We like to ride and push ourselves. We like technology and information–Strava integrates these into an app that riders love…or hate.
Speed, distance, time, elevation and GPS stats are tracked, knowing this info about your rides is pretty rad, but what makes Strava so powerful is that it compares and ranks your riding stats with all the other riders who have ridden the same trail or segment of trail. User's fitness and skill levels are ramping-up quickly as a result, but like anything powerful, addiction and abuse is common.
I began using the app in preparation for the BC Bike Race. Having never used a cycle computer or GPS, I had no idea what the distance or elevation of my rides were, using Strava was revealing, it was clear I had to significantly increase my training if I wanted to survive and enjoy the event. Knowing I had Strava running on my phone was incredibly motivating. The fact that I was being ranked and that my Strava friends would see my ride stats helped me push my edges further than I would have on my own. I discovered I was still a very competitive dude, and I also found myself in the best shape of my life, well prepared for the demands of the BC Bike Race. Additionally I was left with an awesome diary of all my training rides and a great resource of trail ride ideas by looking at the maps of my friends' rides.
Strava can turn any solo ride in to a race
While I love what Strava has given to our sport and our riders, I worry about what it is taking away. If you get lost in a world full of climbing elevation and downhill segments stats, you’ll have created what Ken Wilber calls, a ‘
flatland’ world for yourself. This is ‘
scientific materialism’, and it’s an easy world to get sucked in to based on what our society values, measurable results.
| ...Gone was mind and soul and spirit, and in their place, as far as the eye could see, the unending dreariness of a world of its: "a dull affair, soundless, scentless, colourless; merely the hurrying of material, endlessly, meaninglessly. - Ken Wilber - Integral Psychology p.64 |
My training and Strava habits narrowed my experience on the trail, and that smacked up against my values. I enjoy stopping on a ride to take in the view or do some yoga, and I found myself trading the richness of what riding can offer for Strava results. The most incredible feelings that are available on a bike ride cannot be measured; when I’m in training mode, chasing results, and racing toward personal bests I have far fewer of those memorable peak experiences. The thing that inspires me most about riding is those experiences, not the maintenance of KOM’s (King of the Mountain).
When you leave out or forget to bring attention to your inner experience, emotion, connecting with friends and communing with nature, you may also begin to make some unethical and morally suspect choices, especially under the influence of Strava. If nailing that KOM or QOM (Queen of the Mountain) is a large contributor to your sense of value as a person, then you may justify cutting a corner on the artfully built trail or even take a shortcut to get that record time. When you’re ripping faster than ever to achieve self-worth, errr, KOM, and someone is in the way, you’re now justified to yell at that person “OUT OF THE WAY!”. Again, society cares about whether we measure up, Strava gives us a very clear record of whether you do.
So what lengths are you willing to go to in your solo strava moments? What would your friends say if they saw how you secretly use Strava and mull over the details, searching for KOM’s to nab? Is puking at the top of a climb worth it? (almost guilty). Is breaking your body on a DH segment worth it? What are you worth? What are you capable of beyond this ‘flatland’ world?
I acknowledge that I’m a competitive person, and with thanks to Strava for reminding me, I’ve worked to integrate that in to the values that I hold higher than my flatland measurable results. I will still push my edges because there is so much growth that comes from doing so, but I’m aware of when I do and it is a choice, not a self worth necessity. How you use Strava is what matters.
Ryan Leech is sponsored by Norco Bicycles, Ryders Eyewear, Kenda, Shimano and RockShox. He performs trials shows at select special events and schools. Intimate with the benefits of yoga for a thriving pro career, he got certified to teach and just released a new Yoga for Cyclists Video and offers yoga and mountain bike workshops around the country. As a Professional Integral Coach™, he works privately with people, such as pro athletes, during transition to help them discover what’s next more quickly and with less suffering. The ProVisions Article Series:ProVisions #1: Are you Crazy?ProVisions #2: On a Crash Course?ProVisions #3: Free Your FreeridingProVisions #4: I Am the Trail
#1 Rule of strava segments: If you come across walkers/riders etc, give up on beating that segment and be courteous like you ought to be.
I use Endomondo to track my total mileage and all my rides, not to go up against anyone else. It even has an auto pause feature that stops the clock while I'm resting/waiting/yielding so I never have to take it out of my pack til the end. I still get all the joy out of tracking my mileage and times, but I'm only competing against myself and not tempted to be a Strava*shole.
Here in the states there is currently a lawsuit involving a (road)bicyclist that ran over and killed a pedestrian while trying to beat a KOM.
Another kid crashed and died while trying to beat a road KOM.
While Strava is not to be blamed for this , it does make it easier and more tempting for people to ride in a more dangerous manner than they would have normally.
And the mistakes of a few in the sport of mountain biking carry penalties that we must all bear.
They should really just get rid of the whole KOM. People can't be trusted to use it responsibly.
But seriously, you don't really think a baseball bat to be the same level of dangerous as a car or a gun do you?
While everything is dangerous at some level, clearly some items will be more dangerous than others: KOM. Is a great example ,talking a pretty benign thing like recording mileage and average speed and Turning it into a race on the multi use trail that nobody was warned about ahead of time.
I'm thinking of changing settings to "mark private" by default.. so it's more of a "Ride Diary".. so I know what I've been up to.
Not like I'd turn back from the trailhead because I forgot my GPS.
Case in point - last week I did a casual ride at Tokul Creek with two friends. Here's what the almighty Strava says:
I rode 7.8 miles, climbed 1,662 feet. I have an iPhone 4S
Chris rode 7.5 miles, climbed 1,747 feet. He has an iPhone 5
Ryan rode 7.4 miles, climbed 1,631 feet. He has an iPhone 4S I think.
And yet we were all side by side on the same ride for the same time period. Strava's a novelty, little more. If it makes you ride like a d-bag then that's on you.
1st time I've ridden w/electronics in over 30yrs of riding & enjoy it...I can finally find how much I ride in a year.
It's made zero changes in how I ride.
I enjoy my tours more than ever now. I stop when I want to, enjoy the view, or drink a coffee :-)
The competion is great among your mates and your peers if they all stay within the rules and don't cut corners. I guess the sad cases that feel the need to take a DH bike on a XC track just to take that (line) that you can't on a Trail bike is a little sad really..
We all know who the cheats are and the even sadder thing is it's damaging the trails due to cutting corners straight lining and making ruts for water to follow .....yet again the XC riders/racers, none digging trail users are wrecking the trails .
Oh yeah does anybody know of any XC racers who dig? I don't
Im really considering going to the woods, putting lots of effort to put stones and branches on those stupid lines. Add camouflage maybe burms. I'll put a sign: long live mountain biking, original, better, perhaps harder trail to the left, I shit on your Strava - Learn to ride and respect.
Isn't repairing 'trail damage' part of your normal trail work routine?
One last question for those that use Strava, how do you determine when to give 'Kudos'? What is it based on?
Cheers!
i love using it and it does make me ride faster and put alot more effort in, however iv even compared the logged rides on the 2 devices and sometimes its all over the place (sometimes it even seems to think im riding round in circles when iv been going in straight lines.) if it was alot more accurate id love it. i like it on road rides as i dont really know who the other riders are but on mountain bike rides where i know alot more of the riders and their skills. alot of the times they seem a little farfetched, wether this is due to cutting corners or lack of gps signal it becomes very annoying when you give it your all and someone you know whod you normally beat has put a minute or so onto you on a very short track. definatly thinking of deleting it unless it can somehow become more accurate.
BTW: I'm using this to have gps tracks and it's lovely without forcing me to speed up endurorider.pl/2013/06/cateye-stealth-10
Strava can be a bit of a double edged sword for sure. I love seeing how far my longest ride was, and knowing exactly how much I've ridden/climbed. I love it as a training/motivation tool, "lets ride 500 miles this summer" means a lot more, and gets me a lot more motivated than "lets try and ride a bunch". Riding the local loops can get old, but Strava and my personal goals make them fun, trying to add a half mile every time I ride, or another 500ft of climbing, and knowing exactly what to set the goal at, and if I actually met it helps me more than you'd imagine.
The downside is that some of my riding buddies take it way too seriously. I refuse to even ride with some anymore, all they care about is KOMs and being the fastest in the group. If they're slow on a hill, they have a shitty attitude for the rest of the ride, if they're faster, they won't shut up about how they beat you by 36 seconds and you ought to hit the gym to get on their level.
I don't let hardly anybody "follow" me, and I only follow 2-3 friends a a couple locals who flat out shred. To me it's motivating to see what a couple of the guys I see on the trail are doing. Next ride it gets me pumped to try and hang with them a little longer, that in turn makes me a little faster, and eventually leads to either riding harder trails, or longer trails.
Also my inner nerd uses it to make spread sheets to see how long components last.
A little awkwardly worded, it is late and I had a killer trials ride this evening down in Seattle, and after the first week of school, so I'll leave it as it is and assume you can make sense of it...
It's also incredibly inaccurate allowing somone to rip down a fireroad adjacent to a forest trail and get the KOM on it for example
I'd prefer a world without Strava please
For me it's made getting race fit and ready for events so much better. I wonder how many of the haters here haven't even tried it?
But surely people shouldn't knock something until they've tried it? Then they can decide whether its for them or not.
That said, next Saturday I plan to enter my second ever trials competition in BC. As an old-fart novice I anticipate I'll be in a class by myself which is fine by me. I've seen prepubescent kids clean stuff I'll struggle on. No worries. I'll have a great time, and then watch the real trials riders in the afternoon. That will be amazing. It is magic, and I'll be in awe, and I am quite comfortable knowing that I will never be able to do what they do, but will continue to enjoy that part of the sport of mountain biking in my own way.
I don't think I knocked Stava, I simply stated that I have no desire to electronically monitor my rides. What anyone else does is up to them, and I wish everyone who rides as much enjoyment on each ride as I derive from mine... heck, even more, if they can figure out how to do that!
Cheat lines appearing all over trails, people riding motos on the climb segments, 'forgetting to turn off your Strava for the drive home (good way of pissing off roadie Strava users I admit) and apparently a website where you can 'alter' your times!!
Strava wan***s!!
1. Those who want to ride and enjoy the beauty of nature.
2. Those who also like to ride and enjoy nature but only if they are pushing themselves to their limits.
I'm not enjoying a ride if I'm not giving 100% of my effort to have the run each time. Having to wait and give a tour on a ride feels like a waste of time when in my heart I want to be grinding out the entire trail without breaks.
Yes occasionally we have to give a tour and I also love getting people into cycling but no one here can say its fun to continue riding with other riders of lesser skill and continually having to wait for them. I find myself that I was part of that category at one point but since strava came along it pushes me to train and get results, in turn makes me better which is the ultimate goal. BE THE BEST RIDER YOU CAN!
Around here in UTARD land we often have xc riders that do not even respond to a friendly greeting on trail. One of my friends says that the increased accessibility of mountain biking has resulted in gym rats riding bikes for the sole purpose of getting workouts instead of a bunch of dudes and dudettes riding bikes for the flow of it. Strava feeds that mentality for some. The other day a friend of mine was riding downhill and some xc dudes were climbing yelling at people to get out of there way because they were trying to get a KOM. Frickin' spandex mafia go back on the road.
disclaimer: I use strava sometimes for fun to see where my times stand in relation to others so that I can can have some vague idea of how fast I'm riding and how far I have ridden. But, this BS of not having fun riding with slower riders is just sad.
Yes not everyone follows the rules and treats people poorly. You yourself sound like you suffer from this, just because guys are wearing Lycra does not mean they are some sub standard rider who only belongs on the road, those guys bust their ass more then anyone. Plus they are there to enjoy the trail just like you are bud.
Ever think they are yelling for you to get out of the way bc climbers always have the right away? Sounds like you're the dick. I know it's frustrating to be ripping a trail and come across someone climbing but it's part of the sport and if you think people should just enjoy it then realize that a lot of riders enjoy suffering up climbs and becoming a better athlete.
Strava is an awesome tool to get better and see what your
Body is capable of, it also is the responsibility of everyone that uses it to understand the risk of pushing your limits.
And I do enjoy riding with new riders, I invite new riders all the time let them use my equipment and never charge them anything. I even buy them a beer at the end. The more people the more fun it becomes, but understand that not every ride do I want to tour guide someone, especially when I get the most enjoyment from pushing myself to be a better rider.
As for strava, there is nothing inherently wrong with it just a few bad apples that are consumed by it.
Oh well... be well and ride hard.
What, by sitting in your bag the whole time and having to press 'start' at the beginning and 'finish' at the end?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH6YqAMKxD4
Having said above I think you can still get the "race flow" with Strava and be super satisfied with your ride as long as you control it.
Please more of that Ryan!
I do not Strava secret trails or poach.