Stages SB20 - Restart and be Happy

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No On/Off Switch

Most smart bikes and trainers don't have an on/off switch?  Many of us ask why? 

The usual answer is cost. A power switch adds a dollar or two to the product price. I'm not so sure. I think answer is tied to regulations. An on/off switch on any product with a separate power brick affects compliance with things like Energy Star ratings since the power brick continues to consume energy after the switch is turned off.  In other words, it's likely more political than a technical or cost factor.

Welcome to our Beta Test

Online indoor riding relies on software and hardware from several vendors. Any component can have bugs or other issues that affect reliability and cause communication errors with apps that have not been tested together. For example: My SB20 smart bike had a longstanding Zwift bug in iOS that prevented automatic connecting for 16 months! Other bugs have been less obvious. More than one app has slowed down time with the seconds counter suddenly taking more than a second. Power reading updates are occasionally sluggish and lag behind the structured workout blocks being displayed.  

Summary: Nowadays, we all end up beta testing production software. To be fair, smaller vendors like Stages, can't test every configuration. More over, when bugs are found in omnipresent apps like Zwift, how long will it take for the vendor to respond to the needs of a less prominent vendor?

Good Digital Hygiene

I am a fan of powering on your smart bike or trainer before each indoor riding session. This includes restarting all of the apps you use. Why? If a vendor did manage to do testing using my particular configuration, the startup state is the one they likely tested. 

Time Marches On

What is happening during the 99% of the time when you aren't riding your indoor bike? Firmware (a.k.a., software that is just less convenient to update 🤣) is waiting for you to start your next session. Has the bike and related apps restarted their wireless connections? Have all internal counters been reset? Have all error conditions been addressed? Has the power surge/voltage drop that just occurred  been handled correctly? Did anyone even test for this?

See No Evil 🙈     

Most smart bikes and trainers have limited display capabilities - or none at all.  My SB20 bike is one of latter. It has no display or indicator lights. 

Because I am effectively riding in the dark, here's the situation before each ride:  

  • In the last 24 hours, did any errors occur? With no display or indicators, I would see nothing.  
  • Did my bike reset but not my iPad apps like Zwift or TrainerDay? This is fairly common since iPads and computers are typically more robust respect to power line glitches. The apps will now have orphaned wireless connections that I may not see until I start riding.
  • Does my bike, or any of the apps I use, have bugs (duh)? Undiscovered bugs often accumulate adding to a form of software entrophy that increases the likelihood of failure.
Imagine the fun when I have a Zwift race that I've been preparing for all week. Doing a power off/on plus app restart mitigates all of the above.  So why not?

It Takes too Long

Many people say it takes too long to restart everything. Here's my video suggesting these rumours could be false 😁.


What do think? Do you turn your smart bike/trainer off between uses?  Or do ride all the time without issues? Is there something in between that works for you?






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