magohn

So my brother in the UK told me today he joined the website Strava (free). I just joined and must admit its the best cycling/gps site Ive seen yet. Why so good?

My brother and I can compare our stats/rides/elevation/miles etc in a side by side comparison from two different locations in the world! Hes whooping me btw. Im at 2500 miles for the last 18 months and hes at 4500. All this does is motivate me I kill him in actual rides 199 vs 124 but he works at home and has more time for longer rides. I have to snatch then after the commute

Another nice feature is that it takes local hills etc and compares your stats with other local riders. A leaderboard is then created with your standings. Im WAY down the list but its interesting to see where I stand and where I can go.

All in all, a great FREE tool for us Garmin/GPS users!

https://strava.com

Rodimus_Prime

yea I been using it since summer since I dont have a fancy gps garmin (dont want one either) I do love it though I've found alot of locals to ride with

IBOHUNT

thanks for the pointer. I've bookmarked it for if/when I get a gps.

LesterOfPuppets

It can be used with smartphones also. I run it on my Droid.

Cog_Zombie

Strava's the Bomb! Shows me what locals are riding around my area. Easy to use and allows me to track my progress. I use it as a backup to my Garmin device. Love It, recommend it. My girlfriend uses it as well cause shes a tight wad and doesn't want to by a Garmin device.

Mr Sinister

I have Strava, iMapMyride, and Endomondo. So far I have yet to use any of them. When it gets a little warmer here I will use them on similar rides, so I can see which is best.

RichardGlover

Still not sold on having a GPS for my bike. Battery life just doesn't seem long enough for a full 10+ hour ride, and when I actually NEED a GPS, I can whip out my phone to find out where I am and where I need to be.

Seattle Forrest

How do you like the GPS in general?

I ride with a Garmin (Edge 800) but I don't put 99 % of my rides online, or care very much what rides other people are doing. I like SportTracks, which does mapping, elevation vs speed charts, and all that great stuff, but on the desktop instead of on the web.

TrojanHorse

I signed up for Strava last night and spent about an hour or so seeing where everybody else was lying, I mean riding. (35 mph up a hill? C'mon). It looks pretty interesting and maybe seeing other people's times relative to mine up the same hill will motivate me. we'll see. Apparently there are a lot of mountain bike riders near me, not that I have a mountain bike.

I've had trimble outdoors/AllSportsGPS for about 3 years now and I generally like it - I use the GPS on my phone (Android), it just sits in my back pocket and when I'm done, it automatically uploads to trimble.com. Battery life can be an issue but I've never run low even on a 4 hour ride - I just have to make sure it's charged before I go.

I do like the auto-upload piece, and I do like seeing my history all in one nice place and I also like some of the statistics (elevation change, pace etc) but I could care less about sharing it with the rest of the world. I'm very analytical though, I like seeing numbers, but it's got to be easy.

Chaco

I've done that myself. I had a 65 mile ride, but when I looked at it in Strava, it said 87 miles. Then I looked at my max speed: 78 miles per hour. I realized I had forgotten to turn off my Garmin when I put my bike in the car at the end of the ride, and it merrily added my car trip to my bike ride. Fortunately, Strava lets you "clip" a ride, so you can fix things like that, but many users might no be aware of that.

TrojanHorse

I was thinking maybe they went downhill instead of up... that would take a lot of editing of the data file though and I'm fairly certain it's not worth it. Easier to hop in your car and hold your phone out the window. Or it's always possible Strava just had a little hiccup.

LesterOfPuppets

I left Strava running once when I rode down to Portland and partway back, then hopped on the bus from downtown Vancouver up the hill to my place.

I was KOM for that climb for a few minutes before editing it.

Daspydyr 

I like Strava and found some new local trails that people had loaded.

EKW in DC

I just upgraded to an actual Droid phone, so I've tried out Strava a few times. Almost all my rides are comes so teaching tip much is boring, but I do use it every once in a while. A friend from high school on Facebook uses it a lot. That's why I checked it out to begin with.

It works well. I have noticed that it seems to give me more generous distance readings than my properly set up cyclocomputer. An extra tenth of a mile or two over the course of my 7-7.5 mile commute route. Not sure which one to believe more.

Herbie53

Are all of your rides that long?

The Garmin 500 has a long battery life, they claim 18 hours. It's more a GPS enabled bike computer that does routes (like a que sheet), bread crumbs, as well as power (if you have a powermeter), HR, cadence (need the sensor) and the usual functions.

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=36728

The real benefit is the automated logging of your rides to things like Strava, Garmin Connect or Training Peaks. A smart phone is indeed a better thing for getting un-lost.

vic303

I use Strava on my phone, and also just got a Garmin Edge 305 that will also load to Strava. I like it so far. I have also used Endomondo (multisport) and SportsTracker. I like Endo better than Sportstracker (seems more accurate) but will mostly stick with Strava for bike stuff now.

redvespablur

I've been using strava since spring for riding and running - I like the power estimates and segments. Like to ride alone but really like the ability to benchmark myself by age weight etc to get a sense when I should be pushing more.