Recording stationary bike

MelanieJ said:

Surely the technology is there

It is not. On a treadmill the watch has some data (movement of your wrist) which can give some idea on how fast you're going, even if inaccurately. However on an indoor bike there is no way to get any hint about the speed, and thus distance covered.

But the bike gives all that data (well, mine does anyway!)

Well, then you can edit the activity in garmin connect and manually type the total distance. But there is no way to calibrate it for future rides.

The bike has the ability to measure your cadence and possibly power, so it can give you a reading, which may or may not be accurate. As the watch is on your wrist, it cannot measure your cadence without a cadence meter, or a data link to your bike, so it cannot even give you an estimate (like a treadmill selection would). For your watch to be able to link to the bike, that would be a matter for the bike manufacture, not Garmin. As tmk2 suggests, if you have a reading from your bike, enter that manually. You could always buy a set of Garmin speed and cadence sensors, fit them to your bike which might work.

Thank you, that is extremely helpful!