Quantcast

STRAVA is great

saruti

Turbo Monkey
Oct 29, 2006
1,169
73
Israel
well I know this words will make some of you move un comfort, but,
I love STRAVA. I use it to get better in riding and to stretch my limits.
3 weeks a go, my boss called me and said that I need to fly to Barcelona to work for 4 days.
he was thinking about work..... I was thinking, where can I ride there? :)
I got into many forums of riding AM \Enduro, and asked for help.
but no one even answered.... maybe the Barcelona riders don't go into forums?
I then go into STRAVA and explore Barcelona mountains and segments. found some riders comment on some of there friends.
I went into this conversation and asked for help. 5 minutes after, a guy called Mark answered and told me he will help.
I then talked to another guy called Frank. and he even arranged a bike for me.

2 weeks later, I'm in Barcelona.
09:00 - Mark & Frank picked me from my hotel. and took me to one of the best rides. all over the mountains near Barcelona.
we rode nearly 40km and 1800m elevation.

http://app.strava.com/activities/225800757

it was great. and now I have 2 new friends from Barcelona!
I wish I will have the opportunity to help them if they ever want to come and ride here in Israel.

so, who said STRAVA is bad? :)
 

EVIL JN

Monkey
Jul 24, 2009
491
24
Its not inherently bad I think most just get upset when super fun trails that are illegal is shut down becuase they become increasingly popular since more people find them through strava.

As long as strava is turned off for those types of trails it is a great training tool.
 

TrumbullHucker

trumbullruxer
Aug 29, 2005
2,284
719
shimzbury, ct
Its not inherently bad I think most just get upset when super fun trails that are illegal is shut down becuase they become increasingly popular since more people find them through strava.

As long as strava is turned off for those types of trails it is a great training tool.
this
 

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
The way I found out about strava was from a state park employee explaining how it was a great tool to find out where people were riding/building.

And as always, it wasn't the people doing the work using it.

I'm glad you found some friends but there needs to be a blowhole/ignition switch like on cars for people with DUIs.

The strava one needs to read IQ and 'sense of self-entitlement' before it will activate.
 

wydopen

Turbo Monkey
Jan 16, 2005
1,229
60
805
The way I found out about strava was from a state park employee explaining how it was a great tool to find out where people were riding/building.

And as always, it wasn't the people doing the work using it.

I'm glad you found some friends but there needs to be a blowhole/ignition switch like on cars for people with DUIs.

The strava one needs to read IQ and 'sense of self-entitlement' before it will activate.
I'm sure Trailforks will be replacing Strava for anybody looking to find and stop illegal trails being that there are pictures and whatnot..I agree you have to be pretty dumb to make a segment on a trail that is not supposed to be there..

Nobody has entered any info for my area in Trailforks yet..hope it stays that way
 

slyfink

Turbo Monkey
Sep 16, 2008
9,335
5,093
Ottawa, Canada
I agree you have to be pretty dumb to make a segment on a trail that is not supposed to be there..
I wish. I have quite a few (otherwise quite intelligent) friends who justify their use of Strava on our illegal trails with "but I don't use my real name so they won't know it's me". The other argument is that the land manager already knows that people are using the trails illegally so it doesn't matter. One of my user buddies even works for the friggen land manager... He informs us that they have a giant map with all the illegal trails identified on it.... so maybe they're right, it doesn't matter if we show them where we ride, they already know.

Still I fucking hate getting the umpteen emails after each ride comparing distance, heart rate, max this min that, blah blah blah.... it was a fun ride or it wasn't. fuck off with your fuckin electronics. and fat bikes too. fuck that.
 

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
so maybe they're right, it doesn't matter if we show them where we ride, they already know. .
No, they're not 'right'. What the maps do is increase traffic, which causes a greater stress on the infrastructure be it the trails themselves, parking areas or whatever. And people riding areas with no personal investment seem to have a bad habit of being the ones who just have to film themselves being the cool guy which makes things even worse. Or my favorite, call in search and rescue teams when they get a splinter. All of these leading to a point where a land manager or owner HAS to do something.

This not a 'theoretical' discussion. Not by a long shot.

Still I fucking hate getting the umpteen emails after each ride comparing distance, heart rate, max this min that, blah blah blah....
So quit using it. :D


Like anything, it's not inherently bad. But people can't be trusted with it, so it causes a lot of problems (real ones, again.....I'm talking things that have actually been closed because of it)
 
Last edited:

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
I'm sure Trailforks will be replacing Strava for anybody looking to find and stop illegal trails being that there are pictures and whatnot..I agree you have to be pretty dumb to make a segment on a trail that is not supposed to be there..

Nobody has entered any info for my area in Trailforks yet..hope it stays that way
To trailforks credit, they've removed some things that some morons put up when asked.

It was encouraging.
 
Last edited:

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
85,979
24,533
media blackout
No, they're not 'right'. What the maps do is increase traffic, which causes a greater stress on the infrastructure be it the trails themselves, parking areas or whatever.
I can attest to this being 100% true. you can only fly under the radar for so long. as long as the # of riders remains small and discreet, a lot of land managers will turn a blind eye to it.
 

wydopen

Turbo Monkey
Jan 16, 2005
1,229
60
805
To trailforks credit, they've removed some things that some morons put up when asked.

It was encouraging.
FYI you can flag strava segments as well...usually the only people that do it are goons who flag them as "dangerous" but I'd imagine they just dont like the fact that they are severely off the pace on their favorite descent...around here you are allowed to ride on all the trails aside from one so it's a non issue..it's pretty damn fun racing your buddies every ride..for me I like it because it sometimes forces me to push when I would otherwise take it easy which ends up making you better in the end...for example I just did an hour loop at lunch..I started out at a good pace but was starting to get tired halfway through the climb...I knew I had a good run going so I stayed in the paincave for the rest of the climb and did the descent flat out without stopping at the top to rest..normally I would have prob just slowed down and cruised until my heart wasn't beating out of my chest...I ended getting my fastest run for the full loop and kom'd the descent which I've been trying to do for the last year...when I first started riding again a year and a half ago I was almost 2min off the pace on a 5min descent being that the top 5 are all dudes who race pro..There's no way I would have gotten that much faster in that amount of time if I wasn't able to chase something..I'm planning to start racing again next year (enduro bro!) so for me it's helped allot in getting my speed back to where it was when I was racing DH 10years ago
 
Last edited:

Bikael Molton

goofy for life
Jun 9, 2003
4,028
1,162
El Lay
I agree you have to be pretty dumb to make a segment on a trail that is not supposed to be there..
"pretty dumb" is an accurate description for most teenagers on mountain bikes, particularly the fancy DH ones that rich moms buy 'em. And I'm going to be nice and say their dumbness means they usually don't even know who built the trail they're on, let alone what the legal or bro-downlow status of the zone is.

Go Proing and Pinkbiking every single run is de rigueur.

Trails are gonna be fucked if/when Go Pros geo-locate every video.

 

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
"pretty dumb" is an accurate description for most teenagers on mountain bikes, particularly the fancy DH ones that rich moms buy 'em. And I'm going to be nice and say their dumbness means they usually don't even know who built the trail they're on, let alone what the legal or bro-downlow status of the zone is.
Oh man......'teenagers'

Can't blame this one on the kids. Not by a long shot in roof ornament central norcal.
 
Last edited:

wydopen

Turbo Monkey
Jan 16, 2005
1,229
60
805
Yes but you cannot win KOMs any more so the big bad Strava racers do not do that.
I always laugh when I read comments similar to that..around here a typical downhill segment on a good trail will have upwards of 500 people attempting it...495 of them aren't even remotely close to getting the kom so for 99% of strava users they will never even dream of getting in the top 10 let alone a kom so I don't think thats most peoples motivation for using it...maybe it's different other places where less people use it but Josh Carlson the factory giant ews racer dude isn't even in the top 5 on my favorite trail so the local pinkbike poster that rides twice a month isn't going to be in the ballpark
 
Last edited:

StiHacka

Compensating for something
Jan 4, 2013
21,560
12,505
In hell. Welcome!
I always laugh when I read comments similar to that..around here a typical downhill segment on a good trail will have upwards of 500 people attempting it...495 of them aren't even remotely close to getting the kom so for 99% of strava users they will never even dream of getting in the top 10 let alone a kom so I don't think thats most peoples motivation for using it...maybe it's different other places where less people use it but Josh Carelson the factory giant ews racer dude isn't even in the top 5 on my favorite trail so the local pinkbike poster that rides twice a month isn't going to be in the ballpark
Never underestimate the power of denial.
 

Bikael Molton

goofy for life
Jun 9, 2003
4,028
1,162
El Lay
Oh man......'teenagers'

Can't blame this one on the kids. Not by a long shot in roof ornament central norcal.
No i get it Strava is more of the mid30s+ aggro dentist racer bro segment vs the go-proin-pinkbiking teenagers segment.

But it's the same lack of respect shit, using similar technology.

Flippin Steve Peat just blew up Pacifica on Instagram the other week, luckily w/o geotag.

I swear when GoPros geo-tag automatically (and if/when YouTube passes that data through), the trailz will be even more doomed-er.
 

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
No i get it Strava is more of the mid30s+ aggro dentist racer bro segment vs the go-proin-pinkbiking teenagers segment.

But it's the same lack of respect
And that right there says it all.


wyd: With me, it's not even an issue of winning dumb little internet races with KOMs. If a segment gets made, it's visible. That's the biggest problem. Not who's fast or not.......none of that shit even matters. Something that shouldn't be mapped, now is. And yeah part of it is people not keeping their shit hidden/private but it's the dickbags creating the segments that are (slightly) worse. Even non-segment trails show up in the fuckin heat map though.
 
Last edited:

wydopen

Turbo Monkey
Jan 16, 2005
1,229
60
805
And that right there says it all.


wyd: With me, it's not even an issue of winning dumb little internet races with KOMs. If a segment gets made, it's visible. That's the biggest problem. Not who's fast or not.......none of that shit even matters. Something that shouldn't be mapped, now is. And yeah part of it is people not keeping their shit hidden/private but it's the dickbags creating the segments that are (slightly) worse. Even non-segment trails show up in the fuckin heat map though.
I hear ya..that is the result of stupid people using it irresponsibly although I do realize strava gives those stupid people an avenue to be stupid..My comment before was aimed more at the other argument against it that I hear which is people ride recklessly to try to get another precious kom..I would ride fast either way and yea maybe sometimes Ill run it in a little harder on a group of senior citizen birdwatchers than I would have without it but I get my enjoyment from going as fast as possible with or without it..
 

gemini2k

Turbo Monkey
Jul 31, 2005
3,526
117
San Francisco
but Josh Carlson the factory giant ews racer dude isn't even in the top 5 on my favorite trail so the local pinkbike poster that rides twice a month isn't going to be in the ballpark
What is your favorite trail? This is a test.

BTW trying to pin it (essentially racing) on multi-use trails is dumber than Strava-ing illegal trails. Always makes me shake my head seeing some of the top times on Strava for SB trails. Straight up reckless and irresponsible. There's no justification for trying to get sub 15 minutes on tunnel runs or whatever.
 

supercow

Monkey
Feb 18, 2009
969
128
As soon as these fucktards figure out how to use a computer / what strava is etc... then they can plan their attacks to be nice and secluded

 

wydopen

Turbo Monkey
Jan 16, 2005
1,229
60
805
What is your favorite trail? This is a test.

BTW trying to pin it (essentially racing) on multi-use trails is dumber than Strava-ing illegal trails. Always makes me shake my head seeing some of the top times on Strava for SB trails. Straight up reckless and irresponsible. There's no justification for trying to get sub 15 minutes on tunnel runs or whatever.
Was waiting for you to chime in with your infinite wisdom...

My favorite trail is Jes..I can get a good workout and rip some turns in under an hour..plus it's the most varied terrain in town I'd say..

You seriously think that the people putting in the fast times on the trails in SB are only doing it for Strava?? People that go fast are going to go fast..thats what they do

Back in the day there were 5 or 6 guys doing sub 12min runs on tunnel a few times a week...it has nothing to do with Strava...If you can go fast you can also slow down fast..just like every person I know does when they run into a group of hikers...I'd say 80% of my rides I'm the only person on the trail..I time all my rides so Im either early enough or late enough to limit the amount of hikers..and when I see someone I slow down unless they are already off to the side..then I say thanks as I rip by...I started riding MTB on the trails here in 2001..I would say that the amount of hikers that have been mad at me for "riding too fast" over that period has been less than 4...
 
Last edited:

FlipSide

Turbo Monkey
Sep 24, 2001
1,387
826
Just like guns don't kill peoples, or there are no bad dogs, only bad dog owners... Strava is not bad! Only some users are... ;)

Seriously...I find it great. I nearly almost always ride alone, so it's a good way to get motivated to ride faster and I just like to compare my time with myself. I don't care if there are hundreds of skinny roadies faster than me for a road climb...if I just improved my time on that climb, I am happy!

More importantly: Before Strava, that annoying friend that was always bragging about "How he totally pinned this section faster than ever before"(when nobody else was there)...well now Strava helps shutting him up. I think that's great for the sport. :)
 

gemini2k

Turbo Monkey
Jul 31, 2005
3,526
117
San Francisco
Was waiting for you to chime in with your infinite wisdom...
I love you too sugar tits.

My favorite trail is Jes..I can get a good workout and rip some turns in under an hour..plus it's the most varied terrain in town I'd say..
You choose wisely. That's probably my most ridden trail there.


You seriously think that the people putting in the fast times on the trails in SB are only doing it for Strava?? People that go fast are going to go fast..thats what they do
Never said that. I'm not blaming Strava at all. I'm just saying I've ridden with a LOT of people in SB. And I've seen a few incidents that really are the riders fault. It's not about being safe 80% of the time. It's about being safe 100% of the time. I've got no problem with people taking chances with their own skin (lord knows I do it all the time on purpose and on accident!), but seeing people pin it down tunnel at race pace in the middle of a Saturday afternoon has always made me feel...a little wary. (not saying that's what you do, just a general observation of what I seen lots and lots of).


Or maybe all of this is just a rationalization for my shitty Strava times?
 

wydopen

Turbo Monkey
Jan 16, 2005
1,229
60
805
t seeing people pin it down tunnel at race pace in the middle of a Saturday afternoon has always made me feel...a little wary.
I don't think there is really anybody doing that anymore..everyone I know who is fast rides early in the mornings..otherwise it's not even fun because you have to stop every 2min for a hiker..not to mention I have only seen about 5 DH bikes in the last few years so that keeps the speeds down quite a bit on tunnel considering its about twice as rough as it was back in the day..

10years ago?...yea
Peaty, shaums and kirkaldie slaying it starts at 6:15
 
Last edited:

wood booger

Monkey
Jul 16, 2008
668
72
the land of cheap beer
You folks are missing the best part of Strava, *ucking with people.

Just do your normal Kidwoo put put ride, but then run the segment through this before you post it.
Now Kidwoo is suddenly a savage and is shooting KOM out in all directions!

The best part is making up multiple Strava accounts and seeing how butt hurt folks get when you snatch the KOMs.
Quite entertaining...

But yeah, don't post the good stuff you morons.
If you want to race against yourself on some illegal action, just keep it private.
 

saruti

Turbo Monkey
Oct 29, 2006
1,169
73
Israel
sorry to hear that the "bad people" are using STRAVA to destroy your trails.
here we build a lot of trails, some of them get destroyed by the government workers in the forest's.
but in the long run, building pirate trails, got biking to recognition of the government.
and now they build a lot of good trails for us in every forest.
(sure we are still building more "better" trails:) )