Sorry to hijack the thread. Just a query on the apps used for monitoring distance/speed etc.
I have been using Endomondo for years only to find that my medical aid does not support it (you get points for exercise on the medical scheme) so I changed to Strava.
I noticed that 15km on Endomondo and in the car gets registered as 14km on Strava. Anybody else notice this?
Can Strava be that wrong?
A mobile phone GPS may have neither the accuracy nor update rate to capture a true distance, and software may extrapolate from what it does provide in different ways. But your car could also be wrong by a smaller amount - are the fitted tires the ones your odometer was factory calibrated to?
This is a good article about GPS performance on dedicated and phone devices with Apps like Strava.
A couple of weeks ago, 5 riders from this forum got together for a ride in Lake Norman, NC. 3 of us had strava friendly stuff - 2 iphones and 1 gps.
We took the exact same ride, we were together:
http://www.strava.com/activities/370522716
http://www.strava.com/activities/370611014
http://www.strava.com/activities/370556510
None of us has the same mileage. Ok, Dave rode a bit in the parking lot whilst waiting for us to arrive, but still…
I never went back to comment on Strava, but if you open the three maps in side by side windows you can see a difference, how spiky Dave’s track is and how smooth yours is. And mine’s in between, with me almost certainly using the oldest and junkiest GPS tracker of the three. I would have expected a little discrepancy based on that but I was surprised too at how big the difference was; double-digit percentage easily.
Anyway, I guess the takeaway is that you can boost your Strava mileage by a using and comparing a few different tracking devices, if that’s what you’re after.
I also find that if I haven’t rebooted my phone in a few days I sometimes get inflated mileage. When I glance at the track, it looks fine, but if I zoom in the track will consist of short segments bouncing back and forth over the actual track. Doesn’t look like much, but if every10 meters gets recorded as a segment 11 meters long, well that can add up over a longer ride.
Also, don’t forget to stop your tracker at the end of your ride… I got 2nd overall on a hill climb segment last week with my 26" muni, except that it was in the trunk and I was driving 
We might be getting our group or separation. Here is a Copy Paste from their help center:
Elle Anderson (Help Center)
Jun 29, 8:22 AM PDT
Love it Alexander! I think we should totally support a designated unicycle type.
It’s harder for us to filter the segment leaderboard by type of bike. Usually, we consider a separate activity type with separate segments, like we did for E-Bikes.
What do you think?
-Elle
Manager, Strava Feedback Team
That’s great! Thanks for prodding them. If Strava made a unicycle category, I would totally switch from the Garmin tracking site.
YES! Unicycle category, please! Then we can compare ourselves to other unicyclists and not be mere ant specks in relation to our two-wheeled brothers and sisters who do times we can’t compete with.
Of course you’re still going to have to specify which uni you were riding, since a 26" Muni does things a little slower than a 36" Schlumpf, etc.
BTW, I can report that the Strava app on the Apple Watch does work, and tells you your speed on the fly, but only after a brief delay each time you want to check. I will hold up my wrist for a few seconds, then look down to see it light up and show me the current stats. I’m pretty sure you don’t need to even have your phone with you, but I haven’t tested that yet (I want to have a phone on me when I’m on long rides). You can do the whole thing on the watch though, and never pull out your phone.
That would be awesome, we’ve been asking for such a long time. Did you follow up on that with her?
If you link your garmin account to Strava you can have the best of both worlds. I’ve been on Strava for so long that I don’t even look at Garmin Connect.
It auto synchs when you save the ride.
I think the setup is in Strava… Settings==>My Apps
Fitbit too
Yup. I do the same thing with my Fitbit Charge2. I linked my fitbit account to Strava (I’m Jason Little (Unicycle) on Strava, BTW), and it automatically syncs everything. I love being able to see all the current stats of a ride real-time on the watch without having to take out my phone. Plus, I can operate the watch with gloves on.
I would love a devoted unicycle category! All of my miles are 100% unicycle, so that’s not a problem, but I don’t even bother creating public segments because every bicyclist out there eclipses my times.
I’d jump from endomondo to Strada in a heartbeat if they had a uni category!
The problem for me with fully separate category are segments. I have nobody around to compare with, so I would be the KOM handler on all climbs I defined. For this reason I prefer to have same activity type, just other bike type.
Vote for the unicycle category here: https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115000467644-Add-your-vote-for-new-Strava-Activity-Types
Thanks for the link, I have voted
+1!
Voted!
I voted earlier, bringing the count from 10 to 11. We’re going to have to make sure the Facebook community is aware of this…
voted!