kccommuter

Has anyone checked out the new Challenge website? I was frustrated with it last year, but decided to try again. I found the site clean and fresh (and free); it uses Strava, but I had switched to Strava last year and used free version of Tapiriik to synch all my prior years from Endomondo to Strava. It's working well for me so far, I like that I can see other commuters in my area and am looking forward to the official May 1 start. I'm interested if anyone else has used it and what your experience has been.

GSJon

Holy cow have they changed this site around.

Although I do not necessarily like having to log in with my Strava account. I am OK allowing Strava to sync to it but not necessarily as the primary form of authentication. I'm sure that both Strava & National Bike Challenge see this as a way to boost the user count on Strava.

The company I work for participates in the challenge and we have done well in the rankings each of the past few years.


Jon

RidingMatthew

I think that the reasoning for using Strava as authentication is because they are the leaders of keeping track of rides. why recreate the wheel if you can just use what someone else has worked out. It is a lot of upkeep for the challenge in previous years to manage the mileage and leaderboards and such.

@kccommuter I have used it many years and am looking forward to this years challenge as well. Last year I rode every day from May 1- Sept 30.

himespau 

I used it a couple of years back, but most of my rides in the last year + have been indoors, which don't count.

ThermionicScott 

Well that's annoying. Looks like I won't be participating this year.

PatrickGSR94

Interesting, says throttle e-bikes do not count, but rides on pedal assist e-bikes DO count. My e-bike rides are all set to "e-bike ride" in Strava which is probably why they're not showing up right now. Might have to change them all to just "Ride" and hide them from leader boards.

mr geeker

Yeah... my smart phone is so old (~6 yrs) it doesn't do apps anymore. Heck, it's so old verizon had to spend 20 minutes looking up the open code for them to work on it, and spent another 5 trying to put it in correctly. Looks like I ain't participating.

RidingMatthew

the goal is to get people outside bike riding. I think the reason for the non throttle bike is because they are not physically making it go. It is about the exercise...


if you run a regular cycle computer you can just log it manually in Strava and still participate.

RidingMatthew

what is annoying the use of Strava or what?

mr geeker

Don't have one of those anymore either, it got thefted this winter.

RidingMatthew

That is sad to hear. But at least a replacement would be cheap.

mr geeker

wouldn't it though

ThermionicScott 

The mandatory use of Strava, yes. I don't care to sign up for yet another ride-logging website in order to participate.

Motolegs

In years past had always logged miles manually, and am doing so now during this "warm up" phase of this years' challenge. Had to putz around a bit to start out, creating a Strava account. You also manually log miles from their site, the Challenge has a button on the upper right to automatically take you to the Strava page.

So far so good- better than last years' version that was a real booger fest.

PatrickGSR94

Well this sucks.

If I have a ride marked "e-bike ride" in Strava, it won't show up on NBC, even though they say pedalec bike miles are eligible to count. But if I make my e-bike ride in Strava as just "ride" with "hide from leaderboards" checked, it still shows the segment results on the leaderboards!

It sucks because I'm doing the 30 days of biking challenge for April, and have posted rides every day for 17 days straight now, but the NBC says my current streak is only 4 days.

madbrad

I was really looking forward to the challenge this year, i have done it since i started ridding 2 years ago but to find out you must use strava. I use mapmyride and really don't want to lose all my data of previous rides and switch apps. Maybe if i can figure out a way to move my data to strava other than exporting/importing each single ride ill join.

FenderTL5

I participated in 2014 and 2015.
I didn't participate last year and it's not likely that I will this year.

I don't need to sign up for a bike challenge to keep track of mileage.

JPinWI

It's pretty cool that the Strava data is made available to help drive policy on where to invest limited biking resources...

As a past National Bike Challenge participant, we are excited to share the new and improved 2017 National Bike Challenge site is now open and ready for you! The all-new National Bike Challenge is built for everyone, from avid road bikers to commuters to "once-in-awhile-for-fun" riders. Ride with us anywhere, anytime May 1 through September 30. Hosted by the League of American Bicyclists and with the generous support of 3M, our goal is to provide you with a free and fun Challenge experience for years to come.

A major change this year is the use of a single tracking platform (Strava) to log your rides. We are using Strava to support bicycle advocacy organizations and cities in their efforts to make biking safer in your community by understanding where we all ride. Track with your smartphone or GPS device, or manually log rides online using Strava. Prefer another fitness tracker? Not a problem! Tapiriik (recommended for Endomondo) and FitnessSyncer (great for Map My Ride) can sync your rides to Strava.

We have over 70 prizes to give away each month, including bicycle gear and the ever-popular year’s supply of TP!

To register for the Challenge, follow these easy steps:

Go to nationalbikechallenge.org

Select “Connect with Strava” to create or login to your Strava account

Log your rides with Strava or your favorite app and you are good to go!


Welcome back to the National Bike Challenge. We look forward to riding with you again!
National Bike Challenge team

Mike B Plum

The changes to the web site for 2017 are not acceptable to me. As one of the top riders in our club, local challenge and the state, I do not use Strava, Facebook, Twitter or other social media. In addition, the folks at the challenge do not return telephone calls or emails. I am done. Mike B.

PatrickGSR94

Sorry to hear that. You could just log rides manually on Strava which I assume is what you used to do directly on the NBC in previous years. What's wrong with doing that? Your city and state could use the contributed miles and points I'm sure.

JPinWI

I used the support site several times during the warm-up period and got responses to my questions and even resolution of the problem I reported. Much better response than in years past.

YMMV.

PatrickGSR94

Yeah I think most of the issues were fixed. The late day ride problem posting the following day was fixed, as was the issue with getting updates when I edited previous rides in Strava. Now the NBC site correctly shows my current ride streak of 31 days, since the first of April, and my current correct miles for the year.