La Flamme Rouge **off topic discussion**

tomasrojo

Fair point though.

Wishbone Ash

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118182057#Comment_118182057

Yes, but I was thinking more of 'professional' thefts where a bike is identified and loaded into a van. The 'unrideable' bike can be worked on later in the privacy of a workshop etc.

tomasrojo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118183721#Comment_118183721

Yes, but even in that case, if you know the lock is going to cost you five cutting disks back in your lair to turn it into a bike you can sell on, you might just decide that it's not worth your time. There are, after all, plenty of e-bikes secured with top-of the-range locks you can cut through in one minute with one disk.

Wishbone Ash

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118184023#Comment_118184023

Yes, fair point.

CramCycle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118183721#Comment_118183721

UCD used to have vans drive in and just lift the entire bike rack, mainly BSOs so its not just targeted

tomasrojo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118184384#Comment_118184384

Think there aren't so many racks that aren't fixed to the ground these days? I haven't been on campus in about two years though.

Angle grinders are for amateurs the real serious thieves use a branch of a tree 😀

Apologies for the rag of a source

https://www.sundayworld.com/news/irish-news/brazen-bike-thief-caught-trying-to-break-lock-at-connolly-station-with-tree-branch-41060987.html

Weepsie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118185019#Comment_118185019

Outside the library, there are a couple dozen proper sheffield stands and a bike fixing station tool thing. 10 and 14 years since I studied there the 2 times I did, but I didn't cycle at the time, so wouldn't have noted the situation then.

I recall Maynooth having decent covered stands, but not enough of them. Some of the buildings had showers in the normal bathrooms too which was handy when I had an interview out there before.

Seth Brundle

https://twitter.com/FearStairLmk/status/1461324634285129729

magicbastarder

https://twitter.com/DaymoBrew/status/1461443269028724742

magicbastarder

btw, in case you're wondering why this thread has been unstickied, there's a bug on New Boards that if you post in a stickied thread, it doesn't show us on the 'my forums' tab or on the front page - so someone who follows the cycling forum via the former would miss new posts here.

ED E

I'd forgotten CRC use Fastway. Tracking doesnt work after three days. May as well go out and re-order from Amazon.

magicbastarder

https://mobile.twitter.com/ParadeloJavi/status/1462056579289788429

I'm reading that and it's embedded so it doesn't show the whole picture, and I'm like what f'n parrot?

I got a chuckle when I saw the whole picture 😂

MojoMaker

Bird chews laminate off cheap wheels.

Doesn't have the same ring to it no.

magicbastarder

i had a dream last night where i was cycling past the airport, and an engine blew up on a plane which was powering up for takeoff, as i passed.

a small part of the engine cowling was flung a couple of hundred metres and embedded itself in my bike helmet, and like some idiot i left it sticking out of my helmet as a point of pride.

dinneenp

Strava app offering 14 months for the price of 12. Is that the beat deal one can get?

Thanks,

Pa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118233950#Comment_118233950

I always thought it was way over priced for what it was. I care about me and not leaderboards so the free version does me and fail to see the value of giving them a 10er a month and what ever they make off of selling my data paid account or not.

magicbastarder

to be fair, it's only half that price, €60 a year. about equivalent to one and a half takeaway coffees a month, or the price of a pint a month.

i would be very surprised if the sale of data netted them much money at all, compared to the subscriptions.

Mr. Cats

I think Strava’s main issue is that it was all free for too long. It’s like people don’t ascribe any value to the huge development and support that’s required to get and keep the whole thing going.

CramCycle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118237077#Comment_118237077

The big issue with Strava is they invest in features for premium users that are useless. Most users if you look at their feedback forums would be happy with no improvements and them just moderating segments. I gave up the booze so the cost of Strava isn't a cost to me anymore, its one bottle of wine a month or two pints, and I appreciate that through lockdown KOMs and me getting bored and targeting certain ones got me through some pretty bored as f*ck days. If your not into leaderboards or KOMs, definitely stick with the free version as if it folded, there are 100 other apps that do the same and some you don't even realise. I imagine for those concerned about data on location will be shocked, not all of you, if you google "where have I been" or google maps timeline which sounds slightly less creepy. All this said, I wonder why Strava seem intent on trying to create stuff that none of their users have even indicated rather than fixing the issues that their paying customers have indicated.

ED E

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118237077#Comment_118237077

What development?

They've ignored issues/bugs that a 2nd year Comp Sci student could resolve in an afternoon. Plugins like Elevate show far more care for the core product than Strava do themselves.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118237358#Comment_118237358

Didn't know about that one, thanks.

magicbastarder

fixing the moderation on segments strikes me as being the most difficult problem of all strava would face.

as Cram mentioned though, i have no issue with data privacy on where i've been on strava. that by its very design is 'curated' by me and there are shag all privacy issues compared to the ones i'd be worried about if i left location services switched on on my phone all the time (i keep this turned off unless i explicitly need it)

i pay for strava, even though most of what i get is available for free, for one main reason; and that is that i use the service, i get value from it, it's not expensive and i may as well support that.

as cram said, many other apps offer similar functionality, but they don't offer the same network effects. strava is successful largely because it's successful, it's where most of your friends already are.

I'd equate Strava to Irish Water only a worse deal. There are a few services I pay for and don't have to as I feel I get value from and Strava is not one of them. The moment they removed the ability to see your total mirage per year/month on the app - training calendar (you can still see this free on the web site) they lost me.

buffalo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118237336#Comment_118237336

I gave up the booze so the cost of Strava isn't a cost to me anymore

That's funny, I gave up cycling so the cost of Strava isn't a cost to me anymore! 😆

loyatemu

I pay for Strava, I find it very motivating to see what other people I know are doing, it guilts me into getting out on the bike. I also like seeing the improvements in speed and fitness over time, which is also motivating. As I'm not troubling the top of any segment leaderboards, I don't really care whether the KOM is held by Nico Roche or some dude on a motorbike.

Mr. Cats

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118237986#Comment_118237986

Pretty sure you can see the annual total still on the app under your profile section.

A quick google shows that Strava has more than 85m users. I guess the number of activities loaded per year must be in the several hundred of millions. Until they took away features from free version last year, Id estimate that less than 5% were actually paying customers. The free version was ‘too good’ so most people felt there no need to pay, or no value to be had, from the additional paid-for features. To become profitable, they had to downgrade the free offering to encourage people to switch. I guess that it’s been successful.

I definitely don’t think that Strava is perfect and agree that there’s loads of things need fixing. I just think it’s just not realistic to think that they could continue to maintain the existing platform with hardly anyone paying. It would be interesting to know how much venture capital funding they’ve burned through over the years. That model is effectively the investors subsidising the users which is unsustainable in the long run.

buffalo

Cycling in (the background of) the news in Australia:

https://twitter.com/cameronwilson/status/1465193684782092288

Rechuchote

https://urbanmobilitycourses.eu/courses/designing-the-cycling-city/

Interesting-looking online course in designing cities that are cycle-friendly