Strava to automatically flag suspicious activities in hopes to improve leaderboard accuracy

If your ride and KOM was genuineyou can appeal and send Strava your GPX file to prove it was not fake

Off the back wrote:

If your ride and KOM was genuineyou can appeal and send Strava your GPX file to prove it was not fake

Why would you need to send it to Strava, they will have already had it in order to flag it in the first place?

They request it. I have done this when I had a KOM flagged, I appealed and they asked for the original file taken directly from my Garmin. I don't know if thats to prove you havent manipulated the data which is possible with a text editor in windows. 

Very true. If they wanted a real compition they would enter a Cat 4 race and understand where they really are in equal conditions. Blatant cheating by riding in, or on, vehicles which aren't human powered aside, there are also factors such as bunch rides, wind/ gale direction and motor pacing to consider.

People subscribe to Strava, so if they are paying for a product is it not fair to expect it to be fit for the purpose in which its designed? 

There are so many more important things in the world right now (so people like to bang on about) So why cant people also enjoy things which make them feel better or are we all expected to just continue living with the woes of life eating at us instead? 

What an utterly strange take. Strava has all these things because people like them and clearly care about them. If you don't thats fine but others do and they are paying for a service that doesn't even do basic stuff to stop cheats. 

You can apply your logic to almost anything in life. Made a shit cake? Don't worry, you're not on bake off so lighten up. Crap day at work? Don't worry, there will be another one tomorrow that might be better. Lighten up. 

I don't really care about Strava but I don't have any issue with those who do and I don't think its massively unfair for them to expect them to take some simple precautions to improve it. 

rookybiker wrote:

KOM, QOM? Better just call it MOM, monarch of the mountain / motored up the mountain.

I think the 'mountain' bit is the really dodgy bit of the name.

LGBTQOM too then if we're getting all woke  

Off the back wrote:

LGBTQOM too then if we're getting all woke  

Wot no Furry of the Mountain?

What does 'woke' mean?

I don't like something but I can't be bothered to explain or can't explain why.

Or in your case IDIOT. 

You come on without knowing me and throw abuse about. And you call me an idiot 😗😗

Never ceases to amaze me how ironically thin skinned people who think it is hilarious to chuck LGBT around thinking it is funny or call everything woke are.

If i was being abusive I would have called you far worse. Your post is idiotic, ergo you are an idiot. 

And if I am gay would that be ok? If I see it all as silly nonsense having all these things being so PC even if I'm gay and proud to be so? 

Are you?

Steve K wrote:

Are you?

Indeed.

Well, care to tells us "off the back" because I am. 

Yes. Are you? Or are you the im offended by proxy type? 

Er... I think he already said that...

Why I would say you must have 2 measurable dynamics. An ebike might get up a hill fast but youre power and heart rate would most likely give you away 

Off the back wrote:

Why I would say you must have 2 measurable dynamics. An ebike might get up a hill fast but youre power and heart rate would most likely give you away 

Even that wouldn't stop a determined cheat. I did some experiments on a local 18% hill with my road bike and my (legal 250W) road ebike using my HRM and power meter: climbing at the same pace my heart rate was around 170 on the road bike and 150 on the ebike and my power output was around 450W on the road bike (it's a short climb!) and 250W on the ebike. The power difference would seem to seem a good way of spotting a cheat but I could, if I wished, simply change my weight on Strava to make the watts per kilo look realistic. I could also, if I wanted, turn the power assist down to the level of a strong tailwind so it would look realistic but still give me the extra 50W needed for a KOM.

Asking for heartrate and power data would weed out people zooming up hills on illegal 1000W fatbikes on the throttle but identifying people using legal PAS bikes would be a lot harder. Besides which it might not be a good commercial decision for Strava: the main reason a lot of people have paid accounts is to participate in the leaderboards and go for KOMs, faced with a requirement to buy a power meter and an HRM one suspects many might decide it wasn't worth it.

A lot of bikes come fitted with power meters these days. It isnt the ultra expensive item it once was. HRM can be picked up for a few quid. An apple watch or similar can also do the job so its not a big ask. 

You will still get the determined who go out their way to cheat. Thats never going to change and that can be tackled later down the line but to dismiss doing anything just because of them is a bit dumb when the vast majority of fake KOMS are taken by cars or motorbikes. It wont get everyone but it will sort out the vast majority.

If anyone is still suspicious of those other possibly ebike rides you can can flag it yourself still. Sometimes they are easy to spot if the rider has a sudden super human burst of accleleration or 99% or previous rides are not in line with this new found athletisim where before they were taking twice as long. Things like that are taken into consideration when Strava looks at flagging rides. Did they do the same ride 20 times before and this is 200% quicker than anything they did previously for example. 

Off the back wrote:

A lot of bikes come fitted with power meters these days. It isnt the ultra expensive item it once was.

I agree it's not the expensive item it once was (a 4iiii Precision single side for R7000 105 can be had from Wiggle right now in 170mm for less than £200), but it's a bit of a stretch to say "a lot of bikes come fitted with power meters these days." A few bikes do, a lot don't.