how accurate is strava

[markharry66]

just started using this on my iphone distance and times seem a bit all over the place.
This morning coming down hill at downham, went past speed check told me 37 yet strava is telling me top speed of 28 miles an hour.

Using iphone 4 crap gps via 3 network if that makes any difference.

 

[Judderz]

Strava is just the program, all depends on device and gps signal. I use a Samsung S3, and my friend who I ride with uses a Garmin 500, times and distance are usually spot on with each other, but elevation climbed there's always a big difference.

 

[HLaB]

The innacuracy probably lies in the equipment, the iphone only records GPS data every 5 seconds (or some similar duration) to preserve battery life, you can be all over the place in that time particulary on a descent.

 

[MrGrumpy]

Unless Strava have done some stat manipulation at the backend, I see very suprious figures from phones. Would take the data from a garmin over a phone for accuracy as more reliable.

 

[MrGrumpy]

Maybe the case but all the weird nearly impossible stats I`ve seen on some segments have been on a phone. If you want to grab some extra KOMs run strava on a phone

 

[Matthew_T]

Dont use phones for Strava! They play havok and show your route as all over the place. It really annoys me too when someone gets a KOM with one of these devices. It isnt accurate.
Calls have been made to strictly restrict Strava to proper GPS devices. It annoys everyone who uses one when they have to flag a segment for a stupid speed.

 

[Judderz]

Dont use phones for Strava! They play havok and show your route as all over the place. It really annoys me too when someone gets a KOM with one of these devices. It isnt accurate.
Calls have been made to strictly restrict Strava to proper GPS devices. It annoys everyone who uses one when they have to flag a segment for a stupid speed.

Never had that problem with stupid speeds on my Samsung.

 

[Hip Priest]

Dont use phones for Strava! They play havok and show your route as all over the place. It really annoys me too when someone gets a KOM with one of these devices. It isnt accurate.
Calls have been made to strictly restrict Strava to proper GPS devices. It annoys everyone who uses one when they have to flag a segment for a stupid speed.

I use Strava on my iPhone and its normally accurate. Occasionally it'll go crackers, but in those cases I delete the ride or make it private so as not to skew any leaderboards. Ultimately, it's just a bit of fun. Good luck in your campaign to get Strava to alienate the majority of their customer base!

 

[sazzaa]

My route and speeds seem fairly accurate, but my elevation seems to be different every day... It's better than MapMyRun though, have given up on that after it logging itself out during rides etc.

 

[Tyke]

Dont use phones for Strava! They play havok and show your route as all over the place. It really annoys me too when someone gets a KOM with one of these devices. It isnt accurate.
Calls have been made to strictly restrict Strava to proper GPS devices. It annoys everyone who uses one when they have to flag a segment for a stupid speed.

Seems about right on my HTC One not sure about elevation though.

 

[AndyRM]

Seems about right on my HTC One not sure about elevation though.

Seconded. I get consistent times and numbers for my commute so it seems to be reasonably accurate. That said, it's not reading anything off the actual bike, just making calculations based on the map it is reading. All just a bit of fun really.

 

[BimblingBee]

Dont use phones for Strava! They play havok and show your route as all over the place. It really annoys me too when someone gets a KOM with one of these devices. It isnt accurate.
Calls have been made to strictly restrict Strava to proper GPS devices. It annoys everyone who uses one when they have to flag a segment for a stupid speed.

Generally phones work ok on strava and as pointed out it was the advent of gps enabled phones that enabled strava to become so successful as they were able to (along with endomondo et al) reach a huge market which is an essential part in making Strava etc so much fun.

The real problem occurs only when people create crazy 100m long segments which throws out silly results which is probably not what Strava intended it to be used for as it's limited by the accuracy of the kit people use.

 

[paul04]

This is a very good article to read. all about mobile phone GPS and strava

http://www.scarletfire.co.uk/2012/07/smartphones-vs-garmin-which-gps-is-best-for-strava/

 

[markharry66]

Dont use phones for Strava! They play havok and show your route as all over the place. It really annoys me too when someone gets a KOM with one of these devices. It isnt accurate.
Calls have been made to strictly restrict Strava to proper GPS devices. It annoys everyone who uses one when they have to flag a segment for a stupid speed.

Do you keep files on them ? Matt

 

[Leodis]

Spend £300 on GPS unit which does exactly the same as my xperia.. Hmmm tough one...

I noticed a difference between Strava & Endomodo last weekend, the distance was about 0.5 mile