Whether you're a dedicated Strava user with multiple KOMs or just like to log your rides and find fun new routes, you'll definitely learn something from our list of top Strava tips.
Strava is one of the world's most popular cycling apps, with millions of users uploading activities, routes, and segments to the software.
While it's great for tracking your rides and helping you keep a tally on your mileage, speed and routes, Strava is capable of so much more.
1. Try a new challenge
Want to step things up from plotting routes and aiming for QOMs and KOMs? Strava runs regular challenges, which you can sign up for on the Strava website.
This could be aiming to cover a Gran Fondo distance in one ride, climb a certain number of metres over the course of the month or just clock up the most miles cycled in a month. Sign up and use them as motivation to ride more, then compare yourself on the leaderboards.
2. Join a Strava competition
Segment competitions are a great way to add spice to your riding without racing and risking a pile-up. A club will nominate a segment, usually a climb, and members have to complete it within that month.
It’s fun to do, and there’s often great camaraderie between riders, although going for the overall win takes a lot of focus and effort. It doesn’t matter if you’re going for wins or aiming to break into the top 20 for the first time; it’s still rewarding.
See if a club or bike shop near you is running a comp and get involved.
3. Give it a name
Strava is social and the people who follow you do so because they’re interested in what you do on a bike, so give them something interesting.
Even if your latest upload was your cycle to work, change the default ‘Morning Ride’ title for one of your own that tells people something about your ride or gives them a laugh.
Use the description panel to tell people how your race or training session went or about a great road you discovered.
4. Add photos
Whether it’s your new shoes, the cake you had at the cafe or an incredible view, adding photos to your ride makes it more interesting to your followers and also feeds a great collage in your profile.
5. Plot where you ride with a Heatmap and discover somewhere new
The Strava Heatmap application is a great way of plotting where you do most of your riding. It layers up your entire Strava history and enables you to quickly see your favourite routes and rides.
However, may we suggest an alternative use? Why not take a closer look and see where in your area you aren't riding? There may be undiscovered roads or trails within throwing distance of your usual routes yet to be discovered.
Handily, the Heatmap also enables you to see where other Strava users are active, which is great for scouting out other potential riding locations a little further afield.
6. Set up a privacy zone
While it's great to be able to record your ride and share it with friends, one thing you don't want to do is let potential thieves know there's a rather fine bicycle at a certain address – your home – at a certain time.
Fortunately, it's easy to sort this one out. Go to the privacy settings and set up a 'privacy zone' around your house. Any ride that starts or finishes in this area won't have the full route mapped and shown online, but it will still record all the other relevant data.
7. Try Strava Flyby to compare yourself against others
Strava Flyby is a function that enables you to see not only your ride but also the ride of anyone you rode with, whether that's during a race, club run or even just sharing the road with a stranger for a short stretch.
The great thing about this feature is that it enables you to compare where they've been faster and which segments they were slower in – handy for perfecting your race craft.
Understandably, some users might not want to have their route and details popping up in the feeds of unknown riders on the road. All you need to do is pop to the Privacy Settings tab and on the 'Flyby' box, tick 'nobody', then you'll remain invisible to others using the Flyby feature.
8. Keep it personal or just among friends
If you don't want to share your rides with the whole world, or only want a select few of your cycling friends to see them, you need to change your privacy settings.
Again, all you need to do is go to Privacy Settings, then turn on the 'enhanced privacy mode'.
9. Track your gear mileage
By entering details of your bike(s), you can keep tabs on the mileage, if you’re so inclined. You could even use this to monitor the life of chains, cassettes and so on.
10. But don't give away too much info about your bike
However, whether you've spent thousands of pounds or dollars outright, or upgraded parts lovingly over time, losing your beloved bike would be a big loss.
So, although it can be tempting to detail exactly what bike you are riding when registering your ride on Strava, we suggest keeping it vague to deter thieves.
11. Back it up!
You know that slightly tongue-in-cheek meme about your ride not counting if you didn't Strava it? Well, while we might not go that far, we would be devastated if our ride history got lost.
So, if you're concerned about losing your precious data, you might want to consider uploading your rides to Garmin Connect as well as Strava. It takes a little bit longer, but it's worth it for the peace of mind.
12. Become a Strava artist and paint your town red
Who doesn't love a little Strava art? As well as gaining you kudos (depending on what you draw, of course), it's a great excuse to try new routes and different areas.
To really get into it, you'll need to plot out where you're going to ride in advance. If you live in a city, words are a good place to start because there's an abundance of straight roads on offer. Practice makes perfect, so start simple and work your way up in complexity.
If creativity when riding isn't really your thing, but you do fancy a beautiful way of displaying your hard-earned Strava stats, there are a number of companies who'll add the art to your numbers.
One such example is Sisu, which can visualise your stats in a number of ways from straight-up route traces to circular plots of duration or distance.
13. Follow a pro
There are scores of top professional riders on Strava, and following a few gives an unprecedented level of access and insight into their race and training days.
While pros were initially cagey about Strava, many have realised that it’s a great way to connect with fans and now lots of them upload their rides soon after the finish of even the biggest races, earning kudos by the thousand.
Tadej Pogačar uploaded his Liège–Bastogne–Liège win this year, deservedly earning 125,000 kudos clicks and giving some insight into his metrics.
14. Follow local riders who are better than you
Looking at the pros and their 15,000 miles per year is inspiring and engaging, but not necessarily much help in improving your own riding. For that, follow riders in your area who you see setting good times on your favourite segments, especially amateur racers.
Look at the training sessions and hours they put in and see what you can learn. This is often more beneficial than following pros, unless you have 25 hours per week to train.
15. Reassure loved ones with Strava Beacon
This feature was rolled out on Strava Premium back in 2016 and enables you to share your riding location in real time with friends and family. It uses GPS to find your exact location and your phone's data connection to broadcast that to selected contacts, much like Garmin LiveTrack or MapMyRide.
They won't be able to see your full ride data, such as speed, distance, elevation or any ANT+ sensor or Bluetooth data, including heart rate or power. But they will be able to find you on a browser-based map and check whether you really have popped out for a "short spin".
16. Give kudos generously
Everyone likes getting kudos for their rides, so give it generously to those you follow, including people you race against.
Don’t think that rides have to be 100-mile epics to deserve a thumbs-up, or that you have to give kudos for everything.
17. Tag your commutes
If you regularly ride to work, identifying the activity as a ‘commute’ is performing a public service. Through its Metro project, Strava collects (and makes anonymous) commuting data in cities and makes it available to planners and local authorities, who can use the information to inform their cycling infrastructure decisions. That can only be a good thing.
18. Flag rides as necessary
Sometimes people leave their iPhone app running after they get in the car, so their drive home gets uploaded with their ride, resulting in a slew of KOMs or a GPS error causes a massive speed spike. While this is rarely deliberate, you can flag a dodgy activity for Strava to check. The user will be notified and can crop accordingly.
Strava is self-policing; the community is maintained by users willing to do so responsibly. And yes, it’s okay to flag pro riders motor-pacing at 30mph for hours behind a scooter.
19. Check out the spin-off apps
Strava’s raw data has enabled a flood of spin-off apps, from analysis tools for the KOM-obsessed, such as VeloViewer and Toolbox For Strava to Relive.cc, which creates animations of your ride over a 3D map. It looks more impressive for a hilly sportive than your commute, though.
20. Join the BikeRadar Strava club
Join our club and you’ll get a selection of our best stories, reader photos and tips in your feed. It’s a continual surprise – you could see downtown Singapore lit up at 5.30am, Swiss singletrack in the snow, the expanse of the Australian outback, or rides in shorts next to Arizona cacti.
