Add Motorcycle/dirt bike activity types

[KevinUptain]

I know that Strava doesn't want to support motorsports, but people want to track their dirt bike rides, and so they are using E-bike activities to do that. Where I live there are a lot of mixed use trails, so people on their dirt bikes are messing up the segments for actual E-bike activities. Just add an activity for motorcycles, easy solution. I don't currently ride a dirt bike, but if I did, I would want to track it too. 

[zig06]

Strava may not realize it, but there is a large number of people on this site that use it to track off-road motorcycle activities (MX Races, MX Track Training, GNCC, Enduro, GNCC, Open Trail Rides, etc.).  So what would it take to get "Motocross" added to the "Sport" pull down menu?

We have our own tracks and trails (and segments) so it's not like "mountain bike" can be used if we use Strava to share what we did (racing and fun rides).  This also eliminates personal training activities (FYI, Motocross is rated #1 or #2 in physical difficulty among all sports - worldwide) and messes with Segment Ratings (there's several #1's in different sport category's). 

That said, because we do not have our own Sport Category, we are a splintered group, so we end up posting our rides under several sports (Mountain Bike, E-Mountain Bike, Bike, E-Bike, Ride, Gravel Ride) or just whatever our device defaulted to when we upload to Strava.

So, what's it going to take to get that added??

[joonask]

Strava is currently causing tension between Enduro riders and cyclists. There is no issue when dirt bikes are ridden in closed areas without bicycles. However, during races, dirt bikes are often required to travel on public roads from one special stage to another, similar to rally cars. In the middle of a competition, it is impractical and dangerous for riders to interact with the app.

The problem arises with Strava segments when riders need to move to another location, and the roads between these locations contain segments designated for bicycles. This understandably upsets cyclists who hold records on these segments.

To resolve this issue, we need an Enduro ride mode that does not interfere with bicycle segment records.

[Lukas22rojas]

I am using ‘other’ to track my track motorcycling activities. I believe it works fine and is not messing with any of the bicycle’s activities. Also, I use a Garmin 530 to record the ride (which they support as an activity) then it synchronizes automatically with Strava.

[zig06]

But a problem with "Other" is that it could be any activity completed anywhere.  So, while it "kind of" works, simply adding "Motocross" adds a clear definition of what we just did (off-road motorcycle).  In many ways it seems kind of silly that Strava is so resistant to giving its customers something that they specifically want.  It's just a new sub-section, not anything that requires a special algorithm to function. 

[Ked]

I really hope that Strava adds functions for motorsports (motorcycles). I came to strava as a runner but I love being on 2 wheels.  The line blurs between my heavy mountain bike, my road bicycle, my ebike (practically it can do 30mph or moped speeds on flat) and my motorbike. I respect the efforts of athletes in all those sports and don't like strava segment cheating so I end up setting my motorcycle rides as private, even though they have beautiful photos at times. It would be nice to have a simple motorsport setting and an option for purist athletes to turn off seeing that in their activity feed if they aren't interested in motorised sport. ( maybe also allow us to hide our max speed If you do let us include motorbikes haha).

[vatesten]

Also here to ask for motorcycle option.

But, we're all here for similar passions; outdoor physical activity to keep us fit and having fun. I also like to log wear/mileage on my bikes, shoes, and components, including moto. Strava really makes that convenient.

I'll likely be switching to an alternate app--or just disregard trying to properly assign my 'Sport' and ruin the stats for E-bikers/Mtn bikers as many other moto riders are forced to currently due to Strava's current policies.

[zig06]

vatesten,  you are probably 100% correct on Strava wanting to promote a carbon free culture.  The problem there is that all of our fancy synthetic fabrics are oil based, if they stopped pumping oil we'd all go naked!  😲  But that's ok because we would also be barefoot and without bikes or any other piece of training equipment that I can think of - they all need oil to be produced.

So maybe we should just agree to take over one of the categories that you mentioned.  I'll throw out a few posts in Facebook and ThumperTalk and see what we can agree on.

[KevinUptain]

 this is an example of what I’m talking about. This person just took all the ebike QOMs on her dirt bike, because it is a popular mixed use trail. If there was a dirt bike option she would have used it. 

[swickers]

@Bryant  wrote:

You are correct we don't want to encourage motorsports...

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Why not? I'd be interested to hear this reasoning.

Strava is fundamentally a community of outdoor enthusiasts who love to share their activities and routes. Whether running, cycling, hiking, or engaging in other outdoor sports, the common thread is the enjoyment of the outdoors and the camaraderie of sharing experiences. Motorsports enthusiasts share this passion. Their inclusion would enrich the community, making Strava a more comprehensive platform for all outdoor activities.

Currently, motorsport enthusiasts use separate apps like Rever, which has over 1 million active users in 125 countries​​. Many of these users likely also use Strava for other activities. Allowing motorsport activities on Strava could consolidate these users into a single app, enhancing user experience and loyalty.  Many users wont pay for 2 similar app subscriptions, so likely Strava is losing some marketshare. This could help keep Strava as the go-to app for all outdoor sports enthusiasts and increase subscriptions.

[zig06]

Swickers, 

You just made an awesome point but remember that growth is important to any business including Strava.  So, what if those million plus users across 125 countries wanted to join Strava but won't because they do not support motorsports.  

That alone should be more than enough motivation for the upper management to make the change. 

[Jane]

Hello and thank you to everyone who has taken the time to add your votes and comments to this request. 

We want to let you know that we do not intend to add more activity/sport types to Strava in the foreseeable future, and this feature suggestion will be moved to a status of not currently planned.

We appreciate and understand this is not the answer you were hoping for. We strive to be as transparent as possible and provide updates to our Community when they become available. 

Please remember that we receive a large number of idea submissions, and even some  popular ideas may not make it to the implementation stage. The number of votes an idea gets is one factor among several that’s considered when our product team develops the roadmap.

For more information, review our Guide to Ideas.

Additionally, a status of not currently planned does not mean this feature suggestion goes away. It will remain open to votes and comments, and may be revisited at some point in the future.

Lastly, we sincerely hope you will continue recording and uploading your activities to Strava. Here is a list of the Sport types that we currently support. It’s always an option to set your activity to sport type “workout” and indicate more specifics in the activity name.

Thanks again for your contributions.

[zig06]

Can we at least be told "why" Strava has decided to not support this activity?

[ian1386]

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"We strive to be as transparent as possible and provide updates to our Community when they become available."

If you claim to be so transparent, then please explain WHY you are not adding a motorcycle category. It's just as much of a sport as any form of biking, and it seems you're actively ostracizing moto riders just because they don't have pedals that spin around or something.

"Lastly, we sincerely hope you will continue recording and uploading your activities to Strava."

Oh, we definitely will. We will continue to use the E-Bike category, and will continue to piss off the E-bikers who don't want to be competing with motorcycles (rightly so), and they will continue to flag our rides. Why you think that's a better solution than just adding a moto category doesn't make sense to me...

[Jane]

Hello @ian1386 

Thanks for your post. We understand and appreciate your enthusiasm for adding an activity type for motorcycle/dirt bike rides. Please remember that a status of not currently planned does not mean this feature suggestion goes away. It will remain open to votes and comments, and may be revisited at some point in the future.

As stated in our Guide to Ideas, we may not explain or justify why we might prioritize the development of some features over others. I would encourage you to review this Guide, as it provides more information about what to expect when ideas/feature suggestions are submitted. 

Please also review our segment leaderboard guidelines here. Note that motorcycle activities are not allowed on Strava, and cannot use the Ride or E-Bike activity types. If you choose to upload unsupported activities, please choose from the following options:

• Use your activity's privacy controls to adjust the setting to "Only You" or "Followers" to remove the activity's segment times from public leaderboards.
• From the edit options, change the activity type to "Workout" (not to be confused with the workout tag for rides and runs).

Please note that if you don't correctly mark your activities  your account may be banned or closed due to the problems it causes on our segment leaderboards. We appreciate your cooperation in advance.

Thank you again, we appreciate that you took the time to share your feedback.

[ian1386]

"Please remember that a status of not currently planned does not mean this feature suggestion goes away. It will remain open to votes and comments, and may be revisited at some point in the future."

This is not true. I can't currently vote on this suggestion, as the website says:

"Sorry, you can't vote on this idea because the current status doesn't allow voting. Check the ideas guidelines to learn more about statuses and voting."

As for the "we may not explain or justify why we might prioritize the development of some features over others", that also just feels like a weak response after proudly stating that "we strive to be as transparent as possible".