Bike ride recorded unwillingly / Step count

[Don34]

Two questions:

1. What does it mean when my app gives me data for having ridden a bike when I haven't been on a bike?

2. My wife got a new Luxe and her step count seems way high compared to my Charge 4.  Is there any need to calibrate either of them?

I looked at the data on the forum but it seemed a bit confusing and even contradictory.   I finally decided if Fitbit wanted you to calibrate the devices they would have made it easier to do.

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

Moderator edit: Subject for clarity.

[RodrigoMFitbit]

Hello @Don34 Welcome to the forums!

Thanks for reaching out regarding the autoamtic bike ride log and the step count compared to your wife's. 

1. The training is recorded automatically, when the device recognizes a pattern. Could you have been driving at the time? Under my understanding, Fitbit devices will track motion and direction to determine which training is being done. 

2. Are you and your wife the same height? If not, the step count will most definitely be different. If she is shorter than you, her steps will also be shorter. What does that mean? She will have to take more steps to travel the same distance as you. 

Have a nice day!

[JohnnyRow · Accepted solution]

Adding to @RodrigoMFitbit 's answer,

1) That would be Fitbit incorrectly auto-recognized a bike ride from the pattern of your wrist movements.  There are 7 types of exercise that Fitbit tries to auto-recognise, often incorrectly, except for Walk and Run it usually gets right.  You can see these on the phone app by tapping the 'days of exercise' tile, then the gear icon near top right.  Any that you never do, or don't want to get auto-recognized, tap on and move the auto-recognize slider to off.  I personally find it more reliable to use the exercise app on the fitbit device to start and end the workout rather than rely on auto-recognize for workouts other than Walk.

2)  As @RodrigoMFitbit  said, if 2 people walk the same distance, the shorter will usually take more steps, though distance should be similar.  There is no calibration for step count.  There is a restart described in the link, not to be confused with system reset.  Restart is safe to do anytime without losing any data and is sometime recommended when something doesn't seem right, and it does no harm, but I doubt would make any difference for your case here.

The closest thing to a "calibration" would be setting stride length.  That has no effect on your step count, but is used to convert from step count to mileage.  Fitbit sets a default stride length for each person based on physical characteristics such as height, etc.  It is possible to adjust that, but the fitbit-set default is usually close enough for most purposes.

[Rich_Laue]

If we knew what you where doing durring the time of this fitbit called bike ride. We might be able to explain. 

In any case, you could deletee or possibly rename. 

[Don34]

A great and informative answer .  I appreciate it.  I'll quit trying to figure out things that don't need figuring out!

[Don34]

Thanks for the great info!

[charleskn]

Fitbit thinks I am doing an outdoor bike when I mow the lawn. I assume from the hand vibrations. You can configure which exercises will be auto-recognized under your tracker settings in the web dashboard.