STRAVA Art This is a post to celebrate the ONGOING life and STRAVA art of Anthony Hoyte, one of the UK’s most prolific STRAVARTISTs. He sent me an email giving permission to link to and show his STRAVA art collection. But it’s not just Anthony who is a renowned STRAVA artist; there are many of them, so this post explains a few things about STRAVA Art, shows the complete STRAVA Artworks of Anthony Hoyte, and gives several other examples. What is STRAVA Art? STRAVA art comes from the route of one of your workouts recorded on STRAVA.com and that route just happens to look like something funny, clever, rude…or whatever. Perhaps the nicest one was a marriage proposal to Emily who, apparently, said “Yes”. STRAVA Art – What are the Rules? There are no rules, it’s not an official thing. However, you will probably be mercifully mocked and virally abused if you just draw a digital route on a ride planner and then upload it to STRAVA without actually riding it in the real world. If it has the associated power data or heart rate data hidden within the depths of STRAVA then I reckon that’s all you need for it to be genuine. It’s perfectly OK to draw and plan your route in advance AND THEN follow that route using a bike computer (or similar). Haven’t got a bike? That’s OK — you can use any mode of transport including two feet. Creating STRAVA Art – What could possibly go wrong? Answer: Quite a lot. START: You have to get to the start. Make sure you don’t record that journey to the start and get a GPS fix before pressing ‘GO’. STOP: When you finish the art…stop recording. RIGHT ROUTE: Don’t make a wrong turning…obviously. But I mean over a 40-mile route. NOT. ONE. SINGLE. WRONG. TURNING. OR. MISTAKE. TURN AROUND: At some point, you will have to draw the end of a line and that will mean going up and back on the same street. Except you will be on different sides of the road and that might look a bit weird on wider roads. TIME: A piece of art could well take you many, many hours. Just like completing an Ironman, nutrition and wee-stops need to be catered for. PAUSE: If you stop to eat, your GPS might wander and think you are moving up to 20 metres from where you are stationary. Press that pause button. GPS inaccuracy: A tall building can EASILY throw your track 30m or more off route so bear that in mind. PLAN, TEST, PLAN and TEST again. STRAVA Art – The Complete Works of Anthony Hoyte Well, there’s 10 at any rate. Links to the originals on Strava: Activity 1 Activity 2 Activity 3 Activity 4 Activity 5 Activity 6 Activity 7 Activity 8 Activity 9 Activity 10 STRAVA Art Alternatives – Does it need to be boring red lines? My definition of art would be that “the creator intended it to be art”. So you can also turn heatmaps of ALL of your routes into a piece of art. And rather than your own personal heatmap, you might want a population level heatmap to exhibit on your lounge wall. STRAVA Art Resources A curated Instagram feed of STRAVA art by Gary STRAVA’s Greatest Artist? Opinion This is one of those harmless things that are a bit of fun and distract some of us from the trials and tribulations of everyday life. If you plan to do these, even once, then they appear to me to be somewhat time-consuming. GOOD LUCK! ← Back to the Strava Hub
