Interesting idea actually. I ride a velomobile (recumbent trike with aero shell) so I have managed to accidently pick up a number of KOMs on slight downhill segments where the aerodynamics of the velomobile are king. Here's an example of a 5km segment from the Brisbane to Gold Coast ride:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... Nxs#t=519s This effort earned my KOM 1 of 1329.
Now clearly I have an aerodynamic advantage in this situation so not surprising I take the KOM. But having ridden a road bike for 3 years previous it is also clear to me that I am not the best athlete that has ever ridden that segment. It is also clear to me that I cannot sustain an output of 594W of power over 5 minutes like Strava has credited me with.
As such, it would be nice to be able to model my bike as a velomobile with the appropriate aero profiling, rather than just a 30kg TT bike.
Re the ride reporting / flagging, providing the bike / tandem / recumbent / velomobile etc is purely pedal powered, I don't really know what your argument is going to be. ie Its not fair, his bike is more aero than mine??? Are you really calling for UCI sanctioning of strava segments etc. Conversely, would you accept the argument from a velomobile rider that you had an unfair advantage up a hill due to your weight advantage? If owning every local KOM is that important to you, buy one of every kind of bike. My bike is listed as a velomobile weighing 30kgs, so use that as your bragging excuse if you must. Alternately you could use that to understand the relative merits of different bikes in different situations (most people kill me up hills). Otherwise, just relax and enjoy it for what it is, ie nothing more than a bit of fun, and not to be taken so seriously.
So in summary, I like your idea of greater classification of bike parameters, weight, aero profile etc, but mainly for the purpose of better power modelling, not so much the KOM filtering. That said, if you could filter based on bike type, I'd be a hell of a lot more competitive on uphill KOMs. I'm in the top 3 fastest velomobile riders in Brisbane you know
