Announcing StagePlay - an app to let you use the unused buttons on your StagesBike SB20

Hi everyone,

In about March this year, I took delivery of my SB20. Like many other SB20 owners, I was frustrated at the fact that there were two perfectly good and unused buttons on the handlebars. So, I set about trying to find a way to make use of these buttons.

The result of this effort is an app I’ve developed called StagePlay. It’s an app that I run alongside Zwift, and it connects to my Stages SB20 bike and gives some use to the two unused buttons on the handlebars of the SB20. Basically, you have a menu of items and you use the right button on the handlebars to move to the next action, and the left button to select that particular action.

From StagePlay, you can:

  • Skip to the next track (if you use something like YouTube Music to play music while you ride)
  • Play/Pause the current track (useful for if someone is trying to talk to you during your ride)
  • Use Powerup (in Zwift, use your selected powerup)
  • Do U-Turn (in Zwift, do a u-turn)
  • Adjust volume (statefully adjust your volume. Every time you press the action button on your handlebar, the volume goes up 10%. Once at 100%, it loops around back to 0%)

There’s also a gigantic current gear indicator to show you what gear you’re currently in. In my setup, I have DreamDrive in 25 gears, and the current gear updates whenever I change gears. This means it’s a lot easier to “know” that I’ve changed gears (as the SB20 doesn’t offer much feedback when you press the button otherwise).

Above the gear indicator is a balance indicator, so you can know if you’re putting more power through your left or right leg in real-time.

Finally, one of the common complaints I heard about the SB20 is people wouldn’t know when the batteries in their cranks were on the way out. I’ve added a small widget that shows the battery levels of the cranks.

In my setup, I have an ANT+ USB dongle that connects to the bike, and then my computer connects to the bike over Bluetooth. It works fine for me for many hours on end.

The app is $25 USD, not a subscription, and gets updated when I push updates out for it (which happens fairly regularly). For now, it’s only available on Windows, but macOS is in testing and I hope to land it on iOS and Android devices in the near future. I’ve sold about a dozen copies so far, and it seems to work on a wide range of computers, which is good. I run a Discord for support, and also offer support via email.

Any questions, let me know :grinning:. I can’t post links, but if you want more information, check out stageplay dot me. I’m not able to share screenshots on the forum, or links, due to the newness of my account.

Also, just to be clear about it, this app isn’t associated with or made by Stages Bike LLC.

P.S: I’m posting about this here because I’ve seen another post that mentions this issue and the lack of usable buttons on the SB20 (which I can’t post a link to, because my account is too new). I hope it doesn’t run afoul of the rules around self-promotion. If it does, sorry in advance mods!