Seattle Forrest

There's no shame in appreciating the value of a dollar and taking advantage of a service that's offered for free, that's not what this thread is about. I read the scathing DCRainman post about Strava's sensor decision, and he mentions that Strava is keeping their subscriber numbers close to their chest. Cycling is far and away the #1 activity (by count) on Strava, so I thought a poll in here would be 100% accurate interesting to see.

caloso

This is me: I don't use my phone as a bike computer. I've had a Garmin longer than I've had a smart phone, so I have no need for the Strava phone app to pair up with anything. And I don't use Strava for analysis. For data analysis I use Training Peaks and Golden Cheetah So I just use the free version as social media. More to see where my friends are riding.

bpcyclist

I have decided to go with RidewithGPS instead.

jkonst

I pay for Strava. I don't directly hook up sensors to the app, so this doesn't affect me as of today (though it limits future flexibility) - but the rationale for this change, and especially the messaging around it, are pretty baffling to me.

Saying "this feature isn't heavily utilized and we're removing it" seems like a much more palatable explanation than "our app is buggy and we don't want to/can't figure out how to fix it." I also feel like if they couldn't get all sensors to work, they should have focused on heart rate monitors, given how popular those are (and how much more likely they are to be paired directly with Strava compared to a power meter, I'd think).

CarloM

May I ask why? I use Strava on the free tier, and have just started looking at local official event rides, and noted that most of them provide a RideWithGPS map, and accompanying cue sheet, but not Strava. So this got me thinking of switching over.

I don't mind paying for a service, but I want to make sure I decide on the most robust service before moving to the paid tier.

burnthesheep

Free Strava plus TrainingPeaks free edition is simply amazing for what they are.

When I care to, I track my TrainingPeaks "metrics" they make you pay for in an Excel sheet. You can find the formulas online.

datlas 

Everyone knows I am thrifty a cheap bastid.

Strava free version does what I want it to.

Marcus_Ti

I used to pay for Strava--support what you use and all.

Over the years, Strava has become Facebook/Instagram for bikes....and less and less of a training tool. Quit my subscription as soon as the whole "Premium" thing became "Elevate" or whatever the heck it is. I've off and on looked for something like Strava+Stravistix online, haven't delved too deep looking.

Cypress

Free Strava, for social and ego reasons. If I travel to a new place, the Segment Explorer will usually point out where the good roads are. I paid for Strava for a year and only used it for a few Live Segments, which felt like cheating (it works).

If I need to really dig into my power data, Garmin Connect tells me everything I want to know...plus some.

sfrider 

I don't use Strava much, just to keep in touch with some people around the world. I'd never pay for it. I don't use its segments, they're too short to be of interest. I do use RWGPS, but only for tracking progress, such as comparing power output during a climb compared to the same a few weeks prior. I already know all the areas I ride around the SF Bay Area, having ridden here for some 25 years. So I have little to no need for route planning software, and even if I'm exploring some maintenance dirt road (or unusually well maintained trail) it will either dead end or spit me out somewhere familiar. RWGPS has as far as I can tell vastly better analytics (or maybe that's a for-pay or very well hidden feature in Strava). It also has segments that are more meaningful, around 30-60min that you can do every few weeks or once a month to see how things are going. It doesn't have nearly as many riders, so the segments are more for personal use than some sort of online competition. As you can see I'm still a slowpoke on the climbs, but it's steadily improving. It might be my engineering mind, but I really like being able to see progress even if it sometimes doesn't feel like I'm going anywhere.

RidingMatthew

i use the free strava they used to give me free months here and there but I don't use it enough to find it of any value. I think i could find myself paying for Ride with GPS more. i use it for route finding and sending maps to my Garmin. I don't really care about the social media side of the strava app.

MagicHour

I pay for Summit, and yeah it could be better, and yes wish they would listen to user feedback, but to be fair I use many of it's features, and if you take into account $20/off coupon from CC every 12 months you can use toward consumables its really not that expensive.

Recently started playing around with other free options like Garmin Connect and TrainingPeaks to see what they offer in terms of training metrics. So far Training Peaks seems waaayyy more complex for my needs/modest abilities and $10/mo before you can unlock many features. Garmin Connect though, is not terrible, lacking a couple metrics, FTP eg, because of barebones features on my Edge 130.

...and yes, I've used Golden Cheetah for the occasional device power comparison tests, but again way more robust and DIY workflow for convenient day-day usage.

bpcyclist

I prefer RWGPS for route planning, turn-by-turn navigation, and pretty accurate, at least around here, elevation data--which is very important because my town has a bunch of little volcanoes in it and the surrounding outskirts has large ones. Other people can view routes, cue sheets, and elevation information without having to create an account. I also personally prefer the user interface on RWGPS, It is simple and intuitive. Strava does seem to have the far superior social networking functionality, or at least it is more popular. I do not care about any of this. When I had an issue with incorrect data, I had a response to my email within 10 hours. The nice gentleman had already gone into the ride in question and fixed the problem, which I, myself, had caused due to my cluelessness. I emailed them at roughly 10 pm Pacific Time and when I woke up and checked my email at 730 am the next day, it was done and there was a nice email waiting for me. Service. Free version.. I had accidentally activated the 'record my ride' functionality two days before I took off on the ride. Nice job, bpcyclist.

canklecat

I'm still waiting to see whether this whole Strava thing catches on before I pay for it.

I get enough from the freebie version that it does what I need. I've almost always used other apps to record rides, later uploading to Strava: Cyclemeter with my iPhone for awhile; now Wahoo Fitness with both the iPhone and Android phone. I might try subscribing to Cyclemeter again, for the customizable features, especially the voice prompts.

And it plays nicely with the Elevate browser extension for additional data. The fitness trend graph is useful. Reminds me that I'm making steady progress, even on days when it feels like I'm going backward.

I mostly use Strava for the social networking aspect. Helps me keep track of real life friends without the baggage of hot button issues that have made Facebook a cesspool. It's gotten bad enough on other social media that I've been tempted to unfriend some folks I enjoy riding bikes with, simply because of their boneheaded FB posts. But then I remind myself that their views on hot button issues never come up during bike rides. They just have an addiction to daily doses of micro outrage and a need to play the troll online. In real life and on bike rides they're okay folks. And it's easy to shut people up on bike rides if they do spout off -- just increase the tempo. Either they'll be dropped or too breathless to yap about crap.

MinnMan

You're a bit confused on terminology. "Premium" became "Summit" "Elevate" is the new name for the free add-on that used to be Stravastix. AFAIK, it's only available for Chrome, though that may have changed.

Anyway, I use free Strava and "Elevate". I can't see what "Summit" would get me that I would really need.

Seattle Forrest

This is me. I use a watch now because I can use the same hardware for hiking, and for cross country skiing. It's really not practical to take my phone out while I'm moving on skis to check some metric, or to end a lap. It's a Garmin watch, talks to my power meter, syncs over the air. Connect gives me my power curve now, and that's really the most important thing on the bike, at least for how I use it. Golden Cheetah gets my attention sometimes, too, but it's too cumbersome for me to keep up to date with all my ride data.

I use the global heat map on Strava because the roads in Seattle became "old hat" a long time ago, and we have a lot of great scenery not too far from town. I send the rides I travel for to Strava to update the map, so other people can benefit too. But most of their functionality doesn't interest me and I don't send them 99% of my data because there's just no reason (for me). I voted "I don't use Strava." That's not the exact truth but for the purposes of this poll, and since the last time I was on their site was July, it makes the most sense.

firebird854

I need live segments in my life...

2cam16

Free for me because that's all I need. I'm not hardcore like other here.

LesterOfPuppets

I paid for almost a year, before the different pay options.

The only pay feature I cared about much was the personal heat map, not worth $7 a month, or however much it was.

Cypress

It's great for segments that have a consistent grade. It bases your pace against the average of the current KOM holder (or your own PR) and not the pace at that specific point in the segment. The problem with that, is if the segment is, let's say, a climb with a downhill on the other side, your pace will be WAY slow on the climb then you'll claw your way back on the descent. You won't know if you've beaten it until you finish.

TheDudeIsHere

I payed for 5 years then decided to go free. It's cool and I appreciated the new thing at the time. But a payed membership is rather expensive and doesn't have many benefits at all considering I just use as a logging tool. No HR monitors, no power meters like the real cyclists.

GuitarBob

I too paid for three years in part to help them get going, then decided that was enough for a while. I don't miss much of what I got in the paid version.

N00b_Cyclist

I don't pay for it...because I use Garmin Fenix and 530 to track all my activities. That said, I do link my Garmin Connect to Strava, and I do use Strava for segments (because I'm a loser) and for friendly competitive stuff (see: segments). I also like to run from time to time, and my friends and I encourage each other to do the 5k challenges and things like that in Strava. All of that is free though, so nope, don't see a time when I would pay for Strava.

atwl77

Previously I did not consider a subscription -- I figured to make the most out of a subscription I should get a power meter first.

Last month I got a power meter, and was considering a subscription, even though Garmin Connect gives me more data than I'd ever need (all the power phases and left/right stuff).

After that, they made that earlier announcement to drop sensor support and I decided continue not subscribing. As discussed in the comments section of the article linked by the OP, it's more of a goodwill thing for me -- or rather loss of goodwill.

MattTheHat 

I like Live Segments. My wife likes Beacon better than the other trackers I’ve tried for some reason. I also like the analysis tools. So I don’t mind paying.