Discussion
loudlashadjuster said:
PGM said:
torqueofthedevil said:
Has anyone added a heart monitor? Any good?
My biggest gripe with strava which they still haven't fixed. Is that I can't click on a stage and view all my times. Say I get a 2nd best time for a stage - if like to be able to click in that and see all the other times I've done the stage in.
Go into the segment, there's a drop down menu where you can select those following, male, female, your results etc. The your results gives you a list of your own attempts and the dates for that segmentMy biggest gripe with strava which they still haven't fixed. Is that I can't click on a stage and view all my times. Say I get a 2nd best time for a stage - if like to be able to click in that and see all the other times I've done the stage in.
And http://raceshape.com/
Useful for seeing where you are losing time against others in a particular segment
Useful for seeing where you are losing time against others in a particular segment
lepetitoeuf said:
yellowjack said:
It's also VERY suspicious when a quick rider posts times without heart rate or cadence data.
Seriously? Surely provenance/history of that person's riding would be a good clue as to whether it's genuine, rather than just whether they strapped their HRM on for that club run/commute/race etc.I'm talking about 'new' riders suddenly coming from nowhere and smashing local KOMs. Most quick riders are serious, and most serious riders tend to train with at least a HRM. If you are smashing segments with motor assistance (and I suspect a number of local 'riders' are on motorcross bikes) then displaying HRM data might betray the fact that you are flying up loose gravel hills at 25+ mph without too much apparent effort. Hence why I find it suspicious when these chaps don't display such data.
On the other hand, I admit that I don't always wear the HRM on my MTB, and the bike doesn't have a cadence sensor fitted. And a couple of my KOMs are off road. So if someone found them suspicious, I couldn't really blame them. Although I will have data on those segments from when I did wear the heart rate strap, and my times are not ridiculously quicker than the rest of the leaderboard.
Much also depends upon the segment itself. The Surrey Hills road climbs are out of my reach. With my physique and age against me, I harbour no illusions of troubling the upper reaches of the leaderboards, when many of the riders are serious amateur racers at the very least, with many thousands of riders 'competing' for each segment. On those segments, I generally set a target of not being "dead last", and anything better is a bonus.
It's a whole different ball game on local trails, where the percentage who bother with a GPS is much lower, and I'm 'competing' with 20 to 30 riders max. There's every chance that there are folk who are waaaaay faster than anyone on Strava, yet they haven't signed up to it, so I would agree with the likes of 'okgo' that to really know your place in the pecking order, you need to roll up to a race, and go against your competition and the timekeeper's clock. It remains my assertion, however, that an average speed of 81mph through a twisty single track segment in a dense pine forest is not possible for a human being powering their own bicycle, and that such KOMs existing ruins the fun for everyone else, as no matter how fast you train yourself to be, the top place will always be absolutely unachievable.
In short, I think that people who have KOMs with outrageously fast times should do the honourable thing and take them down. Whether they're achieved accidentally (GPS left on for the drive home) or obvious GPS sampling errors (eg: you don't enter and leave a long wiggly segment, instead taking a nearby straight line through, but GPS data presumes you've actually ridden the twists and turns, thereby crediting you with a segment you haven't actually ridden, and with an artificially low time). But often, honesty and integrity are qualities sadly lacking in modern society, and unless those segments are flagged up and challenged, they are allowed to stand.
Silver940 said:
How have you got down to 6s/4th on that, Scott? I can't get below 9s (66/615) with a compact chainset. I'm pretty sure I could coax a bit more out of the 53 ring on my older steel bike, but to be honest I don't think that segment is really long enough for the GPS sampling data to be entirely reliable. 83mph, even downhill, seems a bit high? Or am I just too slow? I've managed 9 seconds on five occasions, and been as slow as 15 seconds when the recent roadworks were in place, but I can't see how to get any more out of my bike/legs without avoiding the knackering climb up Heath Lane to the top Silver940 said:
No idea, there is some GPS issue in there but I was completely spun out 50/11. 46ish mph maybe.. Segment is far too short to be reliable, funny though! There's also a nasty man hole just round the corner to focus the mind.
Nasty manhole? 
I've never been conscious of a manhole after that segment! Maybe I should pay more attention I really hate that new roundabout they've put in though. I like to try to keep hold of any hard won speed for as long as possible, but judging the intentions of the drivers on that roundabout is tricky when most of them seem to not bother using their indicators at all. I much preferred it when it was a simple 'T' junction and anyone wanting to turn right across your path was obvious.
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