Blaze bike recording

[TCFITTER]

Can the Blaze record stationary cycling activity when strapped on your wrist? Your ankle?
How does it track cycling on the road?

[ErickFitbit · Accepted solution]

@TCFITTER With Blaze you can track "Bike" activities. Bike joins the many other options on the Blaze exercise menu including Spinning, Hiking, Yoga, and more. Track a bike ride with your Blaze and see summary stats afterward including elapsed time, distance, average speed, average heart rate, and calories burned.

For cycling on the road, you will use Connected GPS to track a map of your ride and will also receive the stats mentioned above. Here is an example of what you will see once you're done with your ride:

[muffking]

@ErickFitbit Good answer.

Does this applly to existing models too as I'm thnking of buying a Surge or Charge HR? 

[MikeF]

The Surge this this now but uses its built in GPS.

[matt9013]

@muffking

The Surge has built in GPS so all you would need on the ride is the Surge and you'll get all this data. For the Charge HR you'll need to bring your phone with you to get the GPS info but can't view it until after the ride.

The Blaze will still require a phone for GPS but you'll get the info minus the map on the Blaze in real time like the Surge.

[TCFITTER]

Thanks for the reply, but the two responders missed the point.
It is a stationary bike. No wrist motion.
Can someone respond to how to get that exercise to register?

Sent from my iPhone

[Rich_Laue]

Outside of manually adding,  i wpuld not know how to track a stationary bike. Putting on your leg won't help because at best it will count steps, your not stepping therefore any data collected will be useless. As for distance you would want to measure revolutions of the wheel,  not the feet. 

[MikeF]

---

@TCFITTER wrote:
Thanks for the reply, but the two responders missed the point.
It is a stationary bike. No wrist motion.
Can someone respond to how to get that exercise to register?

Sent from my iPhone

---

You're incorrectly assuming we were responding to your original question!

The best you'll get with a stationary bike with any tracker is an estimate of calorie burn based on heart rate.

[TCFITTER]

Best answer yet.
Thank you

Sent from my iPhone

[ErickFitbit]

Thanks to @MikeF@Rich_Laue@bbarrera@matt9013 for the helpful responses. To add to this, @bbarrera is 100% correct in stating that the Surge has a "Spinning" and "Bike" workout. Blaze includes these workout modes as well.

[rockermom]

I use hand weights and swing my arms. That way I get steps!

[Rich_Laue]

From what I've been reading on these forums is that the general consensus is that Fitbit should remove all steps while biking, since people don't want these false steps to have an impact on their daily step count. 

[TammyQ]

I couldn't agree  more!  So disappointed to use my Blaze to track cycling to get an accurate measurement of mileage, pace, heart rate and elevation, only to discover I got ZERO steps.  How is that motivating?!  

[RickLoC53]

Tammy, as an avid Fitbit user and a lover of cycling (not quite good enough to be called a "cyclist") - I feel your pain. But Fitbit is still basically a step oriented tracker (think pedometer), and bicycling does not involve steps. It is remarkable how that guides your exercise behavior - using the treadmill instead of the exercise bike; walking through a round of golf instead of cycling. You really get hooked on that "steps-per-day" reward!

[mooreplusone]

How are steps calculated? You would think since it knows my height (and by that my approx stride), it should be able to divide distance by stride to atleast make a guess?

[RickLoC53]

Hello Moore+1,
Fitbit actually measures steps by arm movement. Have you ever noticed that when you go to the supermarket, holding on to the cart, you don't get any steps? Being the Fitbit fanatic that I am, I've taken to pushing the cart with my dominant hand, letting my Fitbit arm swing freely. That way I can pick up my 1000 or so steps browsing the local Walmart store. There's also the "cheat" when you need 100 steps to make your 10000 - shake your Fitbit arm for around 15 minutes. Walking purists call it cheating, but the practical among us call it exercise - just arms instead of legs....

Fitbit critics will cite the arm movement approach to steps inaccurate. But I've compared Fitbit steps to my Omron pedometer and found them to be within 5% of a day's steps.

RickLoC53

Sent from my iPhone

[Alaskayorkie]

I think it's false advertising to say Fitbit tracks cycling, only to discover it doesn't give you steps for it! Yes, it tracks calories but Fitbit challenges are about steps. I paid $200 for a Blaze just so I can have more fun in Fitbit challenges because I cycle 10 miles a day. What a waste. They could easily estimate steps based on distance, speed and calorie burn. I counted 6,000 pedals on a 5.5 mile ride in 30 mins. Fitbit gave me 400 steps despite a 350 calorie burn. Sorry for the rant.

[Polski]

I went on a bike ride today so excited to use my blaze for the first time put it in bike mode and found out two hours later it's not recording my kilometers or anything what a garbage device

[Rich_Laue]

@Alaskayorkie The Blaze attached to the arm will be looking at arm motions, it will most likely be counting bumps on the road as steps of it counts any. Since on a bike the person is not walking, there are many that want all steps to be removed during bike time. They feel this is cheating during the challenges.

@Polski did you wait for the "let's go", signaling that the Blaze connected to the BT on m your phone.

Sr @EricFitbits post above, ypu can clearly see not only the Map but the milage,  thos does require the use of the manual Bike mode. The airport detect mode will not voice miles for Amy run/walk/bike

[KeepItMoving]

I was mowing my lawn this morning, and my Blaze thought I was biking LOL. I love this thing.