Tested: Streeka Virtual Coach – Can this Aussie startup rival the biggest AI coaches?

Slowly but surely AI has been creeping into most corners of cycling, professional and otherwise, so it certainly came as no great surprise when I was asked to check out the new Australian-created virtual coaching app, Streeka.

The brainchild of Sydney cyclist Sam Sutherland, Streeka is a customisable and endlessly adaptable AI-powered virtual coach that’s pitched as a cycling training app for the real world, warts and all.

“I got fed up with training apps that assume a perfect week, so I built one that doesn’t,” Sutherland explains rather bluntly.

While it certainly won’t be for everyone, after using it for a month or so it definitely has a place for many of those who ride amongst us.

Perhaps you’re one of them?

So, what is it exactly?

Streeka is a smartphone-based training app for endurance athletes (it’s also suitable for runners) who want to add structure for their workouts, but also need the flexibility to adapt to whatever life throws their way each week.

It’s a lot more personalised than using a generic digital training platform, but less expensive than having a human coach.

What’s good?

Streeka does what it says on the jar. It’s a flexible and genuinely adaptive platform that will make a lot of sense for cyclists who want to add more direction to their two-wheeled exertions.

You start with a tailored training plan to achieve a stated goal and then get weekly schedules of rides to help you get there.

Then, if – and let’s be honest, when – life, health or even the weather gets in the way you simply tell the app via the AI assistant SAMI (Streeka Automated Motivational Intelligence) and it adapts your plan as you go, providing pre and post ride feedback, fuelling advice and do’s and dont’s to keep you moving towards your goal whatever happens along the way.

It’s clearly not as personal a having a real coach to push you along, but it’s better than nothing – and that’s the point.

Another thing I appreciated about Streeka is that it’s real. By that I mean the feedback it provides isn’t the saccharine ‘everything’s great’ type messages you tend to get from some AI agents at the moment (yeah, I’m looking at you Strava).

If you mess up – for example you train too hard on a recovery day, fall short of the prescribed effort, or miss a session completely – it will tell you. It also reminds you ‘not to be a hero’ and has no hesitation in calling you out if you are, which made me laugh.

Streeka synced automatically with my calendar in Garmin Connect so in addition to viewing things on the Streeka app itself, I could easily see which days I had training sessions coming up each week including a summary of what each session required. That was quite handy.

The ability to adapt the ride schedule was also very useful.

For example, whenever the winter weather closed at my place in I simply told the virtual coach SAMI via the app which then tweaked my upcoming session(s) for the trainer providing detailed power zone and interval information which was easy to translate into indoor workouts.

Similarly, if you have a question about almost anything ride and training related you can ask SAMI and get answers within seconds. The longer I had the app the more I made use of this function, spit balling my thoughts and ideas and generally getting meaningful feedback.

I actually found it genuinely useful.

What’s not-so-good?

Getting started is reasonably straightforward. Just upload the Streeka app to your phone and follow the prompts. That said like any new tech you may find it a little fiddly to truly get the hang of at first – it definitely has its quirks.

If you’re not overly tech savvy you’ll need to be patient and persevere. That said, the email tech support is very responsive and the few issues I did have were quickly resolved.

If you run a Garmin or Wahoo device your ride data can be automatically uploaded to Streeka after each session.

But for non-compatible head units and third party trainer platforms – such as MyWhoosh, for example – you’ll likely need to manually upload your rides into Garmin Connect or Wahoo with a .gpx file (or similar) which then transfers them across to the Streeka app.

It’s no big deal, just a bit of extra mucking around. Streeka is looking at adding further integrations as demand develops with Hammerhead, Polar and COROS devices high on that list.

My only other observation is a very specific one given my short vision isn’t great these days.

I have the type size cranked up on my mobile phone so I can read things without my glasses, but the Streeka interface seemed to struggle with the larger font and the screen formatting was quite hard to view at times forcing me to reduce the point size and fetch my specs.

Again no big deal, but certainly a little annoying.

The tech

Streeka uses a combination of an OpenAI foundation model (the people behind ChatGPT) with custom-built features including Streeka-specific prompts, coaching logic and data systems.

“This is what gives SAMI its cycling-specific behaviour and makes the experience different from opening a general-purpose chatbot,” explains Sam Sutherland, who stresses SAMI is not simply responding to a rider’s questions and inputs in isolation, but building a unique training picture over time.

“It can build an ongoing understanding of the athlete, their training and the constraints affecting them. It can also take proactive actions, such as prompting a weekly review and adapting the next week based on how training actually went.”

Accuracy-wise, the AI interactions with SAMI were generally pretty good. I quite intentionally chopped and changed my sessions around to see if I could catch it out – and sometimes did – but overall it was quite reliable and robust.

There were a few glitchy moments but on the occasions when it did get a bit muddled I just told SAMI it was wrong and it quickly corrected itself.

Security & privacy

Streeka’s virtual coach SAMI uses a private AI deployment within the company’s own Microsoft Azure environment. The information users share with SAMI is not used to train third-party AI models but conversation history is stored securely so users can return to previous conversations and SAMI can maintain the context needed to provide useful, personalised guidance.

While Streeka does have controlled access to this data, Sam Sutherland says conversations aren’t routinely read or reviewed.

“They would only be accessed where necessary to provide support, investigate a technical issue or troubleshoot something specific,” he explains.

“Access is restricted to authorised Streeka personnel and conversation data is not sold or shared with advertisers.”

What does it cost?

Streeka is free to download for Android and iOS devices. You can instantly explore basic training insights and get started in the app.

But the real magic comes from the premium features such as the adaptive AI-powered training support which is only available through subscription for $29/month after an initial two-week free trial.

The wrap up

Better than generic fitness apps but cheaper than a human coach, Streeka is aimed squarely at dedicated amateur riders who are moderately tech-savvy and want to add more rigour and structure to their riding.

If you’re actually going to use it – such as preparing for an event, overseas riding trip or perhaps chasing some specific performance or racing goals – I think it’s great.

But if it’s just a novelty thing the $29/month price-tag might be a bit harder to justify.