Another new Strava Feature - they're spoiling us

[Zimmerframe]

Noticed this today.

They've added the heat maps onto the main map display !

This is great. You can now bumble around and see where all the trails, tracks and lanes are as you ride around. Less need to setup routes before hand marking out the tracks so you can find them in unknown territory.

 

[InRustWeTrust]

Finally , i have waited for this funktion. As you say it is gonna me soo much easier to find trails if you are in a new area.

 

[Tim1023]

Nice! Almost tempting to take up the subscription again. I only subscribed for the route planning anyway. Found I mostly used Komoot instead.

 

[galaga187]

Looks like it has to be set to Ride rather than eBike ride if using whilst recording a ride but really useful thanks @Zimmerframe

 

[Zimmerframe]

Looks like it has to be set to Ride rather than eBike ride if using whilst recording a ride but really useful thanks @Zimmerframe

I was using it set to ebike and it seems to work fine, you can see on my screen capture it says ebike ride at the top.

 

[galaga187]

I was using it set to ebike and it seems to work fine, you can see on my screen capture it says ebike ride at the top.

This is what I see switching between the modes I thought maybe a lack of eBikes in my area but I’ve scrolled over to BPW, Afan and see the same. Maybe I need to update Strava again will try that now.

 

[Zimmerframe]

That's weird ... the heat maps aren't generally limited to just e-bikes - it's normally everything lumped together.. I'll have to have another play with mine.

 

[Tubby G]

Looks like you have to be a subscriber and cough up almost £50 ($60) (€55) a year for this function

 

[Zimmerframe]

E-bike :

E-bike - Satelite.

E-bike (still loading so fuzzy)

Normal bike ..

 

[Zimmerframe]

Looks like you have to be a subscriber and cough up almost £50 ($60) (€55) a year for this function

Yup, I'd have guessed it was a subscriber only thing. I tried the free subscriber bit (still on it) and was messing with "routes" which helps with finding trails if you can be bothered to map them all out before a ride. This is better as you can see them as you're out.

I've always been reluctant to Strava Subscribe, as rather than give more for subscribers, they just took away for none subscribers - which seemed a bit sucky !

This is good though, so I don't mind paying €1 a week to be able to find lots of new trails.

 

[Tubby G]

Yup, I'd have guessed it was a subscriber only thing. I tried the free subscriber bit (still on it) and was messing with "routes" which helps with finding trails if you can be bothered to map them all out before a ride. This is better as you can see them as you're out.

I've always been reluctant to Strava Subscribe, as rather than give more for subscribers, they just took away for none subscribers - which seemed a bit sucky !

This is good though, so I don't mind paying €1 a week to be able to find lots of new trails.

True. I paid for the Trailforks subscription only to discover hardly any new trails are uploaded to Trailforks these days since they introduced the subscription charge!

 

[Slowroller]

True. I paid for the Trailforks subscription only to discover hardly any new trails are uploaded to Trailforks these days since they introduced the subscription charge!

Imagine that..... I know lots of people who were part of the army who built their database for free, who now would have to pay to use it, who said fork off.

The heatmap is great, I've been using it for years to find all the trails you're not supposed to know about.

 

[mxh]

The heatmap is great, I've been using it for years to find all the trails you're not supposed to know about.

Is there any way to turn off road cycling info? Still can't believe that Strava don't differentiate between road and off-road cycling - seems that they're a bit out of touch with mtb requirements.

 

[salko]

I'm no subscriber and I see those heat maps. Useful feature, but unfortunately I don't use phone/Strava on handlebar so I can't use it on a go but just to check right direction while stopping.
Next step would be to somehow color code those heat maps based on trail incline so you can foresee if trail is maybe too steep for bike ... Or if you can display heat map only based on MTB data so you can be sure you won't encounter too steep or impassable terrain for bike ...

 

[Tubby G]

I'm no subscriber and I see those heat maps. Useful feature, but unfortunately I don't use phone/Strava on handlebar so I can't use it on a go but just to check right direction while stopping.
Next step would be to somehow color code those heat maps based on trail incline so you can foresee if trail is maybe too steep for bike ... Or if you can display heat map only based on MTB data so you can be sure you won't encounter too steep or impassable terrain for bike ...

I see them too now, on the app on my phone, I was looking at the desktop version last night and couldn’t find the heatmap section

 

[Zimmerframe]

Next step would be to somehow color code those heat maps based on trail incline so you can foresee if trail is maybe too steep for bike ... Or if you can display heat map only based on MTB data so you can be sure you won't encounter too steep or impassable terrain for bike ...

Unfortunately, when we "ride" it doesn't differentiate between MTB or Road. (If you create a Route you can set that as Road or MTB though).

The heat maps seem to be for EVERY activity all lumped together. So if you were not being careful, you could try and ride down someone's favourite Kayak route.

Would be nice if you could select the types. Maybe on the Live view, it only shows ride,walk,run,emtb - but with no option to pick different things.

On the "Route planner" (subscribers).

You can see the heat map (which seems to be ride/walk/run/emtb with sailing etc removed) :

But you can also select "Personal Heat Maps" to see yours overlaid on top of that too.

 

[Tubby G]

Unfortunately, when we "ride" it doesn't differentiate between MTB or Road. (If you create a Route you can set that as Road or MTB though).

The heat maps seem to be for EVERY activity all lumped together. So if you were not being careful, you could try and ride down someone's favourite Kayak route.

Would be nice if you could select the types. Maybe on the Live view, it only shows ride,walk,run,emtb - but with no option to pick different things.

On the "Route planner" (subscribers).

You can see the heat map (which seems to be ride/walk/run/emtb with sailing etc removed) :

View attachment 72811

But you can also select "Personal Heat Maps" to see yours overlaid on top of that too.

View attachment 72812

on the free version you just get the option of seeing segment heat maps such as this:

As you’ve said though, useful to find new trails in unfamiliar areas ??

 

[Zimmerframe]

on the free version you just get the option of seeing segment heat maps such as this:

View attachment 72816

As you’ve said though, useful to find new trails in unfamiliar areas ??

I think that's the "maps" page ? Rather than the live view whilst you're recording ?

They've improved the map view a lot though. It didn't used to have the heat maps and interesting they've included them for everyone in there.

In the map page you can change between Ride and Run (but not EMTB, so you can't see EMTB segments and it only shows "popular" segments anyway). But you can can also change the surface for showing segments to Dirt or Paved - assuming Strava knows the surface type for it's mapping. Round here it's normally 90% "unknown". You can also select it to just show segments which are flat or harder for example.

So do none subscribers see the heat maps when in record mode ? Click the little map marker icon to the right of the stop button. - you can scroll it around to have a look once you're in there and rotate it etc - click the compass at the top to re-centre to north up.

 

[salko]

Yes, heat maps are shown in record mode for me (non-subscriber).
I do believe Strava will keep this feature free for a while (to addict as much as possible non-subscribers) and then they will make the feature available for subscribers only ...

 

[Tubby G]

I think that's the "maps" page ? Rather than the live view whilst you're recording ?

They've improved the map view a lot though. It didn't used to have the heat maps and interesting they've included them for everyone in there.

In the map page you can change between Ride and Run (but not EMTB, so you can't see EMTB segments and it only shows "popular" segments anyway). But you can can also change the surface for showing segments to Dirt or Paved - assuming Strava knows the surface type for it's mapping. Round here it's normally 90% "unknown". You can also select it to just show segments which are flat or harder for example.

So do none subscribers see the heat maps when in record mode ? Click the little map marker icon to the right of the stop button. - you can scroll it around to have a look once you're in there and rotate it etc - click the compass at the top to re-centre to north up.

Aah I see. I’ve never used the record function of Strava, I do everything via the Garmin and then just sync it to Strava when home to upload my photos and change the description etc

Just had a look, yes you get the option of adding the global heat map on the live map whilst recording

 

[Zimmerframe]

Yes, heat maps are shown in record mode for me (non-subscriber).
I do believe Strava will keep this feature free for a while (to addict as much as possible non-subscribers) and then they will make the feature available for subscribers only ...

I'd imagined it would be a subscriber only thing. Quite a nice feature. Though I guess none subscribers wouldn't know about it unless they could see it.

Not sure about Strava's system of removing features which were free - which you then have to pay for to get back. That left a bad taste in everyones mouths last time, so I'd be amazed if they did it again.

Like @Tubby G and yourself, a lot of people don't use phones for their ride. If they promoted the function, maybe more people would - at least for exploring rides and then more people might subscribe ..

 

[Tubby G]

I'd imagined it would be a subscriber only thing. Quite a nice feature. Though I guess none subscribers wouldn't know about it unless they could see it.

Not sure about Strava's system of removing features which were free - which you then have to pay for to get back. That left a bad taste in everyones mouths last time, so I'd be amazed if they did it again.

Like @Tubby G and yourself, a lot of people don't use phones for their ride. If they promoted the function, maybe more people would - at least for exploring rides and then more people might subscribe ..

I always have my phone with me though, just rarely mounted to the bars. I take it out of my pocket to have a quick look at Trailforks if looking for unridden trails, never thought of looking at Strava and this heat map function, until now ??