Mate quits cycling :(

[Venod]

Strava has ruined cycling

I can see where this is coming from, but I can also see its not the case, I ditched Strava as I felt it was spoiling my rides, I couldn't resist trying to beat my time and others on some sections so on most rides there was periods of hammering it and while some people enjoy that I wanted a more sedate experiance, I enjoyed my time without Strava and my average speed on rides has dropped, but my lad has just started using it so I have uploaded all my rides to give him ideas for routes etc and he can try and beat my time on segments, if he does I will resit trying to beat him.

I think I have beaten my Strava demons and am happy with my slower average, the nice thing about uploading all my rides again was to find out I still have 22 KOM's going back to 2011.

 

[postman]

I think at some time or other we all go through this phase.I did and i am not even fast.But i love my Strava it's great to love back at the rides.All the best to your mate and i look forward to a post in Your Ride Today when he is back out.On another note,when i read the title of the post i read MAY QUITS CYCLING .Brexit ingrained in head.

 

[Globalti]

I do think you can simply grow bored with riding the same old roads, which is why I so enjoy sliding the bike into the back of the car and driving off to do new challenges like The Struggle or some of the Yorkshire Dales climbs. I still derive a lot of pleasure from studying an OS map and working out interesting routes then going and riding them, a habit that started really when I used to climb mountains from age 8 onwards and then mountain biking from 1988 onwards. I have worn out two OL21 South Pennines maps through hours of on-the-bog study followed by wet and muddy mountain bike trips testing the routes and pulling the soggy maps out of pockets!

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Well, just to get deep and meaningful for a moment - isn't Strava part of the same trend as Farcebook and Twatter and all the other social media in that it allows you to massage your and other people's egos and can be used to project the image you want others to see? In that respect it's just another part of the trend to emotional incontinence that is being foisted upon us as somehow "normal"?

I wish I could give you extra likes for that.

Your observation highlights one of the reasons why, as I enter the latter stages of my life, I am slowly turning my back on the world - or at least the world as projected through the various media filters.

I'm more or less at the point where the whole lot can bugger off and leave me alone in my little bubble.

 

[snorri]

I'd say tell him just get out on yer bike, forget 'strava' and competing with others just enjoy being on a bike

Or a Trike

I suspect Steve and his type have never experienced the joy of being out on a bike, they became involved in cycling as a means to satisfy a competitive urge in their personalities.

 

[byegad]

Who's Strava and why/how has (s)he ruined cycling?

 

[Crackle]

Perhaps your mate will re-find his mojo in the future in a different way. I use Strava but right from the early days of my cycling I was always into technology, from the click mileage counters to pouring over maps with one of those wheel measures, looking at time and trying to estimate how I was riding and how far. Nowadays it's simple and still exciting to see the track of where you've been and share that with others if you want.

I have noticed that those using Strava now seem to be more serious types and average speed seems to be going up. I wonder if this is the indoor trainer effect with people training all year round on Zwift and things. There also seems to be less people out who look like they've just bought a bike and all the gear, helmets slightly askew, seatpost too low but giving it the biffters anyhow.

I'm never going to challenge anyone on a segment except me, so that's not a motivation, sharing isn't either, except with people I know. There are still some exceptions to that in my strava list of followers, cyclechatters whom I've not met but feel as though I know but I'm no longer in any leagues and have closed off my strava to people who don't follow me.

After 40 years of riding a bike with only a short interlude, I can't see me stopping, at this stage of life I fear I'd seize up and atrophy if I did and running seems to be out now, too easy to pick up an injury, so, I continue to continue to pretend, that life will never end..........oh wait, that's a song.....

 

[AuroraSaab]

"Strava has ruined cycling"

Strava is a tool to aid cycling. It does not stop people walking out the door to get on a bike.

If this really is your mates attitude. He is no real loss to cycling and football is welcome to him.

That's a bit harsh, Steve. The guy has lost his mojo a bit and deserves our encouragement not our contempt.

 

[Jody]

Your mate has fallen out of love with cycling. That's all it boils down to irrelevant of the excuses used. I remember a friend in about 94 being sponsored to race downhill by a fairly prestigious brand. He was really talented and was doing well for himself but they rightly had constraints on where he could race, where he needed to be etc which all became too much, so he gave the bikes back and quit cycling. To this day I don't think he ever rode again.

Give it a few months and go out for a ride with no direction or timescale. Leave Strava off and go pull some wheelies or skids to see if the spark is still there. Other than that there is little you can do.

 

[Levo-Lon]

. Personally, I blame Princess Dianna for dying when she did and putting us all in touch with our feelings.

Yes, it ruined my I. O. W holliday, had to come home early as all traval cancelled.

Florists will be forever grateful for the flower laying grieving masses

 

[netman]

Like others, I have Strava - but only for my own benefit... couldn't give a toss if I'm 2nd or 2002nd on a segment. It's all relative anyway... I may have done that segment with 100 miles before and 100 miles after (I didn't) on my 1970's steel against someone who's just ridden out of their drive, fresh as a daisy on their carbon Colnarello that sees 100 miles a year! Doesn't make me any less of a cyclist, or them any more of one, and frankly it's a bit silly to give a fairly decent, fairly useful, free bit of technology that power over you.

 

[derrick]

Someone put his dummy back in his pram.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Strava has ruined cycling. It used to be about riding with your mates & taking in the views then maybe stop for a pint afterwards. Now it’s become so serious it’s more like a shake afterwards. Trying to be in front of your mates on segments is just like a sickness. He’s right the fun has gone out of it.
.

It's not compulsary to be on Strava you know. He could always delete his account.

 

[Proto]

Sounds to me like Steve needs some new mates.

 

[Drago]

Why should we care? It's his loss.