bran1986

So I've been using Strava to calculate my rides and it always seemed to be accurate with my mountain bike: 11 mph average speed, top speed 22-25 mph. All of that is about right for the type of rider I am.

Here is the weird part; both times I have used it with my new road bike it has showed outrageous top speeds - 41 and 61 mph. The average speed and distance seems to be accurate, but those top speeds can't be right?

Anyone know what it could be about the road bike that is throwing off the top speed? I highly doubt my top speed has increased 16-36 mph just by changing to a road bike.

FYI, I have not changed my biking route at all.

spelger

i don't pay or bother with telling strava what my equipment is so...

but, possible that this is just an anomaly? strava uses gps data to determine where you are and in conjunction with time how fast you got there.

-scott

bran1986

I also don't tell Strava what bike/equipment I'm using, so the app itself has no idea that I have switched bikes. I just find it weird that I'm riding the same route, same general average speed and same distance. However, both times with my road bike it's showing crazy high speeds.

Rides4Beer

Same average speed going from a mountain bike to a road bike on the same road route? I would expect the road bike to be at least a bit faster.

40+mph is noticeable, I hit it daily on my usual route, but def know when I'm going that fast. I'm guessing you had a couple of glitches in the Strava tracking. Same device, phone app, computer, etc.?

Ross520

It's your GPS device. I was experiencing this with my phone. Sometimes my post-ride analysis would show speeds of 67 mph! This started happening on almost every ride. I suspected that my phone was getting a bit long-in-the-tooth, or maybe an update wasn't playing well the the GPS chip.

Bought a Garmin 530 and I never had the issue again.

I would say it's mere coincidence that it's only happening on the road bike.

​

bran1986

I shouldn't have said same average speed for each bike. I meant an average speed in line with what I was expecting from switching bikes, meaning that the average speed wasn't an insane amount higher.

Same device and app for both bikes.

bran1986

This actually makes a ton of sense. I'm curious if there is any way that I can correct this, even though it's not a huge deal. I'm using a newer Note 10 so I doubt it's the phone itself. Maybe a simple reset will fix it.

Barry2 

I suspect you ride the mountain and road bike in different places.
If you are relying on Strava and GPS, I suspect the road bike route is suffering poor GPS coverage.

The same can occur if I use my Wahoo Bolt in pure GPS mode.
Adding a wheel mounted speed sensor, even though not required, does cause it to double check GPS readings for reality. It also detects me stopped and Auto-Pauses/Resumes the ride quickly.
The Bolt does not even require me to calibrate for the wheel circumference, it works that out for itself.

I tried using FitBit/GPS and Strava/GPS both on iPhone. I like the dedicated computer better.

All the best

Barry


Barry

bran1986

In these two cases I rode (almost) the exact route as I used to on my mountain bike. I was using my mountain bike 99% for road biking, which is why I ended up purchasing a road bike - the right tool for the job.

I might get a dedicated GPS at some point but for now I'm more concerned with distance/average speed more than anything, which Strava seems to do a pretty good job at. Was just curious on the whole top speed thing since it seemed weird that it only happened when I switched to the road bike.

taco2ewsday

This!! I was using my phone as the GPS and would get weird surges like that bought myself a Wahoo Elemnt Bolt, for myself as a Christmas gift. I've had much better speed readings since then

friday1970

You could try to recalibrate your GPS on your phone. There are instructions on how to do this on the internet. I reset my phone to fix my issue though.
What happens is that Strava loses contact with GPS, and screws it all up based on where it thinks you were and where you are at now.
I ended up buying a dedicate GPS also, a Bryton unit.

rowerek

I have checked my recent rides and speed is the only chart that is reasonably smooth, others like power is jagged mess. I have also compared Strava speed charts against my bike cateye and all checks out. My running speed charts though all jagged with spikes up and down so i do not pay much attention to instantaneous values just averages.

I used to have problems with Strava about 2 years ago, there are some features on the phone that try to save GPS power usage that were messing up some of my runs and rides, and additionally my phone was getting slow. Your Strava ride analysis should be showing when and where on the map these miscalculations occur. Recently with newer faster phone (galaxy s9) i had no problems.

bran1986

Yep, it shows exactly where the spike is. Shows consistent speeds my entire ride and then a huge spike at one location. Glad to hear I'm not the only one having this issue.