STRAVA vs Instagram: Which rider are you?
How we ride defines us! As cyclists we are united in passion but have become divided in expression. Social media and apps have spread like a virus through our daily lives, Facebook and Instagram used to be a welcome distraction from our office work but have now started to invade our leisure time too. Now, not only do we pack a pump and spare tube, but also our smartphones too. As digital age mountain bikers we have come to a fork in the road? Two choices, two ways to get our thrills, SRAVA vs Instagram, the definition of a modern day duel, which rider are you?
To one side lies the trail of the STRAVA enthusiast, the digital warrior, racing downhill in a battle of one. Cutting corners and taking shortcuts, dreaming of straight lines while bypassing perfect berms to connect the dots. These are the KOM hunters, the GPS samurai racing furiously through the woods, ignoring potential new friends with punctures and parting startled hillwalkers left and right. “STRAVA” has become their war cry. Blinkered on the virtual honour of a temporary place at the top of the table – a KOM is the ultimate prize, a name at the top, setting the standard by which others will be measured and judged. Frequently observed in the woods, firing onto fire roads they charge a bit further, pedals thrashing, making sure the section counted. There’s no fanfare, no screams of applause or victory march, only a silence while the STRAVA screen ‘processes’. It had felt amazing, and that ‘enduro line’ had worked so well, surely it will be a KOM? “No, just a PB…Shit..”
And what of the other fork, this road contains no segments or virtual leaderboards, this is the domain of the Instagrammer, the lifestyle rider. Riders toil and pant up mountain passes with the sole purpose of the summit shot, bike held aloft against an epic mountain background, with an X-Pro II filter smashed on for added drama. Sunny days become brooding storms and molehills become mountains. The Instagrammer is on a constant quest, endlessly vigilant for that moment when the sun puts on its final show of the day, or that perfect post ride coffee-art-latte-heart. There’s even a new generation of Instagram athletes, each highly skilled in the fine art of employing just the right photographic filter to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary – before passing it off as the ordinary.
And what of the third road? Unmarked and rarely ridden it lies between the two. This is the road for the ‘don’t give a shit’ rider, riding with a phone with a broken screen and only enough change in their battle hardened jersey for a post ride beer, one that will be eagerly drunk and savoured without first being photographed and touted for likes. This is the road for those who remember what riding is all about.
Does life really need a Lo-Fi filter to be vibrant? Which road do you ride, do you follow the lonely road of the STRAVA warrior, or do you choose a life-on-air enhanced through Instagram? Or perhaps you ride the third road, like us. “Look over there at that sunset, quick pass my iPhone!”STRAVA vs Instagram, which rider are you?