In case you haven’t heard of it, Strava is a website/mobile app that allows you to share information about your mountain bike rides using GPS data collected during the ride. The social network is built around the idea of tracking your fitness progress and challenging friends (and even strangers), which makes the whole thing pretty addictive for a lot of riders.
When we first published this article back in 2012, Strava had already made a significant impact on the sport of mountain biking after being in existence for only a few years. Now, almost four years later, Strava is the single most prevalent fitness tracking app in existence–and especially in the sports of road and mountain biking. These days, it’s less common to meet a fellow rider who doesn’t use Strava than one who does. As a result, Strava’s effects on our sport have only been amplified.
Improving Fitness
Perhaps the biggest positive effect Strava is having on mountain biking and endurance sports in general is making fitness fun. Adding a competitive element to every workout, even if it’s just trying to set a new personal record, makes everyone stronger. It would be interesting to see how ride times trend for Strava members over the course of their membership… my guess is they improve trail times much faster than for those who don’t use it.
Strava!
In Atlanta where Jeff and Aaron live there’s a pretty good group of folks who use Strava, but in outdoor hotspots like Denver, Strava use has truly exploded. In fact, we’ve heard from multiple people (including staffers at IMBA) that it’s not unusual for riders in Colorado to fail to yield the trail while shouting “Strava!” to let you know they’re trying to set a new PR on a particular trail section. With Strava, every ride can become a race, with the resulting ego clashes and occasional conflicts.
Some riders have taken things even farther, risking personal injury to themselves and others. In 2010 a rider died after losing control while trying to set a new speed record for a descent in Tilden Park in Orinda, CA because someone had recently posted a faster time. His family sued Strava, saying the man was “obsessed” with Strava… which could easily describe a lot of folks.
Back in 2005 we tested out a similar concept here on Singletracks called “Virtual Bike Racing” (you can still see the page here). As you can see from the disclaimer, we understood that some riders might ride out of control in pursuit of a virtual title.
Secret Trails Exposed
Admittedly, some of us ride off-road in places we aren’t supposed to ride. Whether it’s a trail that’s officially closed to bikes or a gray trail that is on the down-low, Strava sees all and by default, makes the ride public to all. I haven’t heard any reports of land managers using Strava to identify trail poachers but it’s certainly a possibility.
There are a few trails in the Atlanta area that everyone knows as “the secret trails,” and it’s sorta like Fight Club, where the first rule is you do not talk about the secret trails. One of the local secret trail builders is famous for asking riders he doesn’t know, “Are we on the internet?” But even if no one posts these trails to a website like Singletracks, you can bet the trails are mapped and cataloged on Strava–it’s basically automatic every time you use your phone or GPS.
Now, it is possible to mark a ride as private, but hardly anyone does this since it defeats the biggest draw of the app which is to challenge other riders. With Strava, secret trails will never stay that way for long.
Strava’s Global Heatmap
Since this article was first published, Strava has released new technology that unfortunately only exacerbates this issue, revealing less-than-legal trails for the entire world to see. This new technology is their Global Heatmap.
The Global Heatmap aggregates all public ride data (there’s a running map as well) from all of Strava’s users, and puts it onto one massive, global map. The brighter the line on the map, the more people have ridden that route. The fainter the line, the fewer number of people. Some lines are even so faint that you can’t see them unless you zoom in all the way… but even if one person has ridden it, it’s there, if you zoom in far enough.
While this can be a very useful tool for locating the most popular legal routes in an area, if you are intimately familiar with the trails and roads in your local area (like an experienced mountain biker or a Forest Service ranger), you can easily pick out lines on the heatmap that aren’t actually present on the official trail map. Some members of the Singletracks Staff have confirmed this to be true in their local areas, and at times the highly-popular illegal (or illegal-ish) routes are brighter and more bold than even the legal trails and roads.
So, the moral of the story is: if you’re riding a trail that’s even so much as questionable, don’t go posting your ride as public on Strava!
Mountain Bikers Banned from Existing Trails
A brand-new development in the plethora of contentious mountain bike access issues is the banning of mountain bikers from trails which are currently bike legal, based on the speed data stored in Strava. Think I’m making this up? I wish. That’s exactly what just happened in Los Altos, California. (You can find final confirmation of the bike ban in this article from February 23, 2016.)
From the original article:
“Blame it on Strava. The mobile app – and the cyclists who use it to brag about achieving top speeds on trails – weighed heavily in Los Altos Hills city councilmembers’ unanimous decision Jan. 27 to entertain an ordinance prohibiting bicycles from Byrne Preserve.
I’m done with this as far as I’m concerned,” Councilman John Radford said. “The speed numbers that were talked about tonight are just incredibly unacceptable. I can’t even believe. Sorry, whoever’s done those apps and whoever puts that together – that just put a hole in the whole argument.”
Although Radford and his fellow councilmembers expressed considerable reluctance to deny an entire class of enthusiasts access to the popular open-space area, Strava-broadcasted boasts of trail speeds topping 20 mph and concerns about safety ultimately influenced their approval of a motion introducing the ordinance.”
While we at first avoided discussing this in a public forum for fear that more anti-mountain biker groups would take this same approach, this is a critical issue that needs our attention. Mountain bikers being banned because of the sheer fact that we’re mountain bikers, even if we’re not doing anything illegal, is a very real threat.
So what’s the takeaway? If you live or ride in an area where you know the access issues are contentious, again, it might be best to mark your ride as private. You might not gain any virtual kudos, but on the flip side, you won’t lose access to any of the very real and tangible mountain bike trails that you enjoy on a regular basis.
Exploring New Places
While Strava can be used as a way to compete against other riders using the segment feature, it can also be used as motivation to get out and explore new (legal) trails that you might not even have heard of before. Simply by watching my Strava news feed, I’ve seen cool rides posted in locations unbeknownst to me, that have prompted me to want to go and check that place out for myself. I’ve even observed one person in my friends list riding a relatively-new, unknown trail, and then a cascade of other Strava friends riding that same trail, seemingly inspired by the original explorer.
While the Global Heatmap above can be a great resource for finding trails and scouting routes, your own personal heatmaps (pro feature) can provide motivation to explore new areas and connect the different sections of your map with various lines. Personally (Greg speaking), this is my favorite Strava feature, and more than anything else it has motivated me to explore and experience new trails and routes both locally, and far afield!
Race Scouting
Strava has become a valuable tool for scouting competitors before races and creating strategies based on past performance. It’s also a great tool for previewing race courses and getting segment-level detail showing how you compare to others, which is helpful in post-race analysis.
Strava also makes it easy to “follow” other riders, particularly pros who have signed up for the service. For the pros, mountain bike racing is ultra-competitive, and it would seem that giving away too much information about training routines, routes, etc. might give rivals a leg up. Based on the few pro riders I follow, it seems many of them limit which rides they post, which seems like a solid strategy.
Of course it’s not just Strava that’s impacting the sport of mountain biking–internet and mobile technology is everywhere, and it’s changing our entire world. What’s the next big thing? I guess we’ll just have to wait to find out…
Your turn: If you use Strava, has it changed the way you ride? What other technologies are impacting mountain biking today?
This article was last updated on April 4, 2016 at 7:12am MDT by Greg Heil. Greg added the sections “Strava’s Global Heatmap,” “Mountain Bikers Banned from Existing Trails,” and “Exploring New Places.”
Great article Jeff! Every since you got me hooked on it, I’ve been using Strava religiously.
For me, it’s not as much about competing with others… maybe I’m just not fast enough (although I’ve gotten two emails this week saying I’ve lost two KOMs). Personally, I just love tracking my own personal statistics, and Strava is a great way to do that. Being able to go on there and see that I’ve ridden almost 1,700 miles this year is satisfying.
Re: secret trails (or trails not open to mtbing): I think this is ridiculous. It’s people who record everything they do, via Strava and with gopros posting it on youtube or posting photos on their facebook pages, including when they’re doing something illegal, that will create all sorts of fall out. I posted a news article on the forums a few months ago about a super popular jump spot in an urban area out west that got bulldozed because videos of it were popping up all over youtube. The spot had been around for close to 20 years, but people who don’t know how to keep their mouths shut when they log on to a computer got the place demolished.
In my opinion, if you’re going to go out and do something questionable (which I am not condoning), at least have the decency to have a closed-mouth and electronics-free ride. Keep the cameras off, the GPS off, and the facebook statuses off. Or at least, if you run the GPS to log your stats, remember your miles and your time, don’t save the file, and just enter them into your Strava manually. That way, you can still keep track of total mileage, time, etc, but don’t run the risk of outing secret trails.
Anyhow, my $0.02!
Strava has had a huge impact on my mountain biking, and also the way I train. I’ve become a faster rider because of Strava, no question about it. I’ve made my bike lighter, I’m lighter, I’m constantly searching for the fastest lines in segments, my cornering skills have improved considerately, my cardio is better than it has ever been… the list goes on.
This morning I took down a KOM and set a new PR on another segment, and I’m pretty much going to be in a great mood all day because of that. On the other side of the coin, when I get one of those dreaded “You just lost your KOM…” emails, I can think of nothing else but getting out there and getting it back.
Strava is extremely addictive for a competitive person like me, but I still try to balance my riding time between balls-out riding for KOM bragging rights and just enjoying the trails for pure fun.
*considerably
I think Strava is a great site, but I don’t use it. I figure everyone is faster than me so I don’t need a website to confirm that 😀
I do track my rides via Garminconnect so I can see how much I’ve ridden and compare times between different runs. If I didn’t have a site that tracked rides, I would probably use Strava or the ride tracker here on Singletracks.
@Jared13, I hear ya on that. Personally, I use Strava primarily to track my own personal stats. I’ve used Garmin connect a little, but I really like Strava’s graphical layout.
I have a Strava account to look for trails around my area (none were listed) and I haven’t looked at it since.
I’ll have to check out the layout to see if I like it better than the Garmin’s site. It’s pretty bare bones.
I started using Strava a few months ago and love it. I’m one of the slower guys out there on a good day, but I’ve already vastly improved my own times, and it adds a great element of self-competitiveness to every ride just trying attain a personal record (even if I’m only 193rd out of 207 overall). The ease of segment discovery and creation are great- setting you up automatically for any other trails or rides you come across.
Racing dangers are there, but thats no different than any other competitive activity. Its all about personal responsibility. If Strava started pulling or limiting popular features that some folks use irresponsibly, a competitor would simply step in to fill the void.
I’m a big fan of Strava, and have seen Jeff (internet celebrity) on the site . Strava definitely spices up routine Silver Comet rides.
There are more anti-social aspects of Strava beyond running people off the road while trying to set a PR.
If I’m trying to set a time, I’ll tend to leave my girlfriend behind, or get angry that she is fumbling with the pedals instead of getting on with it.
Having the GPS track you also alters your behavior. I’ll frequently leave my bike stationary and walk to the water fountain, so that it doesn’t register that I am “moving”, thereby skewing my average time.
It definitely makes you go faster though, for better or worse. It’s shocking how fast some people are (although the segments aren’t always computed right).
I wish they’d give you a list of all your times for a given segment – it’s not really a dedicated training program.
Good points! I’ve definitely seen myself leaving the bike on the ground to keep my “moving time” up. 🙂
I forgot to mention in my original post that a few folks have figured out how to alter GPS data to “cheat” on Strava. All the more reason not to take the KOMs so seriously.
Also, there’s variance from GPS unit to GPS unit. I follow Jeremiah Bishop and a few other pros, and I remember seeing one of the GPS tracks from a race he did, and it put him 2nd behind another guy on Strava even though he won the race in real life. Interesting….
It’s definitely possible to cheat. I assume that they’ll eventually make you use their application to submit rides so that people can’t manually edit the files.
Some edits are reasonably legitimate. An example is that on the main climb at Bear Creek, I accidentally went up the wrong fork, which then botched my ranking on the climb. I could edit the file to remove the inadvertent fork, and since I was still working (not resting) this seems ethically fine. In a place where you only get one shot at something, this might be worth it. On the other hand, the same methods are probably used by people to delete rests that they take on a 40 mile ride, or to just blatantly cheat and make their time much faster.
That said, it would be hard to stop motopacing, drafting etc, although that is more relevant for road biking.
Other interesting points:
GPS will receive a big upgrade in 2014, making it significantly more accurate – 1meter vs 5meter of current accuracy. This will obviously impact the accuracy of GPS, and thus Strava speed/course data.
Increasing numbers of phones and GPS devices have barometers, which assist with GPS lock and/or replace elevation info. This means much better elevation profiles, which should smooth out some of the “power” calculations and provide more accurate climbing data.
To Greg’s point – Yes, there’s a lot of inter-device variability from device to device, and even for the same d- note how the tracks often deviate from the actual course you are on, so obviously they sometimes deviate “ahead” or “behind” where you are going.
Jeff – Have you considered reviving the concept of GPS racing? You already have a database of “clean” GPS Trail Maps, which actually gives you a leg up on Strava. Their technology doesn’t even work that well for loops/out and backs, so the gap doesn’t seem insurmountable.
In the web based strava page you can see your times for each segment. Click on the segment then go to full leaderboard and adjust the drop downs to select only you. Don’t think that is possible on the app but it is on the web page.
So how many of you who chase the KOM’s actually race in real life?
I think it’s a neat tool, but some folks take it waaaaaay to seriously. In my opinion, it’s good for training, not virtual racing. If you want to race, do the real thing.
Different strokes for different folks. So long as people are not riding dangerously/running people off the trails, I don’t see the harm in racing only on Strava.
I’ve had to break off attempts late into a segment because of another biker or a hiker, and you just have to take it in stride.
That said, Strava is what actually got me interested in racing XC, so that’s another aspect that makes it cool. I know I’m not the only one.
It’s a lot cheaper than paying for race fees…
For me strava allows me to race uphill while not get killed downhill which would be required in real race. And of course it is more fun as you can return and race again other day and see your progress.
Yep. Just checked and there are some Atl area secret trails listed on Strava.
I’m just now hearing about Strava, and not sure I want to risk the addiction. I’ve used Cardio trainer to uplode stuff to my Facebook and Mytracks. I’ll have to give this some thought.
I have tried a bunch of GPS tracking sites and finally settled on Strava. It hasn’t really changed how I ride, I just like having a place to accumulate and store data. It’s fun to be able to see how many miles I rode in a given month or on a specific bike. It’s also fun to ride the same trail with different bikes or gear setups and compare times for that. As for KOM, I know I’m the slowest, and I’m ok with it. 😀
I love how you can graphically look at the year and the month and see how your rides and number of ride times compare. For instance, my number of hours on the bike in August was identical to that of March and April (23 hours)… weird. And of course, May, June, and especially July were way higher–50 hours in July!
Oh god… guess I’ll have to be the old curmudgeon. That’s exactly the reason I ride… to get away from all of that. No electronics, no tracking, no gears… what can I say.
I would like to know about those secret trails though. Hmmmmmm.
That was me all last summer. I was into “just riding” no bike computer, no camera, and the phone only for an emergency.
This is how I used to be… back before I got into Singletracks 😉
I’ve always been a bit of a Luddite when it comes to all things mountain biking, but I have to admit that I’ve really gotten hooked on Strava this year. Living in Denver, breaking into the top 10 let alone KOM can be pretty difficult given the competition around here. So far, my best effort has only yielded something like 40th out of 220 on one of the uglier metro area climbs. But, I love the personal challenges and the fact that I think it’s making me stronger. It also makes me look forward to riding some of the same old local trails that I’ve ridden a million times before.
I use Strava to keep record of my rides. I’m not the fastest biker, not trying to race anybody except myself. Also, like others mentioned, neither my iPhone nor Garmin Oregon 450t provide me with accurate data. For example, today it showed the total distance 5 miles less, then cyclocomputer (total distance was 24.6miles). It works fine when rollerblading or hiking though. Maybe those Garmin Edge will do better but I’m not going to spend cash on it anyway.
I agree, it’s addictive and makes me going faster. So, it does impact mountain biking too
Just in case anyone else is wondering, the Garmin Edge (I have the 500 Red bundle with the HR monitor, speed sensor and cadence sensor) and it is far more accurate than the phone apps. One of my riding buddies who uses the Strava app is pretty consistently robbed of about 20% on miles, and up to 25% on elevation.
I use