Why We Love E-bikes on Strava

[Jane]

Hello Everyone. I’m Jane, I work at Strava, and I love e-bikes!  Today we’re going to talk about why e-bikes are so great, the best way to use Strava with an e-bike, and lastly, chat with Mona and Erika, both Strava employees and e-bike enthusiasts. Before we jump into any of that - let’s talk statistics. According to statista.com, the global e-bike  market in 2021 was worth more than $26 billion and is forecasted to roughly double by 2027.

E-bikes are becoming increasingly popular worldwide. 

We’re also noticing that more Strava members are using e-bikes. The share of cyclists on Strava with an e-bike ride increased 26% in 2022 compared to 2021.  Europe in particular, is embracing e-bikes. So what’s the big deal? Well, e-bikes have a number of benefits.  Benefits of E-bikes: *Convenient Commuting The pedal assist and increased speed makes e-bikes an excellent option for commuting or just helping you get outside to move your body. *Customizable E-bikes can be designed and set up for a number of functions. Hauling cargo, transporting kids, participating in gravel or mountain bike rides - e-bikes can do it all.

*Improving Accessibility E-bikes allow cyclists of varied skill levels to be able to participate in cycling! The pedal assistance is easier on joints and muscles especially on hills or difficult terrain. *Going the Distance With extended range, e-bikes offer cyclists the ability to experience more trails or hard to reach destinations, or push themselves harder. They provide a way for cyclists to continue doing the sport they love through all stages of life, from pregnancy, injury recovery, or just the need for a change of pace.

We welcome e-bikes and their owners on Strava. Here are some things to be aware of when you record and upload your e-bike rides to Strava:

E-bike rides have their own activity/sport type on Strava. You’ll want to ensure all your e-bike rides are categorized correctly. 

• One way to do this is to record with a device or app that supports recording in e-bike mode, since these will automatically sync to Strava as e-bike rides. 
• Recording with a device that doesn’t yet support e-bikes? No problem, simply record in “Ride” mode and change the activity/sport type to "E-Bike Ride" after the activity syncs to Strava.

 

Making sure your e-bike ride is set to the proper sport type ensures it matches with e-bike segments only, and will not appear on standard ride segment leaderboards. 

Pro Tip: 

Is your e-bike ride getting flagged before you have a chance to change the sport type? Do you sometimes get busy and forget to change your ride to "E-Bike"? Consider updating your privacy settings so that your newly uploaded  activities will be visible only to you. 

This will give you time to go in and update the activity to an "E-Bike Ride" without worrying that it accidentally matches standard ride segment leaderboards. Once you've updated the sport type, you can then make your activity visible to Followers or to Everyone – or keep it set to just you.

What kind of apps and devices work best for e-bikes on Strava? 

• Many platforms – including Garmin, Wahoo, Apple Watch, Wear OS Watches, and the Strava app – allow you to record in e-bike mode.
• Some e-bike brands have an app that you can use to monitor your bike and track your rides, as well as automatically sync those rides to your Strava account.
• We are continuing to work to add integration for more e-bike brands that can record a wide variety of data like power, cadence and can connect to other sensors/devices. 

  

Let’s chat with Mona, Strava employee and e-bike enthusiast! Q: Hi Mona, what motivated you to get an e-bike? I got my first e-bike during 2020 after my friend let me ride theirs, and it was suddenly like I had gotten back all my confidence in riding again for the first time since I was back in college! I felt safe enough to ride in bike lanes on the street and trails without feeling like I was getting in the way or worrying as much about cars trying to get around me. The biggest benefit is that it allows me as a disabled cyclist to be able to ride again with confidence, and it made riding accessible for me again and that was truly freeing!  Q: How much do you ride it? During the summer and fall I try to get out for a ride every day while the trails are cleared from snow and ice.
	Q: Do you use it when you might otherwise use a motor vehicle? I am fortunate enough to live in a place where I can ride from my home to the office completely on bike trails. I will often commute on my bike in the summer and can get to the office faster than I would be able to drive during peak commuting hours. Q: What about battery life? I get about 40 miles with high pedal assist on a full charge.
Q:  What’s the best thing about having an e-bike? It allows me to move my body and get outside without having to feel self conscious that I am being too slow on the trails and on the street.  Especially working at Strava I am surrounded by a ton of super amazing cyclists, my e-bike allows me to join rides with my colleagues around town.   Thank you Mona for chatting with us!

Next up, meet Erika, Strava employee, Mom, and all round cycling fan.

What Motivated you to get an e-bike?

When I was pregnant with my first daughter, I didn’t want to take time off the bike but let's be honest, it was getting more difficult to keep up with my husband and have the ride still be enjoyable. So I got my first e-mountain bike in 2017.  I rode the bike all the way up to my due date and then was quickly back on the bike once I was cleared by the doctor. The e-bike was a great way to slowly ramp back up! Now we both have e-bikes and I added a road/gravel e-bike to the mix too, which I use to tow TWO kids or go on longer adventure rides. The e-mountain bike has been great for pushing me to my limits in the mountains and getting up those challenging climbs at altitude that I may miss out on under my own power.

How much do do you ride it?

Every time I’m with my kids, it is primarily on an e-bike.  I'll ride an e-bike to the mail box or park. Anything local (within 10 miles) the e-bike is a great option.

Do you use it when you might otherwise use a motor vehicle?

When it was just the two of us, we used human power bikes for everything. Even for 25+ mile commutes. Now with kids, the e-bikes are a game changer. I’m hoping we have a cargo bike in the future but we don’t live in a huge cycling community, so the street safety is still a concern with little ones.

What about battery life? Extended range is the way to go, otherwise we still get some good distance on our bikes: E-MTB 5hrs (50-60 miles) E-Road 4hr (80 miles) add another 50% if you have a range extender What’s the best thing about having an e-bike? I can go further and still have fun. And it didn’t mean I had to slow down during pre-and post pregnancy. And now it is all about getting to share the excitement for bikes with my girls. They love when we ride our ‘fast’ bikes.

If you have any additional questions for Mona or Erika, or want to share your own e-bike experiences or adventures, drop us a reply to this post. We would love to hear from you!

E-bike activities are not eligible for all challenges on Strava, but we do regularly host challenges where e-bike activities are eligible. For example this challenge which runs March 4-24, 2023.   The best place to confirm eligible activity types is on the challenge pages themselves, in the eligibility rules and details.

Have a great idea for an e-bike related feature on Strava? Review our idea submission guidelines and then jump over to our Ideas Board to submit your idea. 

[hamzalion]

Thank you so much!

[CreakyCrank]

I've often thought about an e-bike for commuting (I have a road bike and mountain bike now for the sheer joy of riding), as it would allow me to quickly get to work, but not be all sweaty and gross when I arrive (plus, I'm often feeling too lazy in the am to ride).

If I can only come up with a way to convince my spouse to let me get one...

[Run]

I can't beleive this post. 

- Strava has ignored ebikers since the beginning. The most voted featured in the old forum was to share same segments bikes and ebikes with 2 different leaderboard. Strava never answered.

- So we must create again all the segments which is stupid and a lost of time. Can you imagine male and female with different segments? And each age category with different segments? Me neither.

- And on top of that,  Ebikes can't search segments.

So this create the biggest problem of Strava,  which is that ebikers don't save their activities as ebike because the want to see their times in the old segments, breaking the leaderboards of standar bikes. You have created this conflict between standard bikes and Ebikes.

So for now i have quit the strava premiun subscription, because i can' compare, i only have a few segments in my favorite zone,  and i can't search ebike segments.

Regards,

Cesar

[Jane]

Hi @Run 

Thanks for your candor. 

We don't have an update to share about E-bike segments at this time, however please know that your feedback has been reviewed and we will provide updates as they become available.

You have valuable feedback on how to improve Strava. We appreciate hearing from you and will do what we can to surface hot topics and trends to our product teams.  Thanks again for your contribution.

[jmcp]

Hi all,

I have a few friends who have gotten in to cycling in the last 12 months, who would not have done so without being able to hop on an e-bike. Over post-ride coffee this morning they wondered why their only "ride type" option is "Commute" - whereas I have 'Race' or 'Workout'. This seems to me to be a not very subtle dig that e-bike riders aren't quite good enough. While my friends aren't interested in racing (nor am I, frankly), they most definitely are working out and I believe they should be able to mark their rides as such.

James

(btw, I've been a premium subscriber since December 2012)

[celestialpoet]

I strongly agree with James and Cesar's comments. Strava's talk (this blog piece) and walk (eBike app settings) do NOT match!

As an eBike rider, having "commute" as my only option is disheartening and is, frankly, *ableist and discriminatory*. I use an eBike because of a disability. My eBike enables me to ride, slower than most "normal bike" riders, but it gets me out there. I couldn't ride the paths I do now without eBike support, it allows me to participate in the cycling community and (mostly) keep up with people without disability. Leaving us with "commute" as the only option leaves me feeling that Strava believes eBike riders are second class citizens. This is ableist as eBikes support accessibility for a range of disabilities/injury recovery/riders overcoming a range of other limitations! There should ABSOLUTELY be an option to select "workout," not just commute. My heart rate stats are absolutely the stats of a workout!

Regarding Cesar's comments on segments... My favourite local ride has something like 124 segments for "normal bikes" and 11 for eBikes. That's more than a 90% reduction! I don't have days of time to try and transfer or create new segments so that I can track my own progress as I continue riding. I don't want my stats to compete with non-eBikes. But having access to the same segments with an eBike leaderboard would help address the imbalance for people riding eBikes for accessibility. I would like to be able to see my own growth and progress in the same way that "normal bike" cyclists can.

Additionally, I find it *enormously* frustrating that I cannot participate in the monthly challenge distance totals as an eBike rider. There are no prizes for these. This is a discriminatory, non-inclusive practice. I understand for competitive challenges that I should be excluded... fair enough! But to be left out of most of the basic non-prize challenges is quite a slap in the spokes.

eBikes are evolving (I ride an eGravel/road bike), and they're not the high powered idea people have. I'm still working hard. eBikes are an aid and a support, and I would like to see Strava step up in their commitment to supporting people who have disabilities - who also love to ride - with inclusivity practices to match.

Finally, I do currently have a premium subscription, but honestly, stuff like this does make me consider not renewing in time. I appreciate you considering these issues.

[Jane]

Hello @celestialpoet and @jmcp 

Thanks so much for your comments and feedback.  

We do have an existing idea submission on e-bike segments that I would encourage you to check out.  We would welcome your comments and votes (hit the kudos button), and adding these will help increase the visibility and popularity of this idea.  

I would also encourage you to review our idea submission guidelines and feel free to add any additional ideas/suggestions that have not already been suggested.  We appreciate you taking the time to voice your thoughts and look forward to your continued contributions to the Strava Community.

[Ian46]

Hi all

I’m just wondering why cycling challenges by Strava. Why aren’t e-bikes on them. Thanks 

[Pajotraider]

I want to warn for the surviving of strava while the charts are full of fake performances of ebike and spedelec users. On some segments ebikers are cheating all along and even after flagging their performances the strava support team doesn’t react and validate the fake performances even when it is obvious there is fraud . So a +70 aged rider was riding more than 30% better than the second in his category but no reaction . Why must we pay our fees of 5€ / month when cheaters are spoiling the charts?

[Jane]

Hello @Ian46 

Thanks for mentioning Challenges.  Although some of our Cycling Challenges do not include E-bike rides, some  do, a couple of examples are below:

Example #1

Example #2

When you visit a Challenge page, you'll see a list of qualifying activities, so you'l want to check for Challenges that do include E-bikes.  I hope that helps.

[davidtapper1989]

This article hits a little flat and disingenuous. I really like the content but it definitely seems tangential to how Strava actually treats e-bikers.

I'll echo the fact that "commute" is my only option, e-bikes are restricted from Strava's monthly challenges, there's a lot of vitriol towards e-bikers and it's just not cricket.

I, personally, am sitting pretty on my e-bike after multiple injuries and using it as stepping stone into fully pedal powered cycling. But if you look at my heart rate, my relative effort, you can't tell me that I'm not trying just as hard as other people just because I'm on an e-bike. I get further, and I go longer; great. Without an e-bike I'd be doing nothing. As it stands I'm cycling to work when I can instead of driving, does that not warrant pride? At the same time some evenings I lower the assistance and charge down the road to see how fast/far I can go...is that commuting?

The issue here is that we have the equivalent of F1 vs Formula E. Formula E is a viable sport in and of itself and gets leaderboards, challenges and a lot of the attention that F1 does but when it comes to cycling on Strava we don't get the same treatment.

I'm not expecting to be included in the same leaderboards or challenges but we should be able to have our own monthly challenges just like everyone else, we should be able to distinguish between our ride types because some definitely put more effort in than others.

By ignoring e-bikers you're creating an elitist environment and considering the increasing uptake referenced in your own article, Strava should be considering its stance on inclusivity since any effort it better than no effort and should be rewarded.

[Nussbaumer]

me as an Enduro e-biker think that we should be included in the same leaderbords than the non e-biker at least in the Downhill segments, because the motor doesent bring you an advantage when you driving faster than 25km/h. 

Uphill is a different Story, make own leaderbords for e-bikes, can´t be that hard. You can separate in light E-MTB up to 60NM and the Bikes with more than 60NM

Someone tells me data´s are the new oil, you get many datas from the e-bikes, which are certainly also of interest to consumers and manufacturers.

pls make it happen, every e-biker i know would like to see his time in the leaderboards of the segments. 

[matteogrf]

I'm 100% agree with Run's and Nussbaumer's posts.
These year i switched to ebike for the mtb enduro trails and i'm facing the same problems.

I also have created a lot of ebike segments, but it's impossible replicate identical to the normal bike ones. So it's impossible to compare the downhill performance beetween the two kind of bikes.

[mrop]

Am I missing something, or has Strava determined that my ebike rides don't count in the tally of my annual mileage? I don't understand this. I've just come back from a tough three day tour of the Dales in England and none of my mileage has been added. Why not? Is there a workaround for this? Strava needs to adjust to the increasing numbers of people who use ebikes. We are also 'athletes', some of us exceptionally good athletes in our earlier years. Our distance tallies still matter to us, and our rides are still human powered, just assisted. Disappointed...

[Nussbaumer]

Strava should take care of the e-bikers, just imagine what happens to starva if some or many of the e-bikers change their ride from e-Bike to normal bike ride just to see the correct milage/KOM's this will destroy Strava for bio biker's.

And an other thing, last time i take a ride with my old bio bike, and guess what...my e Bike in eco mode is quite the same strength to drive than driving with a light bio bike.

If Strava will not integrate E-Bikes well I will leave Strava when my subscription ends next year 

[Pajotraider]

At Nussbaumer I agree completely with you and ask hereby Jane to take care of all the remarks About Ebikes and create a seperate challenge for ebikers while they are spoiling right now the regulars rankings. Please take action 

[ClarkP]

I too am disappointed and confused by the e-bike implementation in Strava.

I have 2 bikes, a regular mountain bike and an e-bike mountain bike.  I trade off between the 2 bikes depending upon where I am riding (can't ride an e-bike in the national forest for example) and my recovery time.  I would like to set different weekly goals for each but Strava does not have an e-bike goal!

The biggest issues are with My Stats in my profile.  There are different activity types (e-bike, bike, hike and run) but Strava adds both regular and e-bike stats to the bike activity type.  To figure out how far I have ridden my regular bike I have to subtract the e-bike mileage from the bike mileage.  Why can't the e-bike activity type be excluded from the bike activity type?  This makes no sense!

 I also agree with the other posts that we should be able to search for e-bike segments.  I like to look at segments to find new rides or see how I compare against my friends but we can't do that with e-bikes.

It should not be this difficult to track stats for the different bike types!

[Jane]

Hi @ClarkP 

Thanks for your comments and feedback.  Just wanted to clarify a couple of things.  

On the lower right of your own profile page, you can see your personal stats for the sport types you uploaded most frequently within the past 90 days.  E-bike rides broken out from rides and you can see the totals for each. For example here my e-bike totals:

And here are my ride totals:

Also, it is possible to set a e-bike goal. It has to be done in the Mobile App.  Full instructions here.

 

[Pajotraider]

I know all that but my point is that the rankings are spoiled by cheaters who on purpose try to put themselves on the top of the ranking by cheating with an ebike. I’m waiting for a solution by the strava team otherwise I fear that Stravawill not survive.

[ClarkP]

Hi Jane,

Thanks for the reply.  

I have a few E-Mountain Bike Ride goals already setup in the app (Android).  However, there is a bug...

I rode 26.1 miles yesterday on an E-Mountain Bike Ride:

In the screenshot above you can see that my ride is an E-Mountain Bike Ride.  However, it is not added in my E-Mountain Bike Ride goal:

But, it is added to the All E-Ride goal.  Am I wrong with how this should work?

On the website, under my stats, e-bike stats are being added to ride stats.  There is no way to easly track my e-bike and ride stats seperatly.  

In the screenshot below my ride miles for this year is 1,947.7 but that is the total for my e-ride and ride miles.

If I click on the e-ride I see 1,135.1 e-ride miles:

However, my ride yearly goal says that I have riden 812 miles this year:  

Doing the math, 1,135.1 e-ride miles and 812 ride miles equals 1,947.1 miles which matchs the my ride stats on the website (well, it is off by .6 but who is counting).  So, the ride stats on the website seem to be incorrect.

Finally, that stats on the app don't have an e-ride category.  The app only has a rides category.  The app and website should match.

There are a lot of problems with e-rides!  Please fix them!