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API Inquiry: Gear/Equipment Data from Third-Party Bike Computers

  • June 3, 2026
  • 1 reply
  • 17 views
B
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I have a few questions about how gear data flows from third-party bike computers (Garmin, Hammerhead Karoo, Wahoo, etc.) into the Strava API:

 

1. When a ride is uploaded from a Garmin or Wahoo device, does the device pass a gear/bike identifier to Strava, or does Strava rely solely on the athlete's default bike setting?

 

2. Is the gear_id on an activity ever populated automatically from the FIT file metadata (e.g. device sensor IDs), or is it always a manual selection by the athlete in the Strava app?

 

3. Are there any bike computers that currently pass gear assignment data through to the Strava API reliably?

 

4. Is there a recommended pattern for third-party apps like ours to correctly identify which bike was used for a given activity, particularly for athletes with multiple bikes?

 

Thanks

Ben

1 reply

Jan_Mantau
Superuser
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  • Jan_Mantau
  • Superuser
  • June 3, 2026
  1. Strava uses the user’s gear settings only.
  2. It is primarily based on the sport type + user settings and secondarily on manual changes from the user. As the sport type is derived from the file you could say the gear is indirectly populated from it.
  3. If there is such a platform that uploads activities to Strava and updates the gear in Strava after the upload I don’t know.
  4. Yes, use the gear_id Strava sends.

In case there is a misunderstanding I should add that there isn’t one default bike in Strava, rather a default bike per sport type.

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