Electric Bike Review Riders Club on Strava

For any of you considering joining the Club: Only E-Bike Rides are being counted. However, there is a great social role: Posts :)
 
MartsEbike said:
Bumping this back up the lastest posts list. Get involved people! :D
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Sorry, as tempting as this Strava club sounds, the last thing I need is yet another ebike-related time and money sink. Just ask my wife.

Besides, my Vado SL's built-in real-time rider power display gives me all the prodding I need. Don't want to get caught up in online competition and lose sight of the main reason I ride — the sheer joy of cycling. Hard enough to slow down and smell the roses as it is.
 
Jeremy McCreary said:
Sorry, as tempting as this Strava club sounds, the last thing I need is yet another ebike-related time and money sink. Just ask my wife.

Besides, my Vado SL's built-in real-time rider power display gives me all the prodding I need. Don't want to get caught up in online competition and lose sight of the main reason I ride — the sheer joy of cycling. Hard enough to slow down and smell the roses as it is.
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Well, that's all rather negative Jeremy. 😁
 
Stefan Mikes said:
Strava is free, and it has great privacy features. You can send your rides from the Specialized App to Strava automatically.
Or, from any GPS bike computer for that matter.
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I'm sure all that's true, but I know how I operate. Nothing against Strava, but if I start with it, I will end up springing for the pay version, I will check responses to my uploads, and I will get caught up in the messaging and implicit competition.

Bottom line — just for me personally: Since RideWithGPS Premium, the Specialized app, and EBR already do everything I want and need along those lines, no point in adding Strava to the mix.
 
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I think I understand, Jeremy!

Meanwhile, Martin has started this week as a leader again :) That mild English weather! @MartsEbike: How do you people describe the location of Bedfordshire? Is it already the Midlands? Or, still South England?

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Jeremy McCreary said:
I'm sure all that's true, but I know how I operate. Nothing against Strava, but if I start with it, I will end up springing for the pay version, I will check responses to my uploads, and I will get caught up in the messaging and implicit competition.

Bottom line — just for me personally: Since RideWithGPS Premium, the Specialized app, and EBR already do everything I want and need along those lines, no point in adding Strava to the mix.
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Fair enough, but you should seriously consider adding Komoot into the mix! :D

I find Komoot excellent. The mileage I do isn't born from competition (I typically ride alone!), but from following routes created by others on Komoot. They find and share good places to ride with interesting things to see and do. It's great for broadening your knowledge of places to ride locally. :)
 
Stefan Mikes said:
I think I understand, Jeremy!

Meanwhile, Martin has started this week as a leader again :) That mild English weather! @MartsEbike: How do you people describe the location of Bedfordshire? Is it already the Midlands? Or, still South England?

View attachment 186697
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Haha, I started well last week and ended up down the leaderboard! :D I know I'm just a lower to mid-tier rider. When I compare myself to my more athletic work colleagues I pale into insignificance. They can ride 60-100 miles in one ride and do it on a traditional bike! I'd be out of breath after 10-20 miles. ;)

We do locations strangely in the UK. People often joke that Londoners will say anything above Watford is considered the North! :) Geographically Bedfordshire is in the South East (The North West of the South East! :D), but for political/ceremonial reasons it's considered part of East England.
 
MartsEbike said:
We do locations strangely in the UK. People often joke that Londoners will say anything above Watford is considered the North! :) Geographically Bedfordshire is in the South East (The North West of the South East! :D), but for political/ceremonial reasons it's considered part of East England.
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Thank you! I still need some time to understand England's geography better! Even if I travelled here and there 😊
 
MartsEbike said:
Fair enough, but you should seriously consider adding Komoot into the mix! :D

I find Komoot excellent. The mileage I do isn't born from competition (I typically ride alone!), but from following routes created by others on Komoot. They find and share good places to ride with interesting things to see and do. It's great for broadening your knowledge of places to ride locally. :)
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RideWithGPS also offers route sharing and leader boards. Definitely useful to browse the routes for ideas now and then.

Trying my first recurring group ride tomorrow morning — a longstading but very informal weekly affair open to all riders. Routes are posted in advance on RideWithGPS. We'll see how my phone battery fares with RideWithGPS and the Specialized app running at the same time. Definitely carrying a powerbank.
 
The real weakness of both Komoot and RWGPS is neither of those systems could form a big social platform 😊
 
I cannot stop the memories coming back...

I made friends with Jerzy Bańkowski back in 2013 on a guided bicycle tour in Warsaw. Jerzy had a bike he bought a dozen years before, and which he had never ridden. At that time, he was 130 kg/286 lbs, and decided cycling would help him lose weight. We were meeting each other on rides sometimes; however it was more communication on Facebook, where my friend (14 years my senior) got accepted by many younger people for his great sense of humour and the way he could talk, tell stories, interact. In 2015, I was defeated by atherosclerosis when we were on a ride together.

Jerzy continued his daily rides in warm seasons, as he had a plenty of time as a retiree. He actually went down well below 100 kg (I think he achieved some 210 lbs in his best year).

Since the beginning of my e-bike adventure, I was riding with Jerzy pretty often; yes, I had to dramatically reduce the assistance on my e-bikes. Jerzy was a slow but an endurant rider, and an excellent bike climber!

1732644078303.png

Jerzy on one on our rides.

Why do I mention him? Jerzy and I were using Endomondo since 2013 until its collapse. I then found a smartphone app 'SyncMyTracks' that allowed transferring rides between any sports tracker systems! I could sync all my and his rides from Endomondo to Strava. Next, Jerzy was recording his rides in Strava on his smartphone but was not happy with Strava App.

The breakthrough happened on Oct 18th, 2022 when I sold my Wahoo Bolt v2 to my friend for very little money. Now, the things started happening fast! Not only could Jerzy reliably track his workouts but any ride was automatically recorded on Strava. And Jerzy started paying his attention to Strava. He actually started... competing!

1732644910828.png

The best year of Jerzy. It was the first and the last year when my friend rode for more than 10,000 km, on a regular pedal bike. Also, Strava shows his total achievements since 2013. (My data are on the right).

1732645006579.png

Jerzy passed away soon after completing his last ride on April 26th this year. Rest in peace, Jerzy!
---------------
@Aushiker: Thank you for joining the Club!
 
Jeremy McCreary said:
RideWithGPS also offers route sharing and leader boards. Definitely useful to browse the routes for ideas now and then.
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True, I have an RWGPS subscription myself (To go with my Strava, Komoot and Trailforks subscriptions! :oops: :D), but it just doesn't compare to Komoot when planning for rides. With Komoot the finding of Points of Interest and sharing of photos are among its most prominent features. You're actively encouraged to report these things after each ride. It's a bit like TripAdvisor.com but for Cyclists. :)
 
MartsEbike said:
True, I have an RWGPS subscription myself (To go with my Strava, Komoot and Trailforks subscriptions! :oops: :D), but it just doesn't compare to Komoot when planning for rides. With Komoot the finding of Points of Interest and sharing of photos are among its most prominent features. You're actively encouraged to report these things after each ride. It's a bit like TripAdvisor.com but for Cyclists. :)
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RWGPS really shines when it comes to editing long and complicated routes prepared by someone else. The tools for cutting routes, clearing waypoints, Auto-Trace and other features are really good. However, I do such editing pretty rarely.

I wonder why I need a subscription for any of these systems at all?
  • I have paid Komoot the one-time fee for All Regions. Why should I need Premium? Yes, there is one such situation. While I can instruct Wahoo to create a route from my current location elsewhere (e.g. Home), the route planned by Wahoo is usually far from optimal. Can I plan a route in Komoot and use it in Wahoo without premium? Possibly.
  • The only reason I pay the RWPGS subscription are the advanced Route Planner tools. As I do not navigate using RWGPS, it is just a waste of money.
  • Strava gives me nothing for the subscription except the weather data post ride :D
 
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