How To Turn Your Strava Data into a Usable Mountain Bike Trail Map

The massive popularity of Strava has changed the way many of us analyze data from our trail rides and has even changed how some people ride their mountain bikes. What some people don’t seem to realize, however, is that the data you collect via your Strava app can be used for much more than just …

The massive popularity of Strava has changed the way many of us analyze data from our trail rides and has even changed how some people ride their mountain bikes. What some people don’t seem to realize, however, is that the data you collect via your Strava app can be used for much more than just proving that you’re actually the fastest rider to the top of the hill.

Mountain Bike Trail Maps

While Strava is a great way to track your personal data and compare yourself with others, it’s not a great app for finding trails to ride. Sure, there’s the “explore” feature, but that puts segments of all kinds on the map, including both pavement and dirt segments. The biggest problem is that the majority of segments are for just a single climb or single descent. Very rarely are there actual segments for an entire trail or trail system.

One of the thousands of trail maps hosted on Singletracks.com

That’s fine with us, because as you’re probably aware Singletracks.com is the best place to go to find information about mountain bike trails near you, and we boast the biggest mountain bike trail map database in the world with well over 20,000 miles of mapped singletrack.

No, the maps themselves aren’t free… it takes a lot of work to create and curate all of these maps. However, if you’re a Strava user, you can easily take your Strava data and earn a free Singletracks.com Lifetime Pro Membership.

How to Export .GPX Files from Strava

To turn your Strava data into mountain bike trail maps, you need to first export your data as a .GPX file. To do this, click on over to Strava, and go to the ride that you want to turn into a trail map.

Click on “View Details” to pull up the complete page for that specific ride.

Next, click on the down arrow next to the “Actions” button.

Then, select “Export GPX” from the drop down list.

Then click the button verifying that you want to save the file to your computer.

How To Upload .GPX Files to Singletracks

Now all that’s left is to upload the GPX file to Singletracks.com. First, find the trail listing for the trail that you rode (in this example, that’s Pandapas Pond).

Second, scroll down a little ways and click the “Submit GPS Data” button on the right hand side of the page.

Now, click the “Upload GPS data file” button, click “Browse” to find the file that you downloaded from the Strava website earlier, add a title, and then click “Preview.”

If everything looks good, click the “Great – save it!” link, and then we’ll take care of everything from there!

Conclusion

With just three new map uploads or map updates, you can quickly earn a free Pro Subscription and access to thousands of mountain bike trail maps! But if you have a Lewis and Clark complex and just love to explore, don’t stop there… keep uploading your maps whenever you ride a new trail so that together we can build the best source of mountain bike trail information possible!

Your Turn: What are you waiting for? Start uploading your Strava data now!