The Problem with Strava

There are Strava advocates and Strava haters. As a cycling enthusiast who commutes every day, I use it to track every ride I do. One of my friends is a keen amateur ultra-endurance triathlete and even though he has a flash bike and all the gear, he is staunchly opposed to Strava. I often congratulate him on big rides when he posts about them on Facebook. Whenever I teasingly ask if he is on Strava yet, he replies he is “NEVER going to use Strava”. Strava is an activity-tracking and analytics platform that allows users to upload data produced by the Strava smartphone app or a GPS tracking device. The key difference compared to other similar platforms (such as Garmin Connect) is that Strava is also a social platform organised around interacting with other people’s activities and it has a very large user base. Users can give each other ‘Kudos’ (Strava’s version of a ‘Like’) and leave comments. The platform has matured in a number of ways over the years. There is now a more convenient metadata and content-sharing relationships with other platforms.