Strava Cycling For iPhone: Become The Cyclist King Or Queen Of The Mountain
April 1, 2011
Last month, Strava introduced an iPhone app to accompany their online tracking, sharing, and comparison service for cyclists. The Strava Cycling app is an easy to use monitoring and submission system that offers convenience with those who own an iPhone.
Before Strava Cycling for iOS, users would submit their ride data captured by a portable standalone GPS unit from companies like Garmin or files exported from apps like MotionX GPS by uploading the information to the web site from their computer. The new app allows monitoring, recording, and quickly uploading ride details without ever requiring a computer.
The Strava system is more than just a fitness recorder. Uploaded ride information is analyzed and can be displayed in graphical form, including overlapped, to provide useful feedback on performance. Speaking of feedback, Strava is a community giving groups of riders a chance to comment and compete against each other to create an incentive for improvement.
The service offers the ability to create and join clubs and events, plus find new routes you may consider interesting and willing to take on the next time out. Your own group of friends, including clubs, is a nice way to compare performance, but you aren't the only ones on the trails and roads.
Segments are portions of routes that compare the results amongst the entire Strava community. Segments are automatically created by the system for climbs, although, they can be manually created by riders. Any time a rider takes part in that segment, the data is automatically added to the pool after you upload your own ride information. The pooled data works like a game leaderboard, signifying the top rider with the honor of "King of the Mountain" or "Queen of the Mountain." While not an interest to all, it's a nice addition for those who thrive off competition and bragging rights.
Strava offers two plans:
• Free Plan
- 5 Rides per Month
- Public Clubs
- Public Events
• Velo Plan
- Unlimited Rides
- Private Clubs
- Private Events
The Velo plan will cost you $6 or $59 per year. Personally, the free plan is a superb way to try out the service, and includes 95% of the bells and whistles. That way, you can move up to the Velo plan when your needs increase and you feel completely comfortable.
Before Strava Cycling for iOS, users would submit their ride data captured by a portable standalone GPS unit from companies like Garmin or files exported from apps like MotionX GPS by uploading the information to the web site from their computer. The new app allows monitoring, recording, and quickly uploading ride details without ever requiring a computer.
The Strava system is more than just a fitness recorder. Uploaded ride information is analyzed and can be displayed in graphical form, including overlapped, to provide useful feedback on performance. Speaking of feedback, Strava is a community giving groups of riders a chance to comment and compete against each other to create an incentive for improvement.
The service offers the ability to create and join clubs and events, plus find new routes you may consider interesting and willing to take on the next time out. Your own group of friends, including clubs, is a nice way to compare performance, but you aren't the only ones on the trails and roads.
Segments are portions of routes that compare the results amongst the entire Strava community. Segments are automatically created by the system for climbs, although, they can be manually created by riders. Any time a rider takes part in that segment, the data is automatically added to the pool after you upload your own ride information. The pooled data works like a game leaderboard, signifying the top rider with the honor of "King of the Mountain" or "Queen of the Mountain." While not an interest to all, it's a nice addition for those who thrive off competition and bragging rights.
Strava offers two plans:
• Free Plan
- 5 Rides per Month
- Public Clubs
- Public Events
• Velo Plan
- Unlimited Rides
- Private Clubs
- Private Events
The Velo plan will cost you $6 or $59 per year. Personally, the free plan is a superb way to try out the service, and includes 95% of the bells and whistles. That way, you can move up to the Velo plan when your needs increase and you feel completely comfortable.
“We developed the Strava app to go beyond other fitness apps available for the iPhone today,” said Mark Shaw, Head of Engineering at Strava. “Of course it can accurately capture a track, upload it automatically to your Strava account and show you the stats you would expect from a GPS app. But beyond that, our app brings the Strava experience of comparing and competing directly to your phone. Cyclists get instant feedback -- comparative results on their climbs and sprints while they are out on the road. And, this is just the start-- we have big plans for the future of our mobile apps.”Strava Cycling is compatible with iPhone running iOS 4.0 or later, and free to download in the App Store now. If you currently login or will sign-up for a Straa account through your Facebook credentials, you may need to use the password recovery option to make an official Strava password in order to use the iPhone app.
