Getting rid of motorbike rides

[stclaus]

I ride an e-bike and I often see motorbike rides recorded as an e-bike ride.  They have ridiculous speeds (above 100 km/h) and lead all segments and I'm getting tired of flagging them. It would be great if these were cleaned up automatically based on maximum speed.

Thanks.

[willz]

I know, it's totally nuts.

I've not personally experienced it, but a friend has for a genuine ride.

It utterly baffles me that a genuine ride can get auto flagged, but not people going over 100km/h.

Having said that I agree with @usr above. Don't be scared of auto flagging people, most people I know would be chuffed to get a false positive. It is far more important to flag the fake rides, than worry users will get offended for being told they are speedy!

[usr]

“After a few minutes I got a message from Strava to say my Activity had been flagged as it seemed I was in a vehicle (this seemed to happen when I got to about 50 mph).  It gave an option to trim the Activity, which I duly did when I got home, and the flag was removed. “ 

So it's already there, nice. Shouldn't be surprising that some activities still make it through that self-filter. I guess most of those must be from people who simply don't look at Strava from the performance angle in the same way the stereotype "kom hunter" does, we couldn't really fault them for that. That would be an unfavorable side effect of the platform's success.

[Ian]

Hi @Animal - I agree with you - I've recently flagged people "riding" uphill at 40 mph with a HR of 95 who are clearly in a vehicle.  However, I also recently saw what I think to be genuine good performance with a HR of 113 - the issue was that the HR was a constant 113 for the whole Activity and I assume was a measurement problem.  I also see that quite a few "suspicious" Activities don't have a HR monitor (why bother if you're on an e-bike ?) or the athlete that hasn't entered a weight and hence no power estimates are available.

It's usually quite obvious where Activities need flagging - such as someone who "rode" over a beach at 3 mph for 20 mins, followed by a 5 min pause and then 60 mph on a highway or someone else who usually rides at 10 to 15 mph and then does a 20 min ride where the speed doesn't drop below 30mph, accompanied by an updated profile picture with their new motorbike !  However, there are still a few that I am suspicious of but don't feel confident enough to flag - such as someone who has done very few Activities and then gets a KOM at 30 mph on a Segment done by 2,000 others and nobody else has got above 25 mph (it seems improbable but not impossible).  Hence I think the auto-flagging algorithm could definitely be improved but there will always be a grey area of suspicion and doubt (and we should err on the side of believing the athlete and only flag things with strong evidence).

[Andy1]

At least you know how it feels for all the mtbers having to see all e bike times on our segments. Fair play to you though for using the proper e bike section, so many dont although maybe strava need to highlight the different sections more

[Animal]

e-bikes are getting segment rankings everywhere. I live in a cycling hotspot (Bédoin Mont Ventoux) and the place is crawling with them. One very fat person just BLASTED by me on in the last 2k of Ventoux on Saturday. Like going 25mph up the mountain. 😡

[Jane]

Hi stclaus,

Thank you for your post.  Sorry to hear you are noticing vehicle data on Strava.  Flagging those activities is the first step, and thank you for doing that.  If an athlete isn't correcting their behavior after the community flags their activities, you have the option to report that Athlete to Strava Support so we can follow up.  We do ask you provide us with as much information as you can to help in our investigation.

[Velopura]

This system doesn't work either. One of the most popular segments in Europe (Longchamps in Paris) was set on a scooter and the rider simply said he did not - the record stands now for 8 years and cannot be flagged.