Crunching Some Strava Numbers

[Razors Edge ★]

...where folks populate their "bike" field, the top 20 "fastest" bikes on Strava could be compiled:

The Romagna’s presence among this illustrious company was a total head-scratcher for me, so I did a bit of digging.

Strava was unable to provide a breakdown of locations that the Romagna was ridden by time of publication, and Sensa didn’t respond to my email, but as far as I can work out – other than a modest handful of dealers in Germany and Belgium – the brand is predominantly sold in the (very flat) Netherlands.

I guess that goes to show that even after billions of kilometres and 365 days of data, you can only go so far in getting to the heart of the matter. Aerodynamics may give a bike an advantage on a range of terrain globally but a cheap and cheerful aluminium bike can still mix it with the best of them – if it is only being ridden on flat roads by 500 or more Dutch people.

[donkpow]

Is this the median speed over all users of a given brand/model reporting?

[Razors Edge ★]

2 hours ago, donkpow said:

Is this the median speed over all users of a given brand/model reporting?

Pretty much.  Strava has you fill in "My Gear" and you have defaults for activities, so mine automatically considers a new activity a "Ride" on my "Specialized Tarmac" (which they know is a Specialized S-Works Tarmac) and group it as thus.  I am not sure how they get the full picture as it wasn't like I picked from a curated dropdown list of bike manufacturers & models.  Regardless, they have some level of insight into what bikes are being used and the stats around each. 

[JerrySTL ★]

I probably dropped all 3 off my bikes off the Top 20 if not the Top 2000.

[donkpow]

On 5/8/2020 at 1:17 PM, Razors Edge said:

Pretty much.  Strava has you fill in "My Gear" and you have defaults for activities, so mine automatically considers a new activity a "Ride" on my "Specialized Tarmac" (which they know is a Specialized S-Works Tarmac) and group it as thus.  I am not sure how they get the full picture as it wasn't like I picked from a curated dropdown list of bike manufacturers & models.  Regardless, they have some level of insight into what bikes are being used and the stats around each. 

Yeah but if you have like 2000 people riding a noodle bike with a median speed of 15 miles an hour and 2 people riding an uber bike at a median speed of 15 miles per hour, that's a whole different picture.

[Razors Edge ★]

On 5/9/2020 at 2:33 PM, donkpow said:

Yeah but if you have like 2000 people riding a noodle bike with a median speed of 15 miles an hour and 2 people riding an uber bike at a median speed of 15 miles per hour, that's a whole different picture.

It's actually very hard to wrap my head around someone riding any of the top three at 15mph average speed.  It's makes me really question their data and processes.  I'd be more receptive if those bikes were built for the mountains and climbing, but those aero bikes are for regular terrain and making the most out of small improvements in aerodynamics.  And, at their MSRPs, they likely should only be operated by folks actually putting those aero tweaks to good use. 

[donkpow]

That's part of what I was thinking when I first saw the post. Maybe the most popular bike has the slowest and fastest riders?

[bikeman564™]

On 5/11/2020 at 9:43 AM, Razors Edge said:

It's actually very hard to wrap my head around someone riding any of the top three at 15mph average speed.

I can because its an average. Distance/time. I've ridden rides at an average of 19.5 mph, and rides at slower averages. I don't know how many hours I have on each bike, only miles (as totaled by Strava). But If I take my 2018 data, 6510 miles / 458 hrs = 14.2 average...not that fast overall. So the data in the chart I believe. My Cannodale CAAD10 road bike would have the highest average, but overall I'd say its only in the 15s.

[Razors Edge ★]

On 5/12/2020 at 3:14 PM, bikeman564™ said:

I can because its an average. Distance/time. I've ridden rides at an average of 19.5 mph, and rides at slower averages. I don't know how many hours I have on each bike, only miles (as totaled by Strava). But If I take my 2018 data, 6510 miles / 458 hrs = 14.2 average...not that fast overall. So the data in the chart I believe. My Cannodale CAAD10 road bike would have the highest average, but overall I'd say its only in the 15s.

Yeah, I get that mixed riding and terrain - particularly stop and go city riding - have an impact.

But my issue is that the $7,500 Canyon Aeroad CF SLX is not a city bike. It's not really a suburban bike.  It's a bike meant for faster rides, and likely less "fun" at slower speeds.  It's also not really even a climbing bike (but it is light), so I still have a hard time wrapping my head around a 15mph average - for that type of bike and the seeming type of riding one would buy that bike for.

Sure, folks could be buying the "wrong" bike for what they really should have and the comments make the regular "dentist bike" comments (related to the dentist car eg. a Porsche 911), so I could see that being an issue - more bike than ability????