Strava (paid) support sucks !
 

TL;DR
When my Wahoo Elemnt Bolt uploads random Indoor rides to Strava, the ride only appears to be ~4 seconds long.
Two Levels of Strava Support gave me the run around with NO fix.
Three other platforms have no issues correctly displaying the same ride.



LONG VERSION
I "thought" paying for Strava was a good idea. After all, it's a good platform and I'd like it to stay in business.
But if their support offering is this bad, why bother to pay!

I've been having recent random issues with Indoor rides.
When my Wahoo Elemnt Bolt uploads random Indoor rides to Strava, the ride only appears to be ~4 seconds long.
Manually uploading the same .FIT file to...Garmin Connect, Intervals.icu or TrainingTilt all result in the Indoor ride loading correctly !!!
I've been using the same setup since 2019 without issues.

When posing this information to Strava support, I was told in several email exchanges...
1. GPS is still connecting indoors, Mark the ride as Indoors on the Strava Website - my reply.... It's already marked as Indoors on the Strava website, support didn't even look!
2. GPS is still connecting indoors, Set the Wahoo Bolt Location to Indoors manually. - My reply.... You can't... as soon as the Bolt sees the Wahoo Kickr Bike it sets Location to "KICKR"
3. You should go and remove the GPS location data using FitFileTools. - My reply.... NO, for EVERY Indoor ride I should not have to manually...
a) Delete the Strava ride
b) Recover the .FIT file from the Bolt
c) edit the .FIT file using FitFileTools
d) reupload the .FIT file to Strava
I also asked for the case to be escalated.
4. I am your escalation, you should set the Wahoo Bolt to Indoor. - My reply.... You can't... as soon as the Bolt sees the Wahoo Kickr Bike it sets Location to "KICKR". Support didn't read the case notes!
5. OK then Set Location to Indoor, then Set Location to KICKR - My reply.... You can't... as soon as the Bolt sees the Wahoo Kickr Bike it sets Location to "KICKR". Support is not even reading my replies at this point.


I surrender. Too many non-implementable or impractical hoops to jump through.
Typical support case, wear down the customer until the customer stops contacting support.

Barry

If you manually upload the FIT file (without any modification) from your Wahoo to Strava, rather than the auto-sync, does it still give you the weird 4 second data?

Does it occur with every Wahoo indoor ride you do, or just some of them?

Certainly seems weird. I'd contact Wahoo support and let them know what is occurring, and your responses from Strava so far. Wahoo support is usually top notch and they might have had reports of this before and be able to point you in the right direction.

Deleting the ride from Strava and manually importing the Bolt .FIT file = 4second ride.
Not every Indoor ride, just a few recent ones.

Barry

Very weird. Definitely hit up Wahoo support. If it's something affecting other users also, they'll likely at least know about it, or have some answers / testing you could try.

I did some testing !

Garmin Connect…… works
Intervals.icu….. works
TrainingTilt……. Works

Strava…… no works, and support sucks!

i've used this site a few times when trying to get a second opinion on fit file content:

https://www.fitfileviewer.com/

as a developer i find it pretty useful.

That's frustrating. My indoor rides are working fine on my free strava account, but I use a computer. They have disemboweled free strava, so it might still be worth paying.

I got similar b.s. from RWGPS support. I even made them a route that would demonstrate the problem I was having and they just told me my problem wasn't worth bothering the devs with. They are too busy trying to become strava. Which might work out for them the way strava is going.

Have you tried a workaround of uploading to Garmin, but then sync Strava with Garmin Connect so that your ride goes there thru Garmin?

Sy Reene Yep…. Wahoo Bolt FIT file…. Imported into Garmin (works) ……. Sent to Strava (4sec ride) fails.

Strava wanted me to manually run the FIT file through fitfiletools.com to fix every file that has the issue.
Lol, not-gonna-‘appen !

Barry

oh well.. any luck with Wahoo support? If there is something that really needs 'fixed', is this a Wahoo responsibility?

I troubleshoot for a living. I firmly believe, the quality of the support you receive is directly related to the quality of the support you can provide to them.

I did all the leg work before I even contacted Strava Support.
After testing 5 service providers (Wahoo, Garmin, Intervals, TrainingTilt & Strava) I narrowed down the issue to a single service provider.... Strava.

So no, I don't see this as a Wahoo Support issue.
Now don't get me wrong, this issue may have been caused by a Wahoo firmware change. But given that 4/5 providers have handled such a change correctly, it becomes an issue for the 1/5..... Strava.

Barry

Wahoo needs strava, Strava might not feel like they need wahoo, particularly for indoor rides.
Plus strava is too busy trying to become facebook.
I would at least contact wahoo support to see what they say. I feel like they might be more interested.

That might be true.
But

- - - - - -
Dear Wahoo,
Your FIT files work with everything on the planet I can find, except Strava.
Fix that would you?
- - - - - - -

That's not a discussion I can’t in good faith have. It goes against everything I've been taught/experienced and I'd feel like an idiot.

I'd rather lower my expectations of Strava Support by simply returning to the free version.
After all, I only really use Social Media aspect of Strava, all my real analysis is performed on other services.
Example: Intervals.icu which I also choose to pay for, despite there being a free offering.

Barry