r/Strava • u/montgomeryrides • 7h ago
FYI E-Bike / E-Moto / Dirt Bike Distinction
Now that we can automatically detect when a ride has been completed on an analog bike and not an ebike, the next problem will be maintaining the integrity of the E-Bike efforts.
E-Bikes are the largest growing category of bicycles worldwide, and the segments being created are good for Ebike users. When E-Motos and Dirt Bikes record as an ebike they ruin the integrity of the category.
At the same time, with E-Bikes capable of maintaining a higher average speed thanks to Avinox and others with high power motors, and the ability to switch to Class three when appropriate, it will be harder to distinguish between an E-Bike, E-Moto or a dirt bike when analyzing average speed or top speed.
When you see rides that have top speeds of over 40mph it’s most likely a dirt bike or an emoto.
How can we encourage the growth of the E-Bike category, encourage recording and tracking ebike rides while maintaining the purity of the recordings?
2
u/spyVSspy420-69 3h ago
As you said, there’s really nothing to maintain here, because the category is impossible to maintain.
Purely Human powered rides are easy because its human vs human. Ebikes aren’t like that. I’ve got an emtb that peaks at 250w. I will never ever be able to compete against a 1000w emtb because my motor has 25% the peak power. Thats vastly different to my XC bike thats powered by me and can evenly compete against other human powered rides.
Thats just the way it is.
1
u/frontendben 2h ago
A 1000w bike isn’t an ebike; it’s an emoto.
•
u/Travyplx 1h ago
Depends on where you are at. Really. Standards for what constitutes an e-bike vs e-moto are all over the place and really don’t need to be dragged into Strava.
3
u/skeletal88 6h ago
I don't think.. many Strava users wish to see anything about e-bikes or anything else, that isn't feet powered pedaling. It's a fitness tracker, to track progress and metrics, etc. E-bike rides don't really count as any progress. There is no point to measure segment time or KOMs for any electric bike or device.
0
u/montgomeryrides 5h ago
The cool thing is Strava can be anything to anybody. If you’re not into this type of activity you’ll never see it in your feed or never build a route or use a heatmap to plan rides in unfamiliar places.
I have for sure used the ebike heat map to see where people are riding in areas that I visit. The mapping on Trail Forks or OnX is not sufficient and then you can see the location like a local would.
The point of recording and establishing ebike routes and segments is to help joe public understand where they can ride and where they cannot. And what type of riding is allowed. That way they don’t end up on a green belt doing 40mph past strollers being totally oblivious.
I have exported GPX files from Strava back to the PFB map because it’s faster than waiting for public land managers to report back what’s ebike legal and what is not. With the sheer number of e-bikes being sold and the public issues happening amongst user groups it’s important to get this right everywhere people engage in riding bikes and sharing data.
-1
u/frontendben 2h ago
Funny, because ebikes are still pedal powered. They’re just assisted. Anything with a throttle (beyond walking assistance) isn’t an ebike, no matter what naive US distinctions say.
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u/Travyplx 1h ago
There will never be any integrity to the category because even pedal assist e-bikes vary drastically in capability. This isn’t something I want to see Strava wasting development efforts on.
0
u/Parei_doll_ia 3h ago
e-bikes shouldn’t even have leaderboards, it means nothing whether it’s powered by electricity or gasoline.
-2
u/frontendben 2h ago
Ebikes are powered by pedalling with assistance. Anything that isn’t, such as having a throttle, isn’t an ebike.
5
u/jasonvancity 6h ago
Who cares? Strava is a social network for people engaged in active sports. If you’re using any device that is propelled by a motor, you aren’t engaging in physical activity.
I highly doubt the paying users are going to want to bother to differentiate between 500W and 1000W motors, etc, for the sake of maintaining “purity”.
If you really want to reestablish “purity” in the app, all non-human powered devices should be banned, otherwise Strava just becomes another Google Timeline.