Biking with Blaze not recording steps

[anitacan]

I just got a Blaze and am disappointed to find out it doesn't seem to register steps for biking like the Charge HR which would give me about 10,000 steps for a 20 mile ride.  In looking through the community, I've seen that some people don't want steps for biking, and that the Surge and the Blaze are designed this way, to minimize steps for biking.  Guess I'm not one of these people.  I guess I will have to wear my Charge HR when I go biking.

[Kavy]

So now that I'm completely confused after reading the first few comments, I guess I'm wondering why the blaze did not record any of my biking today. Only did about 10 mi and first time I used the blaze for this exercise. Anyone have any guidance for me? The exercise is already listed on my blaze. I hit exercise bike and go and got absolutely no stats listed on watch and no steps recorded. I almost thought about changing to hiking to activate the gps but thought something would kick in as I was going. Feel like I lost a lot of good data. Any ideas anyone? Thanks Mike.

[Rich_Laue]

Biking on the Blaze does have the option for the gpz, and i i should see the phone icon in the top left. If you don't, then before selecting the bike mode, click the setting gear in the loweredt and turn it on. Without GPS, I Blaze will not have a referenced and distance will 'be off.
As for steps, with the blaze in your arm, and the fact that your not zteooing,, the only steps that will be counted will be from bumps in the road.

[trishe]

Fitbit does everything with algorithms. I am confident that they are clever enough to build one that calculates feet of forward motion as 1 pedal push = 1 step. I mean, it is basically what they do with walking. And please, the stairs? I'm in Colorado. The barometric pressure changes so often that I can get 10 flights while sitting at my computer. It is never going to be perfect. I'm in favor of being able to choose to translate the riding distance as steps. 

I just bought a cruiser bike. First bike in 40 years. I can barely remember how to do it. I can walk an hour and feel OK. Ride for an hour, and my legs won't work afterward. I feel cheated that it doesn't count toward my daily steps, so maybe I'll change my daily goal to distance instead of steps. Or active zone minutes. So I won't feel like a failure after a great, exhausting ride on my new bike. 

[Rich_Laue]

A few problems I see with that @trishe 

• The tracker is mounted on the arm, which is holding a handlebar. The tracker dies not and can not tell what the feet are doing. 
• As for feet forward, on both a real bike and a stationary bike, the user can coast, this means that the real, or made up virtual miles will increase without the feet peddling. 
• Both tire size and gear ratio will affect how far the bike travels during a pedal stroke. Any time a user switches gears, they will need to tell fitbit that the gearing has changed. 
• When in a bike, the user is not taking a step. 

For distance on a bike, GPS will be needed, alternatively Fitbit could make a unit that attached to a bike and counts wheel spins, this suggestion already exists. 

I haven't checked lately, but I believe, because of user complaints, bike distance is not added to the daily distance. 

[MarkMM]

"When in a bike, the user is not taking a step" I think that's key here. Cycling and stepping are two separate activities. From what I've seen, it's not Fitbits intention or goal to give you step credit while cycling. The phantom steps you get while cycling are mostly from bumps on the road. 

@Rich_Laue AFAIK distance never counted while cycling? I get a lot of fake steps riding on a gravel path, due to bumps, but the distance doesn't change. I don't remember that ever being different in the 5 years I've been around.