Strava noob

[lordofthemark]

So I got it to work this morning. Very pleased to see that some people have biked the segments I did slower than I did (though I think some of them were doing it as part of a much longer ride) Of course I was still near the bottom of all the lists. More importantly, the times were good for me. I also saw just how fast I was going on the “Shirlington descent” to inform future discussions of safety, and braking. And to see what the gradients are.

So, questions.
A. Since I did not declare my ride private, anyone can see how I did, and where I rode, right? But not when?
B. I saw a few familiar forum names. Is it impolite to follow someone on Strava without their permission? Is there a group I could follow/join instead?
C. Would it be considered presumptuous to create segments already? I want to create one for my entire usual commute, and one for the route from my home to Shirlington. And maybe for the return from Shirlington to my home via Walter Reed. (I know I need to do that on the website, not the App)
D. I thought I would get to see watts estimates, but that seems to be Premium only
E. What else do I need to learn about Strava before signing up for Freezing Saddles?

Topic

[DismalScientist]

A. They can tell when as well. The activity log gives you a starting time.
B. Follow anyone you want. They will receive email notice that you started following them. If they don’t want to be followed, they can do something where they can only be followed with their permission. If the button just says Follow, feel free. If the button says “Request to Follow,” they have changed their settings.
C. Create away. You may be the only person riding on a segment from your house to work anyway. You can always make segments private.

[jrenaut]

E. Nothing is necessary. You don’t even need A-D for Freezing Saddles.

You might be interested in the Flyby Viewer where you can put in one of your rides and see which other Strava riders you passed.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

Check out the Fly By tool at Strava labs. http://labs.strava.com/flyby/

You grab the link from one of your rides, put it in the fly by tool, then watch your little icon move across the map as it models your ride. You also get to see all the other rider icons moving around and see their speed and stops, etc.

It’s hypnotic watching them all buzz around the map. Definitely the coolest thing from my freebie Strava account.

[GuyContinental]

@DismalScientist 101844 wrote:

C. Create away. You may be the only person riding on a segment from your house to work anyway. You can always make segments private.

And if you are not the only one riding that exact route, you are free to be creeped out.

FWIW, it’s not a horrible idea to put a “privacy zone” of .25 miles or so around your house/workplace so random unsavory folks can’t figure out exactly where you live and exactly when you like to commute (i.e. when your are out of the house)
Profile –> Settings –> Privacy –> Set Privacy Zone

[hozn]

C. Don’t create public segments for your commute or from your house to place X. Just make those private. If there is a particular hill climb you think should be a segment, go ahead and make it (but someone else almost certainly has already done so). Any segment that goes through lights or stop signs is likely to get flagged.

[Steve O]

@lordofthemark 101840 wrote:

B. I saw a few familiar forum names. Is it impolite to follow someone on Strava without their permission? Is there a group I could follow/join instead?

You can join the BikeArlington and/or Bike DC groups. And there may be others I’m not aware of. In Freezing Saddles, you will be required to join the group that is your team.

People who do not want to be followed will change their permissions, so that you can only “Request to Follow.” Then they will need to approve you. If, like me, they do not have that, then you are welcome to follow if you like. I don’t consider that impolite. Just don’t be faster.

[Steve O]

@lordofthemark 101840 wrote:

C. Would it be considered presumptuous to create segments already? I want to create one for my entire usual commute, and one for the route from my home to Shirlington. And maybe for the return from Shirlington to my home via Walter Reed. (I know I need to do that on the website, not the App)

I would modify Hozn’s reply that you can either create a private segment that represents your whole commute OR you can create a segment that starts, like, a couple blocks from your house and represents your whole commute. Then you will learn, like Guy points out, who lives next door and works in your building. Creepy.

[vvill]

@lordofthemark 101840 wrote:

D. I thought I would get to see watts estimates, but that seems to be Premium only

AFAIK,
1. You need to have your bike’s weight entered, and your weight.
2. It doesn’t matter where you allocate the weight for the wattage estimates. If you have it allocated reasonably though it’s easier when you switch bikes to have better wattage estimates. I would include weight of clothing, gear, tools you carry, water bottles, etc. for the most accuracy, although it’s always going to be ball park especially on windy days, off-road segments, group rides, etc.

[cyclingfool]

@Steve O 101867 wrote:

I would modify Hozn’s reply that you can either create a private segment that represents your whole commute OR you can create a segment that starts, like, a couple blocks from your house and represents your whole commute. Then you will learn, like Guy points out, who lives next door and works in your building. Creepy.

Also creepy: achieve the effect of a MANY MANY hours long track by recording a couple seconds the next day before saving a track, then put you XX-hour track into flyby and see who rode past your house or your office – or anywhere near where you rode for that matter. Casts a pretty wide net.

PS-I’ve only done this unintentionally, but man, you can get a lot of “flybys” when you’re bike is parked at home for 14 hours.

[lordofthemark]

@vvill 101872 wrote:

AFAIK,
1. You need to have your bike’s weight entered, and your weight.
2. It doesn’t matter where you allocate the weight for the wattage estimates. If you have it allocated reasonably though it’s easier when you switch bikes to have better wattage estimates. I would include weight of clothing, gear, tools you carry, water bottles, etc. for the most accuracy, although it’s always going to be ball park especially on windy days, off-road segments, group rides, etc.

I looked at the analysis on the website, and they do estimate watts. I assume they use an average bike weight (I had input my body weight, but not my bike weight) and that they assume zero wind, and perfectly inflated tires – and road bike position and narrow tires?

[lordofthemark]

@Steve O 101867 wrote:

I would modify Hozn’s reply that you can either create a private segment that represents your whole commute OR you can create a segment that starts, like, a couple blocks from your house and represents your whole commute. Then you will learn, like Guy points out, who lives next door and works in your building. Creepy.

Since I live in a large building with no other residential buildings immediately adjacent, and ditto at the work end, I think creating the privacy zones might be pointless. Actually I would be amused to see if anyone lives here and works where I do -but I don’t think anyone does and I would be flabbergasted if they biked.

[lordofthemark]

How do I make absolutely certain it has stopped recording? I had a pretty decent ride today, but it had been recording since yesterday evening, so it included a transit commute, and several hours of walking around, so I deleted.

Also, to enter a bike, it wants the weight. I don’t feel like taking the scale to the bike or the bike to the scale right now, and the Kona Dew specs I found on line do not include weight, and what I found on bikepedia does not have weight. Nor can I find a weight mentioned in the discussions here when I was looking at it.

[CaseyKane50]

Be sure to click Finish
[ATTACH=CONFIG]7178[/ATTACH]

And then on the next screen, click the Orange Save in the upper right corner.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]7179[/ATTACH]

[hozn]

@lordofthemark 101900 wrote:

Also, to enter a bike, it wants the weight. I don’t feel like taking the scale to the bike or the bike to the scale right now, and the Kona Dew specs I found on line do not include weight, and what I found on bikepedia does not have weight. Nor can I find a weight mentioned in the discussions here when I was looking at it.

The weight is for the wattage. If you want wattage, weigh the bike. Otherwise just estimate. Somewhere between 22 and 30lbs would be a guess, for the basic bike. If you’ve added stuff like rack, fenders, etc. then it might be more.

If you don’t care about wattage numbers, and I am guessing you do not, just guess. Not like the numbers are going to be very accurate anyway.

[vvill]

@lordofthemark 101883 wrote:

I looked at the analysis on the website, and they do estimate watts. I assume they use an average bike weight (I had input my body weight, but not my bike weight) and that they assume zero wind, and perfectly inflated tires – and road bike position and narrow tires?

@lordofthemark 101900 wrote:

How do I make absolutely certain it has stopped recording? I had a pretty decent ride today, but it had been recording since yesterday evening, so it included a transit commute, and several hours of walking around, so I deleted.

Also, to enter a bike, it wants the weight. I don’t feel like taking the scale to the bike or the bike to the scale right now, and the Kona Dew specs I found on line do not include weight, and what I found on bikepedia does not have weight. Nor can I find a weight mentioned in the discussions here when I was looking at it.

I don’t know exactly how the wattage formula works but I’d imagine it doesn’t take variables into account other than speed/acceleration, gradient and weight.

If you overshoot a ride you can go back and trim off parts, at least on the website.

[Author]

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