uncle uncle

I was apprised just this afternoon that my trusty steed, aka "Cherrie Bomb", aka a retro-restored (yet mostly still rusty) 1977 Schwinn Le Tour II (read "Duece") has clutched the title of "Local Legend". Thrust upon her is the virtual "Local Legend Laurel", or Trey El, as it shall be known, which she would wear proudly, possibly, if we knew how to claim it. She has amassed this great honor by achieving the great sum of "7" crossings thru the Strava declared "Short Sand Hill" passage on a local gravel road near us. (I really thought only locals would describe one of the most flattest stretches of loose sand county road, with it's elevation difference of 30 ft. as a bonafide "hill" but hey, I guess Strava bought into it too.) I, of course, being her payload on all seven treks, feel rightly misty eyed for her. We expect great things from her, still. (And thanks for allowing us this gloat, as everyone around us gets that glazed eye look any time I talk bicycles, gravel, 10 speeds, IPA's, bidons, downtube shifting, or secret patch adhesive mixes.)

So.... anyone else have an Trey El post in them?

repechage

When I installed the Strava app, every once in a while there was a message regarding having the best time for some arcane segment.
I used it to document training ride length, a bit regarding elevation gain (always seemed to surprise me)
When I changed phones I never reloaded the app.
Not a Strava Slave obviously.

uncle uncle

I was persuaded to sign up and use it by a fellow former employee. They had retired, bought a bicycle, and were encouraging others to come on board. Thus, it started out for me as a way to keep in touch with them. They don't ride their bike much these days, preferring to run and walk instead, which they record on Strava. So, in the social connection aspect, I find in it a nice addition. It is worthwhile, imo, to see what others are up to on there, and it does encourage me, in some ways, to ride more. I really don't use the data it provides for anything... I don't even have an idea of how many miles I average a week or anything like that.

non-fixie 

I have been using Strava since 2014, and while I don't care much for my achievements (if you can call them that), I do like it for documenting my rides, especially the trips with mrs non-fixie. It's also fun to see what some others are doing.

WRT data analysis, I have used it recently to calculate my "touring number", which is defined as the number of rides of at least that length in kilometers. Not quite sure what it tells me, but I am currently at 52, i.e. I have done 52 rides of at least 52 kilometers.

iab

Best laurel evah...

DrIsotope

Veloviewer calls it your Eddington Number-- riding at least E number of miles on E days. I'm in a gap right now, and have been for some time. I think measuring in miles throws it off (in metric, I'm at 105km on 106 days.)

For just 2020, I'm just behind you-- 51km on 51 days.

Classtime 

I have one too. Maybe more than one. I have a 30 mile loop that is usually part of my ride and some days (like today), is the entire ride. I never get bored with it. So I guess I am a legend for not getting bored doing the same old ride over and over again. I wonder if the holder of the Trey El is the only one who can see it? I also wonder if it can be stolen. If I were to loose it, will I be informed? It is very mysterious and nothing like a KOM which I imagine is very straight forward.

Salamandrine 

Personally, I don't want some stupid app spying on me. I tried Strava once and I find it loathsome. If I want to know some metrics, i have a GPS Garmin smart watch for that.

BITD, I found that even using an early primitive cyclometer - I had the first gen cateye - tended to make me overtrain. These days, I just ride.

canklecat

I have a few "local legend" thingies. I wish I could disable it. Strava should have given users an opt-in or opt-out option.

The KOMs and PRs are fine. But the local legend designation doesn't appeal to me. I already know I ride the same routes repeatedly. I don't need Strava to remind me.

I suppose they're trying to encourage the focused social networking aspect, which is fine. That's why I use Strava -- to keep up with friends and see what they're doing, offer some encouragement. I did a group ride Wednesday, first time in months, and realized I hadn't seen some friends since March when the pandemic seemed inevitable. And I'd already cut way back on group rides in autumn 2019 when I couldn't tell whether my constant geyser of phlegm was a cold, flu or allergies. I didn't want to gross out my riding buddies, or risk infecting anyone. (Turned out to be allergies. Much better after my immunologist switched me to different inhalers.)

DrIsotope

I genuinely don't understand the people who are put out by the Local Legends... feature? Whatever it is. At the same time, I don't understand the people who pop into every thread with "Strava" in the title to holler about how much they don't like/refuse to use Strava. To me, that's like driving down to a store, going inside, and loudly yelling about how you would never shop at that store. Cool. We get it.

I find the Local Legends to be wholly unobtrusive. To see what segments I actually hold the wreath for, I have to go into the segment manually, and it only works on mobile anyway. For me, Local Legends doesn't show up on the browser-based Strava at all, and the web version is the one I use the most. I had one pop up on this morning's ride, clicked on the segment, and I've apparently covered it 34 times in the past 90 days. Second place has maybe 6 or 7. So I have no idea how the app determines if you're going to get a notification or not.

uncle uncle

Original poser here... yeah, I get that not everyone is into Strava (or Strava like programs). It just keeps me connected to friends and other bicycle riders (mostly all non-C&V fans). It gives me an opportunity to support their efforts with encouragement; that's the biggest take away from it for me. The Trey El's are just gravy.

Kabuki12

I use Strava to keep track of my rides and which bikes I ride. The mileage helps me with motivation and also the amount of miles on which bike. The legend thingy pops up because I ride the same route a lot and it recognizes that I guess. It really isn’t important for me as I know I am the type to plod the same path , as my wife says.

SoccerBallXan

How do people even use Strava without killing their phone battery or running out of data...

20 miles into a ride and my provider has cut me off and my phone is struggling with sub 10% battery.

I don’t hate it, I just wish I could use it!

uncle uncle

I couldn't use Strava on my previous phone, which was about 4 years old (sorry, I don't remember the make or model) because I had some of the same battery issues. I'd often come home with a drained phone battery, with no data saved. When I updated my phone, I was able to then use Strava. Not saying you are experiencing the same thing, only what I experienced, and how I circumvented the issues.

rhm

I find Strava very useful as a way to keep track of what days I worked-- since I record my ride to the station. Makes it much easier to submit my work hours. It's also good for keeping track of which bikes I ride most. And, of course, it's nice to keep track of my riding.

So I am a local legend for some stretches of my commute. Woohoo.

Re the "touring number" this is sometimes called the "Eddington Number" and I too use Strava to calculate mine (there's an app for that: https://swinny.net/Cycling/-4687-Cal...dington-Number . Mine is 130 metric, 103 Imperial, because for several years I have tried to ride a century (100 miles) every month. Sadly my Imperial Eddington Number is not going to get much higher for a long time. Once you hit 102, rides of 101 miles don't count anymore.

non-fixie 

Thanks, rhm and DrIsotope, for pointing out that the 'touring number' actually has a name: the Eddington number. I already feel more important!

Kidding aside, turning on Strava during rides has some nice effects, that I truly appreciate:

• I get kudos from C&V members, whom in some cases I haven't seen on the forum or elsewhere in a long while. It is a nice way to keep in touch with people I consider to be my friends.
• I also record which bikes we ride, and that provides some interesting insights. We just ride to enjoy being outdoors, and speed is never an objective. Yet, some bikes keep showing higher average speeds than others. They must be better ...
• When going for a ride, I usually grab the bike I just feel like riding. The result is that Strava shows me what really are my favorite bikes, not the ones I would like to think are my favorites.

SoccerBallXan, I fear you need a better phone and a better provider. Sorry about that. These days the Strava app is pretty efficient, IME. Works very well on my - by now ancient - 2017 Moto G5 Plus.

BTW, I just got me a smartwatch which also runs a version of Strava. I still need to figure out how to get that up and running properly, though.

The Golden Boy 

Is there one that says, you made it out of your driveway and didn't fall down?

uncle uncle

I'll let you know.... as soon as I accomplish that.

rhm

Set it up as a segment, give it a fearsome sounding name ("Mt Golden steepest ascent" suggests itself) and make sure no one else rides it, and you'll be a local legend in no time.

Spaghetti Legs 

That is moments before one of my other favorite movie moments. “Excuse me while I whip this out”