[Closed] STRAVA THEFT!!!!!

Oh, and don't let all your mates ride to yours and set off from there as people will see their tracks converging on your house as it'll be outside their exclusion zones...

Me and a few mates have been targeted and the bikes have been stolen two days ago as a result of tracking our gps to our homes, if you look at one of your old rides and use satellite image, it will take you too your door, please please all urgently if you havent already, set the safety parameter around your home.

Sorry to hear about the thefts.
How do you know that they used strava?

Thats why i deleted it within a week of getting it you just lead everyone to your house if you do local rides 🙁

It was only a matter of time....

Endomondo has no similar facility to hide locations so make sure your privacy settings are set so that joe public can't see your tracks/location.

How do you know they they used strava to locate you?

Thought it was a a KOM thread

[quote=badllama said]Thats why i deleted it within a week of getting it you just lead everyone to your house if you do local rides

Strava has a privacy function where you can "hide" certain locations. Think it's a 1km radius from a specified point. Switched-on scrotes could still work out a riding pattern though and know whereabouts to loiter to follow you home.

Happened to a lad in our roadie club. The police said there were others in the area and the common factor was strava.

Gutted for you

But I know this sounds harsh (sorry I don't want it to!) but thought it was common sense not to start it from your home for this reason?!

How long to insurance companies cotton on and refuse to pay due to this

I've just realised why I never get a time on the segment up my road...yes privacy is on.

[i] Switched-on scrotes could still work out a riding pattern though and know whereabouts to loiter to follow you home. [/i]

It's true.

My local mtb club meet at the same car park every week at the same time. Someone could wait there and follow people home. No need for gps.

In the end it's about minimising risk, you can't remove it.

I've set a scatter of zones near my house on Strava so there isn't a 'centre' that people can spot.

The police said there were others in the area and the common factor was strava.

Other common factors being they all had bikes and they lived in the local area.

Just press the start button outside your next-door neighbours. Problem solved 🙂

How do you know that they used strava?

Privacy zones as advocated by Strava themselves will help. Along with not leaving bikes on show, washing them out front, riding in and out of your house, posting photos online, and going to popular biking places etc.

Before I binned Strava, I set the centre of the exclusion zone not at my house, but at a convenient location a few streets away.

Either way, all my rides start at a local landmark, not my house.

And if they follow me home they'll find a bike storage with 20 bikes, none of which are mine. And a handful more chained up to the bike racks outside.

posting photos online

There do seem to be quite a few 'check out my $$$ road bike' types on Strava who seem to be actively advertising their bikes to thieves.

I reality, so long as you have the privacy zones set up and don't post photos or the actual model names of your bikes (I just have, '29er, road bike, trail bike & hack bike')and take care who sees you coming and going on your posher rides you're taking reasonable precautions.

There's a balance to be struck between security and living your life.

I keep three identical bikes in different locations in fireproof safes.
I use them each in a random order and use a different route to get there every time.
Also I travel to the locations using a variety of different methods of transport (bus/train/bike/car/walk/hovercraft/hot air balloon/donkey etc)
I use a variety of disguises while riding the bikes so nobody can recognise me.
And I never use credit cards/debit cards or mobile phones when out riding just in case I am being tracked.

You can't be too careful 😉

I had my privacy setting set as an exclusion zone around home. But I've just created a few more using [url= http://www.royalmail.com/postcode-finder ]random postcodes[/url] in areas not too far away from home. That should do it 😀

Log it as a run...

Sorry to hear about this. However you can easily set "privacy zones" in Strava which hide your route within a 1/4mile radius. I have my home address, work & parents address set up like this. Just type in postcode.

Yet another reason to not use Strava...

Also.. set your profile private and only follow your friends.

[quote=tootallpaul ]Yet another reason to not use Strava...

or to read the instructions

Yet another reason to not use Strava...

Of course if you're [i]really[/i] paranoid you can set everything to private - you'll still be able to use segments, etc, but only against yourself.

And I thought I was paranoid! I use Strava* and have never had a bike stolen, that's as statisticaly relavent as the OP.

*privacy turned on, my postcode and one further down the road blocked.

Yet another reason to not use Strava...

The others being....?

The others being....?

The joy you get from self congratulatory ejactulations every time it gets mentioned.

The others being....?

Being unfit, missplaced moral superiority and smugness, not owning a GPS or smartphone would make it pretty useless too.

I have my home address, work & parents address set up like this. Just type in postcode.

Or better, put in a different postcode a few streets away so the exclusion zone isn't centred on your house.

Has anybody actually heard of a thief who said they used Strava to target victims, or is this just another urban legend?

If I had farm with a nice barn I would dig a massive pit and cover it with tarpaulin. I will then post a bike check saying my bike is gold plated and have all the routes end at the barn and catch me a few of these guys. It puts the lotion on it's skin.

Yep, Strava is terrible, you should all stop using it! (All the more KOMs for me 🙂 )

You really should have turned the damn app on once away from home yeah?

Gutted for you however.

Yep, Strava is terrible, you should all stop using it! (All the more KOMs for me )

Log it as a run...

Are thieves actually scrolling through Strava finding local segments, tracing back through rides and searching for users or is it a bit of internet scaremongering/urban myth?

Start/finish your rides at a "non-home" location - ideally somewhere pretty open like a junction or town centre where it's impossible to pinpoint one house or one road.

Don't Strava your commute, it sets up a regular pattern of where you'll be at what time.

Don't publish the name of your bike - call it "road bike" or something instead of "my amazing £7000 Cervelo"

Don't have all your mates starting their rides from outside your house.

Similar to any internet activity surely, just keep at least some degree of privacy in terms of who you allow to follow you, who can see your pictures etc.

One thing that occurred to me that might be handy for scallywags would be a search like this:

http://app.strava.com/activities/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&location=Wylam%2C+England%2C+United+Kingdom&%5Bcountry%5D=United+Kingdom&%5Bstate%5D=England&%5Bcity%5D=Wylam&%5Blat_lng%5D=54.97812%2C-1.8272120000000314&keywords=new+bike&activity_type=Ride&type=&distance_start=0&distance_end=300&time_start=0&time_end=10&elev_gain_start=0&elev_gain_end=5000

If you buy a new bike, maybe don't publish that in your activity name.

glupton1976 - Member

Log it as a run...

Thanks to all the comments, some useful.

pobably a little unrealistic to record as a ride, with some sections hitting 30mph, but nice thought.

Too little has been done around these thefts, and will be more common place between now and christmas.
Its time to do something about it

OK, I understand your annoyance, but apart from a Daily Wail style headline what?
Do you know it was Strava related? Do you want strava shut down? Privacy zones are easy to apply and mask a lot.
There are many ways that people can scope that you have expensive bikes, I have friends who were followed from trails etc. Another example was where someone nicked the Save the FC petition from a bike trial head with names and addresses of all the people who signed it.

The issue of bike theft needs addressing.

[i]Its time to do something about it [/i]

any specific suggestions?

like cars, the only solution I can see to bicycle theft is to make it so much effort that the thieves decide to pick something else that's easier to nick.

KOM's are clearly only set by people with expensive bikes.

Anyone who tracks back to my house is going to be *very* disappointed by the selection of cheap and worn out bikes they find.

Im inclined to agree with mikewsmith

is there any actual proof that someones using strava to track you and your riding homies?

thieves were targeting bikes in peoples homes long before strava came along

how do they know youre not riding an argos BSO from your strava?

its much more likely theyve seen some nice bikes and just followed you

If you buy a new bike, maybe don't publish that in your activity name.

wow, had no idea that was possible (or that they're be so many "new bike" rides!) Glad I can't be bothered to add a description to any of my rides now!!

Seems the vast majority of people aren't using privacy zones, either. Maybe Strava should ask for your address and turn it on by default?

its much more likely theyve seen some nice bikes and just followed you

Don't publish the name of your bike - call it "road bike" or something instead of "my amazing £7000 Cervelo"

Everyone names their bikes don't they?

This isn't really anything new, its been going on for years.
Garmin Connect is exactly the same if you dont make your rides private.

Listen to what people have said above, make your rides private and only share or allow to be followed by people you know.
NEVER list the actual makes and models of bikes you have, Road, Road2, mtb, mtb2 etc... you know what bike they are, nobody else needs to know, but if you have your privacy set up correctly, is doesn't matter, as only people you allow will be able to see that info.

In this day and age, it is really easy for people to Google a name or a picture, and have a good chance of tracking down an address from it.

Oh, and on Strava/Garmin Connect, I don't use my real name either. Its a bit pointless having a privacy zone if you use your real name in full for all to see!

Don't publish the name of your bike - call it "road bike" or something instead of "my amazing £7000 Cervelo"

I have -
Angry Bike
Donkey
The Dandy Horse.
Thumbies!
Touch of the dark side.
Turbo trainer of shame.

None of them are 7k Cervelos

Don't believe it is Strava. Bikes have been stolen for years.

Take sensible precautions, don't over react. Enjoy yourself - statistically it'll all be fine.

Now this is an innovative way of making sure others can't take their KOM's back.

Holly shit, that Activity Search seems a really bad idea!
Even when Im not logged in, I can search for Cervelo in my area and most of the results that come up, I can go straight to the door of the owner of said bike and most seem stupid enough to have a picture of it too, along with their full name!

One thing that occurred to me that might be handy for scallywags would be a search like this

not even registered with strava & I can see all that 😯

oh no what if scalywags are reading this then they will know all about it!

never post anything online ever

Interesting scoring system. Some MAMILs who could have scratched some paintwork versus an inattentive professional driver who could have killed someone.

Indeed. Just searched for "S-Works" in my town and someone has titled their ride "Ride home on new S-Works". No privacy settings, it takes me straight to their front door. The ride was only posted a week a ago, so I might nip round and get it later 😉

Or someone else's door that just happens to be exactly 1km from their home?

The only other point to make is that most people seem to use their full name, or at least something close to it. Even with privacy settings on, a quick scan of the electoral roll for the streets inside the zone will throw up your address with no bother whatsoever.

Where was it stolen from, house or shed?

Or someone else's door that just happens to be exactly 1km from their home?

just what I was going to say. My rides appear to stop outside a house but it isn't mine

Enjoy yourself - statistically it'll mostly be fine

My rides appear to stop outside a house but it isn't mine

Indeed. Just searched for "S-Works" in my town and someone has titled their ride "Ride home on new S-Works". No privacy settings, it takes me straight to their front door. The ride was only posted a week a ago, so I might nip round and get it later

i've just done the same thing and got a scary result too 😯 although one guy has privacy settings on, his short 's-works test ride' starts in one direction along his road and returns from the other direction. mr scallywag just needs to measure halfway along the gap to pinpoint a few houses to take a closer at...

mr scallywag just needs to measure halfway along the gap to pinpoint a few houses to take a closer at.

Yup,they probably read bike forum threads like this and pick up any number of tips and tricks. 😉

Another thing to be cautious of is putting your full name on Strava. It's easy to link full names to your address with sites like 192.com

I start and finish all my rides at Horas house.

This seems like a good time to start a show me photos of your bike thread 😉

Maybe even make it make and model specific?

Everyone names their bikes don't they?

Ivor, Arthur and Tammy

But my friends seem to think I'm odd

I have offset privacy zones so that my house isn't at the centre of a single circle, my username is unique to strava and my bikes are called road and mountain. Aside from not using strava anything else i should do to make it more secure?

binners - Member
I start and finish all my rides at Horas house."

I'll go elsewhere then, I need a bigger frame.

Perhaps I've just been lucky so far but life's too short to get worked up about this beyond obvious privacy settings.

 

kinell @ that activity search

Just looked at first one in the list and it is more than obvious the exact house. Even rode round the block at the start/end of the ride so is very clearly an exact match and not an exclusion zone edge.
edit: and the ride is dated July 2013 so new bike really is pretty new not new 3 years ago.

Glad I binned Strava a year back.

Yeah surnames are a stupid idea, you can find people in seconds on 192.com so security settings or not it makes **** all difference, removed mine a few weeks back for such a reason!

For those of you who use Strava, here is a quick privacy top tip (which ive not seen mentioned anywhere else).

Strava use some sort of google style address recognition, so if your postcode is unique to a few houses when you create a Strava privacy zone you only get a small circle, or bigger for more etc. What i hadnt realised is due to the address recognition you can actually type anything in and it creates a privacy zone accordingly. So you can type street names in, towns etc. It guesses how big the thing youve entered is and adds a little extra around. It even seems to work if you type a range of house numbers; i.e. 1-99 Random Street.

By trying to be clever, it sounds potentially dumb.

Round here the zip code is the whole of the center of town. I chose a 1km or larger circle, when I used it.

In the unlikely event that I post anything back there, especially if it came from a Garmin, I'll run it thru gpsbabel script which will physically remove data point within a defined area before it's even uploaded.

For those of you who use Strava, here is a quick privacy top tip (which ive not seen mentioned anywhere else).

Strava use some sort of google style address recognition, so if your postcode is unique to a few houses when you create a Strava privacy zone you only get a small circle, or bigger for more etc. What i hadnt realised is due to the address recognition you can actually type anything in and it creates a privacy zone accordingly. So you can type street names in, towns etc. It guesses how big the thing youve entered is and adds a little extra around. It even seems to work if you type a range of house numbers; i.e. 1-99 Random Street.

That's a great tip Stato!

Im on Strava and used it for some time. I don't use my actual name and my e-mail linked to the account is similarly anonymous.
I've done this mainly to avoid repercussions of riding cheeky trails, but not being traceable to me or my home is another bonus!
As others have done, I've set up a couple of privacy zones around the house and none of my bikes have any specific info other than FS or HT.

By trying to be clever, it sounds potentially dumb.
Round here the zip code is the whole of the center of town. I chose a 1km or larger circle, when I used it.
In the unlikely event that I post anything back there, especially if it came from a Garmin, I'll run it thru gpsbabel script which will physically remove data point within a defined area before it's even uploaded.

Strava don't allow you to set the size of the zone manually anymore, and in the UK postcodes can be VERY specific sometimes. Strava does allow you to manually cut rides short, but doing that on every ride manually is a bit of an ache, especially if you upload rides through the phone app. Sounds like you don't use it enough to have the problems we do.

I don't use it at all (any more).
Far too many niggly bugs like that (tiny little map, search had to have an entire route within the mapview else it wouldn't show it - zoom in and the route would disappear, groups, friend/follower security,...).
If they've removed the user definable exclusion zone size, then that's a monumental fubar.

I don't use it at all (any more).

It's funny, I got that the first four times that you told us in this thread.

Endomondo has no similar facility to hide locations so make sure your privacy settings are set so that joe public can't see your tracks/location.

Settings... Privacy... check the boxes as applicable.

For an individual workout, you can also change the public/private setting too, in case you want to make one public when the default is private (or vice versa).

Strava use some sort of google style address recognition, so if your postcode is unique to a few houses when you create a Strava privacy zone you only get a small circle, or bigger for more etc. What i hadnt realised is due to the address recognition you can actually type anything in and it creates a privacy zone accordingly. So you can type street names in, towns etc. It guesses how big the thing youve entered is and adds a little extra around. It even seems to work if you type a range of house numbers; i.e. 1-99 Random Street.

Just tried it and that doesn't work to affect the size of the privacy zone - if I type in "London" for example it creates the usual sized (500-1000m) privacy zone around wherever Google determines the centre of London to be.

I've noticed though that my original privacy zones are still there and bigger than what is now standard so the functionality to vary zone size is still there, just hidden.

You can't manually change the Strava privacy zones by size anymore (it's just a defined size; 200m, 500m, 1km etc) but you can set multiple overlapping ones if you want. Another tip is not to use YOUR postcode as the centre, use something a couple of streets away - that way if someone does manage to narrow your routes down to a defined privacy zone, the centre of it still won't be your house.

I used strava for first time yesterday. I've used 5 local postcodes to set up one big exclusion zone