About

The purpose of Double Strength is to make regular fitness activities (eg rides, runs, swims etc) for small groups of friends more fun and engaging by providing the ability to easily create interesting challenges and leaderboards.

Strava is a great tool for measuring yourself against other individuals via Segment KOM Ladders. However the problem with Strava is that it does not replicate how riders actually ride on a day to day basis.

Typically riders have a small group of friends who they ride with regularly. Group rides typically have the following attributes:

• Small group of friends riding together (3 to 15 riders).
• Typically they do routes in their local area.
• Typically these routes are similar but perhaps they will mix and match the order of the route segments.
• Typically the group will ride together on the same days during the week.
• The small group of riders may already be a club of sorts or just a group of mates who ride together.

The purpose of DoubleStrength.com.au and Club Challenges is to try to mimic how riders actually ride on a regular basis and make it more fun and at the same time beneficial.

Club Challenges add “fun” into the group rides

DoubleStrength.com.au makes it more fun as it enables you to “stitch” together several Strava Segments to create a new Club Challenge. So for example in the suburb of Mosman in Sydney there are a plethora of segments. A group I ride with called ECS who are obviously using DoubleStrength.com.au created a Club Challenge called:

“The Mosman Super Short Black Challenge”

This combined the following Strava Segments:

1.    Dave's Happy Ending - https://www.strava.com/segments/11745364
2.    Taronga Super Short - https://www.strava.com/segments/3553482
3.    Mosman St Leg Burner - https://www.strava.com/segments/4260151

The times for each segment are then cumulated together for each rider in the group to create a Club Challenge Ladder for that Challenge in that Group. Something like this:

Club Challenges provide benefits for the group rides

In any group of riders there will always be a difference in abilities and fitness. And hence in any group ride with mates the ordering of the riders will typically remain the same over a Strava Segment. The problem is this makes it really hard to see if you are getting “closer” to the friend who typically finishes in front of you on a Strava Segment.

However with the Club Challenges and a real-time Challenge Ladder it becomes more immediately obvious if you are getting close to the mate just in front of you, or even leap frogging over him or her!

Types of Challenges

The DoubleStrength.com.au application also allows different types of challenges:

a.    Vertical – the most amount of vertical in a given period.
b.    Segment – The fastest time on the the Strava segment that makes up the challenge.
c.    Multiple Segment - The fastest cumulative time on the set of Strava segments that make up the challenge.
d.    Multiple Same Segment - The fastest cumulative time across multiple attempts of the Same Segment (eg Interval efforts).
e.    Multiple Same Segment with different segments - The fastest cumulative time across multiple attempts of the Same Segment but with several different segments in the challenge. Essentially a combination of (c) and (d).
f.    PR (Personal Record) Improvements – Compares your previous PR on the segment against your attempted PRs during the challenge period.

The Club Challenge Rules

The rules around Club Challenges are quite simple:

1. A Club Challenge is defined to take place over a set period – typically a month. So from the 1st of the month to the last day of the month.
2. To create the Club Challenge Ladder only rides during the Challenge Period are taken into account. If you did a quicker ride outside the Challenge period it is ignored. So it really becomes a test of current fitness and abilities.
3. For Challenges that incorporate multiple segments the multiple segments must be completed during the one Strava activity. So say for example a challenge consists of 6 segments and you do three today in 1 activity (ride) and the other 3 tomorrow in another activity (ride) this is NOT a valid completion of the Club Challenge and this will not register on the Club Challenge Ladder.

Other “fun” tools on DoubleStrength.com.au

Using cycling data in interesting ways is the main focus of DoubleStrength.com.au.

1.    Club Eligibility Test

Typically a small group of riders will have a key segment in their area that really is a litmus test for their group. DoubleStrength.com.au allows this segment to be defined as a “Club Eligibility Test”. This is just a “tongue in cheek” way of testing whether riders in the group make the grade to be part of the club.

2.    Club Weigh Ins

As we all know weight is a big part of cycling so why not have some fun with it! The Club Weigh Ins is about collecting all riders in the group’s weight at any drinks or dinner catch up. But the twist is the rider weights are snapped at the start of the event before the festivities begin and then at the end of the event to see who put the most weight on during the event!

3.    Club Photo Gallery

Strava allows photos to be uploaded and attached to rider activities. The problem with this is at then your photos and all the riders in your groups photos are spread dis-jointly across Strava. DoubleStrength.com.au solves this by bringing then into on central gallery for your ride group.
 
4.    Coffee Fund

It is pretty much established folklore that you have a strong coffee after a good morning of riding. And most groups frequent the same cafes. However the problem at the café is often who’s “shout” it is for coffee. DoubleStrength.com.au solves this by using the Stripe API payment system to setup a Coffee Fund for groups. All riders in the group pay into the Coffee Fund and then the Coffee fund pays the nominated café.

Big Data and DoubleStrength.com.au

The amount of cycling data available through the Strava API is very large. At DoubleStrength.com.au we really want to use the data in new and interesting ways to make rides more fun! So we are always open to new ideas and innovations to do this.

DoubleStrength.com.au is not a marketing tool

DoubleStrength.com.au is not about marketing to riders. It is about creating a useful set of tools that makes riding more fun. And if you make riding more fun for your clients and members then it will strengthen the relationship between your organisation/company and your client.

If you can see benefits for your clients from DoubleStrength.com.au we’d be more than happy to help you set it up for your organisation.