Charge 2 GPS tracking cycling

[TueRasmussen]

Hello everybody,

I recently got a Charge 2, and in the track exercise with GPS data I can only choose between run/walk/hike. Outdoor Bike is listed as an "Auto Recognized Exercises," but it says, that GPS will not be turned on.

Can it really be true, that FitBit doesn't offer any tracking with GPS for outdoor cycling?

I've looked at the forums and found this: Charge 2 Connected GPS

One accepted solution says to "Start bike mode on Charge 2, wait for connected GPS to activate," but I can't seem to find a "bike mode."

Can anybody help me with this?

Kind regards,

Tue

[Rich_Laue]

Let's go to fitbits help pages

How do I use exercise apps and modes on my Fitbit device?

Track specific exercises and save the data to your exercise history.

How do I customize the exercises on my Fitbit device?

You will find info on how to customize through your app or web. 

[Cas1203]

I have done this and on the app I have the exercise shortcut for walk , run
and bike but only run shows when I click on my band.

I really have gone through everything.. .and when I click my band I get the
following, in order of 1 click, second click etc...

Heart rate
Run
Stopwatch
Relax
Alarm
Notification
Battery

Walk and bike do not appear.

Help!

Carol

[Rich_Laue]

Pressing the button changes menus, this is what your doing .

Tapping the screen will scroll through the menu options .This is also how to see the different stats for the day. 

Holding in the button will activate the exercise. 

So when you get to the exercise menu, that being Run for you, simply tap the screen. 

This is explanned in the manual. 

[Cas1203]

I know how to start and stop....I use the run option on band.

There in NO cycle /bike option to select so I can't start a bike ride.

That is the problem.

This case is going around in circles. I will need to return my band or
speak to fitfit directly.

Carol

[Rich_Laue]

Read my post above, i have a link to the instructions on how to customize your tracker a multisport mode. 

There are 19 different events of which up to seven may be added, bike is one of them. 

Sorry if I misunderstood you, you say that you only could access the Run exercise. 7

[Cas1203]

I have read post and replied to post.

I know how to add an exercise.

It gives me time , calories etc when I use bike.


It still does not show the bike icon on the scroll through band options.

Regards

Carol

[Rich_Laue]

You stated that you see run above, when you keep tapping run you should see the same exercises that have been selected in the app or on the web. That is if the tracker has done a sync since selected .

If this is not so, I would remove any exercises that do not show, perform a sync, enable them. and one more sync. 

[Cas1203]

You are correct in that I keep tapping and do not get further excercise in
list. Only run.

I constantly sync so it's not a sync problem.

I will remove all excercises etc ad you suggest and retry but I am certain
I have tried this in the recent past in an attempt to resolve the issue but
for clarity I will try again

Frustrated , Carol

[Alfaindigo]

I did all of that and keep getting the same three options only. I set my watch to bike and went on the trails foe two hours and all it did was tell me bol long I ride for no speed nothing. My step count is almost the exact same as it was before I started out. Heart rate worked like a boss though 

[Dsnymom]

Thank you! This was just driving me nuts the last couple days. I wanted to track my bike on gps and thought it was ridiculous if it couldn't be done. I wasn't starting from the band either. I always start my walks through the app. I never even touch the band button so didn't even think that I needed to start it from there. I started it sitting here in my house and stopped after 20 seconds and the map loaded on the app like the walks do!! So happy!

[Aighear]

I have done this the options still only are run, hike, walk 😞 

[Aighear]

I have done this and still only see the three options run hike walk

[Cas1203]

Hi

You are talking about the exercise shortcuts.

There is already a reply to this issue , you need to add the bike option in
shortcuts via the application on your phone. This is described in the
documentation.

Hope this helps

[Bob_Denny]

Has FitBit gotten the hint? The scheme for recording tracks and calories as exercise for "bike" is inside out. Even after reading  @Rich_Laue's replies, I still don't get it.

1. In the FitBit (Android) app, touch the band icon, the Charge 2 screen appears. 
2. Touch Exercise Shortcuts. See Walk, Bike, Run with "Connected GPS" listed below, then Weights, Treadmill with nothing below (obviously -- they are not moving exercises, right?)
3. Back out to the main screen
4. Touch the (+) icon on the lower left, the activity icons appear in the lower part
5. Touch Track Exercise, see the map appear, with a dropdown list below it
6. Touch the list (which says Walk with a down arrow), see Run, Walk, Hike. 

WTF????? In step 2 I selected Walk, Bike, Run. Yet I can only select Run, Walk, Hike. Again I read this thread, including the band screen tapping stuff, but really, this is all in the APP. The reason this thread has been going since last MAY 2018 is that the above is completely confusing to the average joe. The app developers are the place to handle it.

[Rich_Laue]

@Bob_Denny on your step 2 above is where a user may add/remove/reorder the types of exercises on the app.

These are the exercises that get added to your Charge 2 tracker not the Fitbit app.

Your step 4 is where the user may add/remove/reorder the tiles on the main screen of the app.

Step 5 in think is the place where a user will be able to rename a previous auto detected Exercise or a recorded by the Charge 2 workout.

Step 6 I believe your looking at the apps ability to record s run/walk/hike with the option of not having to wear your Charge 2.

Yes since weights and treadmill are a stationary workout, the phone will usually not be moving, not will be able to read your heart rate it will not be able to record this type of exercise.

However since you added these exercises to your Charge 2, you may easily start their recording from the wrist

[Cas1203]

Hi

It is confusing but I eventually understood how it works

My problem was that I could not browse through my exercise shortcuts from
my band

I could add up to 7 exercise shortcuts but only one appeared on my band.
This is the first one (top) of list.

There is no way you can have more than one on the band at any time.

You can move (drag) another from list to the top (all using android app)
then sync with band and the band will then show the one at top of list.

It works now...a bit of a pain to need to move the exercise that you wish
to track to the top then sync then do the exercise but .......I now know
what you do to get it to track whatever GPS exercise I do.

Hope this helps....I really love my Fitbit

[Rich_Laue]

@Aighear are you looking on the Charger 2? This option Configures the Charge 2, not the Fitbit app.

---

@Aighear wrote:

I have done this and still only see the three options run hike walk

---

[Bob_Denny]

...on your step 2 above is where a user may add/remove/reorder the types of exercises on the app.

More like using the app. This is the confusing part... as in...

These are the exercises that get added to your Charge 2 tracker not the Fitbit app.

This is my suggestion. Add the same exercises to the app as to the band. This would make so much more sense, and would have avoided this huge thread.

[Rich_Laue]

@Bob_Denny you might want to add your vote to this feature request.

Track Cycling on Mobile App with GPS

The Fitbit app will only be able to record exercises that can be monitored by GPS or the up/down movement while stepping.

[Aighear]

Yes, I figured it out. Thank you. The only thing that doesn't seem to work now is opening the recorded maps e.g. for cycling in Google maps it just opens it in the fitbit app and I cannot sync it to maps ... Agh