Fake Strava Art
Celf Strava Ffug
Fake Strava Art was a COVID-19 lockdown project for me. Taking the time to create the intricate routes required to make the proper stuff seemed like a complete ballache, so the most sensible workaround was to dabble in the sophisticated underworld of art forgery.
The preparation side of this workaround did not require time-consuming ballachery. In fact, all I had to do was put my cycling gear on and ride my bike! This was a level of procrastination that suited my lifestyle!
“If it’s not on Strava…it didn’t happen”
quote attributable to several thousand Strava users.
Can’t argue with that logic. My fake Strava art is on Strava, therefore it happened 😁
The real work started when Strava stopped…
I had to look at the GPS recording from several angles to see if the outline looked remotely like anything else. For some routes, this was very straightforward, although other routes required a more flexible interpretation.
Once I had a subject in mind, I then had to edit the route using the S Pen for my Note 9 phone. Ordinarily, my drawing abilities are a bit shit tbh, but I kinda excelled at editing the GPS routes on my phone. It did help that any mistakes could easily be undone, whereas if I was using pencil and paper, I probably would have given up after going through a small forest in waste paper.
Not only was I being creative, I was saving the environment in the process.
You’re welcome.
That said, the post-ride efforts from start to the finished image still took quite a bit of time. I could probably ride 50 km quicker than it took me to create the fake Strava art associated with it 🤔
As you can see from the examples in the gallery above, some final edits used quite a bit of artistic licence, but it’s just a bit of fun, so meh 😉
The gallery above contains a selection of the final edits. The full gallery shows the before and after images side -by-side.
Eventually the novelty started to wear off, but I was inspired to try some real Strava art.
- Photographer: Phone screenshot feature
- Models: A map and a GPS route
- Country: UK
- Style: Abstract
