Synching all Keiser M3 bikes in our spin classes

[ablake]

RE: Keiser M3 bikes: I'm receiving complaints from spin class participants that "not all the bikes are calibrated the same". As a result, some people are waiting outside the door before our gym opens so that they can "get their bike" because it is calibrated the way they like it. The situation is getting very frustrating for all concerned. I would greatly appreciate any feedback. Thank you very much!

[kickerjoy]

Haha, I teach on those bikes, and other power bikes that give inaccurate readings. I stopped using power as a reference point when it became clear that they weren't reliable. So people become less invested and/or frustrated if you make it less of a thing. I just give them other things to pay attention to, that are reliable so that they feel that the session is beneficial. And there's plenty of that. Because a power based class is only as effective as your least working bike...

[ablake]

Thank you for your reply. So am I understanding your reply to mean that it's not possible to have all the Keiser bikes calibrated the same?

[kickerjoy]

I can only speak of my experience. Over the last few years, I've taught and ridden on Keisers in various clubs, and have found the readings to vary from bike to bike. This has been the feedback from other riders and instructors as well. Club managers and studio owners have tried to calibrate them, but it doesn't seem to work. I have never been in touch with Keiser myself to find out if there is any way to truly calibrate them, so I can't authoritatively say it's impossible, but so far, it's never been my experience. If somone is invested in seeing data that they can compare their power to from session to session, choosing the same bike every time would likely be the best way to go-as impractical as that might be in the scenario you describe. My parent's club has an online reservation system that they can choose their bikes ahead of time, maybe that would help with the before class bike choosing drama...

[SamIAm]

This is a perennial problem for Keiser. It might be theoretically possible to calibrate all the bikes the same but keeping them that way would be a full time job. There are a few videos on YouTube that will show you how to do it. You need the little red thingy in order to do it.

I begin most of my classes with an explanation that some of the bikes are different and a series of ramp ups so that people have the opportunity to go up and down so that they can get a sense of what their bike is like. That works for most people. For those it doesn't work for recommend they get a bluetooth HR monitor strap and an app on their phone to record the data. Then they can take it home, plot it, download it and generally geek out all they want. Admittedly, HR is not as good as power but it does not suffer from this calibration issue.

[Hyneman]

RE: Keiser M3 bikes: I'm receiving complaints from spin class participants that "not all the bikes are calibrated the same". As a result, some people are waiting outside the door before our gym opens so that they can "get their bike" because it is calibrated the way they like it. The situation is getting very frustrating for all concerned. I would greatly appreciate any feedback. Thank you very much!

Yep that's a bad situation. I've also noticed that some bikes are calibrated differently.