Why can't it track indoor bike with Inspire 2?

[anxiety64]

I only have an indoor bike (my real bike is too small and is also covered in poison ivy), and it's very annoying that the fitbit can't track it. Today I decided not to click the exercise button for biking, as it hasn't worked in the past, and now (after doing a hard 30 minute workout) it decides to not even auto track it! This is probably my own fault, but I don't want to do another workout. Help? (I need a graph of my heart beat and closer up WITH THE DATE! AND TIME)

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[JohnnyRow · Accepted solution]

It can track it if you use the exercise app.  Otherwise, your Fitbit on your wrist is held steady - no movement.  How could it possibly know that you are on an indoor bike?  Without using the exercise app, it can only sometimes guess what you are doing from your wrist movement pattern; if your wrist has no movement, fitbit can't tell if you are pedaling indoor bike or sitting in recliner watching TV.

[Rich_Laue]

Aa @JohnnyRow says, use the event called spinning. You may have to first add Spinning to your list on the Inspire 2

How do I track my workouts with my Fitbit device?

[MTR2022]

You ask a perfectly reasonable question. I asked it myself on here and one of the regulars gave me what felt like a standard-issue condescending answer and directed me to the manual/FAQ whilst telling me the device can't do this, noting that I was 'new'.

However, my Inspire 2 regularly thinks I'm on an exercise bike (see today's pic attached) when I'm spinning and autodetects it as such. So clearly some gesture/movement I am performing aligns with what it recognises as bicycling activity. Would it be so difficult to have the device/app note that GPS signal is good and the user - me - is static and therefore the activity is a stationary exercise bike ? Or just publish the gesture triggering the current recognition, so we can more easily instigate it on purpose ?

 

[JohnnyRow]

My personal viewpoint on this: auto-recognition is good for walking and I suppose also running.  Other than those 2, it has limited accuracy and causes a lot more problems than it solves, and using the Exercise App gives better results.

But it is probably required for marketing, comparing to other products which market auto-recognition.  I have no idea how well it works on other tracker brands but I expect same problems.

[Rich_Laue]

@MTR2022 your screen shots show that an auto detected bike ride was recorded. Fitbit did not record the stationary bike as a spinning exercise. Auto detected exercises may be edited to correctly show what exercise was done. 

Apparently your handlebars bounce around so much that fitbit thinks that you are on a road bike. 

Stationary bikes, or spinning us not an auto detectable exercise. 

[MTR2022]

I never asserted anywhere that I thought my spinning exercise was being automatically detected as such (?) I don't understand how you missed my actual point: the device has GPS, it has good signal, it 'knows' my location is stationary. So why, again this morning (attached), am I being told I'm on an Outdoor Bike ? Surely, it would be a simple exercise in logic to recognise cycling movement and compare against GPS info (even cross-reference with a set Home or Gym location) and see that I can't possibly be on an Outdoor Bike ?

And my handlebars don't move. 

[JohnnyRow]

When you get into asking about the "why" of how Fitbit works, the only answer anyone here could give is ' because that is the way it is'.  We are just Fitbit users trying to help other users with whatever experience and knowledge we have gained ourselves.  We can often help out with questions about 'how' to do things, but can only speculate about any 'why' question.

If you want to make a suggestion, you can post on the  Features Suggestions board.   But don't expect that Fitbit has a team sitting around looking for any good suggestions to implement right away.