Does anyone else get requests from people they’ve never heard of to follow you on Strava? I’ve had 3 or 4, and so has Mr Pea. I don’t get why anyone would do that unless they are hoping to find out where we live and pinch our bikes.

I occasionally get it from someone who I’ve beaten on a segment. The really odd requests come from random Australians or Americans. Either way if I don’t know them I ignore them.

Strava flyby stalkers?

Yup,one had only logged a single ride.
Bit strange,

unless they are hoping to find out where we live and pinch our bikes.

but I did wonder about that.

Yeh I can one the other day from a guy in Kenya, kudos for a ride from a guy in Italy and kudos from a female for every single ride I do (on the bike

I’d imagine knowing there is random stalker out there would be good for your PB.

and kudos from a female for every single ride I do (on the bike

Thus far…

Maybe being cynical but they may just be sussing out where you live from your routes then nick yer bike…..check your settings. 😉

I’ve done it a few times, sometimes people who ride in areas nearby which I haven’t got much knowledge of, sometimes riders who I consider to be at a better but acheivable level of fitness just for motivation, sometimes people with the same name as me because I thought it could be an potentially interesting experiment (it wasn’t very succesful for some reason).

Half tempted to not follow anyone, just stalk closely monitor follow people in the groups I’m a member of if I can be assed, which half the time I can’t, just find it interesting to see where and how much other people ride.

I’ve never had a request as my settings allow anyone to follow me if they want to. Can’t get my head around “approving” people. Got loads of randoms usually flybys, but some from miles away or on different continent’s. Couldn’t care less really, perhaps they’re just impressed by my awesomeness LOL.

I’m not sure how strava works but if I follow you can I see your ride routine (I.e a location locally you sometimes leave/return to and when your often out and in?

I’m not sure how strava works but if I follow you can I see your ride routine (I.e a location locally you sometimes leave/return to and when your often out and in?

With a bit of work you can find that out anyway. And if I were a criminal I’d need an initial reason to follow someone or I could end up going to all the effort of following you and breaking into your house only to find you ride a hybrid, yuk 😆

The random follows could be criminals, but most of the time they will probably just be oddballs.

I get followed and I also request to follow random people. I like to see where other people cycle, especially if they’re local. I’ve cycled in every possible direction from my house on paths, roads, tracks and trails so I’m always looking for inspiration. Sometimes there’s a segment in some out of the way place that’s offroad that maybe 10 people have ridden and so I might request to follow the KOM holder and one or two others. That way I can guarantee they’re mtbers, they like riding on out of the way tracks and I can scope their routes & they can scope mine. 🙂

there are a couple of randoms i follow and vice versa, simply we commute the same route nod as we pass.

And occasionally i will give a semi random Kudos, if i happen across a ride that actually deserves it, ie riding from Penzance to Cheltenham.Giving kudos for riding a couple of miles??????

I’m not sure how strava works but if I follow you can I see your ride routine (I.e a location locally you sometimes leave/return to and when your often out and in?

If you have your privacy settings set up right the best they can do is narrow it down to an area 1 mile diameter, but you can set up multiple privacy zones to extend that.

If you live in a town/city that basically makes your start point too vague to work out without a lot of effort (easier other ways), but if you live somewhere very rural it can be harder to mask successfully.

And requests to follow don’t have to be accepted by you, so you do have control over who can even see that.

I’ve got a local (to me) bloke who wanted to follow me, only because I stole a KOM of him. I’ve just ignored the request.

I’m also on a Group, in our Club we have 97 members all following each other. TBH it’s a bit of a pain and may come out of that Group.

I follow quite a few randoms

I found other riders on local segments, follow them, and then use their rides for inspiration for my own local rides

No interest in their bikes, but I live in a place where riding is very limited (North London) so cheeky footpaths, cut throughs and local knowledge are all handy to know

I’ve had a few, and requested a few too when first started, it’s always been when either taking, or having taken a KOM. I also find it interesting to see what level of riding the fit guys are doing.

Typically have mutual friends, and now I think know them all anyway

I don’t understand why a random person would be interested in following me though, I mean I don’t have KOMs or owt flashy like that!

Had a few locals and people from the rivi fb group request to follow.

Usually accept if I’m aware of who they are.

A stranger is just a friend you haven’t met yet.

@chapaking , I am one of your followers!

For me its about finding new routes , rivington area has hundreds of routes and its better than getting lost

@vic
Does seem odd, does you username give away you’re a girl perhaps ?

Just ignore it.

Yes I do, but I also follow others I don’t know. The reason for using strava for me is to discover new trails or maybe riding buddies in the area, I kind of suspect they are.doing the same.

I’m not worried about being stalked as I never start/finish my strava near my house.

I hope you’re not too disappointed that I always do about the same route at rivi Paul.

Did we meet before? I thought your name rang a bell.

I’ve had a few requests lately but always ignore them.
I’m a little bit paranoid about security – so don’t want anyone I don’t know having any additional info on me.

I’ve got the ‘privacy zone’ set up on Strava – if you let people follow you – does that mean the Privacy zone is void?

nope. The privacy zone is set for anyone who looks at your activity, legit follower or otherwise.

I’m a little bit paranoid about security

although not totally paranoid otherwise you wouldn’t be uploading all your rides and posting on forums on the world wide web? (There’s a reason it’s called that BTW).

For me I have the same approach as taxi25. I follow some randoms, some randoms follow me. I give kudos to some randoms, some randoms give me kudos back.

I don’t really care.

I’ve also met some lifelong riding buddies through meeting previously unknowns for an MTB ride.

If you’re a member of any groups/clubs other members can see your rides without needing to be a friend. This can account for some of the seemingly random kudos/friend requests.

that’s true. I think I’m in the Specialized Bicycle Company group which is why i get so much kudos from randoms in Brazil or Portugal for my daily commute into work

EDIT: today for example

@chapaking , Yes I had some tyres from you a while back…

I hadn’t realised you rode the same route!
Still trying to find the river douglas run.