Crush a bloated GPX down to a clean, shareable track.

Three reasons. First, some platforms cap GPX uploads at a few thousand points - Ride With GPS, older Garmin units (Edge 800, Edge 810, Touring), and several route planners reject files past their limit. Second, embedding maps online is much faster with fewer points - a 500-point route renders instantly on a mobile browser, a 10,000-point route takes seconds. Third, sharing a 50KB file beats sharing a 5MB file, especially over email or messaging apps.

Some, yes. The simplified track skips trackpoints that fall close to the line between their neighbours, and a few of those points carry elevation samples you will no longer have. Total ascent for the activity stays within 1-2% of the original. Per-trackpoint elevation accuracy degrades only at the deleted points - the kept points carry their original elevation untouched.

For preserving visual route shape at a target point count, yes - it is the standard choice for cartographic line generalisation. For preserving the elevation profile specifically, Visvalingam-Whyatt is slightly better because it considers triangle area rather than perpendicular distance. We are looking at adding it as an option - drop a note via the waitlist if it matters to you.

Mostly yes, but with caveats. Strava matches segments by detecting whether your route passes through the segment's start, end, and a few interior gate points. If the simplification keeps points near each gate, the segment matches. If you simplify aggressively (down to 100 points on a 50km ride), you may skip a gate by enough metres that Strava rejects the match. For Strava-uploaded rides, do not simplify below ~800 points on a 50km route.

Most head units record at 1Hz, which gives you one point per second regardless of how fast you are moving - and that is what produces 10,000+ point files on long rides. The recording side is mostly fixed; the simplification has to happen after the fact. A few units support "smart" recording which adapts the rate to motion, but it tends to under-sample on twisty descents.

Slightly. Distance is summed from segment-to-segment haversine distances, and removing intermediate points means cutting a few short zigzags into straight lines. Expect 0.1-0.3% reduction in total distance for typical simplification targets. Not enough to matter for training, definitely not enough to matter for navigation.

Yes, and this is one of the most common use cases. Set the target to 500 points (or whatever your specific unit caps at - some are 200, some are 1000), download the simplified file, and load it onto the Edge. The unit will accept it cleanly. If you are loading as a FIT course, also run it through our [GPX to FIT Course Converter](/tools/gpx-to-fit-course) afterwards.

Timestamps on the kept points are preserved. Removed points lose their timestamps along with everything else. For recorded activities this means the moving-time math might shift by a second or two; for route files (no recorded times) this is a no-op.