Archive for the 'Strava Angst' Category

Konpira: Checking Out One of the Most Difficult Climbs in Japan

I recently heard about a very hard climb -- over 3km/2mi at an average of almost 16% -- not too far away. Many cyclists could not climb for 50m at 15%, much less do it for 3,000m. It's just ridiculously steep. This climb sounded to rival one the most difficult climbs in Japan, Kuragari West, which clocks in at 2.3km/1.7mi @ 17.3%.

Of course, I had to go check it out. It was quite the adventure.

The start of the climb was about 30km north of Kyoto, along the shore of Lake Biwa. To save energy for the hard climb, [...]


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Updating Maps for Cycling, Including Japan’s Pseudo One-Way Roads

Everyone is familiar with Google Maps, but for various reasons (cost, quality, expressability), many mapping applications use map data from OpenStreetMap ("OSM") instead. It's free to use and anyone can add/edit/update it pretty much in real time... it's like Wikipedia, but for maps.

I have particular interest in it because lots of cycling-stuff uses OpenStreetMap data...

I use the maps on my phone when riding, via the Galileo Offline Maps app (name changed Feb 2019 to Guru Maps), and sometimes with the Maps.me app.

I plan my cycling routes with OpenStreetMap data, via GraphHopper. The Strava route builder also uses [...]


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Strava Segment Tutorial: Removing Suckage and Promoting Quality

I enjoy reliving a bicycle ride by reviewing the statistics on Strava, seeing how well I did on certain stretches of road compared to how I've done before, or perhaps how I compare to my friends.

In the Strava universe, sections of road are broken up into "segments", and if your ride traverses a segment, you'll get info about how you and others have done on it. If your ride transverses lots of segments, you'll get a lot of info.

Segments can be created by any Strava user at any time, which on one hand is really great and flexible, [...]


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My First Climb up Kobe’s Mt. Rokko

この間、金光万石さんと一緒に六甲山を登りました、神戸空港から924mの山頂まで。 乗ったルートは距離は長かったので、坂はだいあいマイルドでした。楽しかった。 (ポートアイランドと神戸空港のサイクリングはつまらなかったけれども。) 一番キツイ道は16号線から山頂までの300mの丸形滑り止め道。15%の凸凹坂ですが、行って良かった。山頂からの景色は本当に良かったです。

On Thursday I made my biggest single bicycle climb so far, at least mathematically, by riding from sea level in Kobe Japan, to 924m (3,030') near the summit of Mt. Rokko some 25km (16mi) distant.

Despite its mathematical ranking, the route I took was apparently the easiest route, and wasn't at all challenging. It was just fun. Overall, the day saw 78km (48mi) with 1,800m (6,000') of vertical climb. (Activity at Strava)

But the fun belies how totally stressed and apprehensive I was in the week leading up to it. Mt. Rokko is hundreds of meters [...]


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Great Day in Kyoto’s Colorful Northern Mountains, and at Strava’s Kyoto Office

I had a nice ride the other day with Andy Clark and Michael Edwards.

While meeting up in the morning, Nigel Randell happened to stop by on his way to work...

And we were approached by an American tourist passing by who saw our nice bikes and just wanted to say "hi"...

It turns out that he works for Strava, the running/riding community site where your activities can be mapped and compared to your prior efforts and to others. In the nine months since I started cycling, I've been absolutely shocked at how motivating Strava has been for me; upon [...]


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