Are We Condemned to Strava?

[Stefan Mikes]

I'm not sure how popular Endomondo by Under Armour has been in your area but that route planning and ride-recording service is to be retired by the end of the year and replaced with a terrible MapMyRun service. Since all my rides have been recorded to Endomondo, I found the SyncMyTracks smartphone app and was able to gradually export & import all my rides from Endomondo to Strava.

I'm not happy with Strava.
Pros:

• Many premium e-bikes (ones equipped with Bluetooth or ANT+ capability) can export rides to Strava. Same with sports devices such as Garmin, etc.
• Probably the largest cycling community in the world uses Strava
• The system understands what "E-Bike" is, to differentiate traditional and electrically assisted rides (I like it)
• You can maintain the list of your bikes and calculate how much each of your bikes was ridden.
• It works, and the Auto-Pause capability seems to work adequately if you use Strava as a standalone, ride-recording app.

This is a nice feature of Strava indeed.

Cons:

• The Activity List cannot be easily navigated (say, you have 15 pages of workouts, and you need to click 14 times to get to the last page)
• There's no global way to edit your workouts. For example, you have mistakenly assigned 123 rides to some bike but want to re-assign them to another one: You cannot see at a glance what bike was ridden for a given workout, so you have to go through a big list of your rides, identify the wrong ones, and make 123 edits
• The activity search is limited. If you are trying to find your E-Bike rides, it is doable. If you however, look for "Rides" (traditional), Strava shows both your traditional and assisted rides. No way to just search for traditional ones.
• No chance to select several workouts and delete them
• The Personal Heat Map doesn't work for E-Bikes (why?!)
• No possibility to Export the Activity List to, e.g., Excel for further analysis
• You cannot clean up your rides. For instance, Strava got your ride wrong. You cannot fix it! (It is a measure to prevent competing cyclists against cheating; nothing is perfect in this world, though)
• No way to merge several rides of the same day
• No route planning
• No turn-by-turn navigation

Are we condemned to Strava?

I had a look at RideWithGPS. For $80 per annum, the system looks like it has almost everything I might need (Strava Premium is $60 per year). What about connectivity with e-bikes? Does the RWGPS understand what "e-bike" is? No, it doesn't.

I like RWGPS. Here, I have found my maximum speed was 51.7 km (downhill) and the maximum ascent was 13.5%: It was the hardest long ascent I ever rode on my Vado (48-46 gearing, full Turbo mode).

I decidedly prefer RWGPS to Strava. Here, I found I could easily climb up a 17.5% incline with my Trance E+ and achieved max speed of 59.3 km/h on a descent. RWGPS produces tons of useful ride data, only it doesn't work with advanced e-bike or a smartwatch.


I'm sure many of you have had experiences with both systems (and maybe other systems as well). Speak up!

 

[fooferdoggie]

How does starve know what a e bike is? I never saw a setting for that.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

You define it under "Sport":

 

[fooferdoggie]

I cant find that dropdown where it is it?

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Before you Record your activity, the list of Sports appear. When you edit your activity, look around and the field is there.

Before recording your activity. If this menu doesn't show up, click a bike (or a shoe) icon above the Start button.

While editing an activity, the drop-down is where shown.

 

[RabH]

I have never liked Strava, been using Ridewithgps for years and it has all I need to log my rides!

 

[Mulezen]

Stefan...TY for the in-depth analysis. I do use Strava (free version) with my Trek’s COBI. I’ll probably upgrade to the premium version. I confess to only using the basics but appreciate the alert to the more refined aspects of the software. For the more casual rider like me Strava is easy to use. At the risk of embarrassing myself I’ll have to link with your rides

 

[FlatSix911]

I am satisfied with Strava and use it for all of my rides.

Unfortunately, the free version now has fewer features available after the mid-year upgrade.

 

[rich c]

As much as I like data about cycling, I find it repulses my wife and others just as much as I like it. So I don't record anything other than yearly mileage now. Most even get tired of listening to me telling them that number. Just for limited personal satisfaction I guess.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I have never liked Strava, been using Ridewithgps for years and it has all I need to log my rides!

I admit Rab RWGPS is better. Yet, when I ride my Vado with BLEvo app, BLEvo will upload a lot of valuable data to Strava, including much information about rider's power and cadence, and information about motor, battery consumption. It is not doable by Strava or RWGPS in standalone mode; and BLEvo won't upload to the latter. With Giant... I need to test RideControl 2 with Strava. @RandallS says it doesn't work with Strava (although it should). So many decisions to make...

I find it repulses my wife and others just as much as I like it.

In my environment, the stats are a good thing. My close friend Jerzy does miracles on his traditional bike even if he's 73 and I only 59 (but ill). We look at each other's performance and -- without admitting it -- compete. Here's our 2020 comparison so far:

I cannot say I won. Jerzy has no motor. But he has made the distance of the Equator since 2015!

 

[FlatSix911]

The Heatmap is a great feature for finding new rides... fortunately we live in an amazing area for cycling with a huge network of roads and trails.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

The Heatmap is a great feature for finding new rides...

But Strava doesn't make the Personal Heatmap for "E-Bike"
RWGPS offers numerous map layers with trails (among others) and since it doesn't differentiate bikes from e-bikes, it will make your own heatmap. If you subscribe

 

[Mr. Coffee]

I like ridewithgps .

 

[Prairie Dog]

I sync my Edge 520 Plus using Garmin Connect and ridewithgps. Mybikeradartraffic app also tracks all vehicles (incl approach/absolute speeds) that pass by me during my rides and uploads the data to my phone from my Garmin Varia RVR315.

 

[Sierratim]

I'm using the Komoot app primarily for its turn by turn directions since my more remote rides are new to me (on a bike) and are generally poorly marked. Route planning is fairly easy, though the app does try to shorten routes with alternate trails or streets. You have to manually edit these auto changes. Routes can be planned on your phone or desktop.

Once your route is laid out it can be saved for off-line use, a requirement for me since many of my rides lose cell service early on.

I leave my phone screen on for the entire ride using a 'power bank' to assure adequate battery power for rides than have lasted as long as 6 hours.

The basic app is free and comes with a free area map of your choice. It does link to the Specialized Mission Control app, though I haven't used this feature. Uploading a GPS route has worked well greatly simplifying the planning for our upcoming unsupported bike tour that we've rescheduled for next year (thanks to the pest).

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I'm using the Komoot app primarily for its turn by turn directions since my more remote rides are new to me (on a bike) and are generally poorly marked. Route planning is fairly easy, though the app does try to shorten routes with alternate trails or streets. You have to manually edit these auto changes. Routes can be planned on your phone or desktop.

Once your route is laid out it can be saved for off-line use, a requirement for me since many of my rides lose cell service early on.

I leave my phone screen on for the entire ride using a 'power bank' to assure adequate battery power for rides than have lasted as long as 6 hours.

The basic app is free and comes with a free area map of your choice. It does link to the Specialized Mission Control app, though I haven't used this feature. Uploading a GPS route has worked well greatly simplifying the planning for our upcoming unsupported bike tour that we've rescheduled for next year (thanks to the pest).

RideWithGPS offers same but as paid service (this is $50 per year I think). I use free Mapy.cz for planning and navigation. What is unique (I think) with RWGPS is extremely precise planning your routes for hilly terrain. The accurate knowledge of elevation gain helps planning the battery strategy, and information on grade for any incline is valuable, too.

 

[Saratoga Dave]

Great turn by turn navigation with Ride With GPS. I like being able to change the map anytime during a ride also. Changing metrics on the fly is easy too. I’ve been using it exclusively for three years now.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Great turn by turn navigation with Ride With GPS. I like being able to change the map anytime during a ride also. Changing metrics on the fly is easy too. I’ve been using it exclusively for three years now.

As a subscriber, aye?

 

[Cowlitz]

I have this thing called a "speedometer" and just ride. I know where I am and where I'm going--usually.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I have this thing called a "speedometer" and just ride. I know where I am and where I'm going--usually.

How do you handle your anxiety range?