Android App of the Day: Strava Cycling

Whether you’re brand new to the sport of cycling or a seasoned athlete, having the ability to map your ride is essential. The Strava Cycling app for Android not only lets you track your progress but also encourages you to work harder by setting personal goals and earning achievements. With this app you can accurately record your rides, manage yourĀ performanceĀ and compare yourself to your friends and other locals. If you consider yourself a road warrior, the functionality and accurate metrics that the Strava Cycling app provides makes this download a worthy one.

Pros:

  • Record your rides with the phone’s built-in GPS
  • Get detailed activity stats including distance, pace, elevation and calories
  • See maps of all of your rides
  • Unlimited ride uploads
  • Monitor your weekly, year-to-date and all time activity stats
  • Compare your performance against friends, locals and pros
  • Set personal records and earn achievements for outstanding performances
  • Earn King and Queen of the Mountain honors on specific sections of road or trail
  • Discover new places to ride all over the world
  • See the most popular segments in a given area and challenge the locals

Cons:

  • OS has to be updated for app to provide optimal results
  • Accuracy of mileage varies from device
  • Some devices have repeated poor performance, no known remedies

How it works:

Installing Strava Cycling does require you to create an account. Due to the social integration of the app you can choose to sign in using your Facebook account, which makes sharing with you other cyclists a breeze. After you have completed the sign up process, you canĀ immediatelyĀ start the recording process. To do so hit the Play Button found in the New Ride tab. Once your ride is done you will see your results show up in the Feed Tab.Ā Strava includes a variety of useful metrics including ride time, distance covered, elevation gain, average and maximum speed.

The app has a few customization settings that allow you to modify the desired units or set up email alerts. I had hoped to see a robust setting menu, but this gets the job done.

If you want to manage your previous stats, the Profile Tab holds all of your riding statistics from the previous month. At a glance you can view aĀ cumulativeĀ picture of your total number of rides, miles completed, and feet climbed. If you are looking to manage your stats on a week-to-week basis, you can also view your average rides per week, average distance biked per week, and average time spent biking. One of the strongest aspects of this app is how it categorizes your cycling stats by month, year, and records overall.

You can easily set personal records with this app and Strava makes it fun by awarding achievements for stellar performances. You can also earn King and Queen of the mountain honors on specific sections of a road or trail. Being able to visualize your personal records and earn achievements is a great way to stay motivated on your rides.

Conclusion:

I’ve compared the Strava Cycling app to my other GPS tool after riding and am impressed with the accuracy of this app. I have yet to have any real issues with this app and rely on it each time I head out for a ride. I am all about recording my stats and tracking my performance, which this app does beautifully. Overall, I love the simple interface and variety of useful metrics Strava Cycling has to offer. I love sharing this app with other people who also enjoy cycling and will continue to do so.

Strava is available for free in the Google Play Store. Requires Android 2.1 and higher. Play Link

This is part of our Android App of the Day series. We take our favorite app for Android for each day and post it here for you to check out. Feel free to check out all of our App of the Day postsĀ here.

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