First we’d like to say thank you to everyone who’s backed the campaign so far. The response has been tremendous, and we’re 72% funded in the first week! In this week’s update, we’ll provide a bit of the backstory on how DFC came to be. But first, we’ve received some questions about Bike+ compatibility.

Bike+ (In)compatibility

As stated in the FAQ on our campaign page, DFC was designed to be compatible with the original Peloton Bike and will only be supported for use with that model. While we do not support the Bike+ at this time, DFC includes a number of features to help us dig into the possibility of Bike+ compatibility. This may lead to the addition of Bike+ support in the future. As of now, though, we advise waiting until Bike+ support is confirmed before backing this campaign.

DC Rainmaker Review of DFC

For a look at DFC from the deepest sports and fitness tech writer out there, please see the DC Rainmaker review of DFC. In it, the reviewer states that…

"frankly it’s one of the only flawlessly perfect devices I’ve ever tested. It just works."

Now on to the DFC backstory, as told by its creator.

How DFC Came to Be

This project started as a way for me to scratch an itch. I’d been a Peloton rider for a while and got into power-based training through the Peloton Power Zone classes. That led me to start more structured training where I’d follow workouts from other platforms like Training Peaks. When I started doing that, I discovered that the Peloton bike did not broadcast the bike’s power and cadence for other apps and platforms to use. I also use a Garmin watch and there are certain metrics that you only get when you capture your workout data with the watch in real-time. Instead I was stuck with an arduous process of converting the data and uploading it to other places. I thought this shouldn’t be necessary, so I looked into other ways to get the data from the bike in real-time. I knew the bike was transmitting the data to the tablet along a cable so I did some tests and determined what the data was and how it was formatted. From there I figured out how to broadcast the data via a Bluetooth connection. After discovering that others in the Peloton community were facing the same issue, I decided publicize what’s possible. The favorable response led to this, a device that would be helpful for all Peloton enthusiasts who want a broader choice of where to use their data.

The idea to make DFC expandable came from a desire to see others make fitness devices that are new, different, or just plain weird. We’d be thrilled to see backers come out with add-ons that fill balloons or adjust lights or control audio or…whatever!