Big Boys Club

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Rod Fuckin Bottrell *shakes fist*

So a bunch of us local Strava users are currently engaged in a friendly competition centered around that decommissioned CP railroad trail. My other archnemesis Rob V destroyed the record today. I just gave it my best and beat my previous PR by 40 seconds. 17th overall and 3rd of the fatties. Feelsgoodman 🥳


so is there a forum, or messaging on the strava app, where you can communicate with others in your area. Or is the engaged in friendly competition piece just an unspoken thing, and you just noticed more people doing that particular circuit.

I think that competitive piece would be a YUGE boon to my efforts to get into biking at an obsessive level.
 
I do have to think about how that might get me hurt or killed though..... even yesterday the knowledge that I was tracking my ride and could hear in my head phones my avg mph at every mile. Made me do some risky manuevers that I would not normally do if I was going from point A to point B. Even on the lakeshore bike path, it can get dicy with pedestrians and crossing a couple parking lot inlets, passing slow 2-3 wide bikers.

it might be the unhealthy decision for me at this point
 
so is there a forum, or messaging on the strava app, where you can communicate with others in your area. Or is the engaged in friendly competition piece just an unspoken thing, and you just noticed more people doing that particular circuit.

I think that competitive piece would be a YUGE boon to my efforts to get into biking at an obsessive level.
You can comment on each other's activities, so it becomes a bit of a forum thingie. Except everyone over there has a sunny/positive attitude and there is no name-calling. You know how these health nuts are. Very annoying.

There is a free trial period. You should definitely try it.

The Tour de France is going right now and a lot of the pros are running Strava on their phone during the stages. I dunno if it's a sponsored thing or not but it's really cool to have access to the data.

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I do have to think about how that might get me hurt or killed though..... even yesterday the knowledge that I was tracking my ride and could hear in my head phones my avg mph at every mile. Made me do some risky manuevers that I would not normally do if I was going from point A to point B. Even on the lakeshore bike path, it can get dicy with pedestrians and crossing a couple parking lot inlets, passing slow 2-3 wide bikers.

it might be the unhealthy decision for me at this point
Not gonna lie, Strava is even worse for that. A lot of the timed segments start and end at awkward spots and intersections. The app goads you into riding like a douche.
 
No trails near you Tron? I like to get away from traffic lights and stop signs as quickly as possible.
Well I quit mountain biking after my big crash

The paved trails are littered with square walkers, joggers and noob cyclists. I get the feeling I live in a much more congested area than you do.
 
Yeah I'm not sure how my cycling life will be after I move back to Toronto. There are tons of light gravel trails here, you can do those using a regular road bike and you only encounter the odd person walking their dog.

I use "gravel" tires but they're basically slicks (32mm Panaracer Gravel King slicks)
 
okay signed up for strava

so if i ride a segment during my ride, will it automatically log that, or do I have to manually like hit a start/stop button?

do I have to set a goal on a segment beforehand to have it measure my time on it later?

I don't have anything fancy, and just keep my phone in my damn pocket.

there are a lot of ridiculously good riders here in Chicago.
 
You don't need to do anything, just hit Record and Start to track your ride then you can put your phone back in your pocket. Strava will keep running in the background and time any segments you happen to encounter.
 
Ya I keep my phone in my pocket, too.

You want that phone close by if you crash, boys.
 
I can get to areas that have miles of flat, gravel trail (out by the Everglades) but that’s a 25 min car ride.

I really like walking my bike to the elevator and then bam, I’m starting my bike ride.
 
dozens of little segments.

the 5 mile segment that I wanted to have tracked, where I really cranked hard in the middle of the ride away from tourists wasn't one of them unfortunately. Not sure why there are so many stupid like .2 or .3 mile little segments. I'm really only looking at the multiple mile ones.

I seem to be RIGHT smack dab in the middle of most of them. which is good by me for a starting place for my non tuned up 5 year old $175 fixie point a to point b bike.
 
so will strava tell me if I hit my own PR's on segments that I've done before?
 
Ya I keep my phone in my pocket, too.

You want that phone close by if you crash, boys.
with the apple watch that has fall detection and auto 911 dial with your gps location?
 
so will strava tell me if I hit my own PR's on segments that I've done before?
Yes, but for that you need to keep your phone screen on (I think.) Strava yells at me when I use it as a bike computer - see 0:06, 1:16 and 2:44 in this vid:
 
Matty looks pretty desolate out there. How far are you from you live?
 
IT'S A DECOMMISSIONED RAILROAD, NOT A STREET

This is just a couple miles from the city. There are tons of trails like this around Owen Sound, along with singletrack MTB trails in the forest. OS is technically a city but it's surrounded by nature. I can go fish for bass and salmon 100 yards from the apartment.