Downhill segments, segments with lights/stop signs and other ridiculous things ARE dangerous and only idiots try to KOM those. Natural selection, IMO.

Uphill segments for the most part are very safe. Go as fast as you can, you won't endanger anyone going 10mph for 3 miles...lets be serious now, without playing devils advocate.

I've used Strava to look up a race from the year before and see how fast the course was and how fast people were going on a certain climb. Then I'll go and ride that hill to see what I can do and whats realistic to expect. I also look at Strava to find local climbs and see what my friends are riding. I use it to track progress on loops that I frequent. Use it wisely and its great.

People sprint off and hammer on group rides all the time, before Strava.

What has been said numerous times, on this forum as well, is that racers seem to have some kind of massive hate for Strava. They don't see it as a competitive thing and its not as legit as their local races. Yes races are difficult and no one is trying to belittle their accomplishments, but just because you won a crit race doesn't mean you're a better rider than someone who doesn't race. I've seen lots of club riders who don't race that have way better pack riding skills than cat 3/4/5's. Hell you can go from cat 5 to cat 3 just by fitness alone with terrible pack riding skills.

Strava is competitive if the group of people on Strava make it competitive. It's like a time trial except the roads aren't blocked off and the segments are much shorter.

Dangerous riders are gonna be dangerous, Strava or not.

Having run a computrainer studio for a few years as well I always find it amazing how addicted people are to their numbers. Even when you take the time to explain that their numbers are only meaningful to them and only exist as a way to structure training and gauge personal progress....they still go, "what did rider x get?"

Firm believer in the only real way to compete is on a race course/event course. Make it a Tri, Crit, RR, TT, Track, whatever....just have some people there that are looking over your safety and are impartial judges.

Sure, but Strava gives them an outlet for their dangerous riding and promotes it.

natural selection.

I got a KOM on my commute into work this morning. I am the best!

No. Not when it's done in a group setting and you have newer riders learning from the poor habits of Strava guys. It dumbs down the sport, riding etiquette, and safety greatly.

For those that live all alone and this is their only way to supposedly compete with others (who would apparently have to ride the same segments so you're not really alone but - whatever) ride for fun. If you need to compete - try bowling.

That's a business case for Strava, not Garmin and Garmin is the entity that would have to make the investment.

As for encryption, it only has to be cracked once to be useless. See DVD CSS.

Too bad, you didn't Strava it, so it's meaningless, neener neener!

Oh, I'm tons of fun! Never had a hemorrhoid, so I can't compare...care to explain? Normally though, I TALK to people if they are so interested in hearing about my tales of adventure from the imaginary race I just ran. Don't need to upload to a website and turn into a Me Monster. And if I'm racing, who gives a rat what time you get, where did you finish...

That's not what's generating the criticism. There are lots of services that provide that functionality. It's the fake racing that's Strava's hallmark service that comes under fire.

Especially when there are placings for DOWNHILL! I mean wtf is that not asking for trouble?

I'm sure there are, but Strava is the one everyone uses, so it's the only one that's useful. I have a hard time taking the criticism very seriously because I've never encountered anyone using it in any other way. I have to think that these folks who are using it to be asshats would be asshats regardless of the existence of Strava. I believe Freds existed before Strava, no?

It involves both if people buy Garmin to get Strava. The dynamic is the same as it is for people who buy smartphones so they can use apps. I've never done Strava, but my guess is that the percentage of people that would juice their numbers is tiny even if all you had to do is press a button on the Strava site. But if people won't use the service if it's not seen as legit, it's a business issue.

You credit cycling nerds with too much intelligence. When you consider how many of them can't figure out punctuation or that bombing down hills to beat an unknown person on a bulletin board ain't a great idea, I wouldn't hold my breath that they'll crack encryption to post bogus numbers. In the DeCSS case, the motivation was to be able to play DVD's on linux which is a much more compelling use case that affects a lot more people (and AFAIK, there's still not a version for BluRay)

Freds existed before all cycling, and in Them hold the sport together. Freds 1:17

I use both Strava and Garmin Connect. Strava is for quick and dirty results and GC is deeper and more detailed. I don't race.

What Strava has that GC doesn't, is the ability to see what friends are doing and communicate with them in a central place. For instance, a riding buddy of mine recently moved 5 states away, and with Strava we can keep in touch on cycling, give each other some grief, that kind of stuff. I do segment my rides, but it's purely to track my own results and progress throughout the year. I see where you're coming from, but I don't think that's a reason to totally write it off.

I disagree with you there. Encrypting data would make it worse. You do that and you're just encouraging people to crack it.

Why do you think people bomb segments? The same reason people would crack encryption...because it's a challenge set in front of them.

There's a critical difference. Any idiot can do the former. Not so with the latter which few are even capable of doing...

Freds, true freds, don't care about strava or any silly KOM....that's for poseurs.

Yea, I guess I'm talking about poseur-Freds. The word Fred seems to have acquired several meanings.

I just love it when someone tells us all what we should or should not do. This is a free country. If someone wants to use Strava that's their business. If you don't like it, you don't have to use it. And don't use the line "well Strava is endangering me because other cyclists are using it". Boo hoo, don't worry, you'll be fine. We can't ban everything that scares a few people.

What you're not seeing, though, is that it only takes one "non-idiot." Once just one person has cracked it it's just a matter of an application for the "idiots."

Do you honestly think everyone out there with a jail broken iPhone knows how do write the code required?

Oh, it was strava'd! The meaningless part is the fact that only 18 other people had completed the segment, but I'm going to choose not to tell people that.

To be completely serious about all of this...I started using Strava over several other apps when I first got into cycling because I wasn't ready to invest in a real computer. Strava is one of the best free cylcing apps out there, hands down. When I finally got my garmin, it just made sense to keep using it.

Not to step on toes here, but encryptions are cracked so digital media can be shared on the internet for free. The whole "playing with linux" bs is for credibility in court cases. There hasn't been a DVD, HD-DVD, or BluRay that hasn't been cracked and posted on the internet for free.

BAN AIR, IT CAUSES CANCER!

Don't like Strava? Don't use it.

If Strava is outlawed, only outlaws will have Strava.

I find strava more useful for 'detailed analysis' primarily because they do their own adaptation of TSB/CTL/ATL that you would pay a lot more to get through Trainingpeaks.

Or get free with Golden Cheetah.