“My greatest fear in life is forgetting to turn on Strava.”
“If it’s not on Strava, it didn’t happen.”
I’m not as fanatical about Strava as those who subscribe to these quotes may be. Close though.
All my rides are saved on Strava. Most of my riding buddies use Strava too. There is something quite satisfying about reviewing ride metrics on Strava. Not to mention completing challenges and winning trophies. Even if those trophies are just icons on your profile.
And I am a Premium Member. Which unlocks additional goodies like the Suffer Score, and Filtered Leaderboards.
I’ve recently discovered more Strava goodies. Courtesy of Strava Labs.
The millions of activities uploaded to Strava have created a dataset of nearly a trillion GPS data points. Strava Labs showcases interesting projects that use this dataset.
Projects like The Roster, which visually analyses your athletic social habits, total group activities and your preferred training partners. In my case, ranging from someone I have ridden with 111 times, to the person I rode together with only once.
Or The Global Heatmap, which answers the question “What do 220,000,000,000 data points look like?”
The data points for Malaysia produce this heatmap.
Heatmap courtesy of Strava Labs
The global heatmap is zoomable. This is the center of Kuala Lumpur at maximum zoom.
Heatmap courtesy of Strava Labs
Then there is The Clusterer. This project creates a map that is searchable by distance and activity type. This map shows the four most popular ride routes around Kuala Lumpur.
Heatmap courtesy of Strava Labs
Clockwise from top right are Genting Sempah to Janda Baik, Hulu Langat, KESAS and Guthrie Corridor to LATAR. The small loop in the center is the OCBC Cycle Malaysia 2014 route, which was saved to Strava by 190 people.
The KESAS Night Ride, by contrast, clusters 1,830 rides.
Heatmap courtesy of Strava Labs
There are more projects listed on the Strava Labs homepage. There is also a link to a blog where you can read about Strava’s technology, culture and latest projects. And if you fancy developing your own project, the Developers link takes you to a comprehensive portal for information about the Strava API.
Enough to keep a Strava geek occupied for days.
Old Roots, New Routes 