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How to splice part of your friend's ride into your own Strava Activity

Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2021 7:40 pm
by fulmar2
This tutorial depends on you having GPX from someone who did the same activity at approximately the same time as you. If you don't have that, check out my other tutorial on how to splice-in the map of a missing ride section.

We've all had it happen: Something goes wrong with part of our GPS recording, and the upload looks terrible on Strava. Luckily, if you were riding with a friend, my tools give you an opportunity to fix your GPS track and make it as close to accurate as possible. The reason you might want to do this instead of just taking your friend's entire GPS track is because you'd prefer to have as much of your OWN data as possible. If you're recording your own heart rate, cadence, etc, it would be nice to keep that data for the part of your ride where your GPS was working. Here is how to do that using GOTOES | Strava Tools. This procedure can be quick if you just do a simple splice, but it can take 10-30 minutes if you need to do a time-shift. I can also do it for you, but I'll probably ask you to donate to the tools!

Step 1: Upload your ride to the tools. This is temporary; we just want to find out at what time your ride went wrong.

Getting Ready to Splice part of your friend's ride into your activity
Getting Ready to Splice part of your friend's ride into your activity

Step 2: Once your file is uploaded, click the button that says "Click Here" and go to the next page. On this 2nd page, click the "Edit Points" button.

Click the "Edit Points" Button. This will let you find where the GPS bugged out.
Click the "Edit Points" Button. This will let you find where the GPS bugged out.
Screen Shot 2021-03-15 at 7.57.51 AM.png (85.67 KiB) Viewed 11714 times

Step 3: Let's identify the location where the GPS went wrong on the map:

Finding where the GPS track went wrong.
Finding where the GPS track went wrong.

Step 5: Now, we need to figure out the time-stamps that "bracket" the problem region. Zoom in to one end of the problem, and click the "Scroll to Nearest Point in the Table" link. This will identify one end of the problem area.

Taking note of the timestamp where things went wrong with the GPS
Taking note of the timestamp where things went wrong with the GPS

Step 6: Do the same thing for the other end where things got back on track. Take note of the time stamp.

Finding the other end of the problem area in your GPS track.
Finding the other end of the problem area in your GPS track.

Step 7: We are now done with this window. Go back to https://gotoes.org/strava/Combine_GPX_TCX_FIT_Files.php - and this time upload Your ride AND your friend's ride.

Now we have two rides uploaded - your ride and your friend's ride.
Now we have two rides uploaded - your ride and your friend's ride.


Step 8: Since we want to splice your friend's ride into the middle of your ride, this will be a two-step process. If you want to put part of your friend's ride at the end (or beginning) of your ride, it is actually a once step process. I'm showing the two step process because it is more complicated. What we are going to do is to use the "Trim" feature to trim your ride and your friend's ride. Using the time stamps you wrote down in Steps 5 and 6, we will first trim so we have the beginning of your ride + the section we want from your friend. Later, we will come back and add in the end of your ride.

Change the Start/Stop time of your friend's activity so you only have the portion you need to fill the gap.  Trim your activity to END right as the friend's activity begins.
Change the Start/Stop time of your friend's activity so you only have the portion you need to fill the gap. Trim your activity to END right as the friend's activity begins.

Step 9: Set all the options you want, and then export this piece of the ride. Note that you are missing the end of your ride... but we will come back and add that in again later in a second step.

Save your intermediate file to the desktop.  Don't send to Strava quite yet!
Save your intermediate file to the desktop. Don't send to Strava quite yet!

Step 10: Now you need to upload 2 files to the tool: The file you just exported, and your original file. This is the step where we will be adding back on the end of your activity.

Upload the file you just exported along with your original file to the tool.
Upload the file you just exported along with your original file to the tool.

Step 11: At this point you can see the modified ride you just exported (pink) and your original ride (orange). We want to keep all of the pink portion because it includes the beginning of your ride as well as the piece you wanted from your friend's ride. We now just want to add on the end of your original ride. This is what it looks like before you set the trim:

Before Trim
Before Trim

This is what it looks like after we set up the trim:

After Trim
After Trim


Step 12: Choose all of the options you want... and then send it off to Strava!


Final Repaired File
Final Repaired File