Originally Posted by
robertorolfo
I've been meaning to download Strava for a while, so this finally gave me the motivation to do it. It's a neat little app, although I can see that it's far from perfect.
For example, some smaller sections of the 59th street bridge climb (going from Manhattan to Queens) are listed at 4 or 5%, while the section for the "full climb" actually shows -2%, which is simply impossible. The data must somehow be confusing itself with riders going the other way (descending) or perhaps the regular roadway for automobile traffic?
These devices aren't terribly accurate on grade. They are slow to react to changes. I'll be halfway up the Manhattan Bridge before it shows the change in grade. I thought Strava used geographic data though. I did a long ride up Mt. Haleakala in Maui a few years ago with a Garmin watch that didn't have a grade sensor but Strava still showed it.