Cyclemeter
I use Cyclemeter to track my rides, and I like it. The iPhone app works really well, doesn’t suck the life out of my battery (as long as the backlight’s switched off) and reliably posts my rides to Twitter, Facebook and the DailyMile site, which has some excellent display and reporting.
So, I wasn’t looking for a new tracker or recording website.
Strava
… However, there’s no denying that Strava has some excellent characteristics. The ability to compete via segments – against your friends, people you’ve never met and yourself – is a fantastic idea. The even better part of this idea is that other people can do the hard work of setting new segments up.
Importing Ride Data Into Strava From Cyclemeter
I’d heard that the iPhone Strava app isn’t very good, yet. So I had an issue – how to import my rides recorded by Cyclemeter to the Strava website so I could look at my segments and get a little bit more information.
I scoured the internets and found nothing, but thankfully a little diligent research and the Abvio website gave me what I needed. So, I’m retracing my steps below so you don’t have to scour Google like I did.
So, How Is It Done?
On Your Phone
Open your Cyclemeter App. Click the “History” icon at the bottom. Then select the ride you’re looking for via the “Recent” heading or the ”Summaries” links. These are marked (1) and (2) in my picture.
Find your ride on Cyclemeter
Next, you’ll see your ride information. Scroll down to the second box – the top link will be “Email/Export“. Select this option.
You’ll then see the following screen. Select the “GPX File Attachment” option.
GPX File Export
This will open up an email with the gpx file attached. Send this email to yourself.
On Your Computer
Open up your emails. You’ll have one from yourself with the gpx file attached. Save this gpx file somewhere you can find it.
Next, log in to Strava. If you’ve never done this before, I’d suggest that linking it to Facebook is the easiest option for most people.
Strava LogIn
Once logged in, there’s a clear “Upload Activity” button at the top right. Hit that.
Strava Upload Activity
On the following screen, the option you need is “Upload a file on your computer” so select that, then browse to the gpx file you’ve saved from your email.
Find Your gpx File
Strava will upload the file for you, with all the data you need. You can then edit the ride details: the name of the ride; notes; anything else you like such as what bike you were on… etc.
Then all the wonderful functionality and competitiveness of Strava is available for your delectation!
Phill's Windy Hill Strava Ride
A little advice here: Just don’t spend too long online messing with your segment readings – get out and ride your bike!
By the way, my Strava profile can be found by following this link. I’m the one at the bottom of the tables. KOS – King Of Slowness. 
It’s even easier than that: email your GPX file to upload@strava.com directly from the Cyclemeter app. Just make sure the from address you setup in Cyclemeter is the same as the one you use to log in to Strava, and delete everything in the body of the email besides the GPX file itself.
That’s really useful. I’m going to try that myself. Hopefully removing the rest of the content is intuitive – I’d say be careful of any autosignatures you have (like “sent from my iPhone” for example).
Good shout, thanks.
Wow! Exactly what I was looking for! Thanks mate
Happy to help (as they say in Asda).
Great info here. I agree that Strava is a great service.
Anyone know how to export the entire cyclemeter history of gps data out as a multiple gpx files? The app only lets you export a single gpx file at a time…
That’s a really good question – will have to look into that. I bet the guys at Abvio (who write the Cyclemeter app) will have a solution. I guess there’s a reason not to make it too easy, so people won’t just stop using Cyclemeter and use Strava instead, but from my point of view I do prefer Cyclemeter when I’m out. Strava’s main advantage from my point of view is the training and competitive angles.
Anyone know if it’s possible to setup the cyclemeter auto-email feature to send the file to strava? Rather than having to do it manually?
Cheers
More > Settings > Email updates > Auto send settings > Recipients: upload@strava.com
More > Settings > Email updates > Auto send settings > Done
However, the gpx files out of Cyclemeter have been causing me problems since the last update. I can upload via the Strava website, but not via emails. Same exact files, but the Strava import is less robust via email. I contacted Strava customer support and they say the gpx files out of Cyclemeter are not formatted correctly. Hopefully this gets sorted out soon.
I edit my CycleMeter rides to include heart and cadence info from my bike computer. When export and send the GPX to strava, that additional info is missing.
Any ideas?
That happens with me too — have both heart rate and cadence in cyclemeter, but on import to strava, both are missing. Everything everything else imports ok. Anyone understand this?
Also, anyone ever try just running both apps simultaneously, rather than the whole email rigamarole? Have strava going in background, and cyclemeter in foreground. I may experiment with that, but always nice if someone has beaten me to it.
-p
This would be very cool. I’m a long time cyclemeter user, but recently tried strava. I prefer all the app features of cyclemeter, but love the way strava lets me analyze my ride.
Did the auto email method work for you in previous cyclemeter versions? If so, that gives me hope that this might get worked out soon…
I’m prett sure the email upload worked in the previous version of Cyclemeter, but I wasn’t using strava for very long. The upload works perfectly fine using the website so I see no reason it shouldn’t also work via email. Strava must not be using the same file reading mechanism for each import method. If you come across the same problem please email strava’s customer support so that there is pressure to fix this.
I tried the email upload yesterday. It worked fine.
Working for me now as well! Not sure what changed, although I didn’t bother to remove anything from the email that Cyclemeter creates (I used to only keep the gpx file in the email). Regardless, it now works, and I couldn’t be happier.
Yay. Worked great. Thanks a lot
Hi Guys,
I have been using cyclemeter for a few months, about to join strava and set up the automatic uploads via email.
Can I view somebody’s route on strava, go and do it with my cyclemeter, and it will upload to strava, and let me compare my performance?
Is it that simple?
I am probably getting ahead of myself here, and should read the strava website info!
Bob
Hi Bob,
I know that when I’ve ridden the same ride as other guys at the same time, Strava notices and tells me about it. I’m not sure if Strava knows you’ve done the same full route as somebody else if you do it later, beyond the magic it already performs with specific segments.
See a recent ride on this link – I did this with 3 other guys (well, they waited for me a lot) and recorded it with Cyclemeter, then uploaded to Strava later on the laptop. Strava knew (from times and route, I assume) that I’d been out together with the others.
Can anyone else tell us?
Hi Phil,
Right, so cyclemeter loads your entire route into strava, then strava tells you how well you have done against any segments (previously created by someone) that your ride happened to incorporate?
so, you could just dreate a new segment for an entire ride?
Cheers
Bob
p.s. you are well off the bottom on that segment I looked at
Hi Bob,
Yes, you could easily do that
I think the slower people must have walked that segment!
Phill.
Thanks Phill,
How easy is it to chose a segment from a ride that you have done with cyclemeter?
Bob
Once you’ve imported the ride, it’s really easy. Strava’s all centred around segments so they make it very easy to create new ones. Go for it!
Great stuff!
Thanks for the help.
Bob
If you want to convert KML files to GPX files or the other way around, you can use this simple free online converter http://kml2gpx.com/
agree with all above – cyclemeter great for out on the road especially the ability to chase your best time
Strava brilliant on the PC/Mac with the excellent segment feature and, asp as I am 56, the age group filter
but really annoying that it doesn’t seem possible to upload heart rate and cadence data from cyclemeter to strava
I think you need to import the TCX file to include data such as heart rate and cadence.
Thanks for the very clear instructions for doing the export.
I have 56 rides in Cyclemeter but it only offers GPX export for individual rides. If I try and share the full 56 rides it only offers a CSV option for export which fails to import to Strava. Is there anyway to share all my rides in one go rather than exporting 56 individually and uploading? Thanks for any tips! Great article.
Thanks Robin!
I know that Strava can handle bulk uploads (see their blog at ) but I’m not sure how Cyclemeter downloads in bulk. Can anyone help?
Maybe exporting via email (26 times) then uploading in bulk from the files you’ve saved is the quickest way? I can’t help but think there’s a more elegant solution though. I hope someone can chip in with a better idea…