Is Strava having trouble making ends meet during COVID?

Posted by: T-mack

The membership is on sale right now so its like $6-$7 a month which really is F all. I'm happy to toss them money

I'm a very casual non-competitive Strava user - just like to track my rides and some basic stats. To me, the price is the issue... How much does Netflix cost these days? like $12/month? And think about much more you are getting from Netflix in terms of the amount of $$ they are spending to come out with new content, etc. So it's weird to me to pay 1/2 the price of Netflix for GPS tracking software. Perhaps the issue is that Netflix is too cheap and that's skewing my perspective... 

Ideally I think they should have 3 levels - free (same as the free version now), basic (essentially the old free version) and charge $2-4/month for that, and then the full version. I think Strava is cool and would be happy to pay a small amount for it but I don't use any of the more complex functions and features.

the best thing that could happen to mountain biking would be if Strava would go bankrupt. The heatmap is not doing any favors to the community and I know you can turn it off but not all riders do it or don't care. Lots of other apps to get your distance/vert.

No one cares how virtually inaccurately fast you are...

Posted by: Vikb

Posted by: RAHrider

Is it weird to ride at a comfortable pace for 1.5 hrs then as hard as you can for 45 seconds somewhere along the ride? Oh wait, yes it is.

Stuff that I don't love includes: being an a-hole to other trail users so you can shave a few seconds off a time in a virtual race with some random person on the internet and cutting corners/switchbacks for the same reason. There is a reason real races are held on closed courses. The fact the times are not particularly accurate just makes the whole enterprise more silly.

I have rides where I am keen to push the limits of my skills and fitness. However, if I come around a corner and there are two hikers and their dogs my priority is to be safe for everyone and to maintain positive trail relationships. So I'll slow down well below what's actually safe and usually stop for a moment and chat with them. How that moment plays out in real life is a lot more important to my day and my future days riding in that trail network than losing the virtual race on Strava on that segment.

Given the behaviour we see on the trail it seems like there are a fair number of riders who don't appreciate that perspective and are not concerned about their virtual races.

That's a good point. Haven't ridden on the shore for a while and forgot about those people. I'm with you, as soon as there is someone else in the path of my "segment chase" I just slow right down and forget about chasing that one that day. My wife does complain sometimes because there we are riding together for 1/2 hr then all of a sudden, I'm gone. Then 2 minutes later there I am again but completely winded. 

I agree with the post above, graded  memberships would probably be more lucrative. 1-2$ a month for segments would probably be more lucrative for them.

I don't use strava plainly because I am way too competitive and I will either end up hurting myself or hating myself.

I can see how it would be a great tool to push yourself and work on timings (so long as it's reasonably accurate) but it is just simply not for me.

Posted by: thaaad

I don't use strava plainly because I am way too competitive and I will either end up hurting myself or hating myself.

I can see how it would be a great tool to push yourself and work on timings (so long as it's reasonably accurate) but it is just simply not for me.

If you really wanna geek out you can keep track of how many KMs you get out of your drivetrain. Hard to be competitive on Strava with all the GPS wander going on.

Posted by: Brocklanders

Posted by: thaaad

I don't use strava plainly because I am way too competitive and I will either end up hurting myself or hating myself.

I can see how it would be a great tool to push yourself and work on timings (so long as it's reasonably accurate) but it is just simply not for me.

If you really wanna geek out you can keep track of how many KMs you get out of your drivetrain. Hard to be competitive on Strava with all the GPS wander going on.

Great for suspension maintenance timing as well.

I live in Oregon were mtn biking is still a fringe sport and much of our "good" trails (especially near portland) are less than legal and secret within the small group who built and maintain them. Strava ruins these trails by bringing out the crowds. Especially now with travel restrictions and people looking for close to home shreds. I build and ride in a little secret spot near my house and lo and behold there are lots of new faces over the past few months. I politely ask any new folks to turn off strava. The best part is 80% of riders say " whats strava?".

Posted by: Brocklanders

If you really wanna geek out you can keep track of how many KMs you get out of your drivetrain.

I'm using another app called ProBikeGarage that allows for tracking of maintenance/parts replacement intervals using distance and time data from Strava. Pretty cool. But I've turned off notifications as it would drive me nuts to know the second I am due for a lowers service.

Posted by: thaaad

I don't use strava plainly because I am way too competitive and I will either end up hurting myself or hating myself.

Once you accept how inaccurate it is, the race aspect of Strava goes out the window.

Posted by: D_C_

Posted by: thaaad

I don't use strava plainly because I am way too competitive and I will either end up hurting myself or hating myself.

Once you accept how inaccurate it is, the race aspect of Strava goes out the window.

Yeah, but now I can't check my previous performance. I have dozens of rides on some trails. And it's MY performance that I'm most interested in. But I don't care about heart rate monitors or power meter hook ups or training days.

Trailforks can also keep track of your efforts on trails. You can set it up so that your Strava rides upload to TF automatically. But on TF, it’s times on trails rather than segments (which could include parts of or multiple trails).

Anybody else noticed weirdness with strava timing lately? I started my recording at 6:26 tonight, fucked around for a few minutes, got to the top of the climb at about 7:05, no stops and rode it clean so I figure somewhere around 37min or so. However, the results show 48min total and 31min moving time. Like wtf is going on there?

This was my WBP park day last month, laughable at the very best

Posted by: UFO

This was my WBP park day last month, laughable at the very best

Oh so close to Everesting! On a positive note, you did obliterate the DH speed record for bikes.