indyfabz

Interesting:

Thieves use Strava and other sites to find homes with expensive bikes - Sticky Bottle

trainsktg

Strava has a 'privacy zone' setting that you can establish around a selected address. I have mine set for 1/8 mile around my home.

Keith

indyfabz

The article touches on that. Maybe this will slap some sense into people who don't use it.

slimyfrog

I have mine set for 1/4th mile around one of my neighbor's homes.

indyfabz

Your neighbor must be doing well if he has multiple homes.

CliffordK

I've wondered about drawing a circle around your own house. Look for the gap in a person's rides.

I've chosen to manually set my end points. I don't have to make Strava record everything, so I might start it at the beginning of the first segment I wish to pick up. And, I'll crop out anything I don't want.

I also don't have to be concerned with whether a segment happens to be within my "zone" or not.

I think Strava lets one do private segments, but not private rides.
On the other hand, RideWithGPS doesn't deal with the segments, but allows one to set one's rides as private.

There is one ride/segment I'd like to upload, that if I record it, it will have to be private... so perhaps RideWithGPS.

TheLibrarian

Don't have the fanciest bike, don't ride an excessive amount and my rides start after driving to the trailhead.

Black wallnut 

Strava allows both but what is the point. If you make your rides private you remove the social aspect of the app. Setting geo fences around home, work and wherever else you choose seems the better option.

CliffordK

Ahhh, I found where one makes a ride private after uploading.
I don't need a huge social aspect of doing intervals on my driveway.

As far as regular segments, one might choose to create several very personal segments for training intervals. But, yes, it is interesting to see different people's comparative performance. I've defined a couple of segments, snagged a few people "just riding along"... who are FAST. I was able to manage a few KOMs, until someone found my segments and knocked me off I'll have to work on winning them back.

rex615

It is easy to say "First World Problems" I suppose, but would have never thought of this.

I don't use Strava, although i do understand its appeal. This thread does point out one more way technology can be exploited by criminals and how we need to be vigilant.

slimyfrog

I know!!! I can't keep up with the guy!!
Or I type really fast and the apostrophe got away from me.

StanSeven

High end bikes are only worth much to other bike enthusiasts. Someone stealing a $10,000 bike new is lucky to get a few hundred selling it. First of all, a $10K bike will depreciate a lot. Then the seller needs to find someone willing to pay. They need to do it quickly to avoid attention and getting caught.

Rather thiefs take other things easier to sell quickly.

YogaKat

I've got mine set with a privacy zone as well. When I do test runs for whatever reason, a map doesn't even show up.

Although with my current bikes, I doubt I would be on the radar anyway.

gregf83 

Exactly. Seems like much ado about nothing. Thieves can go into any house in a nice neighborhood and find something worth stealing. They don't need Strava to direct them to expensive neighborhoods.

Dave Cutter

I don't buy it for a minute. Strava users in Ireland are having pricey bikes stolen from there sheds. And that trend should be coming to America soon? I think it's likely a hoax.... made up by a Strava/phone/app/technology hating Luddite.

Rowan

Fixed that for you.

Rowan

You can also make private rides the default setting if you explore the menus enough.

jfowler85

Based on what, exactly?

Black wallnut 

Except that @Rowan you are wrong. The social aspects of Strava are not ego driven. They are support and encouragement driven. Sure you can use Strava as a stand alone tracking app. I don't think most folks are using as such. Furthermore even if it were ego driven explain why it matters.

GovernorSilver

I agree. I only have one follower on Strava - he's my coworker. His average pace and top speed are both far superior to mine. I know him well enough to know he's not following me to stroke his ego - he's doing it because he wants to see my numbers go up, so he can then give me a high five or whatever at work.

GovernorSilver

My bike isn't worth much stealing, but it's nice to know that Strava has the Privacy -> Hide Your House/Office feature.

I don't think it's a good idea to have one's home publicly viewable on any online map, in any case.

StanSeven

Prices on CL for stolen bikes

Rowan

People publish information about themselves on social media as much for the ego boost they get from knowing that someone is looking at that information. It doesn't matter if it is Strava, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

If you use Strava to compare segments with other riders, you are doing it as an ego thing. If you use Strava to solely compare your own personal previous segments, then it is a training tool although flawed if the information doesn't take into account variables such as head and tail winds.

I must be one of the few folks using it as a stand alone tracking app, and my settings are all private. Because I have no desire or ability -- nor the ego -- to beat someone else on a segment. My training records are for me only.

bikecrate

I don't use Strava, but I have used Mapmyride and Ridewithgps. I guess I'm double paranoid because I use the riding start point as a nearby public park and keep the maps private.

slimyfrog

I personally don't think you can map ego to public and non-ego with privacy that simply. I use Strava but not for 'ego boosting' reasons, trust me. If that were the case I would have stopped riding after my first ride! I'm tracking my rides for weight loss purposes and I like to have a history of it. People know I ride and often ask me where I went, or ask me where they could go. Being able to send them a link to a route is very convenient.

Regardless, to remain on topic I +1 @StanSeven One of my coworkers and his friend had their bikes stolen from a garage in San Jose a couple of months back. The thief/thieves left the 8k bike, physically moving it out of the way to another wall, and took the cheaper bikes. There was also a TV report on bicycle theft in SF's SOMA district and an interviewed thief mentioned the same thing. They don't want the very high end stuff. They want the midrange so they can strip and sell the parts.

Honestly someone tracking Strava does not even make the list of my overly paranoid bicycle-theft worries, but I am still not ok with letting the world know my home address.