Fitbit Blaze with MapMyRide/Cycling

[BFMat17]

Hello to all Blaze users.  This is my first post and I'm an obvious noob to the world of fitbit.

I've had the Blaze for 3 days now, and everything is working great on it, except for the cycling (bike) exercise.  So far, I really like the Fitbit app and use it on a Samsung Galaxy Core Prime with Android 4.4 KitKat.

I've been using the MVP version of MapMyRide to log my cycling workouts.  I was able to sync the Blaze with my MapMyRide app and I went on my first ride this morning.  I scrolled to the bike exercise screen on my Blaze and hit "play" and took off.  For some strange reason, the workout stopped after about 3 seconds into the ride.  Of course, the MapMyRide app recorded all of my distance, route, time, etc.. like it always does with GPS, so no issues there.  If I can get the Blaze to work with MapMyRide... then I can track my average heart rate, etc... stats that MapMyRide can not keep track of on it's own.  I'm not looking for "world class" stats from the Blaze... but it would be nice to get heart rate stats to go along with the stats I get from MapMyRide.

I must be doing something wrong.  Should I have the Fitbit app running along with MapMyRide?  Maybe the Blaze was not properly sync'ed up with the MapMyRide app?  Any advice from cyclists who use MapMyRide with the Blaze would be greatly appreciated.  

[AndrewFitbit]

@BFMat17 It's possible the Blaze was accidentally paused shortly after you initiated the activity. I typically will wear mine a bit higher up during exercise to avoid that.

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@BFMat17 wrote:

Maybe the Blaze was not properly sync'ed up with the MapMyRide app?

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Your Fitbit account is what's connected to MapMyRide, Blaze won't connect directly to third party apps. 

[bbarrera]

@AndrewFitbit The Fitbit-MMR integration is very basic, and is one-way sending of Fitbit total steps for a day to MMR. Therefore on MMR website in 24/7 tab you see total steps taken per day. Its partially documented here:

http://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1317

@BFMat17

Bike rides recorded on Blaze can be automatically sync'd to Strava, however I don't believe that is possible with MMR. Instead you would need to record with Blaze, then from a computer export the ride, and import into MMR:

http://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1133

After importing you should see the ride along with heart rate (MVP member).

Just in case you run into trouble, I would continue tracking it both from MMR app and Blaze until you are confident with one or the other.

[BFMat17]

The Blaze worked this morning on my  bike ride!   I set the secondary stat to heart rate on the bike exercise and double-checked the Blaze's connection to the phone, before riding.  MapMyRide only recorded the ride in the 24/7 tab from the Blaze... but the Fitbit app (after sync with Blaze) was able to display my average heart rate, heart rate zones and average calorie burn... good stats to know!  It also mapped my route, distance, etc... pretty much what MapMyRide does. 

I'm impressed with Blaze and Fitbit app so far.   It will be cool to see future generations of the Blaze in years to come... and improvements with connectivity/integration with MapMyRide and other workout apps.

Thanks to AndrewFitbit and bbarrera for the replies!

[BFMat17]

Update:   I've been on several rides and the Blaze works best on bike rides using the "automatically recognized exercises" feature for heart rate stats.  Last week it had trouble with the sync to MapMyRide and did not record route, speed settings, etc.  I rebooted my phone and stopped/started bluetooth and it still had trouble with the sync to MapMyRide, when I would activate the bike exercise on my Blaze.   This could be an issue with my phone/Android or MapMyRide.  Anyway... it's no big deal for me.   The Blaze automatically recognizes my bike rides and records heart rate stats very accurately, which is all I needed since MapMyRide records distance, time, route, etc.  I have to manually enter my average heart rate stats to MapMyRide from the Blaze... but again, it's no big deal.    

[bbarrera]

Your Blaze syncs to Fitbit servers, and the Fitbit-MMR sync is between Fitbit servers and MMR.