Not counting steps or distance for bike ride

[Pedalfaster]

I want to compete with friends but I have some hip issues and riding a bike is a great way for me to exercise. The fitbit keeps telling me I'm not active, doesn't count my 4 mile bike ride in the distance I have gone that day, and I am losing my challenges with friends. Is there anyway to compete with friends and have biking count as distance, being active, or have miles biked count as steps for challenges?

[SilviaFitbit]

Welcome to the Community @Pedalfaster. When you're biking, SmartTrack may detect it and this will not show distance. However, you can choose bike as an exercise in your Blaze and it will show you distance in your Dashboard. 

- Check your Blaze > tap exercise

- Choose Bike 

Hope this helps. Let me know how it goes. 

[Pamela013]

Anyone figured out how to have the. Ike count pedals as steps? That's my workout and for challenges it's not counting steps.  I think if I select Bike it will add the distance, but I want the steps!   How? 

[Rich_Laue]

Are you actually stepping while on a bike? Your tracker is on the arm, so it is unable to moni5or leg motions. For distance you need to use the connected GPS and carry the phone.

Actually tyere currently 3ntly is a heated request to have all steos removed while biking.

[Pamela013]

To me it's like running. I want to count my steps for my step challenges. If that's my choice of a workout you should be able to convert say two miles biked to 4,000 steps.

Sent from my iPhone

[SunsetRunner]

I find that my Blaze also does not count very many, if any, steps while I am riding my bike. I too ride often (daily bicycle commuter).

My previous Fitbit device, however, was the One, which is worn in the pocket or hip clip. I found with the One, I would get about 80% of the steps riding my bike compared to what I would get in the same time from walking. So for example, I average about 1000 steps every 10 mins, or 6000 steps per hour of walk. Riding my bike, I would get between 4500-5000 steps an hour. I'm sure most of this is due to the positioning of the device itself (leg vs. wrist).

I recently switched to the Blaze and while I otherwise love it, definitely miss all the steps I was getting from riding my bike with my One.

[Pamela013]

I just tested it. If I don't select an exercise and I put that hand in my thigh the Blaze counts it and it's accurate!!! I'm so excited. To me it's no different than running steps. I can't run. So this and treadmill.

Sent from my iPhone

[Liz314159]

So, today I biked 13 miles. I'd had my Charge 2 track the exercise for the whole ride.  When I click on Exercise, it counted the ride as 10 miles (I've got a bike odometer, so I know it was 13 miles). But it counted 0 steps and 0 distance.  It turned out I had other things to do, but here I am, with 84 minutes of exercise, 29 floors, I did get my 10,000 steps - but I only walked 3.5 miles, so no festive green.  That just doesn't seem right to me - I've got to walk 5 miles even if I bike 10? My sister's going to beat me...

[J-flex]

While bike riding is a great work out it was never designed to be a step counter.

[Rich_Laue]

@Liz314159. Unless you are walking the Bike, i wpuld not expect many steps, but most people get ste0s from the bumps in the road.

Abo75 the distance we need more information on the mode you used to track your ride.

Did you rely on the autodetect function? this will not record distsnce.

Did you manually start the bike mode, but the tracker could not connect to the phones GPS? No distance will be recorded.

Did you manually start it, the phone with you, and a map was r3corded? Tgen you should see distance.

[andy72653]

I agree with some of the posters that say it's not the same as jogging...because it's not. lol. While it is great exercise, biking 13 miles is nowhere close to being the same as running/walking 13 miles. If you are simply trying to win a contest then it would be unfair to count bicycling the same as actual steps would it not? 

That being said.....keep up the activity and good luck!

[Liz314159]

Hi, I'm back.  What I'm sorry about is that I have no way that I can figure out of keeping track of my biking miles.  I'd like a button like there is for steps, calories, etc., for biking miles.  Also, it's a bit sad when I have a day where I bike 23 miles, but my end-of-week summary says that was *not* my best day, because I didn't walk 10,000 steps on top of 2 hours of biking (I ended up with 2.5 active hours that day).  I'm not asking for *all* my biking miles to count as steps, I agree with the poster who said it's not the same.  But it would be nice to have it count as something non-zero, which is what it counts for now.  Maybe it could count that time, and count it as how far I'd have walked if I'd have walked all that time.  I am exerting more energy biking than walking (as evidenced by my heart rate), but I'd rather have something than nothing.  Why is there a bike choice for activity if that activity just gets swallowed and *only* appears in my active minutes?

[bbarrera]

@Liz314159 I've discussed this in various threads, and rather than searching for one of those I'll just say it again. First lets start with a picture from a weekly progress email that arrived last month on May 22nd:

step focused - flawed incentive systemWhat's wrong with this picture? The celebration is over steps, even though I had HUGE daily averages for the week:

- 3572 calories per day average for the week

- 2 hours and 42 active minutes per day

There should be huge stars, at least for the one day responsible for such a huge week. I didn't even wear my Apple Watch until 11pm that day, and yet it gave me credit and even gave me a virtual high five:

The problem? Fitbit focuses the reward system on steps! Challenges are step based, and I've been told that some companies give an insurance premium discounts if you have 10,000 steps per day. I've had people tell me steps are an objective measure, and I say no, thats like saying running steps are the same as steps taken while pacing around the office on a conference call. 

Whatever you do, don't start swimming, because back in the day when Michael Phelps was burning 10,000 calories a day training for the olympics he would have a very sad weekly report because he isn't stepping! Ridiculous!

[MarcRU]

Charge 2

Manually started the bike (not autodetect)

Road for 40mins

Had my phone with me

Did NOT track distance (0.02 miles)

Have no other issues with tracking when i am running.

[Rich_Laue]

Did gps Conniect for the ride? 

[MarcRU]

Yes the gps connected. And it worked just fine afterward when I went on a run. Just doesn’t work when manually choosing to bike

Marc

[Rich_Laue]

Do you see the phone icon in the top left of the Blaze when on a bike ride? 

If not then through the app. blaze, exercise, bike, please enable GPS then do a sync to transfer the change to the Blaze. 

[stephnalbie]

this doesn't work. Ride bike for 2 hours and fit bit blaze said I didn't even fo a mile!!

[Rich_Laue]

Did you manualy start the bike ride recording and waited for the connected GPS? With auto detect or without GPS their is no ref stance points and therefore no distance will be recorded.