How to deal with E-Bikes on Strava Segments

No point in getting frustrated over something that’s so inaccurate, same again with fast times/results because it’s probably wrong anyway!

I can only really see the point in strava if you are comparing yourself to your previous rides or with mates who you know. As has been said before, strava is flawed so wins are not real wins and defeats are not real defeats, they just give the illusion of them. You have have a KOM on a segment, but how do you know if anyone else was really trying? they could just be having a chat or saving themselves as part of a bigger ride. If they had gone out with the express purpose of getting that specific KOM they could have wiped the floor with your time. You just don’t know.

Its all too vague and open to misrepresentation, data error or cheating. A bit like zwift.

If you want competition to benchmark yourself against others then the only way to do this properly is to race them in real time.

Well you’d never know you were genuinely the fastest rider on any given segment unless everyone who’d ever ridden a bike had also ridden it. It’s a bit of a pointless argument really especially on segments with several thousand on the leaderboard.

I’m top ten on some segments where the KOM time is over an hour and the gaps between riders is in the order of minutes or tens of minutes. No arguing about placings there! Once the gap/difference between individuals or your times is more than a few seconds you are outside the range of error in the system so while the actual time might not be to Olympic standard it does reflect the ride and whether one time is faster than another.

If you try to create a segment on Strava now it won’t let you create one that is shorter than about 300 metres in length purely because of inaccuracies in the system. It also moans if the segment is too similar to an existing one.

If you want competition to benchmark yourself against others then the only way to do this properly is to race them in real time.

Not always practical though … I think Strava is a great way of benchmarking yourself against other riders riding the same routes as you … it gives you an indication of how fast you are compared to a sample of riders

You have have a KOM on a segment, but how do you know if anyone else was really trying? they could just be having a chat or saving themselves as part of a bigger ride. If they had gone out with the express purpose of getting that specific KOM they could have wiped the floor with your time. You just don’t know.

There are various segments with 10,000+ riders on them! Yes, half of them might not have been trying but you don’t get anywhere near the top 5% (or probably 20%) of a Strava leaderboard without giving close to 100%. Probably no one in the top 5% was riding into a headwind, either. I.e. it’s safe to assume that if you are KOM / top 10 / top 100, you have beaten some very competent riders who have been riding their hearts out. Yes, there are inconsistencies with GPS, wind direction, chaingangs and trail conditions etc etc but that’s obvious and not really worth mentioning.

At any rate, even if you don’t think Strava is a legitimate form of racing, others clearly do.

I’m top ten on some segments where the KOM time is over an hour

They are generally the only ones I have a chance on. I’m relying on the other riders stopping for cake.

If people are lying about their strava times by being on an e-bike says alot more about them than it does you. Focus on your PRs, plus who’s racing climbs anyway!?

I am a Strava addict too. Road descents are where it’s at: not much chance of e-bike cheating on those. I did create a new segment the other day – a road descent of over a mile through a city, crossing several traffic lights and making a few turns onto different roads. I absolutely pin it on my way home back from chaingang late on a weekday evening and have hit every light on green on a few occasions, so I thought I’d have the KOM for sure. Turns out I was 20th 😀

Road descents are where it’s at: not much chance of e-bike cheating on those.

Mopeds FTW.

Damnit I’m clearly not smart enough for Strava 😀 !

Obviously we all know riding a motorized bicycle up a hill has the same challenge as nailing that steep technical descent at speed 🙄🙄

Oooh double rolley eyes. Wowza.

Who mentioned “steep or technical” riding bikes downhill is fun regardless. And requires less effort than riding any bike uphill.
So what is weird about enjoying riding an ebike up hills ?

Double rolly is for your implication that beating normal riders uphill on a E-bike is worthwhile as of itself. Obviously riding an E-bike uphill or anywhere can be enjoyable.
Should have quoted the other part of your post.

other than hurting Stravaists fragile Ego’s.

That’s just an added bonus 😂👍

I have always had a love of numbers, data, stats etc,. so Strava suits this and I like using it.
My autism explains that and it also explains why I would never go to an XC race with social interaction, lots of people etc,.

I guess that just means I have a fragile ego, get frustrated about others beating me, am sad, don’t have a life, like impressing people down the pub, should enter races like they you do etc,. etc,.

‘Road descents are where it’s at: not much chance of e-bike cheating on those’
Maybe, i was under the impression that, all other things being equal, weight was king downhill, consider the weight of the average Ebike, and the weight of the average Ebiker, that might not be as clear cut as you would think. But it would only be the weight, not because of the motor.