note- we have already had a thread on strava some time ago. in light of recent threads on spring, calivera and other trails, maybe it is time to look at this again, perhaps a year later. any potential sanitization on your local trails? post up.


strava

pros:
1. you can be kom in more than your own mind
2. beating your personal best is all the excuse you need to run people off trails, because they’ll understand that you’re ‘motivated’
3. a great reason to go out and do some trail work. a sanitized trail is a fast trail.
4. people will thank you for turning a once underground trail on to the rest of society, including officials finding out about and monitoring use of these ‘unofficial’ trails on their land parcels in the comfort of their offices on their computers.

cons:
1. you didn’t beat your personal best because:
(a) the guys you ran off the trail were yelling such profanities that it drowned out the killer beats from your ipod and threw off your cadence,
(b) the guys who built the hidden trail beat the piss out of you and your bike so you never finished your run, although the gps was safely fitted up your butt so you could find your way home, and / or
(c) you got a summons from the officials who used your (or someone else’s) strava uploads for monitoring high density poaching
2. you completely lost track of why you’re out there in the first place.


mtn biking is its own app for fun. if you need electronic verification, stay home and play video games because you'e doing it wrong.

btw- never enjoyed mtn biking as much as the day i took off mt cycle computer (ok, odometer) and just dug riding for riding.



note 2-
this was somewhat what i had written previously. it is admittedly biased, and with some humor, or at least intended that way. i should couch this by saying that on the original strava thread goodflow had some excellent and well thought-out responses in defense of strava in his training regimen and points to how it should be properly utilized.


peace out

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Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy. ~Milan Kundera

Strava doesn't kill trails, stravassholes do.

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Thus, if we are to understand the world, we should live somewhere between judgement and amazement — Alfredo Lopez Austin

haha I'm a fat / lazy / antisocial sandbagger. I am more than content to just go out and ride around all day long at a snails pace chasing butterflies and sniffing flowers. By logging all my rides and knowing that all my friends (that I'm to antisocial to ride with in real life) will see my ride I do end up riding a little stronger. I'm not at risk of getting any KOM's anyway so I have no reason to stravatize anything

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the rider formally known as craptasticycler
http://app.strava.com/athletes/craptasticycler

i think we may need to ride together someday to see who is really the slowest, anti-social sandbagger on the mountain. (new strava: anti-social sandbagger = slow ASS)

that aside, strava tracking is fine if you really need to use it and still manage to not be a douchebag over it, but turn it off on unsanctioned trails. for that, you need to know what is sanctioned and what is not.

_________________
Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy. ~Milan Kundera

beating strava

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Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy. ~Milan Kundera

Amen to that. I can put up with all of the other stuff, but it kills me how easy unthinking Strava use can make it for land managers to find and close "secret" trails.

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A bicycle is a splendid thing.
~Ernest Hemingway

In my opinion (and it is just my opinion) having any electronics on your person while riding bikes of any kind is wrong unless: the bike itself has electronics (ie motorcycle) or you are married and required by your spouse to carry an emergency cell phone.

Further: tracking your ride, counting mileage speed etc, is... in my opinion... akin to eating exactly 6 oz of boiled chicken and 10 leaves of raw spinach for breakfast and then charting it in your health diary. These are roadie behaviors and you are a roadie on the wrong bike.

I have gps, iphone, contour hd and a HRM pretty much at all times when I ride on dirt or road. I'd keep a health diary too but I've never found one with line items to record how many boxes of cookies I eat before a ride or how many beers I drink after - it they made an app that did that for me as automatically as the gps works I might be willing though

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the rider formally known as craptasticycler
http://app.strava.com/athletes/craptasticycler

Nail on the head -- I don't keep a health diary but I developed the other bad practices from my previous life as a roadie. Some habits are hard to break.

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A bicycle is a splendid thing.
~Ernest Hemingway

..as per the above 'beating strava' post

to be clearer, apparently this guy, caveman, used his little honda pit bike to take kom on some of his local trails.

response from strava:

Strava CEO on November 12, 2012 at 4:25 pm said:
Mr. Ben Tobin,

Thanks for the heads up. We have now flagged your Strava Profile: http://app.strava.com/athletes/640238 for inappropriate use and specifically for violation of our terms of service.

Strive on,

Strava


taken from here: http://drunkcyclist.com/2012/11/12/strava-terrorism/

more rants here: http://drunkcyclist.com/?s=strava&submit=Search



anyone here have a little moto willing to blow up some strava kom times?

_________________
Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy. ~Milan Kundera

^^^^^^^^^^^^

I got this...............







Clyde

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I never would have thought that Harley would end up being my inspiration. (well..maybe a little).

avidtest


"it makes mountain biking fun again"

Ozzer

I enjoyed Strava before so many people started using it, since they seem to be mostly faster than me.

But I do like taunting friends and co-workers with my rides, I like tracking my progress (mileage, climbing, and - yes - improvement), and I like pre-riding courses. But Strava is like all tools - if a Tool uses it, he can screw it up for the rest of us. The problem is the Tools, not the tool.

Well little old Strava seems to be more on to it than you think, When I shuttle down hill trails and forget to turn off Strava on the ride back to the top, It know's that I am in a truck some how and does not give me any of my KOM's. Lucky stupid roadies.

And I'll have to say right now, I am a huge strava fan. For all the times I have been riding as fast as I can possibly go down trails, I now know where I stand with all the other fast guy's. Before I had no idea. ( I know what your thinking, but racing in San Diego is worthless as shit to me. )(( Well until all these Enduro's seem to be hitting the seen this year ))

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Strava is simply the latest medium by which the mountain bike community can shoot itself in the foot.

These forums themselves have long been an enabling force for those of us who just can't keep the discovery of an unsanctioned social trail to their immediate circle of friends and riding buddies. How many "Tunnels" fiascos do we have to see before we get it?

Personally, I don't think we ever WILL get it. Strava doesn't shut down unsanctioned trails, Strava trail users do it. Strava, like the bike forums, is simply an accelerant.

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Scum on a Bike

We had a "beginner" ride (whole other tangent on what that means these days and how the bar has been raised, especially in OC) locally today on some popular multi-use trails. Since its a huge group and a beginner ride, you'd assume that if you wanna Stravabate yourself you'd be up front and not whine with your Eurotrash accent and $7000 Scott bike about the slowest and newest people in the group in the back blocking your way. Not looking for pats on the back but I at least knew the trail system and I'm fatter and slower these days so I felt it was due process to sweep with the tail group since everyone else was taking off and didn't bother to send anyone back to see who got a flat or crashed. Other than that, you have several Stravassholes coming in the other direction, downhill, and yelling "move over" at women struggling to get up the inclines. How small is your penis that you yell at women on bicycles? Douchebag.

This is the problem with tech and digital super egos. People equate or more so inflate their virtual lives to hold value above actual successes and accomplishments of substance. Q: "Why do you spend so much time on Facebook?" A: "You have to show people you have a life!" You really don't though. And PS, who gives a fuck.