How accurrate is the milage counter on an exercise bike?

Question

I have a pretty good exercise bike (Life Cycle 9500HR)
I ride for 30 minutes and it seems it always reads out 10.80 miles. I started out on level 2, keeping the RPMs at 100-105= 10.80 miles. I recently have changed to the first 2 minutes warming up and keeping the RPMs at 75-85 and the last 2 minutes the same for a cool down, while minutes 3-28 are at 100-115 RPms. and still it shows 10.80 miles. How accurate do you think this is? Is there a simple way to know for sure how far I rode?

Answer 1

Milage counters are terrible so are the calorie counters.

Best way to use an exercise bike

Step one
take out the battery Most home machines are about as accurate as a watch (yours seems to be tuned for 21.6 miles per hour.)

Step two
start riding at around 100 rpm + or -

Step three
increase loading until you reach a point where you are just beginning to breath heavy (pant). This should be close to your aerobic threshold. Approximately 75% of your maximum heart rate. the formula 220 - age x .75 (if you have a heart rate monitor.) This is also around 75% of vo2 max

This places you in the best zone to burn fat and exercise your heart. The longer you stay at this pace the better. Higher rates will burn more calories but your heart works at higher pressure and lower volumes. Good cardio exercise increases the volume of blood your heart can pump.

If you want to judge equivalent distance jump on a real bike and ride at the same rate.( It is the only accurate way)

A better measure of fitness is your resting heart rate. Take your pulse first thing in the morning (after a good nights sleep) before you get up. Any thing below 60 is good the lower the better. Good cardio exercise will reduce resting heart rate.

As your fitness improves you will need to increase your resistance to maintain the same heart rate.
You will find that when riding the real bike, your speed will increase at this same heart rate.

Answer 2

id say it is about 10.8 mile off. A stationary bike doesn't go anywhere. on a real bike, you would take your peddling RPM's times your gear ratio to get the RPM's of the rear tire then multiply it by the tires circumference. for instance:

100 peddle RPM's to a 30 to 10 ratio (30 teeth on front gear 10 on rear)
(100 x 30) / 10 = 300 RPM's at rear wheel

17 in. rear wheel diameter
dia x Pi
17 x 3.14 = 53.38 per RPM

RPM's x Circumference

300 x 53.38 = 16014 inches or 0.2527462 miles per minute.

now multiply by time (30minutes) to get about 7.58 miles

now this only works is you don't change gears or RPM's frequently and ONLY on a real bike.

Answer 3

I noticed the same thing at the gym. Doesn't matter what the rpm's are, the mileage is always the same. It must be pre-set. Just count the effort & time & keep track of your outdoor miles seperate.
Best for your knees to stay under 110 RPM's by the way.

Answer 4

Exercise bikes are generally not that accurate. If you can do 10.8 miles in 30 minutes, that translates to an average speed of about 22mph. That is a very very high average speed for an average non-competitive cyclist. I've done road races with hills with average speeds in that neighborhood.

Answer 5

Honda CG125 (extra Commuter/intense Milage kind of motorbike) Or Honda CBR125 (extra Sporty Than CG125) As those Are Honda's assume To get surprising Relaibility And build high quality. solid success --Mikey B--

Answer 6

ALL mileage computers are not perfect
over time and mileage, it is usually an error range of + or - 3 %

the ones on exercise bikes are usually worse than those on real bikes

Answer 7

they are famously inaccurate. ignore the speed and mileage counters, and the calorie and watts counters if they have those.

the pulse meters are reasonably close, and the clock is close enough.