat them. It forces me to put in a higher effort and I am riding more to increase my fitness.

This. Plus, I think Garmin gives more complete data.

I only use the Strava phone app for run workouts and rides on my Trek 1500 (no mount nor is that bike setup on my Garmin 500)