Nationwide Audax UK Strava Group

[IanDG]

I rarely look at segments on Strava. Groups allow me to see what other people are doing and give a comparison of weekly mileage/altitude/speed. no way I can compare a segment on the Isle of Lewis with someone clocking up KMs in Cornwall

[Kim]

I must say that it's quite interesting with tools like this (and BikeJournal and so on) to compare your mileage with people you've ridden with of about the same sort of cycling ability as you (at least it is in my corner of the league).  Odd combinations of people who hardly ride, people who clock up awesome mileages at slower pace, and those who have a fearsome regular commute but much less endurance.  Which just goes to show how different we all are.

[Euan Uzami]

I've generally ceased to understand the point of: uploading ride data to a tool after the ride, analysing statistics post ride, conducting a post mortem of a ride, post processing a ridden track, pretty much doing anything with a recorded track , and therefore recording a track log in the first place.
I like to look to the future not the past.

[Bairdy]

Genuine question.  How do folk work Strava?  I upload my 'proper' rides to Garmin Connect when I get home and I quite like to look back at overall speeds, profiles etc for the different audaxes I do.  It helps me to build a picture of what I am capable of and to be realistic about future plans.  If I want to upload these to Strava it is another step - log on to their website etc etc - and it does not seem to fulfil any useful purpose.  How/why can people be arsed to do this?

Same here, recently signed up to Strava and don't really understand the appeal of it.
Garmin Connect works for me.

[Peter]

I'm not bothered one way or another what people do with their navels or stats.  What I do is look at the time on the card for the last time I rode the event: if I'm faster then there is some satisfaction, if I'm slower, then I almost certainly had more fun.

[Ningishzidda]

I eat my words.

Using Strava gives a GPX file which can be sent round the community.
Those with an iphone or android and ride using the routesheet can join in the gpx share crowd.

For info.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrMa9adu8uM

[Revellinho]

I'm not bothered one way or another what people do with their navels or stats.  What I do is look at the time on the card for the last time I rode the event: if I'm faster then there is some satisfaction, if I'm slower, then I almost certainly had more fun.

Peter - tut, tut!  How are you going to get a King of the Mountings if you're pootling along with the slowcoaches at the back, taking pictures of rood screens and the like!  You'll never be a PB at this rate.

[Peter]

   Fortunately, I was born a PB.  you were born a PR which I think in America would be a personal record, so we win every time we saddle up!

[Bairdy]

As I have already pointed out on Facebook, I think this is pretty idiotic

Because AUK events are supposedly non competitive, if people start doing "trials of speed" during them with published results it makes it more like a sort of race and less like a sort of tour.

Secondly, it is often the case that riders get quite fatigued and show poor judgement.  Suppose such a person gets to a downhill segment and decides to "have a go"?  Not good

Of course HK came up with the more obvious comment that setting segment times during an Audax is unlikely because the conditions are unsuited.  You are not going to break any records on a bike with a huge saddle bag, in the rain, at 3am

What I find unappealing is uploading an Audax ride onto Strava only to see it broken into dozens of segments with hundreds of people's times for each segment.
It just feels like it's biased towards a type of cycling I have no interest in.
Strava is new to me and I'll stick with it for a while but if I don't find any benefit from it I'll pull the plug.

[JBB]

I suggest it will be interesting to see who does sign up for this. Using an application that makes it easy to record your times and distances seems perfectly reasonable - most of us probably do this one way or another. However doesn't joining a group imply that you want to compare your times with others? If so I think it's rather sad, surely audax is about completion - not how fast you completed.

Being part of a group gives no more ability to compare times with others than being a solitary member. Any segments you ride or create will automatically include you as a participant along with everyone else who's ever ridden them, and the results will be visible to you in their entirety. The group membership lets you see who's ridden what, and how far, and that's about it. I think some people here really don't understand Strava!

I have to say you may be right    I'd be interested to know what the point of belonging to a group means if you don't see the data you're sharing/uploading. It just seems another layer of complexity to me. I'm genuinely curious to see what the benefits might be and whether they'd outweigh the extra faff.

[bikey-mikey]

Eh?? Each segment you ride is kept track of, and unless you have already done it faster, it WILL be your P (personal!!!!!!!) B (best...)

but you noo that, dincha ??

[bikey-mikey]

As I have already pointed out on Facebook, I think this is pretty idiotic

Because AUK events are supposedly non competitive, if people start doing "trials of speed" during them with published results it makes it more like a sort of race and less like a sort of tour.

Secondly, it is often the case that riders get quite fatigued and show poor judgement.  Suppose such a person gets to a downhill segment and decides to "have a go"?  Not good

Of course HK came up with the more obvious comment that setting segment times during an Audax is unlikely because the conditions are unsuited.  You are not going to break any records on a bike with a huge saddle bag, in the rain, at 3am

What I find unappealing is uploading an Audax ride onto Strava only to see it broken into dozens of segments with hundreds of people's times for each segment.
It just feels like it's biased towards a type of cycling I have no interest in.
Strava is new to me and I'll stick with it for a while but if I don't find any benefit from it I'll pull the plug.

Ah I see...

If you 'join' some of the 'clubs' and then 'choose' one of them from the 'I'm following' drop down box, the rides, segments etc relate only to that 'club/group' of people...

So I'm joined into Audax Club Bristol, & Audax UK, & YACF....

I use ACB as the default, so I get to see what 'Uz Loculs' be doing........

but if I fancy a more general look round I choose Yacf, and try to work out who the f@ck you all really are

[EdinburghFixed]

+1 from me.

We're in distant parts on holiday and rode through a cafe in the middle of nowhere that had been stripped bare by riders earlier in the day. A long way from anywhere, so I had my suspicions and sure enough, Strava quickly revealed some of the culprits through the group.

Of course, I could have loaded up the AUK calendar on my phone, backdated the search, guessed the possible start points / distances required to hit that cafe and narrowed it down pretty quickly to a certain calendar ride, then searched on YACF for a topic associated with the ride, and worked out who rode based on counting the "I'm in" posts (minus the last minute "I'm out" posts). Or waited a month or two for the results to be published.

Is Strava a great solution for everyone? Of course not. Even setting aside the childish idea that people are now racing up hills because of Strava segments but before Strava, all cyclists went slowly and sedately and never attempted to ride fast (or compare their speed with others), there are plenty of reasons not to be interested in it. But pluralism is a great thing, especially when it comes at so little cost.

Thumbs up! (Or should I say, "kudos"!)

[Ningishzidda]

~Arriving at a cafe only to find out an AUK event has passed through and eaten all the cakes is simply 'Lack of research'.

[jimc101]

One great thing with Strava is you can find out who you have ridden with the Flyby http://labs.strava.com/flyby/viewer/# have found this great for putting a name to a face of people i have ridden with.

At the end of it, Strava is a data logging tool, there are others, but at present Strava is the one most people use, how you us it, is up to you.

[Bairn Again]

I'm wondering why the Audax UK Strava Group is sponsored by a Building Society. 

[caerau]

Yes, that was how I read it when I saw the thread title 

[salar55]

I like the heat map and the age group breakdown. Don't mind showing all my rides .
Most folk only look at a segment if it was a top 10. Strava does not link to the weather yet (tailwind/headwind) that might come and even things out.
Everyone has good and bad days on the bike , no use just posting the KOM or PB' s
Not too keen on the request to follow people.
Most in audax now have gps/phone for navigation, but only a small % upload to strava i wonder why.

[caerau]

I've uploaded to map my ride, strava, garmin connect and bike radar in my time.  All have their merits and downsides but Strava I find one of the better ones.  It's slick and I like following my own PBs on certain segments - I couldn't give a flying monkeys what other people are doing on those though besides an idle look if it happens to be someone I know of personally, happens rarely except on segments on audax routes.


I find all of these sites provide things to keep me motivated and that in itself is a pretty good thing as far as I'm concerned.


The fact that lots of audaxers don't use it is hardly a surprise.  With the average age of AUK members being 55ish (iirc) there are a variety of reasons that they're not really strava's ideal demographic - amongst those are that they're older and slower than once they were (I would include myself there although I'm 43) although premium Strava users can rank themselves by age/weight etc. - also there is always going to be less interest in new technology like this in the more mature crowd than there is in the younger age brackets.  Audax isn't racing so of course the interest in segment times is less interesting to audaxers.

[JonB]

With the average age of AUK members being 55ish (iirc) there are a variety of reasons that they're not really strava's ideal demographic - amongst those are that they're older and slower than once they were (I would include myself there although I'm 43) although premium Strava users can rank themselves by age/weight etc. - also there is always going to be less interest in new technology like this in the more mature crowd than there is in the younger age brackets.  Audax isn't racing so of course the interest in segment times is less interesting to audaxers.

Jeez Caerau, lots of assumptions about age in there, stand by for incoming

I'm 51 and love it  .  It's great to see what others are doing locally as it gives me ideas for new routes. Like you I might check out the segments if it flags up a PB but never look at where anyone else is on segments.  As somebody who is new to audax, it's interesting to see the kind of riding that others in the audax community are doing, be it YACF, ACB and now AUK.  I still upload to Garmin Connect, out of habit more than anything else, and the faff factor with Strava is minimal apart from the lack of direct support for the Etrex, just means I have to upload the file from the unit and it doesn't take the barometric data which means it tends to downsize my climbing ... this doesn't bother me, really it doesn't 

[caerau]

Don't worry I was already braced for flak on that post.

[salar55]

The older age groups are the ones that rack up the distance, we can leave the KOM's for the younger riders.
Have a look at the challenges , riders out on big runs most days.
3,4 or 5000+ kms a month .
Can't see it being a Lottery winners lifestyle.

[Pip]

With the average age of AUK members being 55ish (iirc) there are a variety of reasons that they're not really strava's ideal demographic - amongst those are that they're older and slower than once they were (I would include myself there although I'm 43) although premium Strava users can rank themselves by age/weight etc. - also there is always going to be less interest in new technology like this in the more mature crowd than there is in the younger age brackets.  Audax isn't racing so of course the interest in segment times is less interesting to audaxers.

Jeez Caerau, lots of assumptions about age in there, stand by for incoming

I'm 51 and love it  .  It's great to see what others are doing locally as it gives me ideas for new routes. Like you I might check out the segments if it flags up a PB but never look at where anyone else is on segments.  As somebody who is new to audax, it's interesting to see the kind of riding that others in the audax community are doing, be it YACF, ACB and now AUK.  I still upload to Garmin Connect, out of habit more than anything else, and the faff factor with Strava is minimal apart from the lack of direct support for the Etrex, just means I have to upload the file from the unit and it doesn't take the barometric data which means it tends to downsize my climbing ... this doesn't bother me, really it doesn't 

I'm 55 and I love it too and love my cycling more than ever because of it.

Friends of my age were initially resistant to it but have recently embraced it. 3 guys who only started riding 18 months ago but who quickly made use of the app have started audaxing this year completing the Poor Student, Elenith and Asparagus and Strawberries. Inspired by the ability to measure their improvement.

[caerau]

Excellent 

[mattc]

Even setting aside the childish idea that people are now racing up hills because of Strava segments but before Strava, all cyclists went slowly and sedately and never attempted to ride fast (or compare their speed with others), there are plenty of reasons not to be interested in it. But pluralism is a great thing, especially when it comes at so little cost.

Thumbs up! (Or should I say, "kudos"!)

I've seen riders sprint up climbs that they did not before Strava. I have multiple data points to support this 'childish idea'.