ridewithgps and komoot are the best routing tools to me.
A few more words… not all Strava features are free… some people might want those functions from other sources for less or no more money that Strava’s new price…
Three word retort -
My data isn’t
This is a quick way to a death spiral.
The difference is that Strava has the social media functions of suggesting “friends” and making it easy to follow people. I haven’t got a clue how to do that in Garmin connect, and it isn’t suggesting anyone to me either.
Also by default activities on Strava are public, and on Garmin Connect, everything is private by default.
Other apps like Ride with GPS also allow friends groups for sharing activities, but again they don’t force them on you. Strava is like Instagram or Facebook in that regard.
Checking out rides and photos is a biggie, but so is seeing what all my buddies are doing on segments we ride together.
I considered that, but am not sure if that will only kill the auto payment… or if it also removes the access I already paid for between now and then?
I would guess they must maintain the full subscription features up to that date, but considering how badly they are handling this… I wasn’t sure I wanted to test that. As of now, I made a calendar reminder a month early, so I can see where things stand and take action early if needed.
You don’t need a Garmin device to run Connect, you can run it on a phone. Follow people, like & comment, segments, etc. Connect will interface seamlessly w TR, Zwift, etc, and act as your database backup, instead of Strava.
Some may have other ideas. I’m sure there are other apps also.
Komoot for designing routes & getting direction, or RWGPS, but I’ve not tried that one.
For me IIRC when they blocked Jonathan O’Keefe’s heat map I subscribed for that feature. To me the other paid features are just nice to have.
Thank you
@mcneese.chad to avoid issues I am going to create a separate thread on this topic, apologies in advance. Can you copy/paste this response over when that is up. I did search and there isn’t a great single resource.
Interesting. I don’t think I have ever gone in and looked at segment results …unless maybe they nabbed a crown, I guess.
Just shows we all take away different elements from these sites…
I just did it. In my case I pay for the app through apple. It states I have access until July 21st. It stays in my subscriptions and will be easy to renew if I want to.
Garmin Connect works well. So does RWGPS - I’ve got a free account and can still create routes (one club still posts routes on it).
Where I live, Strava heat maps are best. Then Garmin Connect heat maps are second. Here in California I’ve been using RWGPS since 2016 and consistently found it lacking in discovering good routes, and heat maps.
In my area (PNW USA) most organized rides are done with RWGPS files which I have to convert to Strava routes if I want to route with Strava anyways. I get better routing with Komoot or RWGPS than strava when exploring. Strava often does not allow routing in areas where the heatmap clearly shows routes which I find odd. RWGPS and Komoot are much better for creating routes if…you know where you want to go. I agree that doing routes on Strava is easier for me to put on my Garmin, but maybe I just need to get used to the other apps.
I’ve used RWGPS, Garmin Connect, and Strava to create routes. They are about equal in my mind - they all have quirks and a learning curve. Even though the biggest club I’m in posts RWGPS, few upload completed rides back to RWGPS.
I think you can change the default privacy settings of activities of both. For sure on Strava, where I keep mine private by default and change the ones worth sharing to public. Highly likely Garmin has this feature as well.
In the needed improvements for strava - it’s great that they started hiding start and finish locations by default. What is dumb is that there isn’t a checkbox to disable this by activity. I want it on by default, but there’s no reason to hide it when I started at a trailhead.
The only advantage strava Route creator has is the “manual mode”. Some gravel roads in my area aren’t know roads or known access roads on every map out there. So manual mode gives me a good estimation how long a new loop will be.
I’m still on the fence if it’s worth it but I don’t like their shady dealing of this price increase.
I agree, this should be their bread and butter especially since it’s like the one thing their platform has over everyone elses
ridewithgps lets you toggle ‘stick to roads’ on an off. You can route on roads, turn it off, connect where you need, and turn it back on.
Thank you!