prathmann

Yes, I expect they'll be keeping an eye on purchasing trends and modify the program rather quickly if most people just cash in the $80 in credit they can get every two months to get $80 worth of free stuff with no significant additional items.

Diablito

I'm done for free MONEY

redtires

I'm quite sure that I can figure out how to spend $40 a month at CC. Done deal! Thanks Elvo for the link!!!

Dunbar

FYI, CC has free shipping on orders over $50. So you'll want to wait until you have at least $50 in credits.

rjones28 

So far, it looks like you are the only one.

rjones28 

Sounds like a simple marketing partnership. Strava attracts new users from Competitive Cyclist's customer base and Competitive Cyclist attracts new customers from Strava's user base.

tekhna

Sure, but a couple things make it a bit of a headscratcher beyond simply what seems to be a rather high cost for a marketing partnership.

The first is Competitive Cyclist is a fairly high-end shop and I'd hazard a guess that many Competitive Cyclist customers already use Strava, so probably not much to be gained there. You're right that Competitive Cyclist could potentially pick up costumers but my guess is not many customers are going to make that big 2500 dollar purchase at CC since they've got 40 bucks in credit. They're just going to buy tubes and bar tape. Unless CC is figuring people will buy 100-200 dollar items and they'll eke out a profit that way.

Who knows. If I had to guess, this promotion doesn't last 3 months and Competitive Cyclist/Strava lose a ton of money. Microsoft's still paying people to use Bing though, years later.

Dunbar

I'm betting a lot of credits will simply expire before people use them. And I'm guessing the average Strava users aren't riding 10+ hours per week all year. If you're smart you can definitely maximize your returns. But they're probably betting on many people (like me) simply getting stuff closer to cost (like a jersey for half off.)

prathmann

Or they hope that it'll be profitable for them to provide an incentive for good prospective customers (i.e. those who use Strava and cycle 40+ hours/month) to peruse the Competitive Cyclist website at least once a month and occasionally buy some expensive items.

DXchulo

This is awesome. Thanks for the link.

Oldhead

I'd like to see someone trying to ride with 10,000 phones in their backpack

velociraptor

That post was just silliness.

velociraptor

For the naysayers, don't assume that you somehow know more than the very smart people running those two extremely successful companies.

This is co-marketing 101, which might as well be an entry-level class in business school: Associate your brand with another complimentary, valuable brand that helps you fill a business need; and reap the mutual benefits.

Rest assured that the bean-counters at CC have worked all the possible scenarios – and arrived at the $1 per moving hour / $40 per month ceiling / $80 max balance for a specific reason.

Remember that their wholesale cost on items is a fraction of the retail.

1. CC is buying an INCREDIBLE amount of multi-channel exposure on individual users' social feeds for that money.
2. Strava gets an very compelling and *EXCLUSIVE* reason to retain existing users and grow their base in an increasingly competitive landscape.

It really is a very smart play and I expect it will be extremely successful for both of them.

chaadster

That's what I'm thinking about; all this talk about an easy $40 credit per month...I'm envious of those who get to kick out the 5 x 2hr rides per week required to hit the goal. There's no mention of partial credit, so a 1.5hr ride, for example, is 1 credit.

velociraptor

No, it clearly says rounded down to the half hour. So a 1 hr 45 min ride would get 1.5 credits.

Assuming a 15mph average moving speed, you'd have to accumulate 600 miles in one month to get the full $40 in credits. That's probably < 10% of all cyclists.

kevmk81

This is indeed awesome. Papa needs new bar tape, a couple backup tires, backup tubes, new winter gloves, summer gloves, bibs. This could save a LOT of money. And putting 10 hours a week really isn't that hard. 1 hour tues morning before work, 1 hour after work, 1 hour wed morning before work, half hour after work, 1 hour thurs morning before work, 1 hour fri morning before work, 3 hours sat morning, 1.5 hours sun morning. That's not 2 hours a day for 5 days. For all of the stuff I need, I could have most of it by the end of a year, for much less than what I'd usually have to buy it with. This will definitely help my wife be more at ease. lol

myth001

This is a good deal. But giving them my rides with full stats and locations make me cringe a bit...

I just hope they allowed a choice of online stores such as Ribble, Wiggle, Merlin, Evan, Chain Reaction - CC generally don't have the best pricing online.

Willbird

They also get to see where you ride, how you ride, who you ride with, and what you ride if you put that all in Strava, and they get to see what you shop for on their website, and maybe on other websites too with browser cookies ?? They really get a lot of customer info for $40 a month, and who knows how long it will continue ?? Then if they cancel it, who knows how many people will just neglect to disconnect their data stream ??

You can get paid to ride your bike, and run, and all kinds of other things on Achievemint <--this IS the proper spelling too. You can also get rewards at Walgreens for the same exact activities if you choose to link them in.

velociraptor

This may come as a surprise, but if you're interested in protecting your private information, you should just stay off the internet.

Even when you think you're not being tracked, you're being tracked.

Thanks for the head's up on that – If it seems like a good deal, I may sign up for those too!

Willbird

NO surprise at all for me :-). I signed up for Achievemint 12/14 and I have 32,000 earned of 50,000 points needed to get a $50 VISA card, I have Fitbit, Strava, Withings, and Myfitnesspal linked in.

Drew Eckhardt 

It's also scored as moving time within a single up-loaded ride.

As a bicycle commuter you can get more credit uploading one .fit file containing your morning training ride (1:45), morning commute (0:20), evening commute (0:20) and split that when you import into Golden Cheetah for your own purposes.

cellery

If you think about the kinds of money being thrown around for TV marketing campaigns, you know this is probably no brainer for them. The exposure will draw in many potential customers and that is the one of the hardest things for any retail business. Get them in the door and they will shop whether they thought they wanted something or not.

cellery

illuminati confirmed!

velociraptor

Just tried to sign up... There's a waiting list

Willbird

Wow what the heck ??