On the other hand any auto-flagging is better than none. Email blurb:
Web page version of the email: Strava
which highlights that auto-flagging:
encourages you to crop:
On our rides last weekend we had someone on an e-bike. Older bloke. He didn’t show up on any of our rides on strava. He would have kom and been first this year. He did the right thing.
I would probably flag him. We get a lot of e bikes taking top 10s. As you can tell I’ve stop caring. :).
That said, I’m old and not on an e-bike. So, don’t always go off of looks! Some of us oldies put in the work.
How will I know that I’m a perfectly median cyclist without validation from Strava?
I used to flag activities all the time. These were mostly back when I was running and someone had top spot on a segment when they have CLEARLY ridden it on a bike. I will also flag for bad GPS when you can see a person clearly didn’t actually do the segment. I have no issue with it, I would expect someone to do the same to me.
E Bikes will def be an issue on Strava, but over time people will move their activities to E Bike as default/common practice. until then… KEEP FLAGGING!
I have also done this. There is a short off road segment nearby that takes a hard steep (20%+) climb and is somewhat parallel to the paved bike trail below. Needless to say GPS errors or tolerances will sometimes grab a KOM or top 10 and I have flagged those. No one should be upset for having their e-bike nor GPS error flagged.
did he list the ebike as the bike used when he got the 4th place? I probably wouldn’t flag a 4th place ride but if he had the KOM on an ebike I would definitely flag it.
You are better man than me. I’d flag in a heartbeat. You know, satisfy my passive aggressive northwest tendencies.
A local segment here in San Francisco is posted at 240 miles an hour. A recent biking trip in Mexico revealed entire leader boards all posted at over 60 miles an hour. And someone should flag them, all of them? Intent or error is moot point, bad data is everywhere in Strava and you would think it embarrassing for a “data” company. It’s a simple algorithm filter a high schooler could write. As for the comments about who cares, go race, it’s not about ego, fine - but move on and troll the next topic.
Sounds like Mexico is prime poaching ground for the next gen of Team Sky robo riders.
I did a hard mtn bike ride last year and got 4 or 5 KOMs, and someone flagged my ride! I suppose that’s one of the best compliments you can get. lol. Before flagging a ride thinking it’s an ebike, make sure you do a bit of homework on the rider and their past history.
Yeah, round here we’ve got a few low level professional and semi-professional riders but you soon know their names. There’s one who’s a multiple Three Peaks CX winner, I’ve seen him sprint up a technical climb that I can’t even ride - I checked out that activity and it was KOM/top ten after KOM/top ten. Then on the road you’ve got riders like the Brownlee brothers and their mates - they shift!
These days Strava is mostly comparing myself with my mates or that weird bloke who keeps looking at me in the morning. 
And what of all those pre-Strava rides and records? 
Pre-Strava, I’m sure people didn’t hop in their car, blast up a hill, then declare they set a bicycle speed record. It’s the weird social media aspect which drives people to behave in odd and bad behaviour. Maybe ALL Strava rides need to be flagged! 
You can argue that with Strava, especially if your ride has HR or power data.
You seem to underestimate the number of people who end a ride, chit-chat with the friends, hop in their car, and drive away with the GPS still running.
Yeah, I ‘contested it’ and the flag was removed a couple of days later. No big deal, I thought it was kind of funny in the end.
I have 316 KOM’s lots on shorter segments, mix of road, gravel and mtb. I’ve only ever had one ride flagged and I’m not even sure why it got flagged i didn’t even get any segments. I’ve flagged tons of peoples trips in cars, it’s pretty obvious when it’s a car. They went to the MTB trails then home or to the bike path then home. I do not believe anyone has ever taken a KOM from me on an E-bike. Even in the woods, some of the KOM’s are at the speed limit of the trail, if you mess up going any faster you are getting messed up. I can only see actual pro MTB racers taking those. E-bikes have no chance, unless it’s a pro on an e-bike. Could care less about E-bike KOM’s on most segments.
Chances are it’s someone who is fast you don’t know. Or it’s a one off where someone used Strava on a dirtbike or moped.
Yo, just flag it. The rider probably forgot to categorize his ride as an e-bike ride. Done. Carry on.
I’ve been flagged for leaving the gps on driving home, and have appreciated being flagged so that I could fix it. It’s totally fine.
I had some problems with strava years ago when using my phone in power saving mode. It had something to do with the GPS and resulted in whole sections missed out of the ride data.
On one occasion the strava app crashed meaning I didn’t end a ride. I only figured out the issue a few days later, after which it automatically uploaded the ride, including days worth of recording me walking around my house, work and even a car journey to Glasgow and back.
It wasn’t flagged despite lots of KOMs and I deleted it myself fairly quickly.
Curious what you mean about e-bike overrunning MTB trails. How many are out there? I saw one this spring and was kind of surprised. I’m getting the feeling e-bikes are getting pretty popular. But why would they be a problem on trails, and couldn’t a trail system/hiking trail specify no e-bikes?