Anyone else having trouble with Strava?

[huskerdont]

GPS on the phone most likely. I use my phone as well (with a Garmin watch as a backup), and if it can’t find the satellites, that kind of thing happens.

The one mistake I made for a while was starting before it said “GPS signal acquired.” When the phone was new, I could do that (start it in the parking garage or my basement and it would pick up the signal once I left), but as the phone got older, it stopped picking up the signal right away and would create errors like yours–flying over buildings, really short rides, even one time it had never started–so now I have to exit the garage/basement, get out the phone, and start the ride. (Fun times in the winter when you are wearing gloves.)

[Crickey7]

What’s the point of going 32 mph if you’re only going to burn 6 calories?

[bentbike33]

@cvcalhoun 189616 wrote:

Normally, I use my Garmin watch to record rides, as God intended. But the watch broke, and will take some time to get repaired. And while I can use my old Garmin Edge when I’m on my own bike, it attaches to the bike, so it’s not practical for bikeshare.

You could just carry the Garmin Edge in your pocket on bikeshare. As long as it’s not buried too deep or somehow shielded from the GPS signal it should work even if you can’t see your current speed.

[cvcalhoun]

@bentbike33 189632 wrote:

You could just carry the Garmin Edge in your pocket on bikeshare. As long as it’s not buried too deep or somehow shielded from the GPS signal it should work even if you can’t see your current speed.

Yes, I can if I know in advance that I’ll be using bikeshare. However, a big advantage of the Garmin watch is that it’s always there on my wrist, even if I hadn’t planned to bike. Same is true of my phone, which is always with me. The old Garmin Edge lives on my bicycle, and I don’t tend to take it with me unless I already know I’ll be using bikeshare.

@huskerdont 189628 wrote:

GPS on the phone most likely. I use my phone as well (with a Garmin watch as a backup), and if it can’t find the satellites, that kind of thing happens.

The one mistake I made for a while was starting before it said “GPS signal acquired.” When the phone was new, I could do that (start it in the parking garage or my basement and it would pick up the signal once I left), but as the phone got older, it stopped picking up the signal right away and would create errors like yours–flying over buildings, really short rides, even one time it had never started–so now I have to exit the garage/basement, get out the phone, and start the ride. (Fun times in the winter when you are wearing gloves.)

What’s odd here is that in both cases, it clearly found my starting point. In Exhibit A, it got the first part of my ride, but then suddenly stopped recording the rest. In Exhibit B, you can see exactly where I started, but then it stopped recording between there and almost the end of my ride, and just assumed I flew in a straight line during the part where it stopped recording. So in neither case was the problem a late acquisition of GPS.

[kwarkentien]

Make sure your settings allow the app to run in the background. If you don’t, it can “stop” working properly when the screen goes blank.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[infinitebuffalo]

@kwarkentien 189730 wrote:

Make sure your settings allow the app to run in the background. If you don’t, it can “stop” working properly when the screen goes blank.

Also, how was your battery? The second in particular looks like my RideWithGPS tracks when my phone’s gone into battery-saver mode.

[cvcalhoun]

@infinitebuffalo 189889 wrote:

Also, how was your battery? The second in particular looks like my RideWithGPS tracks when my phone’s gone into battery-saver mode.

Battery was fine. I had actually just had it replaced.

[Smitty2k1]

I just wanted to comment and say that my Strava decided no longer to auto-pause a month or two ago. I can’t figure out how the heck to get that functionality back. As someone who does a lot of stopping at intersections (primarily biking in the city) it is very frustrating.

I checked to make sure the auto-pause is setup to “bike mode” and not “run mode” and that my phone’s GPS is set to high accuracy. I have no problem with it actually tracking my routes or speed, just no auto-pause

[Steve O]

@Smitty2k1 190287 wrote:

I just wanted to comment and say that my Strava decided no longer to auto-pause a month or two ago. I can’t figure out how the heck to get that functionality back. As someone who does a lot of stopping at intersections (primarily biking in the city) it is very frustrating.

I checked to make sure the auto-pause is setup to “bike mode” and not “run mode” and that my phone’s GPS is set to high accuracy. I have no problem with it actually tracking my routes or speed, just no auto-pause

The auto pause being on or off will not affect your Strava ride data. All Strava rides include both “elapsed time” and “moving time.” Strava only counts moving time when you are actually moving, regardless of whether it is pausing or not. Your average speed is calculated against your moving time, not your elapsed.

I actually find auto-pause to be irrelevant for city riding and commuting (it’s more relevant for training and racing and centuries). I’m interested in how long it actually takes me to get somewhere, same as when one drives. Knowing that I was moving for 21 minutes of my 24 minute commute isn’t particularly useful information. It takes me 24 minutes to get to work. Full stop.
I can just imagine a car commuter with auto-pause:
“How long does it take you to drive to work?”
“17 minutes. Unless I count sitting at the traffic lights, then it’s 35.”

I can always check the ride afterward if I have an interest in my moving time and average speed.

(I do not know if auto-pause saves battery power on a phone, which might be a reason to use it)

[Smitty2k1]

@Steve O 190297 wrote:

The auto pause being on or off will not affect your Strava ride data. All Strava rides include both “elapsed time” and “moving time.” Strava only counts moving time when you are actually moving, regardless of whether it is pausing or not. Your average speed is calculated against your moving time, not your elapsed.

I actually find auto-pause to be irrelevant for city riding and commuting (it’s more relevant for training and racing and centuries). I’m interested in how long it actually takes me to get somewhere, same as when one drives. Knowing that I was moving for 21 minutes of my 24 minute commute isn’t particularly useful information. It takes me 24 minutes to get to work. Full stop.
I can just imagine a car commuter with auto-pause:
“How long does it take you to drive to work?”
“17 minutes. Unless I count sitting at the traffic lights, then it’s 35.”

I can always check the ride afterward if I have an interest in my moving time and average speed.

(I do not know if auto-pause saves battery power on a phone, which might be a reason to use it)

Interesting! I’ll have to check that functionality. When I started using Strava a few years ago it would always auto-pause at red lights. As you indicated that gives questionable results when looking at commuting times. However, the auto-pause feature is great for when you’re running errands via bike and stop in a store to pick something up. Auto-pause used to turn on if I was walking as opposed to cycling.

[Smitty2k1]

@Smitty2k1 190457 wrote:

Interesting! I’ll have to check that functionality. When I started using Strava a few years ago it would always auto-pause at red lights. As you indicated that gives questionable results when looking at commuting times. However, the auto-pause feature is great for when you’re running errands via bike and stop in a store to pick something up. Auto-pause used to turn on if I was walking as opposed to cycling.

I did not have separate total and moving times

[huskerdont]

@Smitty2k1 190494 wrote:

I did not have separate total and moving times

Did you happen to look on a computer as well? For me, when looking at the ride on a computer, Strava shows separate total and moving times, whereas on a phone, it only shows moving time.

[Brandon]

@Steve O 190297 wrote:

I actually find auto-pause to be irrelevant for city riding and commuting (it’s more relevant for training and racing and centuries). I’m interested in how long it actually takes me to get somewhere, same as when one drives. Knowing that I was moving for 21 minutes of my 24 minute commute isn’t particularly useful information. It takes me 24 minutes to get to work. Full stop.
I can just imagine a car commuter with auto-pause:
“How long does it take you to drive to work?”
“17 minutes. Unless I count sitting at the traffic lights, then it’s 35.”

Unless you’re me and use that “feature” to continue justifying my bike commute to my wife. “It takes me an hour and 10 minutes door to door to commute by bike. It takes me an hour door to door by metro, so therefore it’s only taking me 10 additional minutes!” *excluding stopped time which pushes it to ~1:20 at which point my commute becomes “an hour and a half?!”

[bentbike33]

@Brandon 190508 wrote:

Unless you’re me and use that “feature” to continue justifying my bike commute to my wife. “It takes me an hour and 10 minutes door to door to commute by bike. It takes me an hour door to door by metro, so therefore it’s only taking me 10 additional minutes!” *excluding stopped time which pushes it to ~1:20 at which point my commute becomes “an hour and a half?!”

You failed to account for the time you would have to spend in the gym (plus driving to and from) to keep your butt from getting fat, which would otherwise happen if you gave up bike commuting for metro or car commuting.

[Author]

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