Spin bike questions

nikkihumble15

Hello! I recently bought a spin bike but I have a few questions hoping someone can help! I have an Apple Watch and it obviously tracks heart rate and time worked out but not distance. I was looking at different cadence sensors and it’s just so confusing to me. Can someone please tell me what is the point of using one on an indoor spin bike? What a cons of not having one? Will it sync with my watch?

sijomial

Heart rate is useful from a training perspective - that's what sports heart rate monitors were invented for.
But do remember they can't measure calories, they can only estimate them and sometimes very badly especially if someone is doing interval training or not very fit. If you are of average fitness and/or have an average exercise HR and doing steady state cardio they can be reasonable (which is good enough for purpose).

Remember Spinning bikes do not more - they don't do any distance at all.
Distance and speed displayed on stationary bikes isn't realistic compared to the same speed/distance done outside with rolling resistance, aero resistance and gravity to contend with.
Depending on what resistance method your bike uses (mechanical or electrical/magnetic) the "speed" in comparison to real speed tends to vary from absolutely comical to just badly inflated.

Cadence is a useful training metric, for pedalling efficiency you probably want to spend the majority of your time between 80 and 100rpm. I really like my Wahoo RPM cadence sensor - it can be mounted either to your shoe or to the crank arm of your bike if you only have the one bike to use. It can use either Bluetooth or ANT+ to wirelessly connect to your phone or other devices.

If your bike measures and displays power produced (in watts normally) then you can get very accurate calorie estimates from your average watts data.

Jthanmyfitnesspal

I like this one and have used it for spinning and cycling for several years and I just received a new spin bike for home!

I attach my cadence monitor to my cycling shoe strap, but you can also hook it to the bike crank, if you prefer (electrical or other tape works well). You have to replace the battery every year or so, but it's quite easy. Wahoo has a free app that will monitor it on your phone that is easy to use. It uploads to MFP, if you like, but you really need to add HR if you want a reasonable calorie estimate.

https://www.wahoofitness.com/devices/bike-sensors/wahoo-rpm-cadence-sensor

I don't have an Apple Watch and I don't see any indication that you can pair an external sensor with it. So, sorry! Maybe someone else knows better.

As for the information cadence provides: I put it in the "nice to have" category. You can see where you worked harder or easier and compare to your HR. You can watch it in real-time to gauge whether you are slacking off. I think it would be entirely reasonable to monitor cadence during the ride using your phone, but monitor the level of effort (calorie burn) using your apple watch.

Or, you could spend even more money and buy a chest strap HR monitor so that you can get everything on your phone. This has the slight advantage that you can watch it during the workout along with your cadence

https://www.wahoofitness.com/devices/heart-rate-monitors/tickr/buy

Finally, there is a slight issue concerning a lack of a speedometer. For a bike with changeable gears, speed is a useful metric, even when doing stationary cycling. For a spin bike with a fixed gear, it is pretty irrelevant. But, certain apps will totally fritz out if there is no speed/distance reported. So, you could buy the combination of speed and cadence, putting the speed sensor on your flywheel (near the hub). Now, you get to choose your wheel diameter, which will give your virtual speed and distance. You can pick anything you like!

https://www.wahoofitness.com/devices/bike-sensors/speed-and-cadence-sensors-bundle

heybales

You could likely get a cadence sensor that could be fanangled onto the spin bike (or they sell an option probably too) that could be used with phone app to read that cadence.

Purpose - to keep spin around knee healthy 90 rpm, that would be about it's only purpose.

Cadence is not distance, which has no real meaning on indoor bike anyway as there is no air resistance and no literal distance being done obviously.

You could instead use several apps to search through your music and find songs that fit the 85-95 beats per min (or 170-190), and initially play those and pedal to the beat to see what that cadence feels like and get used to it.
Then start watching the spin videos if that is usage you see doing, and keep the spin up.

I actually liked creating a 4 cycle playlist of my own music and could easily hit an hour. resistance changed correctly between levels, with the flat being the reference.
90 for flat. (slight recovery)
80 for hill. (standing usually)
95 for downhill. (good recovery)
85 for slight incline. (standing sitting harder push)
repeat. 4 sets of that usually hit an hour.

Many times during winter I'd borrow gym's spin room (they allowed me) and use the stereo system to play my music, and hit 2-3 hrs easily. I'd have others come and go and once I explained the plan - they'd join in.

NorthCascades

Distance is always zero on an indoor bike. Because you haven't moved. Typically they "convert" into "distance" based on how many times the wheel turns, but it's not really meaningful in almost any way, and the real answer is zero.

That doesn't mean the exercise doesn't count, it just means distance isn't useful.

As a person who rides thousands of miles per year, I think cadence is a red herring, it's half of useful. 🙂 It's a lot like knowing how many reps you did but not how much weight. I personally wouldn't spend the $ just to measure cadence.

If you want to anyway, get sued and cadence sensor that uses Bluetooth so your watch can see it. You'll probably need an app that's programmed to look for that signal. But you already have time and intensity being measured and recorded, so Bob's already your uncle.

Jthanmyfitnesspal

@NorthCascades is right about cadence when doing real riding. It is rarely of any use. But, I definitely use it on a spin bike. Many of the workouts specifically call out cadences for different sections of the workout.

B_Plus_Effort

when you are starting just keep it simple, and just mix it up so you don't get bored, you can work on your RPMs ie fast spinning even on a 0 setting one day for like 30 minutes then the next day do a distance ride say for 20 miles to start at a little higher resistance setting

I know I am not answering your question my stationary bike shows me all this stuff and I just look at it for funzies

don't let the low resistance level fool you when I used to ride some of the best riders were spinning circles around me at high RPMs above a 100 and I could barely keep up with them

as a reference I try to spin at 90 to 100 RPM (but I'm old, 48, male, blah blah blah)