W

[bikingdad90]

Also the route planner is going to be subscription based. I wouldn't mind but it is always crashing, no way is it worth paying for.

That is a shame, I liked to create routes on there and then export and put on the GPS

Segments are stupid anyway. Meaninglessly short or the willy-waving KOM times were obviously set in a motor vehicle.

Top 10 will still be available. All the ones near me are hacked anyway; 1 mile at a consistent 30mph is just ridiculous, all the 10 are within 3 seconds of each other and number 11 is at least a minute behind at a more realistic 20mph.

The price appears to have gone down to £4 a month. That's not bad if you're interested in performance tracking. However things like Training Peaks do that much better.

I'm guessing their investors want returns on their financial investment and Strava's burning through their cash.

Looks like the founders made the decision to change it as they are not a profitable company and were making losses. If we want Strava in the future we need to support it for the price of a coffee or two. I’m in two minds and need to think as most of the metrics offerred by Strava I get for free from my Amazfit watch. Only think it doesn’t do is track odometer and run routes but does navigate back to start.

 

[Venod]

I think they are offering a 60 day free trial, I had a year without Strava so it will be no loss to me, I started using it again as my son showed an interest, I will try the free trial to see if it is worth it, it will be interesting to see the age related stats.
I have been expecting this for a while and have no complaints, in fact I am amazed it has lasted free for this long.
I have been wondering of late how they manage with all the new users, if I look at flybys on off road rides that use a lot of the same tracks as walkers/runners it seems everyman and his dog is a Strava user.
There is a lot of electric bikes, people in vehicles, on motorbikes, abusing the KOM system, they will have to improve this, but I don't see it happening, how do they decide what is genuine and whats not, sometimes its obvious, but in the case of electric bikes it could be a super athlete.

 

[Kryton521]

Think when it's "renewal" time I won't be bothering. Too many glitches, and all too often my rides appear to be straight out and back like a racing pigeon on steroids.

 

[Velochris]

In fairness, I have found it a really enjoyable piece of software, that I've never paid a penny for.

I only really use it to compare my own efforts, so I know where my own fitness is. Knowing your efforts compared to others can be good (at the time top 10% going up Luz Ardiden in a thunder and hail storm) and bad (second slowest descent of Luz Ardiden, having stopped several times to prevent the rim over heating).

If it comes down to £1-£2 a month I may consider. Otherwise I will keep logging my rides but not get too concerned about losing the functions.

 

[BurningLegs]

I have subscribed to Strava in the past, but cancelled the renewal when they removed support for bluetooth sensors (think my annual membership will expire sometime in the next couple of months).

I have now subscribed to Ride With GPS instead and I must say it is a fantastic route planner and ride logging app. It lacks the social, competitive, and fitness/form tracking aspects of Strava, but I don't miss them.

I will still use the free version, but only because it combines my rides from different sources (Zwift and RWPGS) into one place and gives me some social features. For what it's worth - I would accept adverts in my feed on a free account.

I do find myself a little frustrated at the people in this thread who seem to expect technology like Strava to be available for free. Technology doesn't create and maintain itself - the development work that goes into Strava or any other app costs real money, and it needs to be funded or it will have to stop...

 

[vickster]

I’ll probably sign up, £48 up front, forget about it for a year. After all, I’m not paying £38 a month for the gym currently and cycling is my only hobby. I’ve used it for years for free after all.
Even better, just been onto website and there‘s a 60 day free trial 👍

 

[Sniper68]

I've always paid for Strava so it's no biggie for me.The only time I've ever had issues with route logging or route planning is on the IOS app.I stopped using that years ago for anything other than syncing with my Garmin/Wahoo/Applewatch.I prefer the desktop version for viewing etc.
Strava/Veloviewer/British Cycling combined costs me less than my annual Union subs....and I get nob-all from that!

 

[fossyant]

Also the route planner is going to be subscription based. I wouldn't mind but it is always crashing, no way is it worth paying for.

Oh if that doesn't work then no point - the off road route planning could have sold it to me. I'll await 'reviews' first.

 

[figbat]

I started paying a couple of years ago so won't see any change. It's surprising it has gone this far as a fairly well-specced service for free, with no adverts. I don't go to a gym or do spin classes or anything so am happy to pay a small subscription to enhance my chosen past-time. It has also been pretty reliable for me - the occasional slow upload but never any other issues. I would put recording problems as much in the hands of the device being used as the app.

I initially started using Strava as a way of tracking my exercise as part of a targetted weight loss program. It worked and improved my health and lifestyle. Now shut up and take my money.

 

[Mike Ayling]

I've been a Summit member since June 2017. Why? During a ride I asked a friend why he paid for Strava, his response was simple:

"I want it to be there in a few years time."

I went home and signed up. It's only recently I've started to use some of the features Summit offers. I've enjoyed them.

I pay for RWGPS for exactly the same reason. If Strava has improved it's Route Planning I may begin to use this, never have done to date.

We get what we pay for and I see no reason why my subscription should fund other athletes who chose not to pay.

To continue @Roger Longbottom comparison how many people pay Sky and others significant sums of money for a vast range of content? I don't understand how Sky subscription works but gather Sports + Entertainment us £55/month - so that's £660pa to sit indoors doing nothing? The amount of content Sky offer is so vast no one could ever possibly use it.

We should not be unhappy at paying less than 10% pa of the Sky cost for something dedicated to our sport.

A sensible reply at last.
Agree 100%

Mike

 

[Mike Ayling]

[QUOTE ] I find myself a little frustrated at the people in this thread who seem to expect technology like Strava to be available for free. Technology doesn't create and maintain itself - the development work that goes into Strava or any other app costs real money, and it needs to be funded or it will have to stop...
[/QUOTE]

Agree

 

[MrGrumpy]

I used to pay at the very beginning of Strava, however the past 4-5 years I`ve stopped caring about segments and KOMs. Its more another platform for logging my rides and seeing other peoples rides. I tend to use Garmin Connect for any detailed stuff i might want to look at. £4 a month is not a huge amount to pay for those features you use.

 

[fossyant]

If using the route planning, will it export to GPX ? I can see it would be handy for MTB, as it uses the heat maps, although might take you some naughty routes as well if you don't double check. I generally check my own progress, which is still there. I'll wait and see if the new features are worth while. I just subscribed to singletrack magazine's digital subscription to help keep them going.

 

[nickyboy]

It's an interesting decision they've made at a time when more people than ever are having to be very careful with their finances

A large majority of Strava users are non paying. I wonder how many will actually migrate and how many will just use the slimmed down free version? If most of the current non payers remain non paying Strava has shot itself in the foot. These people will be open to alternatives

I always queried their business model. Large scale online community apps generally aren't subscription based. Ads pay for the service and the company sells the user data. I bet if Strava said that they would be embedding ads to keep it free that would be preferable to more people

 

[figbat]

If using the route planning, will it export to GPX ? I can see it would be handy for MTB, as it uses the heat maps, although might take you some naughty routes as well if you don't double check. I generally check my own progress, which is still there. I'll wait and see if the new features are worth while. I just subscribed to singletrack magazine's digital subscription to help keep them going.

I use the planner extensively - yes it will export to GPX but I don't bother as the routes I create and save automatically sync to my connected Wahoo account and then onto my ELEMNT Bolt. Pretty much every trail I want to ride is on there and where it isn't you can use a manual route setting option. I always check that I am riding allowable routes - no footpaths etc. Using the heatmap option will sometimes route you 'illegally' but it doesn't take too much effort to spot these.