Getting away from STRAVA? Options? Thoughts?
 

Anyone else giving some thought to dumping Strava, at the very least dumping their premium sub? I dropped it in November, they gave me 60 days free a month ago. So I'm a month in and thinking I may not renew. I don't have a problem with them wanting to make money, that's obviously the point of being in business. However, they went through a period where they basically ignored cyclists and users and didn't do much to improve the platform. Now they swear they're making changes and going to improve the platform and yet several basic changes that have been requested by numerous people still haven't been done.
I LOVE that I can find other riders, I love segments, and I love the fact that many friends use it and we can follow each others rides with maps and segments. I don't like the fact that they're very slow to update the product, I can't track all my workouts in it effectively, they still don't have the ability to know that if you're riding a trainer its a different bike than your road bike (a request that dozens if not hundreds have made on their forums for 2+ years and yet nothing).

Are there some good alternatives? I subscribe to training peaks for tracking overall fitness and it's superb in that regard, but the social aspect is missing.

What are you guys doing, what are your thoughts?

:foo: why can't you just add another bike to your gear?

If you love segments etc. probably best to just cough up $5/month and be done with it.

I like the social aspect but only care a little about segments so I use the free version. I was annoyed that they took away features but am getting over it.

Not to go too far off on a tangent, but nobody as far as I know has solved for gear usage tracking well. I'd love to hear if someone has found something easy.
For example, I use the same bike on the trainer as I ride outdoors.. but that means that on the trainer, some stuff is on a pause for wear (wheels, tires, brakes, etc), while some stuff (chain, cassette, crank, shifters, etc) is still wearing. When on the road, I do seasonal switchouts of things like tires (winter vs summer).. and here Strava fails.. you can 'retire' a piece of equipment, but you can't bring that item back out of retirement. It's messy

You got me hooked.
So do you use Stava to track mileage wear on components? If so, why not just track wear based on actual wear?
I've never thought to track wear based on miles, so this is new. I just maintain components and swap out consumables as needed since it's infrequent.

Honestly I don't sweat it too much; it's mostly just tracking and having a record. However, some like to do preventative maintenance though, based on mileage intervals (eg. shift cable replacements, bearing lube intervals or replacement, LBS tuneups, etc), or to just have comparative views between how eg. how long one brand tire/brakepad/saddle/bartape lasted vs another. I'm just pointing out that gear tracking has a ways to go (certainly it does with Strava).. when it should seemingly be an easy concept to grasp and program some software to do sensibly.

I didnt realize component tracking was an option on strava. Interesting, thanks!

I have multiple bikes on my Strava account. But you can't default one bike for trainer use and one for road/outdoor use. Right now I have to manually edit rides to reflect the bike.

This is the answer, but you seem to sweat it more than I do. I keep track of things mostly out of curiosity - it's an easy way for me to track wear on things like tires so that I can make a more informed decision the next time I buy. Maintenance is usually done as-needed (noisy chain or brakes, etc) or I'll set reminders on my calendar (checking sealant levels, etc). If I'm swapping something out, but I intend to swap it back in at some point, I'll just make note of the cumulative mileage to date in the notes section when I create the "new" component.

That seems all of a 5 second change in a ride edit page. Yes, it would be nice to have Strava smart enough to know the difference but again, 5 second edit. Activity --> Edit --> Bike drop down. For comparison I'll edit the activity name, upload pics when I've made them and enter details of ride in description. Standard stuff that would include bike editing if that was a thing for me.

Though I do agree there are many, many features requested they seem to have done nothing on, iPad native app for instance.

Don't get me started on iPad ****...ya not good

I have absolutely zero issue with spending 5 bucks a month on Strava. I live in the 21st century, where we've basically been reduced to a collection of micro-transactions. The number of sub-$20 auto-debits we have coming out every month is staggering.

As I record at least one activity per day, every day, 365 days of the year, the cost effectiveness of Strava is-- for me-- excellent. Knowing how many miles are on a pair of shoes: great. Power curve, great. Fitness & Freshness... extra great.

They could start by making the Android app stop adding 40% extra distance in random jumps that recent updates introduced.

And it's not the phone - countless user reports of this issue, it used to work fine and other ride tracking apps still do work fine.

The audacity of leaving this bug unfixed during a concerted account conversion drive is... stunning.

Completely your call. As others have said, the cost isn't enough for me to worry about. I sent far on far stupider things on a regular basis. I get a lot of use out of it so I keep it. You your don't feel you get the use out of it go ahead and drop it. If you find that you miss it, you can always go back.

Some of us chafe at renting software. I still occasionally pop in my Quake CD. Its over twenty years old. It offends me to my core to spend $80/year on Rouvy that does the same thing, year over year. Their product mangers should be spat on.

How about you get a better deal on your phone or internet subscription and the gain you spend on Strava?

Called up for my parents, told them, well you have this deal for new customers, this is the competition price, why the hell would I not swap? Worked like a charm.

Alternatively, 60 a year is 300 in 5 years, how often do you buy a new bike? Compared to the cost of the bike over that time, is it not worth it?

I'm fine with Strava for many of the reasons mentioned.

If you want to get away from Strava, stop using it. You don't have to.

OP is just looking for options. I like Strava and have been a user for only about 1.5 years. Sort of like the social aspect of it. Mostly like the segment stuff even though I know where I will stack up, occasionally I am surprised at what I find when I used to look. But as someone else said, renting software just seems wrong.

Whether you stay with Strava or not, I'd highly recommend downloading and keeping up-to-date backups of your data. Strava themselves said they're not profitable, and keeping your only copy on the servers of an unstable company is not a good idea.

Besides Strava, I use GoldenCheetah, and some custom Python scripts (obviously not an option for most) to analyze/log my rides.

If it's software that's standalone, running on your own resources, and consuming no external resources, sure. I'm looking at you Adobe.

But this is far closer to an ongoing service. It provides the platform for bringing all that data together and quantifying it. Definitely not possible in the traditional standalone software paradigm.

Ugh. I avoided the subscription service with LightRoom for as long as I could, then I went to Capture One. They seem to be pushing the sub now, too, but they've still got the outright option. I do like the results a lot better, too. *shrug*

I think some of Strava's new updates are incompatible with my phone. That is making the choice for me.

For quite some time I was just using it as a mileage tracker, but it doesn't really matter.

I haven’t given much if any real thought to Strava. I use GC to do what I need and as far as parts wearing out and knowing the mileage on them, they tell you when they fail to work as they should.

However, I may look to see what the Strav’ has to offer in other ways but I really doubt it will be so compelling. To each their own I say.

We were always just buying a license to use the software. We never owned it. Granted, it's moot when we own the physical media on which it was recorded. But we were already just "renting" software. The publishers just didn't have any practicable way to revoke the license before everything switched to online registration.

Same principle with most artwork when the creator is still alive and able to assert copyright. We can buy an original painting but the painter still owns the rights to the image. Which is why collectors love dead artists. No pesky creators around to claim a slice of the pie.