MPH a bit off on Spin Bike

General Discussion
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Don’t hate me because I’m using a spin bike. I put the Wahoo cadence device on my shoe and what the display on my spin bike matches exactly as what Zwift is telling me. However, when I attach the speed sensor to the spin fly wheel (at the smallest/shortest rotation near the bolt) I get different readings. Zwift is about 4 to 5 MPH faster than what my spin bike reads.

Just for clarification: Peloton bike. And yes, I know my wattage won’t be right. I’m doing this for fun and as an experiment to see what extra use I can get out of my wife’s peloton bike before deciding to invest in a trainer setup.

p.s. maybe it doesn’t matter. It’s just for fun, for now. But I was hoping to get the MPH to match up like the cadence.

2

@Jonathan_Austen
The cadence will match because different cadence sensors will report very similar RPM data, with some slop possible depending on the sensor’s location (flopping on shoelaces vs bonded to a crankarm).

Speed and power meters designed for an actual bicycle wheel of industry-standard sizes won’t necessarily work as intended when attached to an exercise bike’s solid flywheel because wheel sizes aren’t the same, or even standardized within the exercise equipment business. A few MPH variance is to be expected. Don’t sweat it too much, and enjoy.

1 Like
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Got it. Thanks.