Do people use Ebikes on strava?

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tommyboyo
Posts: 350
Joined: Sun Jun 21, 2020 12:49 am

by tommyboyo

Disclaimer: Not a strava junkie (honest!) and not that bothered about KOM's and that, just enjoy seeing where I am at compared to other riders, both better and worse.

However...

Was looking at a climb I did today on Strava and was quite pleased with my effort, but then realised that I had been easily beaten by people who it did not seem very likely could beat me. When I looked at their profiles, they have a few hundred miles in total for the strava careers and zero koms combined.

I could be totally wrong, but you normally get a feel for these things if you use Strava a lot and are realistic about your level.

Most of the peeps seemed to be on moutain/gravel bikes (the road is a dead end for tarmac and then turns into an off road section and most of their rides follow this off road section rather than turning round and coming back) aswell and poor old me on my UCI weight limit SL6 Tarmac getting owned by them!!

Seemed odd, so I was wondering could it be Ebikes, or what? There is some pretty heavy ramps in the climb as well.

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JMeinholdt
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by JMeinholdt

I've lost KOM's and looked at the file only to see the GPS track leads straight to a highway to cruise at 70mph for 20 minutes.

If you question it, flag the ride and let Strava sort out it's authenticity. It's pretty apparent when they're legit versus when they're not. Also this doesn't belong in the training forum, IMO.
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Dylanlspangler
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by Dylanlspangler

I feel no guilt in flagging a ride. Between E-bikes and faulty gps data it seems there’s plenty out there.


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Aikon
Posts: 36
Joined: Sun Apr 03, 2011 6:27 pm

by Aikon

Absolutely people do, you can mark a ride as ebike which takes it out of the leader boards for non ebikes & puts it in an ebike specific leaderboard but it seems few do.

On flagging rides, a friend recently passed away on a ride & his bike was taken to the police station before anyone stopped his GPS and uploaded it to Strava, it’s clear from the ride title, description & comments what happened so hopefully no-one will flag it.

Thomson
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by Thomson

That's the saddest thing I have ever read on the internet.

Andrew69
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by Andrew69

Thomson wrote:
Mon Aug 30, 2021 10:07 pm
That's the saddest thing I have ever read on the internet.
Which bit?
That people are using e-bikes to score KOM's or that others are flagging these people?

I recently flagged a guys ride.
Next to no km's logged (which is fine, not everyone uploads every ride to strava), but then somehow manages to take something 8 or 10 KOM's in a single ride?
Lots of very fast guys around here, so unless youre riding for a Pro-tour team, its suspect

ghostinthemachine
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by ghostinthemachine

Have a tech averse mate who I used to race with, who's teenage son recently put him on Strava (anonymously).
Has cleaned up on the local leaderboards this summer, had dozens of them flagged and removed as he's a "fat middled aged man".
Ok. I admit, he is middled aged. He's also got a handful of national and masters champs medals and jerseys. Definitely not fat. Fit and fast as f**k is probably a better description...

He also thinks having things flagged and removed is hilarious.

AJS914
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by AJS914

But does Strava remove just anything that is flagged?

JMeinholdt
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by JMeinholdt

AJS914 wrote:
Tue Sep 07, 2021 9:39 pm
But does Strava remove just anything that is flagged?
I don't know for sure, but I would think they have an automated review process which looks at HR and power data. If those two are present, it's pretty hard to deny. If neither are present, it's probably a manual review.
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Maddie
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by Maddie

AJS914 wrote:But does Strava remove just anything that is flagged?
I got a kom back after it was flagged by someone. I also received an email from strava stating that this ride can't be flagged anymore.
I don't know why it was flagged. HR and power was visible and you could see that I went full gas. I was only 2 seconds faster than the next on the leaderboard, on a 8 min segment. It was probably him who flagged me Image

JMeinholdt
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by JMeinholdt

Maddie wrote:
Wed Sep 08, 2021 3:24 pm
AJS914 wrote:But does Strava remove just anything that is flagged?
I got a kom back after it was flagged by someone. I also received an email from strava stating that this ride can't be flagged anymore.
I don't know why it was flagged. HR and power was visible and you could see that I went full gas. I was only 2 seconds faster than the next on the leaderboard, on a 8 min segment. It was probably him who flagged me Image
If you're flagged on a ride where you take a KOM, it's a 1000% certainty that the person who lost it, flagged it. They'll get an email from Strava telling them they lost it.
Wilier Cento10AIR - SRAM Force AXS - Road/race
3T Exploro - SRAM Rival AXS XPLR - Gravel
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Lewn777
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by Lewn777

People use ebikes on Strava and upload the rides as regular rides because otherwise their ride will count for nothing better than a manual upload. Those riders rightly or wrongly feel that the riding they have done is worth something more than that, and they are also often under a delusion about how much advantage they are really gaining and probably don't mean to be taking segments. As with a Zwift ride, the ebike rides on Strava need to count as 'something' more than a manual upload. I would say both Strava and Zwift rides should count at about 70% of regular outdoor ride in terms of monthly challenges.

tomato
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by tomato

Lewn777 wrote:
Sun Nov 07, 2021 4:52 pm
People use ebikes on Strava and upload the rides as regular rides because otherwise their ride will count for nothing better than a manual upload. Those riders rightly or wrongly feel that the riding they have done is worth something more than that, and they are also often under a delusion about how much advantage they are really gaining and probably don't mean to be taking segments. As with a Zwift ride, the ebike rides on Strava need to count as 'something' more than a manual upload. I would say both Strava and Zwift rides should count at about 70% of regular outdoor ride in terms of monthly challenges.
A friend rides an ebike and uploads all his rides to Strava. His segment times do not appear in the main KOM list. If you click on one of his segments, it is placed in a list with a handful of other riders, all who (presumably) ride ebikes.

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Lewn777
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by Lewn777

tomato wrote:
Thu Nov 11, 2021 6:28 pm
Lewn777 wrote:
Sun Nov 07, 2021 4:52 pm
People use ebikes on Strava and upload the rides as regular rides because otherwise their ride will count for nothing better than a manual upload. Those riders rightly or wrongly feel that the riding they have done is worth something more than that, and they are also often under a delusion about how much advantage they are really gaining and probably don't mean to be taking segments. As with a Zwift ride, the ebike rides on Strava need to count as 'something' more than a manual upload. I would say both Strava and Zwift rides should count at about 70% of regular outdoor ride in terms of monthly challenges.
A friend rides an ebike and uploads all his rides to Strava. His segment times do not appear in the main KOM list. If you click on one of his segments, it is placed in a list with a handful of other riders, all who (presumably) ride ebikes.
That's because he's uploaded his ride as an ebike ride. Ebike rides count the same as a manual upload so counts towards your yearly mileage, but you also get your name on ebike segments. Ebike segments are pointless because it's assisted power, some people are on heavy commuter bikes and others are on what are essentially normal race bikes but with a motor and battery, so comparisons are ridiculous. Some people enjoy their ebike rides or are commuting on them and can't see why ebike rides don't count (even 50-70%) towards monthly totals while someone else can sit drafting at the back of a Zwift race and have the totals count completely towards monthly totals. This all causes a huge temptation to upload ebike rides as normal rides. Strava maybe need to look at their policies.

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Butcher
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by Butcher

If you do a ride and you feel good about that, isn't that all that matters?

There are cheats in every aspect of life. I saw one ride on Strava and they had an average wattage of 1200w. That is impressive but for a 45min ride? I found that funny. Funny that it stood so long that no one flagged it. I did.

I usually keep an eye on people I know. Everyone else is not really worth watching. I only flag the most blatant riders.

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