Show HN: I am building a free version of Strava

I recently added a Segments feature to the Hangtime mountain biking app for Android and IOS. If you are familiar with Strava’s segments, this new feature works much the same. For example, you can add a segment to an existing recorded ride by simply defining a start and end point for the segment. Once the segment is created, it will match any new rides, and optionally “back match” all previous rides. If a segment matches a ride, you you will see your time to complete that segment as well as your personal record (PR) and king of the mountain (KOM) for that segment. The KOM represents the best segment time amongst all riders that have matched that segment. You can also open the segment to see your complete history on that segment to gauge how your performance has changed over time. Some screenshots and videos as well as other features at the link below.

https://mtbx.bike?page=hangtime

Show HN: I am building a free version of Strava
mtbx.bike

I love this so much! I'm an iOS and Android developer. Please reach out if you need help developing or testing. Email address in my profile.

nice!!!

I honestly think the next thing to do would build a decent app to replace a bike GPS... there is nothing special about a head unit other than the ANT+ radio (which is superior to BLE in a lot of ways). The only one that comes close is shimano's e-tube ride, but they abandoned the app before adding critical features like GPX import. Everything else I can find is bloatware or is just really awkward to use.

The other very special things are battery life and durability. It's going to be very hard to get a phone to both work screen-on for 12+ hours (or even 5-6) running the GPS on high res mode, readable in direct bright sunlight, and robust enough to be fine during most bike (and mountain bike) crashes. They also generally offer either a touchscreen that works properly with gloves on and when wet, or has physical buttons for all the functions.

Quality bike computers are specifically designed to fill a niche that smartphones just can't do, which is why the market still exists.

Strava, et al, work fine for a lot of uses, but as one gets into more serious riding a dedicated bike computer is the way to go. This is because of the hardware, not due to a lack of app to be run on a general purpose mobile.

Good luck. I'll check in on this.

I also hope you're paying attention to some of the privacy concerns of Strava. Strava makes it stupidly trivial to stalk runners. Some famous runners like Molly Seidel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2w_omUCVCs, starts at about 1:50) are bringing this up, and Strava hasn't done much to address them. "Features" like real time tracking, which may be a no-brainer to us in tech, are a huge safety liability to users.

And no, it's not as simple as "Why don't they just turn it off?" Self-marketing in a sport that gets little financial support is incredibly important, and can be done safely if the product managers are attentive.