Road Cycling

[grudas]

I just cancelled my auto-renewal. They are fundamentally a company that runs completely from user data and refusing to pass that through to other third parties and giving such short notice is just a dick move. Most people only use them for tracking segments and general ride data. I don't use it for analysis other than seeing if I go any faster on segments and to follow a few mates. I could stomach the price when they weren't behaving like dicks but I think they might find themselves losing quite a few customers over this.

that's my logic too, its my data, let me do what I want with it and if I feel like using some external app to show it in a different manner then surely I should be allowed to? my view is this, they're trying to remove it so they can offer it as a premium feature, problem is, they do not roll out features quickly or if they do they're not that great.

the "ai" block is hilarious. they're clearly trying to push the rubbish ai summary and don't want anyone else doing it better than they are.

 

[fez]

I wonder if this is some big backlash over GDPR issues that someone has flagged and they've gone mental to compensate?

It might be but the sensible solution to that is to just lock it down a little.

that's my logic too, its my data, let me do what I want with it and if I feel like using some external app to show it in a different manner then surely I should be allowed to? my view is this, they're trying to remove it so they can offer it as a premium feature, problem is, they do not roll out features quickly or if they do they're not that great.

the "ai" block is hilarious. they're clearly trying to push the rubbish ai summary and don't want anyone else doing it better than they are.

I imagine they are trying to get more funding hence "AI" but yeah, they are clearly trying to capitalise on their massive user base and hope that by kicking out all their adjacent competitors who do analysis much better than them, people will use their version. Issue is that plenty of people will just end up uploading their fit data to places like intervals.icu directly or another platform will come in and happily take their customers.

I think Strava has some good things. I really like their route planning, heat maps etc but if you behave like pricks I will find someone else to get that information from.

 

[Trifid]

Yeah, after watching DC's Strava video, I watched the first couple of minutes of this -

I guess he's trying to do a Clarkson's Farm... but I lost interest about 2 mins in.

I'm going to give it a go, even if it did have a bit* of a 'it's tough owning a multi-million £ estate' to it. (* OK it was more then a bit!)

Interesting, Strava really is doing its best to make sure my auto renewal stays off. I don’t know why they fight against their user base so much? Veloviewer, intervals.icu, riduck etc would probably be non compliant after these changes. Silly Strava.

What they have done is kill off the segment where strava is the central workout repository that feeds your activities to other platforms. I would laugh if Apple, Garmin and Wahoo respond in kind, and to be honest I think they should even if we all lose out because of it. Hopefully they back down from this.

 

[Lethal`]

Wow I guess I've been away a while if even grudas is back

 

[grudas]

What they have done is kill off the segment where strava is the central workout repository that feeds your activities to other platforms. I would laugh if Apple, Garmin and Wahoo respond in kind, and to be honest I think they should even if we all lose out because of it. Hopefully they back down from this.

yeah, they're forgetting why they're popular. For me it's the social aspect the rest like data and the way it's processed/exposed to you is meh, intervals.icu or riduck is way better in my opinion.

Wow I guess I've been away a while if even grudas is back

crazy talk, grudas is long gone. Call me slowdas from now on

 

[Roady]

Also. Why so many Bib shorts? I’m trying to keep around 4 pairs in rotation and assumed they’d last a couple years?

Haha... I'm an 'accumulator'! When I'm using 8 pairs of shorts on a 'normal' week (5 commuting, 2 Zwift evening rides & 1 weekend). Couple in the overlap needed when the washing machine battle means you barely get 1 weekly 'cycling wash' and the additional overlap when things are drying...

11 Sportful Norain
4 Rapha thermal
12 Rapha Core
1 Rapha Classic
2 Rapha Pro Team
1 Assos Mille C2
1 Endura SL
2 Sportful R&D
2 Castelli - think a Progetto X2 & Omloop
3-4 pairs of tights (3 of them padless so wear over shorts in winter)

Probably double what I need, but when I wasn't spending money on bikes...

Also can we take a moment to appreciate this. @Junglist is gonna get an £8k top end bike and his mrs isn’t even allowed her own bib shorts

HAhahaha, what size is she @Junglist ? Think I have a pair of Rapha 'Souplesse' from a few years back and my half never wore them (straight refused!). I wouldn't have bought them new and think I wore them over other shorts at one point doing a long Zwift ride all day thing (double padding to try and absorb some pain!) so expect they're an L or XL size.

Sup? It's been a hot minute!

I need some quick advice then I'll say hello properly soon....

I want some gravel tyres - either 30mm or 32mm ASAP to do a gravel ride on my uhh road bike on Friday. Any ideas? Ideally as knobbly as possible and available on quick delivery without being overly expensive!

Good to see you back mate, hope you're well and still riding! Did you get injured? Or just fat?

Nothing to add - not a gravel/CX rider, but thinking back to some chatter in my outdoor clubs CX group some of them advised others with road bikes toward Scwalbe One (maybe 'Bite'?) for tighter clearances and CX grip on smaller tyres than the usual 32/33/34mm they seem to start at.

You’re both welcome @AndyCr15 and @Roady

We can be Assos buddies then in a few years we can be Tarmac SL10 buddies

Fake news. I only buy 1 new bike every 9 years!

Interesting, Strava really is doing its best to make sure my auto renewal stays off. I don’t know why they fight against their user base so much? Veloviewer, intervals.icu, riduck etc would probably be non compliant after these changes. Silly Strava.

Strava always talked about driving users back into their ecosystem as the way to drive themselves forwards. They've added a lot the last few years, but totally in agreement that stopping the 'extras' is not the way to go about it. I'm still a subscriber and have been for over 10 years. But once they break that integration I'll see even less value in keeping it going.

In the middle a a cyber attack at work so not sure how much time I’ll get though

Goodluck and hope it went well. Do you work for Disney? Massive outage on their streaming services and websites last night.

Also (also also?) I was watching Youtube last night and this popped up. I always thought Hank from GCN seemed quite posh but never realised this level of rich!

PressReader.com - Digital Newspaper & Magazine Subscriptions

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Knew he was posh and really it's his family inheritance rather than 'rich'. His father was some tank commander or something? Really those guys always had a bit of an estate going on. Didn't realise it was that big. Wish him well, he's always worked fairly hard and committed himself to things without really riding off that money/heritage. There might not even be much money...

The couple of times I rode with him when he was in NFTO (2014/15/16?), he was 'bottle boy' and the older riders joked about him being posh. There was quite an age gap. Didn't think much of it, he was a very quiet lad, could tell he was there to learn. Wide eyes just taking everything in. They also joked about how tough he was as he'd get all the races in bad weather and be fetching stuff from the cars the whole time. I can recall someone saying for a guy who 'never finishes' races (domestique) he'd usually fight to go further than he needed to - he'd helped some good wins for his leaders in doing so when the weather was bad. He comes across on GCN as really personable - didn't find him that when riding with him, he didn't really talk. Was really quiet and he'd be 'following the others' (Pro's) rather than chatting with the club guys (like me) who'd tacked on to the ride. He's been a great personality on GCN, comes across pretty genuine & likeable as well as seeming quite chatty now he's older!

James Lowsley-Williams

James Lowsley-Williams (born 1992-01-12) is a former professional road racing cyclist from Great Britain, active between 2009 and 2018. His best results are 20th place in Omloop Mandel-Leie-Schelde Meulebeke and 22nd place in stage Tour de Yorkshire.

www.procyclingstats.com

 

[Lethal`]

Did you get injured? Or just fat?

uhh both. let's just say I didn't believe the scales the other week.. damn. Still got endurance/stamina but top end and climbing are hilariously bad. I didn't realise how fit I was until now haha.

Nothing to add - not a gravel/CX rider, but thinking back to some chatter in my outdoor clubs CX group some of them advised others with road bikes toward Scwalbe One (maybe 'Bite'?) for tighter clearances and CX grip on smaller tyres than the usual 32/33/34mm they seem to start at.

I'm gonna drop into Condor Cycles after work and see what they got. This is probably a really stupid idea to ride an off-road ride on my road bike but the bike hasn't even been used in 4 years. It just sat in a wardrobe.

In related news, I'm looking to buy a new gravel/adventure bike AND a full suspension. I know this is off-road chat... I went to Bike Park Wales (sans uplift) and Afan on my hardtail. It was fun but a challenge. I blame my mate for letting me borrow his fancy Evil Full Sus in the afternoon at BPW. Now I need one.

 

[Junglist]

HAhahaha, what size is she @Junglist ? Think I have a pair of Rapha 'Souplesse' from a few years back and my half never wore them (straight refused!). I wouldn't have bought them new and think I wore them over other shorts at one point doing a long Zwift ride all day thing (double padding to try and absorb some pain!) so expect they're an L or XL size.

Ha she's pretty small. I wear a medium and they're quite baggy on her lol. At the moment she only rides to work and back or maybe a little excursion along the track for ~90 minutes so she doesn't seem too bothered by wearing bibs.

Fake news. I only buy 1 new bike every 9 years!

Probably still more often than me!

Not Disney, I work for a company who makes famous big yellow diggers! And muggins here is the IT Manager so it's been a fun 48 hours back from a week off!

 

[#Chri5#]

I've turned off auto-renew on my Strava subscription today. Veloviewer has been a great thing for me as it encouraged me to ride new routes and explore to tick off tiles (even if I did end up bashing up & down some filthy bridlepaths just to get a tile). The new AI feature is utter garbage and a complete waste of CPU cycles. I swear loudly at it every time I'm told I've crushed a workout.

 

[Martynt74]

Veloviewer seems a difficult one as it specifically advertises it's powered by Strava so you wonder what they'll do. Also wonder how it'll impact Elevate? It's a Chrome extension which gives extra Strava detail within the Strava website itself.

 

[Martynt74]

Haha... I'm an 'accumulator'! When I'm using 8 pairs of shorts on a 'normal' week (5 commuting, 2 Zwift evening rides & 1 weekend). Couple in the overlap needed when the washing machine battle means you barely get 1 weekly 'cycling wash' and the additional overlap when things are drying...

11 Sportful Norain
4 Rapha thermal
12 Rapha Core
1 Rapha Classic
2 Rapha Pro Team
1 Assos Mille C2
1 Endura SL
2 Sportful R&D
2 Castelli - think a Progetto X2 & Omloop
3-4 pairs of tights (3 of them padless so wear over shorts in winter)

Probably double what I need, but when I wasn't spending money on bikes...

Ha there's me thinking 4 was enough, but when you're using them for commuting then i can see how that adds up pretty quickly. Washing is definitely a big bonus out here, everything is dry in a few hours so you can get multiple loads done a day without issue!

 

[fez]

I imagine that every app that takes data from Strava will have to stop taking it. Their T&C changes are very broad as to cover any sort of data processing and analysis so there would literally be zero reason to take the data for anyone else.

 

[grudas]

Veloviewer seems a difficult one as it specifically advertises it's powered by Strava so you wonder what they'll do. Also wonder how it'll impact Elevate? It's a Chrome extension which gives extra Strava detail within the Strava website itself.

they're apparently working with strava on it, they've got a "close" relationship what ever that means.

I imagine that every app that takes data from Strava will have to stop taking it. Their T&C changes are very broad as to cover any sort of data processing and analysis so there would literally be zero reason to take the data for anyone else.

that is the problem, their T&C's are so broad that they can essentially kill anything if they feel like it, which by their 2nd response to DC rainmakers https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2024/11/stravas-changes-to-kill-off-apps.html blog post seems like they're well aware of it too! its funny how greed kills all the good things. I understand if strava had quick development on features and actually added them in a useful way but they're so far behind many apps like veloviewer or intervals.icu that it's crazy.

 

[Roady]

uhh both. let's just say I didn't believe the scales the other week.. damn. Still got endurance/stamina but top end and climbing are hilariously bad. I didn't realise how fit I was until now haha.

I'm gonna drop into Condor Cycles after work and see what they got. This is probably a really stupid idea to ride an off-road ride on my road bike but the bike hasn't even been used in 4 years. It just sat in a wardrobe.

In related news, I'm looking to buy a new gravel/adventure bike AND a full suspension. I know this is off-road chat... I went to Bike Park Wales (sans uplift) and Afan on my hardtail. It was fun but a challenge. I blame my mate for letting me borrow his fancy Evil Full Sus in the afternoon at BPW. Now I need one.

Good to see you back and never stress about the weight - you know that'll fall off! The endurance/stamina will make sure of it - just be careful not to push yourself too hard coming back and get injured...!

Good luck on the bike hunt. Should be ongoing deals on certain brands while they struggle with shifting inventory. Might even be ongoing 'fire sales' into the spring/summer while the latest years' models continue to push prices down on older years they still have.

Spoiler

I paid £3598 & 3350 for Tarmac SL7 Comps in the summer (RRP 6500 then down to 4600 before sales) because the SL8 23/24 was out and they where getting rid of stock for SL8 24/25 so shifted the SL7 inventory at crazy low prices. Saw some sell for £3175 from Sigma in standard (54) sizes like mine (different colour). Still some around now for £2600 from places in standard sizes.

Ha she's pretty small. I wear a medium and they're quite baggy on her lol. At the moment she only rides to work and back or maybe a little excursion along the track for ~90 minutes so she doesn't seem too bothered by wearing bibs.


Probably still more often than me!

Not Disney, I work for a company who makes famous big yellow diggers! And muggins here is the IT Manager so it's been a fun 48 hours back from a week off!

Ah ok, yeah these defo too big if they fitted me over other shorts!

Oh that was fun. Blaming anyone for it, or just 'one of those things'?! Pretty sweet to work for a company like that, do you get to go to Rochester much? Occasionally drive past it and wonder what it's like inside. Massive place so I imagine big open foyers with big excavators plated in (yellow) gold sat in the middle

Ha there's me thinking 4 was enough, but when you're using them for commuting then i can see how that adds up pretty quickly. Washing is definitely a big bonus out here, everything is dry in a few hours so you can get multiple loads done a day without issue!

Yeah we're at 3-4 days to dry most things indoors here. We have 6 clothes airers so it looks like a laundrette whenever the fire is lit...!

I understand if strava had quick development on features and actually added them in a useful way but they're so far behind many apps like veloviewer or intervals.icu that it's crazy.

They've always been slow to develop and adapt, maybe has changed the last year or two when the CEO changed, but in my opinion there's nothing there to drive people to it. No killer features you can't really get elsewhere, the ones you pay Strava Premium for are even available for free elsewhere. Half-baked 'fake AI' is not one of them!

Maybe that's the thing. The base/core platform of Strava is so outdated, then they've got their API getting hammered by all these other 3rd parties and it's causing them reliability/stability problems, they get blamed but haven't got the structure in place to develop or evolve to solve it. Cut out the load from those 3rd parties is an easy way to gain stability/loyalty from your base who don't use them... But by all means I could understand making some of the connection stuff a Premium function. I'd continue my sub for that - like more frequent data refreshes/additional data etc. I get more value from Veloviewer, intervals & the querky stuff like Riduck than I probably do from my Strava Premium features... Because they're so basic and lack things!

 

[#Chri5#]

The other thing that annoys me about Strava is the feature mismatch between the app (Android for me) and the website.

Edit a manual activity on mobile and you change start time/date and length. Same action on the website - no option to edit. I've also never found a way to flag an activity on the mobile app.

The Relative Effort feature in the app was broken for ages. It would not show activities which Strava support acknowledged but it was never fixed. In the end they gave me 6 months free to shut me up complaining about it.

 

[Martynt74]

Sweet the Whoop site got stock of the XL Assos bib shorts. I had actually convinced myself that the GTS range would be better, but the price made it a no brainer. At least i can get a feel for the quality and add a pair of the GTS ones at a later point.

 

[Martynt74]

Just got back from a relatively long ride. Was getting changed and about to jump in the shower when my wife asked what’s happened to my penis and she’s never seen it so small and shrivelled.

Clearly cycling is not conducive to the opposite sex

 

[IronWarrior]

Has any of you ever ordered anything from bikenn? (tradeinn)

I'm planning on ordering this: Troy Lee Designs Upl 7855 Long Sleeve Protective Jersey to protect my upper body while inline skating, can't find any UK retailers who sell it.

 

[Martynt74]

Has any of you ever ordered anything from bikenn? (tradeinn)

I'm planning on ordering this: Troy Lee Designs Upl 7855 Long Sleeve Protective Jersey to protect my upper body while inline skating, can't find any UK retailers who sell it.

Yeah I used them in the UK and they’re my go to place here in Spain.

 

[fez]

Has any of you ever ordered anything from bikenn? (tradeinn)

I'm planning on ordering this: Troy Lee Designs Upl 7855 Long Sleeve Protective Jersey to protect my upper body while inline skating, can't find any UK retailers who sell it.

Used to use them but since brexit I don't think I have. Never had any issues though. Good place.