At first I thought Strava is under-estimating the power I make and calories I burn in my rides. I don't use power meter but I've entered all the weights and bike type the best I could.
However, Strava doesn't have an option for a fully loaded tour bike with pannier bags nor what you're wearing on a ride. I enter my bike's loaded weight.....BUT I don't think Strava accounts for the drag of the pannier bags, full fenders, and the loose, casual style sports wear I prefer to wear than body-fitting suits. It might even be assuming I'm using GP5000 tires or the fastest rolling gravel tires available but I don't and I'm using slow, cheap, and heavy puncture-proof urban tires. And typical with tour bikes, MTB style rims with lots of spokes. I'm probably at the maximum drag configuration short, of actually wearing a parachute... So I've always assumed Strava would certainly under-estimate calorie estimates.
That is until I compared my calorie readings against the average TdF riders do on an average stage distance. And my calorie reading per distance is 7% higher. And, if I consider body weight as well, in terms of calories per distance per kilo of body weight, the figure becomes 9.3% above average as I only weigh 120 lbs. I thought that's crazy. If I had actually been riding in the least drag configuration, the estimates would even be a lot higher I suppose.
However, Strava doesn't have an option for a fully loaded tour bike with pannier bags nor what you're wearing on a ride. I enter my bike's loaded weight.....BUT I don't think Strava accounts for the drag of the pannier bags, full fenders, and the loose, casual style sports wear I prefer to wear than body-fitting suits. It might even be assuming I'm using GP5000 tires or the fastest rolling gravel tires available but I don't and I'm using slow, cheap, and heavy puncture-proof urban tires. And typical with tour bikes, MTB style rims with lots of spokes. I'm probably at the maximum drag configuration short, of actually wearing a parachute... So I've always assumed Strava would certainly under-estimate calorie estimates.
That is until I compared my calorie readings against the average TdF riders do on an average stage distance. And my calorie reading per distance is 7% higher. And, if I consider body weight as well, in terms of calories per distance per kilo of body weight, the figure becomes 9.3% above average as I only weigh 120 lbs. I thought that's crazy. If I had actually been riding in the least drag configuration, the estimates would even be a lot higher I suppose.