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Show HN: I am building a free version of Strava

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Re: Show HN: I am building a free version of Strava

#81

Post by ryannevius »

tcmb wrote: post #48
karamanolev wrote: post #21

I'm an avid cyclist and I pay for Strava premium. I really like a lot of the things Strava offers and also have a lot of dislikes. I've thought about making a competing product and also offering it for free or at least much cheaper. It sounds easy at first, but there is so much Strava does. When you go in depth, no wonder Strava is an actual company and not 3 geeks and their spare time. For serious athletes, Strava o…

For the analysis part, I have to mention Elevate [1] here. It used to be a browser plugin for Strava and is now a free and open source desktop app, developed by one guy [2] in his spare time (as far as I know). It does more than the Strava built-ins, but less than e.g. Golden Cheetah, while being much more approachable and easy to use than the latter. I'm not affiliated with the app or the developer (although I've do…

I can also recommend Runalyze, which offers a lot more than both Strava and Elevate (which I'm also a big fan of): https://runalyze.com/

Re: Show HN: I am building a free version of Strava

#82

Post by thirdsun »

tcmb wrote: post #48
karamanolev wrote: post #21

I'm an avid cyclist and I pay for Strava premium. I really like a lot of the things Strava offers and also have a lot of dislikes. I've thought about making a competing product and also offering it for free or at least much cheaper. It sounds easy at first, but there is so much Strava does. When you go in depth, no wonder Strava is an actual company and not 3 geeks and their spare time. For serious athletes, Strava o…

For the analysis part, I have to mention Elevate [1] here. It used to be a browser plugin for Strava and is now a free and open source desktop app, developed by one guy [2] in his spare time (as far as I know). It does more than the Strava built-ins, but less than e.g. Golden Cheetah, while being much more approachable and easy to use than the latter. I'm not affiliated with the app or the developer (although I've do…

There's also Veloviewer which offers some great additional data and reports: https://veloviewer.com

Re: Show HN: I am building a free version of Strava

#84

Post by thirdsun »

outericky wrote: post #20
michaelje wrote: post #18

What are the key differentiators to get me to use this over Strava where people already are? A quick look and some MTB specific metrics like hangtime? A killer feature for Strava (or anyone in the social activity game) would be allowing me to setup social rides with my followers/friends. For example, I plan on doing this loop at 8am Saturday - and anyone who follows can hit ‘+1’ and let me know I’ll join. Where I liv…

I started a https://www.mygeargarage.com Initially it was for tracking all sorts of gear you use in your activities (because strava only tracks bike or shoes). I then added workouts, and challenges (but then strava added custom challenges...). My workout component allows you to share the url with friends and they can RSVP, you can add the route and stuff. But I don't have a ton of social features, mainly because I bu…

> Initially it was for tracking all sorts of gear you use in your activities (because strava only tracks bike or shoes)

That doesn't seem to be true anymore. These days I can add any kind of gear to my bikes in Strava and track its usage over time. I use it for tracking tire or chain mileage in particular.

Re: Show HN: I am building a free version of Strava

#85

Post by thirdsun »

jerlam wrote: post #51
michaelje wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No - it has to be more casual. I don’t want to force people to join a/my/some club. I want to let my followers and friends see I plan to do a 80km ride Saturday morning and let them simply tag along. It could easily be integrated into the feed or as a separate section. I’d argue social activity is one of the biggest opportunities for Strava to lock themselves in as the hub of all movement activity - but it requires s…

If it's that casual, you could post a message on your feed and tag people you want to be notified.

While true I think a more structured way of planning group rides seems very useful and like low hanging fruit for Strava.

Re: Show HN: I am building a free version of Strava

#86

Post by thirdsun »

audiometry wrote: post #83

Kind of a dopey question… will this work if I keep my phone in my camelback while riding? I don’t want to attach it to my handlebars. Yeah watched some videos and clearly the answer would be no. What’s the model of top-tube phone mount you used?

Just use a bike computer - it's the superior tool for the task in every way. Wahoo, Garmin, Hammerhead - there are excellent options out there.

Re: Show HN: I am building a free version of Strava

#87

Post by thirdsun »

stephencoyner wrote: post #57

Paying Strava user and big cyclist here. One thing I wish Strava would add - better route discovery. I know they recently added “routes” to the maps tab that you can filter based on elevation and distance, but I find they only show the same 2-3 routes every time I look. Because of this, I’ve ended up going to segments I ride on, looking at the top performers of the day, then checking their routes to discover new plac…

I like your idea. Promoting willing users to local guides and showcasing their routes makes sense. I'd love to participate in that.

However I think Strava's route planning features are too basic. Unless I'm very familiar with the region I will always prefer Komoot for route planning as it allows me to get detailed information about the surface (which is very important for a road bike). Strava's surface information are too limited and heatmaps don't make up for it.

Interestingly enough Komoot allows you to publish and present your routes but they don't have the user base to make it worthwhile. At least in my circles it seems as if everyone just uses Komoot in private. It doesn't really feel like a social network or community.

Re: Show HN: I am building a free version of Strava

#89

Post by davidtinker »

karamanolev wrote: post #21

I'm an avid cyclist and I pay for Strava premium. I really like a lot of the things Strava offers and also have a lot of dislikes. I've thought about making a competing product and also offering it for free or at least much cheaper. It sounds easy at first, but there is so much Strava does. When you go in depth, no wonder Strava is an actual company and not 3 geeks and their spare time. For serious athletes, Strava o…

The Strava API is pretty much dead. They aren't giving out any rate limit increases so whatever you build using it can never progress.

Re: Show HN: I am building a free version of Strava

#90

Post by m4lvin »

I wish there would be a self-hosted fediverse version for the community features of strava. Luke Picciau has built PikaTrack, but not edited it in the last two years. Still, maybe this is some useful inspiration if you intend to extend your app in the community features direction:

https://gitlab.com/pikatrack/pikatrack/-/wikis/user-guide

https://gitlab.com/pikatrack/pikatrack

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/9kw0mz/i_have_been_b...

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