Back in December, I started using a small red box with my original Peloton bike. That little red box did exactly one thing: emit my power, cadence, and speed via Bluetooth Smart to third-party apps and watches, such as Zwift or a Garmin watch. Intelligenate’s DFC drive is meant to be a set and forget about the kind of thing. Simply connect it to your Peloton bike and it will relay you the power and cadence numbers to whatever you want. This is remarkable because neither Peloton Bike nor Bike + have integrated data transmission of your power or cadence.
For many families who own a Peloton bike, this means you couldn’t use it with platforms like Zwift or TrainerRoad, without installing third-party power meter pedals, which obviously significantly increases the cost of the bike. Sure, you could load these apps onto the bike, but you couldn’t access that power data. But … now you can.
I’ve been using this device for about four months now and frankly it’s one of the only perfect devices I’ve ever tried. It just works. That said, keep in mind that the unit I’m testing is technically a prototype and is also slightly different from the final product (which has more ports, mostly USB-C ports for the Peloton Bike +).
Now, we’ll keep this message fast, because … well … it should be fast, it’s not complicated.
How it works:
DFC stands for “Data Fitness Connector” and the little red box is smaller than a deck of cards. Basically, the box acts as an intermediary, quietly listening to the power data transmitted from the Peloton Bike sensor to the screen. It is usually connected using a simple 3.5mm cable that connects directly to the screen. However, the DFC includes an additional cable, so connect the original cable to the red DFC box, and from there, connect the DFC box to the display. Then connect the USB cable to the USB port on your Platoon. This only serves to supply power, just like charging the phone.
And with that, that’s it. The important thing about this is that there is no software to install, or anything that has changed in terms of software (or even hardware) on your Peloton Bike. It’s effectively like plugging in headphones. Behind the scenes, the DFC box decodes the power and cadence signals that are normally sent from the bike to the screen and simply streams it via Bluetooth Smart using the standard Bluetooth Smart power meter profile. This means you can easily connect it to applications and devices. When using the USB port on the back of the device, you don’t have to worry about battery life as it stays charged forever.
So, with everything connected, you can search for a Bluetooth power meter and find it. For example, here it is connected to a Garmin FR745:
And here is the data transmission. From the user’s point of view, it is identical to any other bicycle power meter. It’s the same. Just start your journey inside with your Garmin / Polar / Wahoo / Suunto / anything you do like any other coaching trip.
And here is Zwift on my iPhone connected:
It emits the same data as the Peloton itself, although you will see very slight differences of 1-3w in some cases. Then it’s not one of those cases, as my watch is set to 3 seconds and the Peloton Bike isn’t.
But looking at the data itself, I recorded a workout on both the Peloton Bike and my Garmin, and you can see that the data is pretty much the same, saving a very small difference from second to second by a watt or two:
This includes power and cadence data, as well as speed, although most cycling training apps will discard / ignore speed (such as in Zwift or TrainerRoad). The system supports two simultaneous Bluetooth connections, so you can pair it with an application like TrainerRoad while saving data to your watch simultaneously.
For Garmin and Polar users, this is remarkable from the point of view of the training load, as previously there was no way to get the power data of a Peloton bike on the clock to get prospects for loading and retrieval. And I know, some of you think that “no serious cyclist” would ever use a Peloton bike, but the reality is the opposite. Too often, people think too much about training platforms. As you apply the load (a stimulus) in an organized and structured way, you will go faster. It’s really that simple. Peloton also has workouts based on power zones. Whatever makes you happy, as long as you’re pedaling, everything is good.
Now, whether the Bike platoon is accurate or not is a different story. In all my tests comparing the data of the Peloton Bike (original) with the pedals of the power meter, it tends to read high, usually in the range of 5-7%. You can technically try to recalibrate it, but I haven’t found it to fix anything (and honestly I’ve also done calibration tests that get a lot worse, and without power meter pedals on the bike you wouldn’t know how you have achieved).
While, Peloton Bike +, I have found that it is exceptionally accurate, on par, and is actually better in terms of accuracy than many of the high-end smart bikes that a typical Zwifter or TrainerRoad user would have in their arsenal. . Unfortunately, at this time the DFC is not compatible with the Peloton Bike +. That said, they added USB-C ports and other bits to make it compatible with the road. But I wouldn’t buy it today until that happens. While if you have a normal Peloton bike, it is fully compatible.
Geeky things:
For those who are a little more geeky, the company has gone to great lengths to allow third parties to expand into it. Therefore, for historical reasons, here are the technical specifications of the company listing:
- Built around the Nordic NRF52840
- 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4 processor
- 2.4 GHz Bluetooth 5 transceiver
- 11 GPIO pins exposed in a design compatible with support boards and IDC
- 4 analog or digital pins
- 7 exclusive digital pins
- 16 M-Bit QSPI external flash memories
- Two-way RS-232-to-TTL / CMOS conversion channels using MAX3222 IC
- JST I²C connector compatible with the Qwiic or Adafruit STEMMA QT Connect system from SparkFun
- SWD connections to the front and back of the board using Tag Connect footprints
- Voltage regulator of 20 V max. At 3.3 V.
- Two 3.5 mm stereo connectors connected to each other and to the RS-232 controller / receiver circuit.
- A default bridge allows the transmission of RS-232 data over jacks
- Two USB type C connectors that allow you to place DFC online with a USB cable that works up to 20 V
- This experimental setup that you use at your own risk allows you to branch out the signals on the USB cable, such as those used by the Peloton Bike +, and connect them to the processor.
- Configurable routes by means of jumper heads and welding bearings for USB D +/- and SBU1 / 2
The idea is that, by the way, this can be extended both by the company itself and by third parties.
It should be noted that this unit does not have ANT + enabled at this time, however, the Nordic NRF52 chipset they use would allow this update if they so wished. It’s a software update that the company would have to pay for (maybe they already did).
Virtually speaking, all Garmin devices from about 2017 onwards and beyond support Bluetooth Smart power meters. Therefore, any Fenix 5 or higher, as well as Garmin FR935 or higher, support it. And all Polar and Suunto devices support Bluetooth power meters. However, ANT + is useful and is often preferred in desktop computers for Zwift and other third-party applications, as well as, of course, antique clocks and bicycle computers.
Wrap:
Most readers know that I really like devices that “just work”, and this one takes the cake. I haven’t had to touch it since I plugged it in in December and it only works every time, always there, always ready. My watch automatically connects to it when I start pedaling and I just need to start a workout on the clock. I’m not sure what else I could ask for.
The unit is priced at $ 109, which seems pretty fair, as the alternative is to buy power meter pedals from over $ 500 (and more if you want one in total). Certainly, using the Peloton Bike data stream is not as accurate as buying a set of power meter pedals for other applications, so this is a consideration. For those who are worried, this will somehow cause an explosion of inaccurate data about Zwift, the level of accuracy here is not really different from most integrated coaches I have tested over the years (specifying +/- 5 %, but are often closer) to 5-10%, especially in sprint).
The company is receiving orders at its crowdfunding site now, to deliver them in early August. Given the scarcity and long accumulations of computer chipsets at the moment, they (like any other tech company) have identified it as a risk. The other risk is that Peloton may update the data flow on its bikes to specifically break it. The DFC drive is software upgradeable in case something changes. That said, I would be extremely skeptical if Peloton had the ability to do so on Peloton’s original bike. It would definitely have this capability on the Bike +, but after disassembling the original Bike, the sensor system is only connected via a 3.5mm analog cable, which is very unlikely to allow firmware updates. Also, this would pose a huge risk for Peloton to upgrade this component to 1.5 million bikes just to “break” some boxes.
So, given the fact that it works really well on the original bike today, I went ahead and made a reservation for it. In case Bike + compatibility is resolved, I will also buy another one for Bike +.
With that, thanks for reading!