Why is Strava preventing the flagging (or ideally autoflagging) public ebike rides that do not abide by a country's ebike laws?
It’s good that Strava is now beginning to autoflag public “rides” that the AI thinks has either been done at least partially on an ebike or in a motor vehicle.
But what about the mess of public “ebike” ride segments corrupted by illegal ebikes?
As far as the law is concerned in the UK for road ebikes, if you’re getting motor assistance above 25kph (~15.5mph); the motor assistance is happenig without pedalling; or your ebike is providing more than a 250W average assistance over 30 minutes of riding, your ebike is considered to be an electric moped or electric motorbike.
So Strava is allowing electric mopeds and electric motorbikes on UK ebike segment leaderboards, as well as on many countries in Europe and beyond.
Electric mopeds and motorbikes have no place on UK public road ebike segment leaderboards.
No “Johny Average” rider is riding a 4% hill for approx 4 minutes on a 15-30Kg UK road legal ebike at an average of anything near 20mph, up a slight drag for minutes at 20mph, or riding essentially flat road for minutes at near 24mph.
Yet with no explanation/email, I now get a yellow banner telling me that I no longer have permission to flag such rides on UK roads.
This is not about me trying to have KOMs myself, it’s about preventing all these rides on illegal ebikes in the UK to be “public” view and getting them off the leaderboards, that are quite frankly often like the wild wild west.
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Hi @NOTG, is the banner somehow specific about this particular type of activity, or is it generic? There's a limit on a number of flags that we can submit within 24 hours - and you might actually be reaching that limit. Here's a related discussion:
Hi @NOTG, is the banner somehow specific about this particular type of activity, or is it generic? There's a limit on a number of flags that we can submit within 24 hours - and you might actually be reaching that limit. Here's a related discussion:
I’ve just double checked and if I click flag on another activity type instead of an ebike ride, in this case a normal bike ride, I still get the banner…
When I was flagging ebike rides that had at least one very questionable effort on an ebike that complied with UK road ebike law, I would sometimes reach the limit and get a red banner, which would allow me to flag again 24+ hours after the last flag process that was accepted.
I think the last time I was able to flag an ebike ride without this orange/brown banner was at least two weeks ago.
Strava should not be trying to enforce local laws. Whether something is legal or illegal in a particular part of the world isn’t something they should be dealing with. They should be focused on what is allowed or disallowed by their own guidelines/rules. If you are worried about someone breaking the law, go talk to the local authorities. If something violates the Strava guidelines, then yes, it should be flagged. Keep in mind that Strava has a limit of 10 flags per 24 hours (and the 24 hours starts when you flag the last of your 10 activities). If you are getting something telling you you are not able to flag a particular ride, it is either that you hit your limit or something else is going on. If you haven’t hit your limit, consider submitting a ticket to determine what the other issue is.
As long as Strava doesn’t provide a definition what an ebike is for them it’s questionable to flag ebikes rides that aren’t clearly done by motorcycles. Even in the UK ebikes with pedals and motor assistance above 25 kph are allowed provided they have insurance and are registered.
As long as Strava doesn’t provide a definition what an ebike is for them it’s questionable to flag ebikes rides that aren’t clearly done by motorcycles. Even in the UK ebikes with pedals and motor assistance above 25 kph are allowed provided they have insurance and are registered.
Any ebike getting motor assistance above 25kph in the UK is not classed as an ebike.
They are classed as electric mopeds or electric motorbikes.
Electric mopeds and electric motorbikes have no place on UK Strava ebike segment leaderboards.
In the end I don’t really care about your personal vendetta against something you deem illegal, outside of very technical MTB tracks ebike segments don’t have much significance anyway. But you still didn’t provide proof about the topic you created, that is that Strava is preventing you from flagging. Can you post the screenshot of the banner @Jana_S has asked you about?
In the end I don’t really care about your personal vendetta against something you deem illegal, outside of very technical MTB tracks ebike segments are meaningless anyway. But you still didn’t provide proof about the topic you created, that is that Strava is preventing you from flagging. Can you post the screenshot of the banner @Jana_S has asked you about?
Ebike segments are as “meaningless” as any other segment for any other activity that has them in Strava, MTB ebike segments aren’t special. There’s a big difference between an ebike ride such as…
Compared to an ebike ride with efforts such as…
Ebike rides should be excluded from normal bike leaderboards.
Motor vehicle activities should be excluded from any leaderboards, that should apply to transportation regarded as motor vehicles masquerading as ebikes, just like it does for normal rides.
I replied to @Jana_S yesterday and provided a sceenshot clip copied/pasted into my reply, but when posted it was “awaiting moderation” to be made public. Here it is again…
It’s the UK law that deems ebikes illegal that provide motor assistance above 25kph (I believe this applies to other countries too), not me, such transportation in the UK is classed as an electric moped or electric motorbike.
If we’re going to have Strava public road segments for ebikes at all in the UK, it should not be about who has the ebike providing the most Watts motor assistance and/or providing assistance above the country’s legal limits.
There should be rules of engagement.
Otherwise, we may as well have one Strava leaderboard for all bike types and laugh at who brings a gun (motorbike) to a knife fight (an entirely human propelled bike).
There will always be cheats. Bravo for trying to call them out on it. The world needs more honesty.
This “waiting for moderation” when posting pictures surely is annoying, it destroys the timeline of the answers. I may be wrong, but the “You don’t have permission..” when flagging would come if the activity was flagged twice before and the Strava support made the final verdict that the activity is legitimate.
This “waiting for moderation” when posting pictures surely is annoying, it destroys the timeline of the answers. I may be wrong, but the “You don’t have permission..” when flagging would come if the activity was flagged twice before and the Strava support made the final verdict that the activity is legitimate.
I can only guess the moderation thing is because I only started using the Strava forum in May and I’ve made few replies and created even fewer new threads.
The lack of flagging permission thing isn’t related to an activity being flagged before, I cannot flag my own activities, seconds after uploading or ones that have been uploaded for years without getting a flag (the only flagged activity I’ve ever had was very recently, riding on the turbo trainer app Zwift, “teleporting” between AI pacer bots within one world as one activity triggered the autoflag speed for the first time ever with any of my activities).
