Adding Power to a Keiser Stationary Bike

Community & Events Gear Parade
,
1

Hey all,

I have a very odd question for the community. I am using an old Keiser stationary bike at work for some of my L2 rides. I have my chest strap for heart rate, but I’m not getting any other data off the bike. So no cadence, distance / speed, or power readings. Also, even though the bike is picking up my HRM via Ant+, the bike is not transmitting the power data over Ant+.

IMG_25452.HEIC
IMG_25452.HEIC3024×4032 2.92 MB

I know that the Keiser doesn’t really record the overall distance in any usable form of units… So here are my questions:

  1. Is Athletica (when it starts working correctly again, I have faith) ok with just heart rate data for my L2 work?

  2. If not, has anybody figured out how to attach a speed sensor on a bike like this? I can put a cadence sensor on easy enough, but I don’t know if that data is useful without a speed sensor.

And yes, I know I could put a set of power meter pedals on the bike and all my problems would be solved, but I’m doing these recovery rides over my lunch hour. I really don’t have the time to take off the old pedals, attach my power pedals, take them off, and put the old pedals back on.

Thanks in advance!

Andy

2

Keiser used to make a wireless dongle you can get to transmit power and cadence data - it eats through batteries, but gave power and cadence data. Looks like they don’t sell it anymore, but found these: https://k2pi.company.site

If you can get power and cadence, Athletica should be able to measure compliance and load pretty accurately. But if you don’t want to or can’t do that (it’s a lot of effort & $ for a company bike), you can change the settings in Athletica to use HR by default for cycling and still get a solid load measurement.

1 Like
3

Thanks, Kimberg! I’ll look into seeing if I can make it work with that stationary bike.

I’m only using it for L2 recovery or aerobic development, so I don’t really need the data. But I know Athletica is looking at the data for my power curve. Hence the rabbit hole.

Really appreciate your expertise!

1 Like
4

Can you swing a pair of power pedals? I think power trumps speed for bike workouts.

5

I have power pedals, but I just don’t want to be installing them and uninstalling them every time I use the bike. This is supposed to be over my lunch hour, and the ride is already an hour long or longer on the mid-volume plan.

Also, the bike is so old that I’d have to replace the head unit for Kimberg’s recommendation to work. So I’m just going to be using the heart rate data for my L2 rides.

Thanks everyone.

6

Ah, sorry to hear that! But HR should work well enough, good luck! and keep us posted.