Have to willy wave on this; just wondering what’s the largest margin anybody had taken a KOM by? I took 12.5% off one yesterday (was 1:04 I did 56s). It is a fairly new segment and I was targeting it – had noticed it appear as a new segment and reckoned the KOM was within range – but there are 236 other riders, so it’s not exactly rarely ridden.

about 20% on one, it was a very good run though

Get a KOM by to big a margin and someone will flag your ride !!

I’ve only got a couple these days. One of them, though, the gap between me and second is more than the gap between 2nd and about 15th. Probably the proudest achievement of my entire life. 8)

was 1:04 I did 56s

that’s about the margin of error on most phone apps 😉

20%

Previous bets was 10s. I’m on 8s 8)

I have over a 5min lead on one local segment but it doesn’t really mean a lot..

me 1:10, second place 6:54

Work out the percentage if you can be bothered, I certainly can’t

Unless it’s a very long segment, I wouldn’t get too excited about KOMs unless you repeat the time more than once. IME, you can do a ride with your mates who are also using Strava, ride a trail at the same speed and finish with 20s difference (IME, usually saying you went faster than you did) on Strava for some segments over 3 minutes…

Someone did though he is a local pro who scours strava reporting anyone who has a bigger penis than him better time than he thinks they can do

Anything under say a minute and there is an element of timing ‘luck’ with regard the GPS…I did a segment the other day and happened to have two GPSs on me: one timed me on the segment at 29secs, the other at 20secs: Loaded the 29sec one as the other just seemed a ridiculous margin over the next rider

mikewsmith – Member

Someone did though he is a local pro

How do you know who flagged it?

that’s about the margin of error on most phone apps

Yeah, yeah – I’m using a Garmin. The other chap might have timing luck, but not me – I never get the sort of variations others mention (are you using phones to get that sort of variation?)

Was wondering if it would get flagged, but instead the previous KOM had another go this morning and did 1:01 (looking at the ride he clearly put in some extra effort on the segment) 8)

Yeah, yeah – I’m using a Garmin.

the person in 2nd place might not have been?

25% little local section, creater had 2 mins, I got 1:30.

He fessed up (rather proudly) as being the local Strava police

Yeah, yeah – I’m using a Garmin.

Garmins can have massive errors too. In fact I generally find my phone tracks more accurately than either my edge 200 or my friend’s etrex.

Yeah, yeah – I’m using a Garmin.

Ha ha.. !

unless you are using dedicated timing equipment to compare, you have no idea how accurate your garmin is.

I often time segments with a bar mounted timer (as I have done for years) comparing my strava times to this can be interesting but what’s even more interesting is how little accurascy friends £200+ garmins can actually have.

iPhones and the more expensive HTCs seem to be the best choice for winning KOMs while riding alongside/behind your mates

I take Strava times with an entire 1kg bag of salt. I’m consistently quicker than one of my riding buddies on dh segments when we are actually on the trail together, but his times normally show quicker on Strava. I use an iPhone and he uses a Garmin. I’m very competitive too so I can’t deny that it irks me a lot, but really, the only way to know if you are actually quicker than someone is to ride the trail together

I took a KOM off a proper euro pro at the start of last week – he was on 3:39 and I posted 2:45… however…

He did the climb at the end of a 164km training ride, while I went out just to do the segment and went as hard as I could (I was on a mountain bike though)

Best bit is that he can’t do anything about it for a couple of weeks (not that he’ll be bothered anyway) as he’s doing some race in France with the rest of the Europcar team 😆 😆

http://app.strava.com/segments/3907203

Hmmm… short segments.

I set up a segment for the HTN bombhole run after last Monday’s ride. The KOM was awarded to the only person in the group who decided to walk through it. Segment deleted.

There is a short segment on the winter HTN race route that is held by the marshal who was manning it. He did it in 3 seconds apparently. The quickest guys in the race did it in 18.

100%
There is only me on it though 🙂

Garmins can have massive errors too. In fact I generally find my phone tracks more accurately than either my edge 200 or my friend’s etrex.

OK – so I should have said a very recent, very accurate Garmin. Examination of tracks suggests it does a very good job – you can tell which side of the road you’re riding on.

unless you are using dedicated timing equipment to compare, you have no idea how accurate your garmin is.

Does checking the stopwatch at the start and end of the segment count? Or are you also suggesting that the GPS derived timing might be dodgy? 🙄

Good old strava…

take it with a pinch of salt! i find the Iphones have a higher rate or error, i think there sampling time is around 4 secs and the garmin is around one second if it isn’t on smart recording, so generally (i use that term with a pinch of salt) are more accurate.

around me most of the top guys on the leaders boards wear HR monitors and/or power meters on and off road, so you can tell if they were trying

I’m 50% 19 minutes faster than the person in 2nd place although there are only 2 of us who have ridden the segment lol 😉 I suspect he was just out for a gentle ride!

The really short segments, why!

At two mins it starts to at least be relatively reliable when you factor in the start finish points and errors.

Biggest gap, i was going for a different segment and took a wrong turn. second best just under 2:30mins min just over 1:30mins.

More interested in trying to get real segments, c10min+ so you can see how your going and not worry about any gps glitches.

OK – so I should have said a very recent, very accurate Garmin. Examination of tracks suggests it does a very good job – you can tell which side of the road you’re riding on.

Most of the time is true of mine too, but it also has occasional massive variability. The strava website appears to look at the first and last time and location within a segment and uses these to calculate the time for the segment rather than perform a linear interpolation of the points inside and outside the entry and exit points which would yield a more precise figure. If your garmin’s doing it’s smart sample rate and happens to be on a say 3 second* sample period, then that’s a potential +/- 6 second error in what strava thinks you’ve done a kom in.
Certainly I can think of local sub 1 min Koms where there’s a whole bunch of people in joint 1st or second that haven’t in reality all clocked the same time.

*The 3 second figure is made up, but you get my point.

OK – so I should have said a very recent, very accurate expensive? Garmin. Examination of tracks suggests it does a very good job – you can tell which side of the road you’re riding on.

Keep telling yourself this ^^

Does checking the stopwatch at the start and end of the segment count?

Checking? it’s a timer, it has a button to stop/start, the display can be “checked” any time you like/want

Or are you also suggesting that the GPS derived timing might be dodgy?

No “might” about it.. GPS is simply not accurate! has reading the replies here not registered this fact?

I managed to chop one down from 6:22 to 5:48 and it’s a fully off road climb too

I’ve had a couple of KOM,s round Cannock Chase, my local track. They may be not 100% accurate (garmin 200), but I can match most of my best times when trying, within a couple of seconds. The times are best used as your own training guide, but any KOM still makes you smile.

I got one yssterday despite having to do an emergency stop for a very stupid sheep. So a bit suspicious, but do I care? 😀

“Or are you also suggesting that the GPS derived timing might be dodgy?”
No “might” about it.. GPS is simply not accurate! has reading the replies here not registered this fact?

Well if that’s your level of knowledge, then I reckon that consigns any comments you might make on performance of GPS as pretty much worthless. Just because you might not have seen accurate GPS recording doesn’t mean it’s not possible.

+1 re the GPS inaccuracy, especially if there are trees involved, I wouldn’t get too excited over a few percent margins.

Well if that’s your level of knowledge, then I reckon that consigns any comments you might make on performance of GPS as pretty much worthless. Just because you might not have seen accurate GPS recording doesn’t mean it’s not possible.

Indeed accurate GPS timing is possible.
But that’s a different point to whether strava produces accurate timings from a GPS..

http://www.gps.gov/systems/gps/performance/accuracy/

Don’t let facts get in the way of your arguement aracer now will you?

Can you point out where in that it mentions GPS timing, as I can’t find it? Maybe you should try bringing some relevant facts to your argument.

To be honest, that document doesn’t exactly support your argument about GPS inaccuracy anyway.

GPS timing is very accurate. its absolutely fundamental to the system.

however GPS positioning on a low grade rapidly moving receiver isnt so accurate and tracking a moving object in 4 dimensions is a challenge at the best of times, and then matching that to segment is an even bigger challenge.

i think they do pretty well all things considered. if you want millisecond accurate timing, go to a real race.

Look at it this way GPS error can work both ways and can work both ways with any rider. Fast riders will always post fast times. Ride the segment often enough and it will probably average out with fast riders at the top of the table and me very much in the middle.

My best is a 3rd out of 80 or so riders, pleased as punch I was although I did go out to target the segment cos I thought I could get into the top ten times.

But Stravas great pull is as a motivator and this thread is proof that its working 🙂

what Jam bo said

This is becoming tiresome..

well done aracer! You da man! whoo hoo 12% – margin of legends!

go to a real race

this ^^
the cycling world really is missing out on such awesome talent!

for the record. not using the strava app which samples at 4s intervals and using something like the wahoo app which samples at 1s intervals and exports to strava is probably the best way to get more accurate tracking.

…or using a GPS device recording at 1s intervals and uploading later.

what Jam bo said

Which strangely enough was completely the opposite of what you said earlier. Though thanks for the plaudits. It means everything to me to know I have your support.