It is official, my holiday hacking is officially complete! This past week I started and  launched a brand new app called My Cadence for both iOS & Android. This simple cadence display app is a perfect pair for my recent $400 DIY spin bike that I have been using for Peloton and Apple Fitness+ classes. However, my holiday hacking wasn't complete until I brought My Cadence to a third and final platform... Arduino! What sparked my interest was when snowzach posted on HackerNews his Arduino project that displayed Echelon Bike sensor data on an ESP32. His project was brilliant as it had all of the logic to scan, connect, and read data from the Echelon bike. With his code in hand I set off to fork it and get it working for any cadence sensor, and the result is My Cadence for Arduino!

That is right! What you see above is live sensor data reading off my Moofit Cadence sensor on my spin bike. The app will automatically scan for devices for 10 seconds and then automatically connect to a sensor if it is detected. After that it will display your current cadence and a cadence bar that goes from 0-120. What is really awesome is that this beautiful little ESP32 Arduino boards costs just $18!

Here is what you will need to get it up and running:

Hardware Required

First, you will need the ESP32 board that has Bluetooth low energy. I recommend the MakerFocus ESP32 Arduino board, and optionally batteries and a USB micro cable if you don't have one:

• MakerFocus ESP32
• ESP32 Batteries(optional)
• USB Micro Cable

Compatible Sensors

Of course, you will need a sensor for your bike. Any of the main line sensors should work just fine:

• Moofit Cadence
• Wahoo
• Magene
• Garmin
• Other cadence sensors that broadcast Speed & Cadence specification

Clone, Build, & Run

Then just follow the simple setup & install procedures over on my GitHub project. This will guide you through setting up Arduino Studio, ESP32 libraries and board, and additional libraries required. After that deploy to your device and you are off to the races!

Happy Spinning

Hopefully now there is a version of My Cadence that is right for you and your bike setup. Thanks again to snowzach and his project on GitHub for his inspiration and code to make this happen.

Links to third party sites may contain affiliate links that allow you to find the items mentioned on this site. While this site may earn minimal sums when the reader uses the links, the reader is in NO WAY obligated to use these links. Thank you for your support!

It seems like it was just yesterday that I was writing up a blog post on how I was launching My Cadence for iOS and then blogging about how I wrote and shipped the app in under a week. Well, it wasn't yesterday, but it was just 5 days ago! After I shipped the iOS version, I was watching some HGTV on Hulu and thought to myself, "how long would it take me to ship this app on Android?". The answer is around 4 hours' worth of work, and about 4 days of waiting for Google Play to approve my application for testing and publishing. Just like that it is live on Google Play for your Android device!

Enabling Android Support

I can't think of a real reason I decided to enable Android support for My Cadence. I guess maybe I was just board on my first day of holiday break and wanted a quick challenge. It was as if as soon as the challenge started, I was already done thanks to Xamarin and all of the amazing cross-platform libraries I had used.

When I started the iOS app, I kept things quite simple all in a single project and everything in the code behind. So, the first thing I needed to do was to break thing out into a .NET Standard library and ensure I didn't have any iOS specific code in the code behind.

This took all of 15 minutes or so and I was ready for the next task of seeing if everything "just worked".

Bluetooth Differences

Let's just say everything was close to working out of the box. The biggest difference is that on Android using and managing Bluetooth require the user to give location permissions. This is the oddest thing ever, however unless you use some newer APIs this is how it has to be done even though location isn't used at all. I created a small interface and used Xamarin.Essentials to access Permissions on Android.

public async Task<PermissionStatus> CheckAndRequestLocationPermission()
{
    var status = await Permissions.CheckStatusAsync<Permissions.LocationWhenInUse>();

    if (status == PermissionStatus.Granted)
        return status;

    await MyApp.Current.MainPage.DisplayAlert("Permission required", "Location permission is required for bluetooth scanning. We do not store or use your location at all.", "OK");

    status = await Permissions.RequestAsync<Permissions.LocationWhenInUse>();

    return status;
}

The reason I put this into an interface and used the dependency services is because I don't need to request these permissions on iOS. If I had left the code in the .NET Standard library than I would have needed to add the rationale into the info.plist. The linker is smart, but not that smart.

In-App Purchases

I love and hate in-app purchases. Mostly because they are a pain to implement, test, and keep up to date. Luckily, I just went through a new re-write of my plugin for billing that handles everything for you.

The only bit of code that I needed to add was the new "AcknowledgePurchase" method after the user has purchased the item.

 if(DeviceInfo.Platform == DevicePlatform.Android)
    await CrossInAppBilling.Current.AcknowledgePurchaseAsync(purchase.PurchaseToken);

The next hardest part was trying to test it. You MUST put it in an open or closed beta/alpha release to test this in Google Play. These must be "reviewed" and can take several days to do. The internal track doesn't work at all for this and only works once you publish your app. It has been a while since I published a new Android app, and I was shocked at how long this took. However, after it is all said and done everything worked!

Theming Differences

The biggest difference between iOS and Android has to do with the theme colors. I support light and dark modes in the app and on iOS I keep it all simple styling. However, on Android the ActionBar on top really likes to be colored and the status bar background needs the background set. I pulled in a little code to style the status bar:

public void SetStatusBarColor(System.Drawing.Color color, bool darkStatusBarTint)
{
    if (Build.VERSION.SdkInt < Android.OS.BuildVersionCodes.Lollipop)
        return;

    var activity = Platform.CurrentActivity;
    var window = activity.Window;
    window.AddFlags(Android.Views.WindowManagerFlags.DrawsSystemBarBackgrounds);
    window.ClearFlags(Android.Views.WindowManagerFlags.TranslucentStatus);
    window.SetStatusBarColor(color.ToPlatformColor());

    if (Build.VERSION.SdkInt >= Android.OS.BuildVersionCodes.M)
    {
        var flag = (Android.Views.StatusBarVisibility)Android.Views.SystemUiFlags.LightStatusBar;
        window.DecorView.SystemUiVisibility = darkStatusBarTint ? flag : 0;
    }
}

Beyond that I just had to change a few settings for background colors and sizes of buttons and progress bars and then the app was ready to go. Here is a side by side of the app on Android and iOS.

It is amazing just how quick I could bring over this app. If you want to find out more information or download the app checkout mycadence.app.

It has been nearly 3 weeks since I put together my DIY spin bike and I have now clocked in over 25 rides! Let's just say I am really enjoying have the bike at home now that it is chilly and more rainy outside. Last week I wrote a blog on my experience and did a full Apple Fitness+ review video, in which I mentioned one of the issues I had was the lack of Cadence sensor integration into the app. Knowing your cadence is really important during a ride because it is your RPM that you are spinning the pedals. A number is often called out during rides and you are set to match it. The Peloton digital app has the ability to connect to a sensor such as the Wahoo or moofit, but Apple Fitness+ does not. So like I always do I set out to fix this problem and build a mobile app! Today, I am proud to introduce My Cadence for iOS & Android available for free on the App Store and Google Play.

The application works by connecting to to any sensor that is broadcasting the Cadence & Speed Bluetooth service. This includes Wahoo, moofit, and other sensors that are popular for indoor cycling bikes. In addition the app fully supports light and dark mode, adjustable font sizes, and is completely free with no time restrictions at all. Here is a quick look at how the app works with me setting it up on my spin bike.

The app is completely free, but I also introduced a Pro mode for $2.99 that helps support independent development and unlocked custom theme colors :)

You can grab the app on the App Store and Google Play today. I will have another blog and video on my YouTube explaining how I built the app soon.

TLDR: I combined the Sunny SF-B1002 Bike, the moofit cadence sensor (now sold out, checkout the Magene sensor), a tablet holder, and gel seat cover to build my own at home spin bike ready for Apple Fitness+ and Peloton digital. In this blog I break down my entire decision process, review the bike setup combined the services, and give final impressions after 2 weeks.

I love cycling. I started to get into outdoor cycling after college in Arizona, where I would regularly go out 5 days a week on the canals and greenways putting in hundreds of miles every month. When I moved to Seattle, my love and passion continued, exploring the wonderful landscape of the Pacific Northwest. Then in January of 2015 I was introduced to a new type of cycling by some friends... indoor spin cycling. From the very first class I fell in love with high intensity, resistance, and pounding music. I regularly visited my local spin studio multiple times a week and it turned into a motivation to train and enter the Seattle to Portland bike ride. That July, alongside some of my best friends, we crossed the finish line after 203 miles!

My passion for cycling has never stopped, and neither did my attendance at regular spin classes, until the beginning of 2020 when a global pandemic hit. I continued to explore and ride through the PNW masked up, but heading into the winter months with conditions continuing to deteriorate in the U.S., I knew that if I wanted to spin and cycle through the cold, I was going to need to invest in some sort of home cycling equipment. Over the Thanksgiving break I poured hours into researching the best options without breaking the bank. Here are my results and how I built my DIY home spin bike for under $400.

Indoor Cycling Bike

At this point you may be wondering why I decided to invest in a DIY bike instead of just going all in on a Peloton or using a trainer on my existing bike. Peloton bikes are beautiful, but they are also expensive, coming in at $1,900 and $2,500 based on what model you purchase. There are two other reasons beyond the price why I decided to do a DIY.

First, is that I wanted the choice of what service I wanted to use. If you buy a Peloton (or another bike that has a built-in tablet) then you are locked into their service and fixed price. If you build a DIY bike, then you are free to choose whatever service you would like. Additionally, the Peloton digital app is $13 compared to $40 if you have the bike. Second is that I knew I mostly would be using the spin bike only in the winter and as soon as Spring hits in 2021, I plan to be back out on my normal bikes.

I could have added a trainer to one of my existing bikes, but I was really looking for a spin bike with nice resistance compared to just riding my normal bike. Another reason is that I wanted the spin bike to be able to be used by myself and my wife. An indoor cycling bike has adjustments including the seat height and handlebar height so we each can easily use the bike. Finally, I have had a trainer in the past and I don't enjoying taking things on and off my road bike.

When searching for an indoor spin bike, I looked at a few key aspects including the build quality, drive train (how does it feel to ride), resistance (magnetic vs pad), and of course, price. I also wanted to find a bike that would work for my height and weight (5 ft 9 in. & 168 lbs). Since there isn't a store that I can go to and just try out all these bikes, I had to rely on the internet to help me out. I went through hundreds of blogs, reviews, listings, and videos trying to get a grasp on what was out there, and I finally narrowed it down to two bikes. These were the $900 Schwinn IC4 and the $350 Sunny SF-B1002. Two bikes that could not be more different.

The title of this post gives away what I picked but let me break down the differences around these two bikes. The Schwinn is a mid-tier bike that comes packed with a bunch of excellent features including magnetic resistance, a full LCD display for metrics, Bluetooth heartrate monitor, casting of cadence and heartrate to apps, 3 lb. dumbbells, tablet stand with USB charging, and SPD clip pedals. It is an impressive package for $900.

The Sunny Bike on the other hand is bare bones with no sensors, no display, cage only pedals, and no tablet stand. It does however have one big advantage which is a big beautiful 49 lbs. flywheel. It isn't magnetic resistance but has a nice leather resistance pad. I dug a bit deeper to see what the additional costs would be to update the Sunny Bike to have the essentials that the Schwinn had, and it really boiled down to a cadence sensor to get your RPM and a tablet holder. Combined these only cost ~$30! I figured that if I wanted to upgrade the pedals and add dumbbells, I could do that later. I will say that There are many other bikes on Amazon in this price category such as the YOSUDA, but it has a lighter flywheel and felt pad and the JOROTO has a magnetic resistance but has a lighter flywheel. The Sunny to me just stood out at the best of all worlds and looked to have the best build quality for the price. I also looked at the Sunny SF-B1805 that has a 44 lbs flywheel and magnetic resistance, but I decided to save the $250.

On Thanksgiving Day, I told my wife that I had settled on the Schwinn IC4 and that on January 1st I would buy it with some of my fitness credit at work. Then that night three important things happened. First, I really wanted to spin and start exercising. Second, I saw I had $100 of fitness credit remaining. Third, I landed on Matt's YouTube channel TailHappyTV where he has purchased way too many spin bikes from Amazon and stuffed them into his tiny apartment in LA and reviews them.

Matt's videos were super helpful, and the day after Thanksgiving I went all in on the Sunny SF-B1002 with a few necessary accessories that all came in at under $400 (thanks to a few Black Friday deals, as of today it is ~$420)!

Before I continue onto the accessories, let's talk about the bike! The Sunny SF-B1002 is a sturdy, belt-driven bike with that beautiful 49 lbs. flywheel. The 120-pound package came in under a week and was hand delivered to our doorstep. After dragging it to the garage, I unboxed the bike and put it together in about 30 minutes:

It was surprisingly easy to put together as it included great directions and all the tools required. The hardest part was tipping the bike to roll it into position in front of our smart car :). After putting the bike together, it was time for adding on accessories.

Sunny Bike on Amazon:

Note: I got a few questions about the Echelon Connect Sport from Walmart that comes in at $500. I was interested in this bike as well since it has a nice flywheel, good reviews, magnetic resistance, and has built in support for metrics via bluetooth to your phone. My main issue is that it is optimized to be used with their subscription service. To even see your metric you must use their app in "freestyle mode", which didn't seem like it would work well with my goals for the bike.

Cadence Sensor

One of the most important accessories is adding a cadence sensor that attaches to the crank arm to inform you how fast you are cycling (RPM). This is important because when you spin you are often told a specific speed to hit and without it you will have no indication what speed you're at. Luckily, there are cadence sensors that can connect directly over Bluetooth to your tablet and show up directly inside of apps such as Peloton. The most popular cadence sensor is the Wahoo sensor that is $40. Wahoo has a great reputation building at home trainers and I put one in my cart. The next day as I continued to browse Amazon I came across a series of cheaper cadence sensors from oddly named companies. The moofit cadence sensor came in at $20 (I have also purchased and tested the $20 Magene sensor and it is great too) and had superb reviews and an A rating on fakespot! It seemed a bit riskier, but I thought hey why not try it as I could always return it, so I purchased it, put it on, and it worked right away.

Connecting it to an app such as Peloton could not be easier, just start pedaling, hit connect on the app, and click on it. Just like that your cadence is cast directly onto your tablet while you ride!

If you aren't using Peloton you can download my new free app for both iOS & Android called My Cadence that will enable you to see your cadence in real time.

Moofit on Amazon:

Shout out to Zach who posted on Hacker News about his awesome project echbt that turns an ESP32 development board into a cadence/resistance/power reader for his Echelon bike. I spent my holiday hacking on some C++ code and got My Cadence working on Arduino! Checkout the GitHub project for more information!

Heart Rate Monitor

You may have noticed that in the screenshot above that the display is showing my heart rate! The Schwinn came with an actual heart rate monitor and I thought I would need one for the Sunny Bike, but then I remembered that my Apple Watch (series 3) that I had purchased is already a heart rate monitor. This saved me a bit of money as heart rate monitors range from $30 - $80 on Amazon. You can easily cast your heart rate from your Apple Watch to your tablet using the free HeartCast, but I ended up just tracking indoor cycling in the Fitness app after doing some testing that you can read all about in my previous blog.

Tablet Holder

When spinning, you are often getting directions from the spin instructor, and having a phone or tablet in front of you is essential. The Sunny Bike doesn't have any place to put a device when you are riding, so a tablet stand is essential. There are a plethora of tablet stands and holders out there on Amazon and any of them will work, but I decided to go with the Jubor Bike Tablet Holder because it fit my device, was cheap at $16, and was "built" for bikes.

I am overall happy with this tablet holder; however I do wish that I could tilt the phone lower as it is just a tad too close to me. For the price I am good with it and maybe in the future I will invest in a different setup.

Jubar on Amazon

Note: I luckily had an older iPad sitting around, but you can also use any Android or iPhone with this holder.

Seat Cover - Optional

This one is completely optional, as bike seats are personal preference. I like a firmer saddle, however since I am not the only one using the bike, I decided that a medium squishy seat cover would be a nice option that we could slide on and off. Similar to the tablet holders, there are hundreds of seat covers to choose from. One that I know fits the Sunny bike is the $20 Zacro Gel Seat Cover that I purchased.

I do like this seat cover as you can slide it on and off really easily and I am not minding the squishiness :). You can always add this later, so feel free to save $20 and try the built in seat first.

Seat Cover on Amazon:

Peloton & Apple Fitness+ (or others) Subscription

Now that the bike is all finished with accessories installed, it is time to get an app to spin to! There are a lot out there to investigate depending on what type of classes you want to take, including iFit, Zwift, Peloton, Echelon, Apple Fitness+, and more. Since I am really into spin classes and already had a Peloton instructor that I liked from the past, I knew I would start there.

Peloton by far is the standard when it comes to indoor spin classes and anyone can sign up for their digital subscription for $13. You get about all the features of the main app that Peloton bike owners get except the leaderboards and integrated resistance and other metrics. You can still connect your cadence sensor and heart rate monitor directly to the app and it works great. I can say I have no complaints with the experience, and you get the reward that you can do other activities including yoga, running, bootcamps, and more. The biggest downside is that the subscription is per-person :( There is not family option in the digital subscription.

I got the bike before Apple Fitness+ was released, but I have been eagerly awaiting the service's arrival. The day finally came this week, as Apple finally put out updates to all of its devices and updated the Apple Fitness app. The big advantage of Apple Fitness+ is that it offers nearly all of the same exercises as Peloton, but it integrates with the Apple Watch (which is required) to show you all your stats directly on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV. Additionally, it is only $9.99 a month (or $79.99 a year), and it includes five family members in that membership! The only downside is that Apple Fitness+ does not have live classes like Peloton offers and it focuses solely on on-demand classes.

Monday came, and I eagerly updated my devices and gave Apple Fitness+ a go with my new Sunny Bike setup and my 1-month free trial membership!  As you could imagine, Apple Fitness+ and Peloton are similar. There are only so many ways to create a fitness app and do workouts. The integration with the Apple Watch is extremely impressive, as it synchronizes in real time with your phone/TV/tablet to show you your heart rate, rings, calorie count, and something new that they call a burn bar. This is supposed to tell you how you are doing compared to others, but mine is always maxed out? Maybe I need to pedal slower? teheheh :).

There are two important metrics when indoor cycling that you need. First is the resistance of how heavy the ride is. Second is the cadence, which tells you how fast to spin. Apple has two recommended Schwinn bikes that are $1200 and $3000 that they use in the studio, but the classes are made to be "generic" and work with any bike. This is good and bad. The spin instructors don't ever announce a given resistance number and instead just say light, medium, and heavy. This is fine and even with Peloton I have no way of aligning numbers, it is more of a feeling. The cadence on the other hand is super important. With Peloton, you just synchronize up a sensor and you are good to-go, but not with Apple Fitness+. There is no way to do this at all and rarely does the instructor call out a number, they often just say match my speed, or slow down, or speed up. I get that it was made for everyone and every bike, but cadence is a minimum requirement in my opinion. I guess I could hook up my phone side-by-side my iPad to see it, but this seems horrible. For now, I have to just feel it out.

Now, with that said, if you have your bike in front of your Apple TV, then things will work great. You can use your iPhone or iPad as a big cadence sensor and just watch on the TV. Unfortunately for me, I have it in the garage.... there is no TV out there. So, I do what I always do in this situation and develop and app! I just launched My Cadence for iOS & Android that enables you to connect your cadence sensor to your device and get realtime readings :)

I do love the stats and the burn bar, especially at the end of a ride. It really gives great data and compared to the peloton app it includes both active and total calories in the ride, as you can see below.

So, we will see how much I use Apple Fitness+ on my bike or if I will just stick with Peloton for now. I have a month with the free trial to wait and see if Apple updates the app.

Want to see how it all really works? Checkout my full video breakdown that you can watch here:

12 Days, 15 Rides Review

I am now almost at the two-week mark of owning my Sunny Bike with this full setup and I can say that I am extremely happy with my decision.

While the bike doesn't have all the fancy gadgets and sensors built-in, I have found that I don't really need them. Unless you are using a Peloton bike with the Peloton app, you will never truly be able to get the resistance 100% accurate, as all bikes have different scales. Since the Sunny bike has no way of knowing what the resistance is, I just sort of "feel it out" based on what the instructors say. I crank the resistance up and down based on if they request as flat road, medium climb, or heavy climb and it all works well.

Riding the bike is a joy and the flywheel has serious weight behind it, which I really enjoy. The combination of bike, cadence sensor, and tablet are exactly what I need to get a great workout.

I have noticed a few things about the bike. First is that I have had a few oil drops from the leather pad which was unexpected. They recommended adding oil every month, but I was surprised to see it dripping out of the box. Luckily, I have the bike in the garage, but if you have this inside make sure you have it on a mat. Second is that you will get a little smell when doing high resistance from the leather pad. It isn't anything bad but be aware that you have a huge flywheel rubbing against leather at high speeds.

I have not had any issues with crank arms, flywheel, or the belt, and everything just seems to work. I have since picked up a little bit of 3-in-1 oil and a brush (~$8 at Home Depot) to do monthly maintenance on the leather resistance pad as recommended.

Beyond that, I go out, hop on the bike, and ride! If anything changes in the future, I will be sure to update the blog! Feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @JamesMontemagno with questions or comments.

Links to third party sites may contain affiliate links that allow you to find the items mentioned on this site. While this site may earn minimal sums when the reader uses the links, the reader is in NO WAY obligated to use these links. Thank you for your support! I also am donating a portion of any money made from affiliate links to Warm Hearts Winter Drive. Read more here.

As winter approaches and the pandemic rages on and on I know I will be indoors even more than ever. Even though I am excited for cross-country skiing, I know I will miss the day (which is already here) that I am not going to be able to hop on my bike and go for a ride outside. I have always loved spin classes and pre-pandemic I used to go several times a month to in person classes for exercise. I have always thought about going all in on a Peloton, however I couldn't justify the price. However, now seems like a great time to bring spin classes to the home. If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen that I decided to go a different route and build my own spin bike for under $400. I got all the goods last week and put it together!

Spin Bike Built!! https://t.co/t8w7QGNBMk #ref #SunnyBike pic.twitter.com/sM0L5S1HMT

— James Montemagno (@JamesMontemagno) December 3, 2020

In addition to the Sunny SF-B1002 spin bike (300) I also picked up a cadence sensor from Moofit ($20), a seat cover ($15), and an iPad holder ($13). All of this comes together and enables me to have a drop-dead simple spin bike with great resistance with the ability to see my cadence (rotations per minute).

What is really cool is that you can use all sorts of different apps to get spin classes at home and Peloton for sure is the top. For $13 a month you can subscribe to Peloton Digital and get live and recorded classes. A full peloton bike has all sorts of sensors, but if you have your own bike and use the app it can connect to a cadence sensor and a heart rate monitor to give you more data.

If you use an Apple Watch + Apple Fitness the Peloton app can synchronize your workouts after your rides directly to your Health app and they will show up in your Fitness app. This is awesome, but now you must decide... synchronize the data from Peloton or manually start and stop a workout each ride. I like numbers and I like accuracy, so I did some experiments to see what stats are better and more accurate. So, I took the same 20 minute ride setting the cadence as close as I could to see what the numbers would shake out to, and the results were interesting.

Peloton App + Cadence Sensor

The benefit of using the Peloton app is that you can connect a cadence sensor, which gives the app additional data as to how your ride went. If you don't own a separate heart rate monitor this may be your default option that you use and is what I did right away. My 20 minute ride went great, but I was shocked when it said I only burned 129 calories!

At this point the Peloton app has my age/sex/height/weight, so I figured it would be relatively accurate. However, while I was doing this ride, I was also ran an "indoor cycling" workout on my Apple Watch and it gave vastly different results...

Apple Watch Fitness (Indoor Cycling)

I track about everything I do on my Apple Watch and have really enjoyed the statistics that it provides. One advantage of tracking an indoor cycling activity on the Apple Watch is that it has a plethora data that you provide and sensors including your heart rate. When I did the ride above, I also started an indoor cycling activity and as you can see it was vastly different tracking 270 active calories and 303 total calories.

One thing you will note here is that the ride was 1 minute and 18 seconds longer than what the Peloton app says. The Peloton app does not consider any warmup or cool down you do before the ride starts. If it is a 20-minute ride you will have a read out of 20 minutes.

I was surprised that the calorie count was so different, I mean it is more than double! I did feel that the calorie count of 270 from the Apple Watch was more accurate, but seeing they were so different I didn't know what to believe. While, I could never provide the Apple Watch with my cadence, I could provide the Peloton app with my Heart Rate... so I did one more test.

Peloton App + Cadence + Heart Rate Monitor

I don't own a separate heart rate monitor, but I do own an Apple Watch.... which has a heart rate monitor which I just talked about. A problem is that you can't "cast" your heart rate directly to another device "out of the box". It didn't take me long to find an app on the App Store that would allow me to "cast" my watch from my phone to the Peloton app on my iPad. The brilliant HeartCast app is completely free with no ads and simply JUST WORKS! It is amazing! One thing to note is that only one app can have direct access to your heart rate at a time on the Apple Watch. That means you have to decide to cast your heart rate to the Peloton app or do an indoor cycling activity in the fitness app. You can't do both at the same time, which is fine, because I am looking for a single source of stats for my rides.

So, with HeartCast streaming my heart rate and my cadence sensor going to town I set off on my ride. And what would you know my calorie burn completely changed and clocked in at 296 burned!

Again, the Peloton ride is only 20 minutes, so it didn't take into consideration my warmup and cool down, but it is very comparable to my Apple Fitness activity that I did. One bonus that you do get with this method is that the Peloton app will show your "heart rate zones" over your ride:

Wrap-up... what to use?!?

So, what does this all mean and what should you use to track your ride? The conclusion that you should not use the Health app sync from Peloton unless you have a heart rate monitor. The stats are very generic and not accurate to the number of calories that you are truly burning.

If you have an Apple Watch I feel as though it is just easier to track your rides directly on the fitness app by starting an indoor cycling activity. The stats are similar, and it has the advantage of tracking your warmup and cool down activity.

While I do find it easy to cast your heart rate to your iPad with HeartCast it is another step between you and your ride. That being said... if you are really really into your stats and want the data to be the same between your Peloton app and your Apple Fitness app then you should ensure you use a heart rate monitor (or HeartCast) to use with the app. The extra bonus is that you get those zones for your heart rate.

I hope that you found this pretty interesting and I would be curious what your experience is and how you track your rides. Hit me up on Twitter @JamesMontemagno.

Hero photo by Humphrey Muleba via Unsplash

Links to third party sites may contain affiliate links that allow you to find the items mentioned on this site. While this site may earn minimal sums when the reader uses the links, the reader is in NO WAY obligated to use these links. Thank you for your support!