Thousands of steps while cycling

[scottregan]

Whenever I wear Blaze or Charge HR while cycling, my 'steps' count for the day has 5000+ steps added.   

This happens with both 'auto-recognize' and also the explicit 'set exercise' .

One thing that is accurate -  is the actual record of the biking activity itself (either auto-recognize or set-exercise).   It says that the activity added zero steps, which is accurate.   (actually I probably walked a couple dozen steps when I got off my bike a couple times but that is not the point).

But what is not accurate - my main 'steps' graph for the day has thousands of steps added . 

I've read a few threads on this and my take is that this is a bug that will eventually get fixed, but in the meantime I should not wear fitbit while biking and just use Strava. (and by connecting to strava I can get my cycling activity in the fitbit record, which also seems to work.)

That said, did I just miss if there is any settting or fix for this?   I am not interested in marking all my cycling events as 'driving' 🙂

This error throws my weekly and monthly steps averages off quite a bit..

thanks!

[bbarrera]

---

@GlobalBrian wrote:

rather a step equivalent that is based on some formula of duration, pace, and heart rate/exertion. Fitbit already has the data - let's put it to good use.

---

Honestly FItbit should do the same for steps - pacing, walking, running - not all steps are created equal! I've mentioned this before, it's possible to pace around my office on conference calls and log 6,000-10,000 steps per day without any exertion and barely raising HR

[chadwick103]

Strap it to your ankle for a win-win.

I always strap my Fitbit to my ankle and put it on the biking workout mode. It gives me accurate GPS data of my cycling route, miles, and speed data plus I get a modest amount of steps to help go toward my weekly step goals and competitions. (Which is hardly cheating, since my legs are moving more than double what it gives me credit for.)

[chadwick103]

I strap mine to my ankle and put it in the biking exercise mode. It tracks all cycling data but is counting steps in the background as well. This allows me to get at least some credit for all that leg movement, which I need for my weekly step competitions. 

It's the best of both worlds. 

[hedphonic]

Great recommendation chadwick103... though, shame it doesn't count distance (miles) in the dashboard.

[Rich_Laue]

And what should fitbit's responsecbe to the many people that want absolutely no steps recorded durring a bike ride? Which team should Fitbit cater too? Personally I don't want my none step miles in with my step miles. 

[hedphonic]

I don't care about steps for cycling, I just want my mileage recorded! Running, walking, cycling it's all good exercise.

[Leon1976]

The fix to this should be very very easy, a simple software fix. Fitbit software does detect you are cycling so how difficult would it be to amend the software to deduct the number of steps during the period it says you were cycling. I understand that it might not be able to do this in realtime on the tracker itself (although if the tracker knows you are cycling why the hell is it counting steps in the first place) but this is a no brainer to fix for the overviews on the webpages or in the app.  To me this is a massive nuisance as I cycle 6 miles 2 times a day commuting. And on top of the some 100 miles a week on the racing bike. I don't want  to switch the tracker off as a work around as I want to be alerted for incoming phone calls. SO FitiBit please fix this. It is a no brainer and should be a very easy one which takes a way a massive amount of dissastisfaction

[Rich_Laue]

I agree that it would be very easy, but your preaching to the choir. Have you voted., 

Option to remove steps earned when cycling

Please remember that we also have many that want those steps recorded. 

Bike ride distance conversion to steps

There are two more threads requesting that all manually added exercise be converted to seps. 

So what is Fitbit to do? 

[Leon1976]

What they are to do? Make it an option you can switch on and off. Simple as that. Its obvious people want it and technically a piece of piss to implement. And stop telling people to vote all the time cause no matter how much we vote, it is not taken seriously anyway. So many iphone owners that want whatsapp messaging on their fitbit charge for ages but  still not there, and still no intention to make it happen it seems. Ignoring the customer/ user base like that will make fitbit lose many many users and potential new ones.

[Rich_Laue]

I've seen to many things implemented by Fitbit only because of the votes, invites barely many of them once implemented get many requests to have them removed. 

Before Fitbit can implement an option like this they have to consider how it will affect challenges. 

Take for instance the request for an app dashboard that looks like the web dashboard.. 

The request to have the display on the last screen even after its timeout. 

[Rich_Laue]

I've seen to many things implemented by Fitbit only because of the votes, invites barely many of them once implemented get many requests to have them removed. 

Before Fitbit can implement an option like this they have to consider how it will affect challenges. Personally I feel only stepped based activities should be counted, but some disagree. Maybe Fitbit should take a poll of what the users want. 

Take for instance the request for an app dashboard that looks like the web dashboard.. 

The request to have the display on the last screen even after its timeout. 

[antMTBR]

I get thousands of steps per hour while mountain biking so not sure why you think it shouldnt be that many?

[antMTBR]

I want to know how to not register steps while biking which i think the original poster did as well.  I use my fitbit to track exercise because it integrates with the weight watchers app so double counting steps and biking for me stinks like hot garbage.  I get thousands of extra steps per hour which totally screws up my points and i have to figure out how many steps i got while biking, then how many points that caused and go in and put in food i didnt eat to burn those so i dont think i have more than i do.  I also think its amazing that it doesnt seem to bother fitbit that the accepted solution on this forum to fitbit is inaccurate is effectively go get a garmine if you want to track cycling. 

[Rich_Laue]

@antMTBR I'm not sure who your addressing. 

Your thousands of steps come from the rough terrain and has nothing to do with how hard are how many calories you've burned during that hour so basically the step count your getting is a record of how many bumps your bike went over. Is this what the steps should represent? 

[antMTBR]

yeh so it was my first time posting on this site i didnt realize when you reply to a specific post it doesnt auto annotate that (in my case the two moderators in this thread).  Wasnt addressing you and used your link to vote to remove, I dont see how my post could seem to be for steps counted during riding but cheers rich in NJ from Ant in NJ

[Rich_Laue]

I was just pointing out that the step count comes from the bouncing of the handlebars .

Your post was not asking for steps, and we don't know what the developers are thinking. But we have three opinions on this subject, and Fitbit will not be able to please evrryone. Which group should they try and please! 

Some want the steps countef, while cycling. To correspond directly to the equivalent calories burnt if one was eslking. 

Another group want each pedal rotation to count as a step. 

Then we have the group that feel that while on a bike, one is not stepping and all steps should be removed. 

I'm keeping my opinion to myself .bitbdo agree that step count during biking should represent more than the handlebar movements. 

[Leon1976]

What it should do is give you an option. Fitbit detects pretty well you are on a bike, so it knows you are cycling. Software wise it should then be a piece of piss to give the user an option on how you want to see it in the app. I prefer no registered steps while cycling ( is cheating as far as i am concerned). I recently cycled Liège - Bastogne - Liège (275 km) and it registered the ridiculous number of 55k steps and gave me all the undeserved badges that go along with that.  Thats just bad software and for me makes the fitbit a lot less useful

[FrenchiVIII]

hi everyone,

there's already a proposal to remove steps during cycling activities, if you are interested please vote it so maybe the developers will decide to fix this...

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Option-to-remove-steps-earned-when-cycling/idi-p...

[SunsetRunner]

Exactly right. Ludicrous to count steps whilst cycling. I'm going to send mine back - mainly because Fitbit don't seem interested in solving problems. I've just got mine and have two issues which have been around for months if not years. Both are simple fixes.

---

@Leon1976 wrote:

What it should do is give you an option. Fitbit detects pretty well you are on a bike, so it knows you are cycling. Software wise it should then be a piece of piss to give the user an option on how you want to see it in the app. I prefer no registered steps while cycling ( is cheating as far as i am concerned). I recently cycled Liège - Bastogne - Liège (275 km) and it registered the ridiculous number of 55k steps and gave me all the undeserved badges that go along with that.  Thats just bad software and for me makes the fitbit a lot less useful

---

[Rich_Laue]

Have you voted for the suggestion to have these steps removed, I know that their is a large group of users that feel Fitbit isn't counting enough steps while cycling and some users even  place their fitbits on their ankles.

I agree that Fitbit should give the option, and feel that any step recorded during a bike ride should not be added to a challenge.