Versa unusable if driving motorcycle

[SunsetRunner]

Hi the Fitbit community,

My girlfriend offered me a Fitbit Versa for Christmas and I was very excited to use it for my workouts and daily life. Unfortunately at day 1 I started to be very disappointed.

We live in Vietnam and here we drive motorcycles all the time. Not just to commute to work, but to go to restaurant, shopping, meet friends, work.... Usually I use my motorcycle in more than 10 rides per day.

The Versa works fine when I'm doing my workouts or walk but as soon as I ride my motorcycle then it counts thousands of steps, multiple floors, tells me I'm doing outdoor bicycle or walk or interval workout and it completely ruins all the stats.

After reading some posts of people having the same problem as mine, I know there is an app I could download on my phone and use it to tells the Versa I'm using my motorcycle or I could go in the app and change the counted steps or bicycle to driving motorcycle but in my case it's just not possible, as I don't use my motorcycle only 2 times a day to go to work. 

After updating the latest firmware version I hoped Fitbit would have fixed this issue, 

I also set the Versa wrist placement to dominant so it will be less sensitiive, but unfortunately the problem remains.

Now I am stuck with a completely unusable Fitness Tracker, I can't send it back because my girlfriend bought it in the US, and if I sell it to someone else here in Vietnam, they will have the same problem I have, as everybody uses motorcycles here.

I think it should be advertise that for people riding motorcycle on a daily basis, which concerns most of the Asian population, I'm talking about hundreds of millions of people, the Fitbit tracker is unusable.

Is there someone who has a fix for that? Or will Fitbit engineers take in consideration their users riding motorcycle and fix it in a hopefully coming soon update?

[Marrrmaduke]

@SunsetRunner I'm sorry to hear about your problems with Versa. I do not think there will be a fix to that as Versa is a wrist tracker and will respond to large bumps on the road or while simply riding a bike. My advice would be to turn off the tracker when you're on your back. I know it's not a solution you would like, but beside deleting ghost steps, not much else can be done I'm afraid. 😞

[SunsetRunner]

Hi Marrrmaduke,

Thanks for your reply, appreciate it.

I remember reading a post where the person said it had the same problem on his Versa but not on his Charge...

I hope there will be a fix or something otherwise my girlfriend just throw away 200 $ for my useless gift 😞

[SunsetRunner]

Hi, I would advice you to post this, in a shorter version, as a future request in the Feature Suggestion Board .

[N8teGee]

Might be worth giving the Drivebit app a go. You press start when you start driving/riding and then stop when you finish. It will then log that period to your fitbit account as driving which will remove any steps on your Versa during that period the next time you sync.

Android App

iOS App

[Marrrmaduke]

@SunsetRunner, I agree with @N8teGee. Also, perhaps it would be awesome to have something like Drivebit for our Versa's? We could start the drive from the wrist! Perhaps you could post it to our Feature Suggestions Forum?😊

[SunsetRunner]

Thanks to all for your replies and advices,

I would give a try to Drivebit but it's not convenient at all to use it each time I drive my motorcycle, sometimes it's just for a minute, but I will try.

And I will definitely post in the Feature Suggestions.

I saw on a Samsung forum that some people driving motorcycles recommend deactivating the auto detect biking mode, I will try that as well.

Thanks again to all for your suggestions.

[SunsetRunner]

This issue is pending for YEARS. Lots and lots of complaints

all fitbit should do is to add an option to easily remove steps or allow for a drive mode.

as with many issues NOTHING has been done about it for years !

[SunsetRunner]

Ya and I see that no Fitbit official doesn't even take the time to reply to my message. Seems like motorcycle and scooter riders are not a priority and not even a concern to Fitbit.

As I mentioned before, I don't blame them for not having developing the technology yet, but more for not advertising their customers about this big issue, as now my girlfriend has spent 200$ in a fitness tracker that is useless.

I think I will never buy any Fitbit product in the future and definitely not recommend them to all my friends who drive a motorcycle or a scooter.