Fitbit answers your cycling prayers
Fitbit has announced a new outdoor bike tracking feature for Fitbit Surge users.
The bike-tracking function leverages GPS and other advanced sensors on the device to allow riders to see distance, duration, average speed, heart rate, calories burned and time. The stats automatically sync wirelessly to the Fitbit app dashboard to review routes, speed and elevation in more detail.
Fitbit says that according to the Outdoor Participation Report, the second favourite outdoor activities by frequency of participation are road biking, mountain biking and BMX. The Surge will now track all these multi-sport activities and capture activity.
"Our users are passionate about fitness and have consistently requested a way to track their outdoor cycling activity," says Tim Roberts, VP of Interactive, Fitbit.
"We are delivering this feature on Fitbit Surge for active consumers looking to track and better understand performance during rides, in addition to their other workouts," he says.
"Our goal is to provide users with the tools it takes to track their exercise and reward them for doing the activities they love to do most – like biking and running.
Getting the most out of your bike rides The Fitbit Surge offers GPS, continuous wrist-based heart rate, all-day fitness tracking and smartwatch functionality in one device with up to 7 days of battery life. Multi-sport mode allow users to easily record running, cross training, cardio and now biking workouts, which automatically sync wirelessly to users' accounts.
This week, Fitbit will also launch Multi-Tracker Support, which lets users switch between Fitbit trackers throughout their day or week, so they can use the right tracker for any occasion.
Users will now be able to pair up to six Fitbit trackers (one of each model) and MobileTrack (iOS only) to a single Fitbit account.
Once multiple trackers are paired to an account, Fitbit will automatically detect when a user switches from one tracker to another, with no buttons to push on the device or the app.
"For users who want to wear a more discreet Fitbit One to work, Fitbit Surge for a run, or Tory Burch for Fitbit for a night on the town, all of their steps will be captured on their Fitbit dashboard," the company says. Users with a compatible mobile device can also utilise MobileTrack as a tracker to fill in the gaps if they leave their tracker at home or forget to charge it.
Availability Fitbit Surge bike-tracking will be available to all Fitbit Surge users by next month in North America, on iOS and Android, with global availability coming soon.
