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Smarter Outdoor Cycling features

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mattburley7

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Oct 13, 2011
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Smarter Outdoor Cycling features was announced today at the event
is this for only the series 7? I see it as part of the watchOS 8 page but there is no mention if this is only for series 7?
Anyone have any ideas?
 
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mattburley7 said:
Smarter Outdoor Cycling features was announced today at the event
is this for only the series 7? I see it as part of the watchOS 8 page but there is no mention if this is only for series 7?
Anyone have any ideas?
Click to expand...
Could be a new/upgraded sensor
 
mattburley7 said:
Smarter Outdoor Cycling features was announced today at the event
is this for only the series 7? I see it as part of the watchOS 8 page but there is no mention if this is only for series 7?
Anyone have any ideas?
Click to expand...
This is the biggest question I had from today. Really hope this works with the series 6. If not, might have to upgrade.
 
I was very happy to see ebike included. I presume that goes for the older watches as well? My AW5 already detected falls, but are they more accurate now?
 
I’m thinking this may be a Watch OS 8 feature rather than S7. The OS 8 webpage doesn’t call it out as an exclusive feature
 
I think this might be an Apple Watch 7 exclusive feature, which is pretty dumb.

I upgraded to watchOS 8 and went for a ride. There is no ebike activity or anything to choose. I picked Outdoor Cycling and there is nothing to indicate that it was an ebike. The active calories it recorded was very close to what it would have been for normal cycling.
 
Same, on my series 5 there is no e-bike activity. It's a shame that this would be series 7 exclusive.
 
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voice feedback can help you safely track your milestones via speaker, AirPods, or Bluetooth headphones.

does anyone know if this is on the series 6 using watchOS 8 or is that series 7 exclusive too?
 
The auto detect outdoor cycling works on watchOS 8 and Apple Watch 6.

I forgot to try the “how far have I been?” Siri requests.
 
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Considering we don’t have a release date for the Series 7 yet, this could be functionality coming in watchOS 8.1 or a later update.
 
rjp1 said:
I think this might be an Apple Watch 7 exclusive feature, which is pretty dumb.
Click to expand...
... not if the goal is to drive additional upgrades when there's not a lot of other reasons to upgrade from an S5 or S6... 👿:p
 
Wesd1234 said:
I am on the release candidate of WatchOS 8 on my S5 and I’ve noticed that auto start and pause for cycling is enabled now
Click to expand...
And I can confirm it’s working on my S4 too. Seems pretty reliable: consistently paused a few seconds after coming to a halt, and resumed after moving maybe 5m when setting off.
 
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Kach_one said:
Same, on my series 5 there is no e-bike activity. It's a shame that this would be series 7 exclusive.
Click to expand...
Oh is that why I couldn't find the setting? I updated last night and commuted on my ebike this morning. Auto pausing worked perfectly on my series 5 for stopping at lights and level crossings, but I couldn't for the life of me find the ebike option. Surely it's just an updated calculation and nothing requiring newer hardware?
 
On Watch S4 start an Outdoor Cycle workout dosen't seem to work. Pausing and resuming works fine but it can be annoying, if i take off my hands from handlebar it stops workout even when i'm still riding :/
 
schriker said:
On Watch S4 start an Outdoor Cycle workout dosen't seem to work. Pausing and resuming works fine but it can be annoying, if i take off my hands from handlebar it stops workout even when i'm still riding :/
Click to expand...
Weird. On my ride yesterday I spent some time with my watch hand off the bars and it never paused when I wasn’t stopped.
 
auto pause is working for me too which is great. Don’t think I’m getting the milestones notification though! Well not through my powerbeats anyway! Is there a setting to ensure these are notified through headphones and not just out of the watch speaker? Also unsure whether you can toggle what set milestones will be announced!
 
schriker said:
Apple website says it's available on "Available on Apple Watch SE, Apple Watch Series 6, and Apple Watch Series 7."? https://www.apple.com/pl/newsroom/2021/09/watchos-8-is-available-today/ Wow looks like they trying to kill older models with a stupid lack of software features... I have S4 and what SE has that S4 doesn't and cannot have this feature?
Click to expand...
Kill? Nah. Your S4 still does everything it did when you bought it.

Not continuing to add new features/capabilities to three year old devices? Apple's not a charity, they're a global mega-corporation. Of course they're going to make decisions aimed at enticing people towards upgrading to get new features/capabilities.
 
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Here is some single-subject data regarding how watchOS 8 on an S4 Apple Watch handles calorie counting for e-bike rides. I looked back at my Fitness app records and compared two rides that were almost the same. Both rides were on my e-bike using the lowest level of pedal assist through most of the ride. The first ride was recorded using watchOS 7 and the app reported that I was burning approximately 31 active cal per mile. The second ride was recorded using watchOS 8 and the app reported I was burning about 21 cal per mile. This suggest that watchOS 8 has changed in how calories are counted for outdoor cycling.

Next, I took my human-powered road bike out for the same route, tracking caloric effort with my Apple Watch running watchOS 8. It took more effort as demonstrated by the average heart rate of 107 BPM for this ride compared with 92 BPM for the same ride on my e-bike. My watch said I was burning 34 active cal per mile on my human-powered bike, much more than the 21 cal per mile reported for the same ride on my e-bike. I conclude from my data that the Apple Watch running watchOS 8 is making some under the hood adjustment for the reduced effort of riding an e-bike.

Attached are the Fitness app screens for the 3 rides. The 1st one is on my e-bike with watchOS 7, the 2nd one is my e-bike with watchOS 8, and the 3rd one is my human-powered bike with watchOS 8.
 

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Hopefully e-bike setting will arrive, its annoying to always log into Strava on my phone after a ride. I keep switching between e and regular bike rides
 
yoak said:
Hopefully e-bike setting will arrive, its annoying to always log into Strava on my phone after a ride. I keep switching between e and regular bike rides
Click to expand...

Probably show up right around the time Apple announces an ebike... :D
 
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Auto pause worked fine for me today on my s4. Paused with a slight vibration so I knew it happened. Started again no issue. Looking forward to ebike setting as getting an ecargo bike at work in the next week or so.
 
As I have a full suspension emtb I really would like them to implement ebike mode. I use it hard and it’s a full on work out when I’m going out for a ride
 
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