Strava bans downhills segments with -.25% grade?! – for safety

I carried out an update on my wahoo yesterday which said

“downhill segments greater than -.25% grade will not be synced due to the strava API for safety precautions.”

+

“Downhill and similarly steep descending segments will not be synced.”

A massive swathe on my downhill segments are now gone off list. I’ve had no emails from Strava, this seems quite sneaky, is it all about the uphill performance now? lol!

Can’t find anything on google from Strava, all points to Wahoo support

https://support.wahoofitness.com/hc/en-us/articles/217285397-ELEMNT-Firmware-Updates

ELEMNT WF48-2169 – 5 December, 2018

Update for Strava’s new Live Segments API: Segments with an average grade lower than -.25% are no longer supported by Strava due to safety concerns. Downhill and similarly steep descending segments will not be synced.

To me that looks like the segments are still there and being recorded, you just aren’t told about them whilst you are out riding.. no?

Makes sense…KOM was always about the climbing until Strava introduced it as the leader for any segment.

Does sound daft though, removing descents…

Quick check and descents have not been removed form Strava, sounds like they have been removed from live segments which seems OK as you probably don’t want to be taking a few glances at the device while going for your time. Uphill will still be more about the pacing etc. with plenty of chances to stare lovingly at your stem.

Is that ‘.’ Next to the 25% a mistake? If not that’s basically everything that end lower that it started. If it is only the very steepest sections are affected. An average of 25% is proper steep.

Regardless not convinced about downhill Strava sections.

The words are copied straight from the wahoo support page

Update for Strava’s new Live Segments API: Segments with an average grade lower than -.25% are no longer supported by Strava due to safety concerns. Downhill and similarly steep descending segments will not be synced.

and the decimal is in the right place, but all it’s saying is it’s not SYNCING them, they still exist on the app and webpage

If your going hard enough to challenge the segment then you shouldn’t be able to look at the computer.

Which is probably their point.

Makes sense to me

they still exist on the app and webpage

A friend got a QOM yesterday on a long road descent so they definitely still exist. i assume it means they won’t show up on Live Segments or the “you are +/- xxx seconds on this segment” features.

Aye, makes perfect sense tbh.

They were sued a few years back (2012 according to google) when someone died chasing a downhill road Kom. I think they won the case though so seems odd to change now unless the legal dept have suddenly got scared.

That case wasn’t about live segments I think.

Perhaps not directly but maybe someone at Strava with common sense saw the obvious link

Does this mean I won’t be altered when approaching a starred segment that’s -25%?

If so that’s a massive arse.

You might not be alerted either.

Live segments have been around for a while. I imagine Strava saw the obvious potential for risky behaviour to be laid at their door from the outset, but decided to wait and see how folk reacted. It looks like they have now concluded from evidence that there is an effect on behaviour, and it is too risky for them.

They stopped alerting you to the loss of downhill KOM’s years ago, presumably to discourage people from hurting themselves or worse. This sounds like an extension of that to prevent people from crashing into trees/oncoming cars/baby robins because they’re too busy staring at a screen.

Doesnt sound so bad then if this purely relates to getting alerted and being able to use garmin/wahoo to beat times downhill.

Although .25% grade doesn’t sound a lot, i’d have thought more 15% grade etc would be of concern

.25 doesn’t sound like a lot, but 15% is **** rapid on a road bike!

It’s just an arbitrary number, to define something as downhill, I’d imagine.

Bit shit though, as that literally means anything where the finish is below the start. Could be a long segment with some climbs in and what not. Even -5% would have been reasonable, ie proper descents, not basically “anything that’s not a climb”.

Just looked at my bolt and I have just four starred/live segments now (all climbs) rather than the hundred + I had before 😥

Won’t be renewing my summit membership.

Copied from somewhere else..

Strava is no longer allowing live tracking of any downhill segments. They define a segment as downhill if it has a 0.25% loss in grade between the start and finish points.

0