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Strava will now fix your Garmin or phone when you break it riding…or not.

On the list of things I didn’t see coming this Friday afternoon was Strava announcing that if you manage to kill your bike computer or phone while riding your bicycle, Strava will now pay get that device fixed or replaced.  Well, technically not Strava, but a company they’ve partnered with. And technically not everyone on this small planet, just Strava Premium members.  And only a portion of the planet.  And only sometimes, if in the right moon phase and tidal conditions.  But those are…well…just technicalities.

So let’s dig into a bit more of what they announced, as it’s actually kinda interesting.  Or at least, interesting to me as one who semi occasionally kills things in often a bad way.  Usually in a really bad way.

What’s included:

First up, there’s a bunch of stuff in today’s announcement (Side note: Why announce a cool thing on a Friday afternoon? Isn’t the rule to only announce uncool things on Friday afternoons?), but the most interesting one is a partnership with an insurance company called ‘Sundays Insurance’.

The main portion of this announcement is a new Strava Premium membership ‘Perks’ page, which lists all sorts of deals for Strava premium memberships.  We’ve seen Strava do cycling and running partnerships and giveaways and such for some time, but this is a specific section of deals that only Premium members can take advantage of.  Some of them aren’t fully filled out yet, but it’s a start.

In any case, there’s one about the insurance that I mentioned, and in that section it specifically calls out a pile of benefits:

– $50 reimbursement for travel as the result of an accident or mechanical breakdown
– Free race-entry reimbursement for runners
– Device coverage and discounts on bike
– Travel, life and health insurance

Interesting.  But that got me curious, what are the limitations here?

Clicking from there I land on a dedicated Strava authentication page at Sunday’s Insurance, bringing me here:

image

Interestingly, it’s identical to all the other ways you can ‘Connect’ an app with Strava.  That’s nice and seamless.  Down below is a bit more detail on those previously noted perks:

image

Pretty straightforward, minus all the exceptions.  So let’s run through those on Sundays Insurance site more clearly:

A) Only people in the US, UK, or Australia need apply (basically, Strava’s three biggest markets)
B) If in the US and you live in about a quarter of the country, you don’t get jack (states listed above)
C) Travel, life, and health insurance mentioned on Strava’s page are actually not included here at all, that’s down further if you want a separate quote and want to pay money.  Apparently Strava KOM’s don’t get you anything here.

Otherwise, so far so good.  Sure, some state-based exclusions, but such is life in the insurance legal world.  Though the last one is a bit misleading to have it listed on the Strava page but not actually be a benefit.

The Devil’s in the Details:

Before I got signed up, I decided to take a gander at the terms and conditions – the PDF that’s included.  There’s one linked for the US, UK, and Australia listed from the Strava page.  Because I’m most familiar with the US side of things, I’m going to analyze that.  If anyone wants to do the same for the UK/Australia side of things, feel free to post down below in the comments!

I’m going to go line by line on the relevant sections. Some stuff isn’t interesting/relevant/concerning, so I’ll skip that. First up, the device replacement:

“Sundays will arrange a repair or reimbursement, as set forth herein, if your Device is damaged as the result of an Accident* while tracking your cycling activity on Strava’s platform. If your Device cannot be economically repaired, it will be replaced up to a value of $600.”

Ok, all straightforward there.  I’ve (mostly) got no issues with that.

“The Device’s original purchase receipt must be provided to prove ownership and validate your entitlement to the PremiumPerks Program.”

While not a huge deal, make sure you have your receipt somewhere. If you buy an iPhone, this is pretty easy, but still, just be sure you’ve got this somewhere.

So let’s look at things that void this part of the deal:

“You will not qualify for the service if:
● Accidental damage is sustained while the device was not logged into Strava’s platform while a monitored cycling activity was in process when the event occurred.
● If your Device is stolen or accidentally or unintentionally lost.
● There is a breakdown or technical/performance failure of any kind not directly caused by an accident.
● Your Device is damaged as a result of accidentally coming into contact with any liquid.
● Your Device is older than 24 months at the time of the accident.
● The damage is cosmetic (does not impede functionality), including scratches and dents.
● The serial number has been tampered with in any way.
● You have already used this service within your membership period.
● You can’t provide proof of the damage sustained to your bicycle or of the medical treatment you received as a result of the Accident.”

Well then.

That’s a boatload of complexity and ways for them not to put out (or pay out).

But, wait, what’s an ‘accident’?  Don’t worry, here’s that for you:

“*Accident means: a bicycle impact or crash in which your bicycle is sufficiently damaged to be non-functioning without repairs and/or you need medical treatment; or an event that happens by chance or that is without apparent or deliberate cause; a sudden, unforeseen and unintended event in which your bicycle is sufficiently damaged to be non-functioning without repairs and/or you need medical treatment as a result of which breakage or other damage to your Device occurs to the point where it needs to be functionally repaired or replaced.”

Ok, to summarize: An accident means that you or your bike breaks, and that one of you must need ‘repairs’.

But how does that apply to the device repair?

In a nutshell, this entire thing only counts if you manage to break your Garmin or phone while cycling while also breaking you or your bike. If you just dropped your phone, no nuggets for you.

Well, but wait…there’s more!

“An $85 deductible will be imposed for damage to the Device resulting from an Accident, on any component of the Device.”

That there’s what we call a bit of an ‘FU’.

Why’s that?

Well because it’s roughly the same cost that Garmin will assign for most device out of warranty replacements.  It’s also roughly the same cost as the AppleCare ($99 – using an iPhone as an example), which basically covers you doing just about anything to your device, no need to break yourself or your bike first.

But hold on…there’s even more fine print up there:

“Accidental damage is sustained while the device was not logged into Strava’s platform while a monitored cycling activity was in process when the event occurred.”

So this is a funny one.  I went back to Strava’s PR team to get clarification on this, specifically because if you ride with a bike computer, then technically you aren’t actually logged into Strava’s platform.  That’s actually not how it works today in real-life technical terms.  You can have your activity sync afterwards (Garmin/Wahoo/Everyone), but there’s no (zero) real-time connection (despite it being called ‘Live Segments’).  The only device that has a real-time connection to Strava is the smartphone app.

(Nitpickers corner: Behind the scenes Garmin can actually initiate a connection to Strava Beacon on Garmin devices, but that’s not what’s being talked about here.)

Smelling funny fish, I went back to Strava on this and was told by Strava that:

“It’s for any device (smartphone or GPS) that is using Strava to record an activity when the accident occurs. It will cover up to $600 for the repair or replacement cost of the damaged device.“

Looking at the terms and conditions here, they do extend this to any device, but the terms contradict themselves and Strava a bit.

“The PremiumPerks Program is available to “smartphones,” tablets and GPS devices used to track and log onto the Strava platform’s online activities, provided that they have been activated (whether or not actually placed in service) for no longer than 24 months.”

How do they contradict itself you ask?  Well again, you can’t actually log-on to Strava from any GPS device except a smartphone (requirement higher above).  They just sync workouts after the fact (requirement below).  Those two are at odds.

So if we take Strava’s word at face value, then we can assume that as long as you were recording an activity that you intended to upload, then you’re good?  But what if the device is damaged such that you can’t prove you were recording (getting back to the ‘device was not logged into Strava’s platform while a monitored cycling activity was in process’ clause)?  That would be Sundays definition of it.

I don’t know.  But at this point we’d have to take it on face value that they’ll uphold the intent of what they say, even if the actual terms and conditions say they won’t do jack for you.

But before we finish off on the device piece here, there’s actually one final nugget in this:

“Sundays will not be liable under the following circumstances: If, through no fault of Sundays, your device is not repairable or replaceable.”

Umm…ok.  I hope they’re not going to pull any odd punches here.

So you won’t just give me the $600 then instead of replacing the device?  I’d assume it’s pretty hard to find a phone that’s worthwhile that’s not replaceable, but still, it’s a weird item to have in there.

Less nebulous things:

image

Now there are two other benefits of this program that should be straightforward.  The first is if you break-down while riding and need to get a taxi or similar back home, they’ll cover up to $50 of that.  And the second is if doing a running event and you cancel, then they’ll refund up to $100 for the fees.

Let’s look at the taxi one first.

“Sundays will also arrange reimbursement of reasonable transportation costs of a licensed auto service (e.g., taxi, Uber, Lyft, etc.) for you and your bicycle, up to $50, to the nearest public transport station, bicycle repair shop or your home, as you choose, as a result of an Accident that prevents use and mobility of the bicycle or the mechanical breakdown of the bicycle.”

If we refer to ‘accident’ above, it means either you or your bike is broke.  I initially assume that a flat tire without spares would technically qualify, since it makes the bike ‘broke’ and requires “repairs” (the exact word they use), but more on that in a second.

Here are the caveats:

You will not qualify for this Cycling Transportation Reimbursement service if:

● The event occurs within 1.5 miles of your home.
● A breakdown is a result of flat tires or punctures (unless the tire is visibly cut and cannot be repaired by replacing a tube).
● The claim is for a journey further than the nearest public transport station, bicycle repair shop or your Home.
● When there are local recovery/repair facilities reasonably available.
● More than one claim per period is submitted.
● You can’t provide us with the receipt for the trip.
● You can’t provide us with location details of your accident or breakdown site and destination.

So, most of these seem pretty reasonable, except these two caught my eye:

– A breakdown is a result of flat tires or punctures (unless the tire is visibly cut and cannot be repaired by replacing a tube).
– More than one claim per period is submitted.

It sounds like they think flat tires are totally fixable and your fault.  Totally fixable…perhaps, but not necessarily numerous ones.  I can agree with a single flat tire being your fault to be unable to address it with a kit, but as one who has managed to get three flats…during a race…I’d beg to differ.

Either way, I do appreciate the general idea here – and this is great for things like a broken chain or other mechanical situation.

What though is a ‘period’?  Glad you asked:

“Your Strava Premium Membership allows for each free service described to be used once per Strava membership term/Premium Perks Program period.”

So whenever your Strava membership renews, that’s one period for the next 12 months.

Next, the running benefit:

“Sundays will arrange reimbursement of up to $100 for a running event entry fee if the event involves your logging in on the Strava platform and you can’t participate in the running event as a result of verifiable illness or acute injury for which formal medical treatment is required (a visit to a certified doctor or a hospital). The reimbursement claim will only be processed after the event date.”

First of all, what the bloody f does it even mean to say “the event involves your logging in on the Strava platform”?  Seriously, who the hell even wrote this line? Surely someone at Strava read through this, right?  How on earth do you login to the Strava platform while running an event that you can’t run?  Or is it the intent to do so?

Why even bother have this in there?  Of course you’d intend to upload your run.  And if not, who the heck cares…because you can’t run it.  In unrelated news, I intended to fart tomorrow and log it on Strava.

Here’s the more detailed terms of this though:

“You will not qualify for this Running Event Entry Fee Reimbursement service if:
● You can’t provide us with a medical certificate/letter from a certified medical practitioner confirming your illness or acute injury and that you can’t participate in the event.
● You can’t supply us with the relevant medical practitioner’s contact information to verify the medical certificate.
● You are eligible to receive a refund from the event.
● You are allowed to sell/transfer your entry to another participant.
● Any conditions, injuries and or Illness existed or were sustained prior to you engaging in activities covered under this PremiumPerks Program.
● You obtained a medical certificate and still participated in the event.”

Most of these are pretty straightforward, except this one:

“Any conditions, injuries and or Illness existed or were sustained prior to you engaging in activities covered under this PremiumPerks Program.”

This is a wonky one.  I believe it’s trying to say that if you sign-up today, and you broke your leg yesterday that you don’t get any love for your race tomorrow.  But it’s written in such a way that’s needlessly confusing because it doesn’t actually use the words sign-up.  Instead, it uses the word ‘engaging in activities’.

Given that the ‘activities’ you were engaging in were running because you were training for the running event it’s protecting, and that’s the entire point of using Strava here, isn’t that…oh hell, I don’t know.

Final Thoughts:

image

Now, it may seem I’ve torn things apart here a bit.  And, to some degree I have.  Which isn’t to say there isn’t some goodness in here for you – there certainly is.

If you break a chain on a ride, then yes, you’ll likely get $50 back to get yourself and your bike home.  That’s cool!

And if you break your leg while training for that half-marathon, then you’ll likely get $100 back as a bit of a ‘Sorry, better luck next time!’.  So yes, that’s cool too (minus your broke-ass leg)!

And finally, if you crash your bike in a bad way and manage to really screw up your phone (but not because you fell into a pond, because water damage isn’t included), then you’ll get your phone replaced or fixed (less the $89 deductible).

All three of these are great gestures and cool ways for Strava to provide value for their premium members

But at the same time, Strava and their provider shouldn’t be let off the hook for language that’s ambiguous and technically impossible to achieve.  This benefit isn’t about protecting you from dropping your phone while you ride, or if your phone or Garmin falls off your handlebars, rather, it’s about crashes.  Strava’s pages and press release pretend that it’s any “accidental damage” they cover, whereas Sunday’s Insurance pages are far more clear that it’s a bike crash.  Sunday’s wants your blood (for realz).

Of course, I’m more interested in seeing how these are actually implemented in real life – not only in the US, but also in the UK and Australia.

On one hand, this is effectively a ‘free’ benefit.  It took me 7 more seconds to click the authorize button and confirm my name and a valid state.  But at the same time, nothing is free in life, especially in a business.  The goal here for Strava is to get you to subscribe to Strava’s Premium membership.  While the goal here for Sunday’s Insurance is to get you to then buy insurance for your bicycle or any number of other things. They even provide a handy link to that as soon as you confirm your details.

Still – I like seeing Strava think outside the box, and I think these partnerships do exactly that (even if the implementation initially is questionable).  In order for Strava to be successful in the long run, they have to turn a profit, and finding ways to convince you to pay for a membership is a core part of that.  For some people, this and the other perks today may more than pay for themselves in short order.

With that – thanks for reading and have a good weekend!

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55 Comments

  1. Maarten

    Nice breakdown Ray!

    My immediate tought that I had with the offering was however not addressed: what’s in it for Sunday’s? My bet: massive amounts of data to ‘tailor’ their services. Pure speculation from my side. Didn’t check the T&C – but wouldn’t be surprised!

    I’d be pretty hesitant about joining this before looking into that. Which is fine, cause I can’t from The Netherlands.

  2. Juro

    “If you break a chain on a ride, then yes, you’ll likely get $50 back to get yourself and your bike home. That’s cool!”

    Well, technically, you get $50 to get you to the nearest public transport station from which you can get home. Not that good either.

    • Not quite

      Not quite..
      ” to the nearest public transport station, bicycle repair shop or your home, as you choose, ”

      I guess you can chose where to go, but only a max of $50 will be refunded.

    • Jay M

      Interesting wording there too. Nearest isn’t the same as “you choose”.

  3. Steve

    No Canada! Booo!!!

  4. Dan

    Set reminder for the 23rd to check to see if rays fart was recorded on the 22nd. Done

  5. JimL

    All pointless since I live in Ohio.

    But still unclear is that Ohio exclusion based on when/ where I am when I need or use the service or based on official residence?

  6. Kenn

    More of a concern would be what Sundays Insurance is doing with the full access to your Strava data when you link your Strava account, and are they are on-selling that data?

    • Scott E

      Exactly my thoughts. Access to the data for insurance companies, and their affiliates, doesn’t seem like a fair trade given the deductibles and Terms and Conditions. Can’t think of a time where a tire split or a chain broke where a people weren’t willing to lend a hand. I recall Ray being spotted train fare by a fellow cyclist when he was caught out. So pay out for questionable coverage, or go with karma and have a good story to tell…..

  7. If they want people to take out their premium service then try fixing some of the stuff that doesn’t work now like power for runners (think Stryd) and stop trying to turn itself into Facebook with un-cronological dashboards.

    • Aaron

      Legit concern, if Strava is throwing spaghetti against the wall in desperation to return a multiple for venture investors, and potential acquisitions have dried up from the rush of purchases -mapmyrun, endomondo, runkeeper, etc… what does this mean for long term prospects…

    • To be fair, from a pure business standpoint nobody could really argue that implementing/fixing Stryd power for runners is a bigger ticket item than the benefits this brings to the greater Strava population. Not saying I don’t want those things, but at some point one has to step back and look at the greater picture.

      I actually do think this is good for the platform. While I quibble with the implementation as noted above, the intent here is generally good for both end users and Strava. They *have* to find a way to make the paid service more enticing and valuable to end users, and things like this do indeed do that.

    • Yes running power is probably not a huge market for Strava but it symptomatic of the malaise at the company, especially when if you change the run event to a cycling event and can see all the power data – it’s just marked as a cycling event. And this is one of many, like triathlon events or hiding challenges and commutes or the ducking ludicrous decision to turn Strava into the next Facebook and remove chronological ordering – somebody earned their MBA for that one.

      The only thing that would interest me is the discount at Wiggle but two once great companies seem to be on the decline much like Runkeeper was a few years ago. Just for fun I logged into my Runkeeper account last night and nothing has changed their either other than the 40 odd people I know on there hadn’t posted anything this year, and yes I used to a Premium account there as well. Strava looks like it’s going in the same direction, there is only so long you can ride on the coat tails of your live segments and a newer, better site is just round the corner. Having been a premium member since 2013 I cannot see any benefit over the free version so I’ve cancelled my subscription. I can imagine if you are not in the Premium catchment areas then it’s just one more thing to piss you off about paying for Premium with very little rewards.

      So Ray yes while it’s an ok feature there are more pressing problems.

  8. Mark Huigen

    I think they would make more money by just making the app a paid subscription for $1 a month or 2 if you want what you now get at premium. Right now in my opinion premium isn’t worth it especially if you compare it to what you already get for free.

    They would generate more money from a lot of members paying a little than a small percentage paying more.

    • From what I hear, Strava’s seeing very good sign-up (thus ROI) on requiring Premium membership for Strava Live Segments and other new features. So it’s clear that’s working to drive people to pay the extra.

  9. Neil Jones

    One of the exclusions for the race fees refund:

    * You are allowed to sell/transfer your entry to another participant.

    I’m don’t know how many race T&Cs allow this, but this could be a big issue – just because you’re allowed to do something doesn’t mean it’s in any way possible or practical to do so. If I come down with some illness or injure myself the day before a race, then it’s very unlikely I’d be able to sell my place to anyone else, if permitted.

    • Dom

      In the UK, at least, most races specifically ban this, and most of the ones which allow it have a deadline days or weeks ahead of the race, to allow for updating the personal details that go with the number. About three weeks in this example, with the deadline in practice being sending numbers out to participants.

    • Agree, in the US this is almost universally not allowed (transferring bibs), so not really an issue.

    • Ken

      I know of a few races that allow official bib transfers, but only up to say, a month before the race. I wonder if you get hurt days before your race & the official transfer period has ended if they’ll deny your claim since the race DID (at some point) allow you to sell/transfer your bib, even though you can’t do so anymore at the time of your injury.

      The language seems so vague & ‘loopholey’ that they may potentially never have to pay a claim. The excluded states being unclear if the exclusion is based upon your residence or where you physically are riding/racing is another example of their vagueness.

  10. Karl-Axel Zander

    One can only hope for the company’s survival they are actually not spending significant of much time on creating narrow not-asked for services like this, rather than focusing on the growing core functionality todo-list.. Like the growth possible by unofficial plugins like StravistiX is worrying. That shouldn’t be possible – isn’t it the big player itself, Strava, that must be first & best with the trending innovations if they should be able to keep premium customers?

    …or maybe this is the company’s new development plan? – totally get rid of the internal development department, and just buy out & integrate all unofficial plugins, hacks & ideas instead

  11. Crispin E.

    Just added this to my Strava Premium account and can confirm the conditions seem to be identical to the US ones. The only thing that perhaps does seem a bit better is the £50 excess, where I believe Garmin charge around the £100+ mark for out of warranty replacement (at least that’s what it was the last time I saw someone post on the Garmin Forum to get replace a broken Fenix 3). The device limit is £350 though, which means in UK it really won’t cover the new cost replacement of a premium smartphone or top end Garmin watch/bike head. That said, I signed up to Strava Premium before this was available, so it’s more than I expected; I just hope Strava don’t start hiking the Premium membership cost in a few months; for me it’s already at the ‘is it really worth it’ tipping point.

  12. Nick

    Are you sure the insurance coverage is for all days of the week? Just want to clarify that it is not only for rides on Sundays!

  13. Tex Murphy

    This is an attempt to hide the terrible “algorithmic” changes to Strava’s activity feed causing Premium users to drop Premium. Strava needs to restore Chronological order to the feed (and allow filtering of Challenge spam) to keep Premium subscriptions.
    See and comment at link to support.strava.com

  14. Herman

    Not available in Austria. I don’t care at all.

  15. Graham

    Ray does an excelkent job breaking it all down and in my opinion, this looks like a load of crap.

    i had a head on collision with a car a couple years ago. i and my bike were definitely damaged. my garmin was not.

    i think this only would be useful for someone who uses a bream new phone and not a gps device bit just for the ambiguity of whether a gps device is covered, a problem in and of itself, but because gps devices aren’t likely to break in bad wrecks like phones.

    to me this confirms along with a lout of things strava does that they are note interested in supporting faux weekend warrior athletes and not real athletes and certainly not triathletes given the number of times we heave asked for simple triathlon related things like triathlon challenges or multisport activities bring grouped as such.

  16. Marcel

    Not even tempted. Selling insurance as a STRAVA add-on? Come on, they should invest their time and effort into making Strava better! Even the basics on Strava need fixing. During my June ‘daily mile challenge’ Strava couldn’t even keep apart my different, but partially overlapping runs, and grouped them together as being the same route. Fix that instead!

    Even if I was a paying customer (again – I’ve tried several times, never found it crucial enough to keep paying) I wouldn’t even try this. You know beforehand they are going to try to get out of payment – it’s insurance, after all. Plus, they only pay for repairs of new gadgets (<2 years), which can be insured when you buy them with credit card, and the first $85,- is still yours to pay.

    I'll subscribe when I get actual premium features on strava, not when I can get something that I will most likely never use.

  17. Chris Capoccia

    my edge 510 has a screen protector, a silicone case & a lanyard. i’ve crashed several times and never damaged the garmin. even before i had a garmin, the phone went in my jersey back pocket and was unlikely to get any damage. but there are a lot of things in the strava store and if someone else gets some benefit out of it, c’est la vie

  18. Ron

    Maybe Strava should focus on fixing their so called moving time issues instead. All their times show shorter time spans as they cut off random minutes from every run. Extremely annoying. And there is no way to use elapsed time either.

    • Walter S

      You can use elapsed time, in two ways (sort of).
      If you manually stop your watch, then strava doesn’t remove (other) stops. I’m not sure how long the watch needs to be stopped for. (eg start watch for 1s, stop for 30s, then start watch and running).

      The more failsafe way is to set the activity as a race, that uses elapsed time. Not ideal either, I know.

    • Ron

      Strava chops off random minutes even when you never stop! So stopping manually has nothing to do with it. Setting to race only changes the display order in one screen. All comparisons, history, statistics etc with other races are still using the so called chopped off moving time. Strava wants you to think you’re running faster than you really are.

    • Walter S

      For me usually the moving and elapsed times are very similar, certainly in a race they are identical, give or take a second.

  19. Rob

    I got to be honest I lost interest in Strava years ago, I asked about adding pre worn shoes, they said it won’t be happening as there was no call for it, at the time I could google up pages of requests for that feature, and I’ve just heard they have no intention of supporting stryd either. There are things they do well, but if they want me to abandon TrainingPeaks premium and get my money they need to accept runners fully

  20. Matt Wakeman

    “It’s the data”.

    This is what concerns me most about this option – you’re giving an insurance company access to all the activity data that you upload to Strava. My Strava activities basically amount to personal health data, and I see lots of bad reasons (and not many good ones) for an insurance company to have access to my personal health data…

    I’m a willing Premium member – Strava is a good service and I’d rather remain the customer than become the product – so paying $60/year seems pretty reasonable to me…

  21. Nicolas

    I really don’t like the way Strava is going. There are a lot of things that need to be fixed on Strava. There are support tickets opened for literally years for things that should be trivial to fix, and they do nothing about it, despite people upvoting and commenting on those issues. And yet they keep spending time and energy developing features nobody asked for, and most really don’t care about. I’m so frustrated with this platform.

  22. Hi,
    Thank you for the breakdown.

    First I was like “Yeah! Where to sign up?” but after a few lines I was like “Meh”.

    Last year I broke my phone in Malaga because it popped out the case mounted on the handlebar. This was miles away from having an accident. Strava is definitely going in the right direction but is not there yet. Solving such daily athletes problems or reducing that fears would definitely be a rise for the plattform.

    greets from Austria
    Andreas

    • To be fair, in your case* this actually would have covered you perfectly (less $89), so there are some cases where it would work out, however rare they might be.

      *Minus the fact that Austria is missing a few letters to become Australia. So close…yet so far away. 😉

    • Don

      I thought it would only be covered if she also broke her bike or herself, not just from the device popping out while on a ride, or even a crash where the phone or Garmin gets damaged but the bike is still rideable (most of my crashes, luckily.)

    • You’re right. Forgot that. Though, if the mount broke then I’d simply saying a part of the bike broke.

  23. simon

    I’m another one who is going to let my premium subscription lapse, premium since 2012.

    In my opinion there seems to be next to zero development time being spent of fixing all of the broken things and they don’t really seem to be adding USEFUL features.

    They changed (ruined) the running pages (compared to cycling) a few years ago

    link to support.strava.com

    the stryd power data leaks to your cycling data

    link to support.strava.com

    if you want to use live segments then there are other ways to do this

  24. Kesa

    What about a Garmin handlebar mount failure? Is this damage to my bike? A few weeks ago this happened while riding and my garmin fell onto the road still attached to the mount. It was then run over at 60mph by a car and smashed. Am i covered?

    • That’s actually a good question. The T&C’s don’t seem to specify what portion of the bike is considered a bike (many T&C’s will specify things like the frame or wheels or whatnot). It says that it must be damaged needing repairs.

      You had an accident with a bump that caused no injury and so one could argue that the handlebar ‘extensions’ were damaged needing repair, causing the GPS device to also break. Seems reasonable to me.

  25. This looks ineresting

  26. Guillermo Guerini

    Two things: 1) I hope you brought this complaints to Strava 2) I hope Strava is reading the comments thread (or the entire post).

  27. Nathan Budd

    I dropped and stood on my Garmin Edge 25 at the end of my ride the other day (put it in my helmet, and it slipped through the crack).

    Would I be covered for this?

  28. Scott

    What happens if you pay Strava monthly for premium, does that mean you have 12 periods a year instead of 1?

  29. shoreline view

    That’s quite an achievement of Strava to come up with such exclusionary language that it coughs its cookies on the insurance regulations of states covering by my count well over one-third of the US population. Usually it’s only Florida, occasionally with one or two other states.

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  31. Keith Butterworth

    Had a bad bike crash 4 weeks ago, open grate metal bridge in wet conditions. I came off spectacularly, very serious injuries to myself .. hospital … bike was also damaged but not as much as I was. I thought, great, I had previously signed up for the Strava Sundays insurance. I had an event coming up that I wouldn’t be able to do but figured to much effort trying to transfer entry fee and then claim balance. However, in the crash my Garmin Edge 520 had been smashed off its mount and fell into the river below the bridge. So I put in a claim, which, without getting into all the details ended with them stating I had 1) lost the device (could’ve argued that it was so badly damaged that there was only the mount left intact, but didn’t) 2) had no record on Strava of the activity. In summary a TOTALLY worthless “benefit” from Strava.

    • Doug Smith

      @Keith Butterworth , I think your case is interesting. The only way to prove that you crashed while using Garmin would be if you were simultaneously connected to Strava directly through your phone. I sometimes put the Phone in airplane mode while recording the ride with Strava App. At the same time I use Garmin. Its interesting to see the differences in distance and altitude as well, but I digress. The Cell phone is sort of a back up of the Garmin and vice versa. I have damaged or lost one or the other but not both. The problem is that the Strava app is a slight drain on cell battery. UGGH. I knew this “perk” was fishy.