'Strava inflation' takes on new meaning with price rise above 25%

The increase in the cost of living here in the UK has now reached another part of the cycling industry, with our ability to record bike rides, runs, swims and all other activities you might choose to log on Strava about to become pricier (for paying members).

First reported by BikeRadar, Strava looks set to increase the price of its monthly subscription from £6.99 to £8.99 and its annual membership from £47.99 to £54.99.

This uplift in the cost of paid access to the app and website is around 28% for monthly subscribers and 14.5% for those who pay annually. Although unlikely to be related, this is well above the current UK price inflation rate of about 10% that is mentioned daily on the news.

The term 'Strava inflation' had previously been used to signify the growth in the number of the app's users and with it the increasing speed of segment KOMs and QOMs, meaning that for most of us it only ever gets more difficult to reach the top of the leader board.

Strava remains available as a free activity tracker, of course, but a downgrade would mean the loss of premium features such as route planning, a training progress dashboard, goal setting and segment competitions.

This comes on top of almost everything else related to cycling also increasing in price over the last couple of years or so, thanks to the global factors of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, plus the UK's self-sanctioning in the form of Brexit.