Zwift Chat

[Whorty]

I’ve not renewed my Strava premium and don’t miss it.

The thing I went premium for a few years ago was the safety beacon feature to share lI’ve location with my wife on solo rides. Then I noticed that RWGPS have that feature and turn by turn navigation so I now pay for RgPS premium for about £40 a year and gone free version of Strava. Wouldn’t miss Strava if I got rid to be honest.

Exactly the same as me - I was paying for Strava and used the live tracking feature but as I don't get out much now even that feature lost its 'value' to me (although it was funny the day a few years ago when I took the wrong turn and ended up on the A303 - the wife was not best pleased to see my little blob on the wrong road heading to Exeter )

I didn't use it for anything else really. Looked at the leaderboards sometimes but not often.

 

[Whorty]

Thats interesting. I’m in the reverse position. I use the free version of ridewithgps. It’s great for mapping routes isn’t it. Although lee and randy have another app that I really should try as it sounds like the road planner is even better. Using the free version it’s a little awkward to set up routes using turn by turn and sharing with with friends, but there is a work around. Don’t zp demand you have a Strava account to verify your results? I have a feeling using zwift you would miss it if you didn’t have it.

edit: just occurred to me that you can share live location on WhatsApp. And you can set up turn by turn for free on ridewithgps. So technically you could save another 40 quid there.

I think Lee and Randy use Kamoot. The GCN guys use the same and it looks good if exploring is your thing

Be interesting with Zwift taking over ZP .... if this all comes in house, and all we need is Zwift data for the race results, quite a few people may quit Strava? With the lockdown there have been a number of opportunities for these companies to grow in the future so could be an interesting few years for us that use these tools.

 

[berty bassett]

cycle.travel is a fantastic site to use if you dont know the roads - just put in the start and finish points and it uses the data off the tinterweb to plot a route most used by cyclists - just remember to click paved only
hasnt let me down yet , you can change route if you want by just dragging it
got me to scotland only going on about 5 mile of main road
and the main selling point to me - almost idiot proof

 

[berty bassett]

Randy uses kamoot but i dont think its free , think you have to buy areas where you use it - i bought Tenerife islands and it was useful - but only because cycle.travel is just uk
dont think i will stop strava for the foreseeable - remember when i first found it , it changed cycling for me totally
would have been brilliant to have all what we have now but 30 years ago - when we could have used it all to better potential
i know strava and a competative nature have made me better than i would ever had been just by plodding round
also you imagine all this zwift and smart bikes years ago

 

[CXRAndy]

Out of all the climbs I've done, real Ventoux, Bkool Ventoux, it has been by far the hardest climb.

Id expect 2+hours to do Ven-Top. Its a, shame it doesn't have the barren section above the Chalet Reynard

 

[Randyberlin]

Randy uses kamoot but i dont think its free , think you have to buy areas where you use it - i bought Tenerife islands and it was useful - but only because cycle.travel is just uk
dont think i will stop strava for the foreseeable - remember when i first found it , it changed cycling for me totally
would have been brilliant to have all what we have now but 30 years ago - when we could have used it all to better potential
i know strava and a competative nature have made me better than i would ever had been just by plodding round
also you imagine all this zwift and smart bikes years ago View attachment 536758

Touring is my joy. Komoot is great for finding the routes that have little to no traffic. On one US west coast ride it did take me on a rough trail, but I always pick the option with trails included. At Berty’s Suggestion I used cycle.travel when planning my Scandinavia trip that is postponed until next year. The way Komoot syncs with the ELEMNT is really convenient and before I go next year I’ll get the Varia radar that also shows on the ELEMNT

 

[BurningLegs]

@<Tommy> - I use WhatsApp location a lot, mostly when driving but my wife prefers the live location stuff when riding for a few reasons. The key thing is that it shows extra info like how long since the phone last sent data, battery status on last connection, and planned route with previous tracks.

With WhatsApp you just get current location with no context. Strava and RWGPS offer the additional context which (should!) help to avoid a possible panic scenario.

 

[bobinski]

Out of all the climbs I've done, real Ventoux, Bkool Ventoux, it has been by far the hardest climb.

Id expect 2+hours to do Ven-Top. Its a, shame it doesn't have the barren section above the Chalet Reynard

it does

 

[peterob]

Probably the wrong forum to ask this question but I do know at least a few of you do actually ride out in the real world once in a while.....

Does anyone use a bike gps tracking security device? I’ve been considering the sherlock or the guardian light

 

[SWSteve]

Just ridden the Ven Top stage at noon. I had a plan , it went quite well , but ooh was it tough .
Plan : Ride first couple of km at just under threshold, that's a pretty low gradient so benefit from drafting. After that settle into a pace between 250-270 watts depending on flow ,group ,gradient etc . Aim to keep overall average at 250 W. Time target was under 1:30 , with 1:25 being overachieving target .
Well , I managed to tick the plan boxes pretty well .
1:26:42 on ZP .
Pleased with that result but at 10km it felt wasn't much fun .
@BurningLegs and @berty bassett , reckon you'll go sub 1:15 .
Wont be doing it again in a hurry .

Great effort.
Before starting mine today, what w//kg was it to hit 1.5hrs?

 

[Norry1]

I’m not saying whether it’s worth paying or not.

I’m just saying that they’ve removed stuff from the free version to encourage people to pay the sub, As you said you couldn’t understand why they’ve done it.

The value side of it is probably a lot more subjective. For me personally I started paying pretty early on. I figured I was supporting a young company whose product I was using daily as much as anything. I’m glad they’ve generally kept advertising to a minimum too and I figure people paying encourages that model. I think Strava generally is excellent. Maybe we all sort of take it for granted a bit. But it’s completely changed cycling in some ways. And zwift leans on it heavily.

Have to say I am the same. I decided to pay for Premium even when I wasn't using many of the Premium features - I figured £1 a week was a very fair price to pay for the de Facto place to record and compare your rides.

 

[<Tommy>]

Probably the wrong forum to ask this question but I do know at least a few of you do actually ride out in the real world once in a while.....

Does anyone use a bike gps tracking security device? I’ve been considering the sherlock or the guardian light

In London I take my lights off my bike when I lock it up or they’d get probably get stolen sooner or later. And my summer bikes I don’t lock or really even let leave my side. So it’s not something I’ve considered.

I can see how they’re useful in different circumstance though. I wonder if they work with a dead battery.

 

[<Tommy>]

Have to say I am the same. I decided to pay for Premium even when I wasn't using many of the Premium features - I figured £1 a week was a very fair price to pay for the de Facto place to record and compare your rides.

Yeah it definitely suits me too. Riding indoors and out it bridges the gap and is simple which is good for me 😄. The metrics aren’t exactly advanced for training. Bit there’s other apps like goldencheater to take care of that. And it’s got the social aspect because basically everyone who cycles a decent amount uses it.

 

[<Tommy>]

i know strava and a competative nature have made me better than i would ever had been just by plodding round

Strava, or maybe just smart phone tech. Have changed cycling forever really haven’t they? If it wasn’t Strava it would been someone else no doubt. Whether that’s an overall positive of negative you could probably write an essay on!

Before I discovered Strava I was cycling around and I’m sure I noticed cyclist around London were pushing harder. Felt like all of a sudden lots more people were racing off the lights. Then I discovered Strava segments and it all made sense.

 

[Alongo]

Great effort.
Before starting mine today, what w//kg was it to hit 1.5hrs?

I was at 3.5 w/ kg , reckon 3.3 ish should get 1 1/2 hrs . Good luck , when you riding it .