Are We Condemned to Strava?

[Stefan Mikes]

Thanks Stefan, I tried however it doesn’t work for me at all. Because it’s not aware of the bicycling routes. Here’s a great example- I started and ended a simple route along the River on the most traveled bike road in Tokyo - Mapy chose the motor vehicle roadways. RWGPS nailed it - for 125km even in much more complex terrain- using its heat map dataset as well I’m sure.

View attachment 99582

Mapy.cz works better than Google Maps in North America. It is based on Open Street Maps, which may not handle Japan well.

 

[ActionJackson]

It is not in RWGPS. The whole point.

So what does an E-BIKE option in Strava do for YOU? It doesn’t even give you a calculation of your human power! You could also have a tag that said you were riding a JACKASS and it would be just as meaningful

 

[fooferdoggie]

So what does an E-BIKE option in Strava do for YOU? It doesn’t even give you a calculation of your human power! You could also have a tag that said you were riding a JACKASS and it would be just as meaningful

strava under rate wattage even when it is included in the upload. when I uploaded a ride from my Nyon it included my average watts and strava just used its standard amount it usually does. pn our tandem it overrates our wattage.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

It doesn’t even give you a calculation of your human power!

It does. It would be rather funny if the world's largest road cycling site wouldn't have done that. If you have no other tool, Strava will estimate your power (it makes the estimate differently for Ride and E-Bike Ride). If you use a HR monitor, the estimates will be far more accurate. If you connect your e-bike, the measured values of power and cadence will be shown.

Why e-bike category?

• To not obscure the leader-boards of honestly struggling traditional cyclists with efforts of e-bikers
• To allow e-bikers competing.

Here, the E-Bike King and Queen Of Mountain for a downhill road segment in Owl Mountains in Poland. All people listed in the leader-board were e-bikers. Necessary to mention traditional roadies had faster times there (in their own leader-board).

There are several exciting features of Strava:

• Strava Beacon: Allowing your relatives or friends track your ride in real time. Helping a lot in case you have had a crash on your ride. Now, the Beacon is accessible by all users (it was available for subscribers only before )
• Strava Segments: If a subscriber uses a Garmin Edge, a segment will be automatically displayed on your bike computer. You are able to race with the "shadow" of the current KOM or QOM.
• Reporting cheaters. I was deprived of my own KOM in Czech Republic by a motorbiker. The guy was as stupid as to post pictures of his motorbike for that ride. I reported on him, and my own KOM was restored.

My brother would have won that race but he got cold because of cold wind, and stopped to pull his windbreaker on He was short of me by a second!

An interesting story. There is a Category 2 climb segment at some place in the Kłodzko Valley. An e-biker Andrzej was third there. He, however, won the downhill race with us!

P.S. Me and brother tried Category 4 climbs as well. We were hopeless compared to other e-bikers there.

 

[mschwett]

Mapy.cz works better than Google Maps in North America. It is based on Open Street Maps, which may not handle Japan well.

i gave it a try. definitely better cycle routing here in northern california than google maps, but it's quite sluggish and the interface is a little clunky compared to rwGPS. the main thing that would keep me from using it is the speed. on a very fast internet connection rwGPS is basically instant for zooming, panning, and moving waypoints around to see the effect on distance and elevation profile. i've become spoiled.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

i gave it a try. definitely better cycle routing here in northern california than google maps, but it's quite sluggish and the interface is a little clunky compared to rwGPS. the main thing that would keep me from using it is the speed. on a very fast internet connection rwGPS is basically instant for zooming, panning, and moving waypoints around to see the effect on distance and elevation profile. i've become spoiled.

Did you download your local offline map in Mapy.cz? My experience is totally different!

 

[mschwett]

Did you download your local offline map in Mapy.cz? My experience is totally different!

no, i see no obvious option to do so. perhaps a premium feature.

not necessary on other platforms with a fast connection. not surprising that it would be more sluggish since it does appear to be hosted from the czech republic. from my location, twice as many hops on the trace, 26ms vs 168ms.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

no, i see no obvious option to do so. perhaps a premium feature.

not necessary on other platforms with a fast connection. not surprising that it would be more sluggish since it does appear to be hosted from the czech republic. from my location, twice as many hops on the trace, 26ms vs 168ms.

Not having an argument with you! There's no "premium" Mapy.cz. After you have downloaded the maps to your smartphone app, nothing is hosted from the Czech Republic. To each their own, anyway!

 

[mschwett]

Not having an argument with you! There's no "premium" Mapy.cz. After you have downloaded the maps to your smartphone app, nothing is hosted from the Czech Republic. To each their own, anyway!

ah! i was using the desktop/browser version.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

There is a feature found in Strava that is hard to find in other sports application: Component List for your e-bike.

Now, let anyone ask me what distance I have covered on a chain, tyres, brake pads etc. Invaluable for maintenance!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I took the plunge and licensed RideWithGPS Premium for one year. Superior route planning facilities, possibility to plan a route on a smartphone during the ride, better Wahoo route interaction (it is enough to "unpin" a ride in RWGPS to remove it from Wahoo; you need to delete a route in Strava to remove it from the device). Poor social capabilities though so I stay at Strava for ride recording and social interaction.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

One year has passed since my last post in this thread. In April 2023, I decided not to renew my RideWithGPS license. Wrong!

• On May 7th, I was caught with my pants down when I wanted to quickly plan a good return route home from a location in Warsaw on my smartphone. OK, I could find a good way back home without RWGPS myself... But I knew the city!
• Just now, I planned an interesting route for my Double Metric Century ride in another route planner. Having a good starting GPX, I wanted to import it to RWGPS Route Planner. No way without a Premium subscription!

So I renewed my RideWithGPS license. The software is so good! Like, having several alternative routes displayed side by side...

RideWithGPS (Premium) allows me comparing alternative routes from A to B, refine the route to possibly avoid unpaved segments, split and merge routes, reverse them, trace them, and more, more, and more... It is also perfectly integrated with GPS bike computers such as my Wahoo.

 

[Catalyzt]

EBR self selects for a much different demographic than most "social media" . EBR <> FB. Never used Strava, don't intend to.
Would like to know if there is any news on Lee, however ...

I know this was an older post, and I can't remember if I replied already, but Lee still cycles around the Baltimore area as of a few months ago...

And still stops by Baltimore National Cemetery and takes a picture of my dad's grave, which I really appreciate!

I think he was riding an Aventon, which surprised me! I'm not an Aventon hater... but still a Strava hater. Fired up that piece of crap a few months ago, and it wouldn't even load. Couldn't see my old rides... arggh!

Maybe I'll try RWGPS someday...

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I know this was an older post, and I can't remember if I replied already, but Lee still cycles around the Baltimore area as of a few months ago...

I think he was riding an Aventon, which surprised me!

Yes, he does! Lee & I have never lost the contact since his crash thanks to Strava. He was first recovering on his Cannondale Bad Boy1, then acquired the Aventon to eventually have his excellent Trek returned and repaired.

And still stops by Baltimore National Cemetery and takes a picture of my dad's grave, which I really appreciate!

He is so fine and funny person! I like his comments on my Strava!

I'm not an Aventon hater... but still a Strava hater. Fired up that piece of crap a few months ago, and it wouldn't even load. Couldn't see my old rides... arggh!

Maybe I'll try RWGPS someday...

I use Strava as a recording place for my rides (the data uploaded from my Wahoo GPS computer) -- forming the database of my rides -- as a bike maintenance tool, and for its social features. Basically, what I need is available from Strava web page on my PC. I only use the Strava app on the smartphone to launch Strava Beacon, or my personal tracker; I send a link with my current track, position and speed to closest friends so they know where I currently am. (A similar feature offered by Wahoo is very poor, compared).

My Strava profile link

RideWithGPS is only a high quality route planner for me. I do not use any other features of RWGPS at all.

 

[Roamers]

On May 7th, I was caught with my pants down

Once (when I was riding a traditional bike), I relieved myself in a desolate (I thought) place in Warsaw. I was caught by a police patrol and the cops were not happy with me!

Same trip?

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Same trip?

You can only get caught by the law while relieving yourself if you are riding a traditional bike!

 

[Mr. Coffee]

So I renewed my RideWithGPS license. The software is so good! Like, having several alternative routes displayed side by side...

Features like that (and many others) are what keeps me using RideWithGPS. And they have the best route planning implementation I've ever seen.

I've recently discovered they have an API and I'm probably going to spend some time using that to collect and visualize stats from my rides over the course of a season.

 

[ava1ar]

RideWithGPS is only a high quality route planner for me. I do not use any other features of RWGPS at all.

Stefan, did you try Komoot for this purpose? As far as I see, these two services are competitors in lots of areas. I am currently using Komoot (mostly because of Bosch integration), curious if I should consider RideWithGPS instead (mostly for route planning and managing my routes collection).

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I do not know Komoot enough. Is it true you need to buy access to at least one Region to really enjoy that service? Will try to look to Komoot deeper.

 

[Art Deco]

I do not know Komoot enough. Is it true you need to buy access to at least one Region to really enjoy that service? Will try to look to Komoot deeper.

When I downloaded komoot. They gave you trail maps for one, maybe two counties free, then you could buy others. So I downloaded my home area (county? ) to check it out.
Total number of trails over 10 miles found ?
.
..
....
ZERO.

Nice enough piece of software really, but I don't need a computer to tell me there is no safe place to ride around here. I figured that out all by myself.