Garmin Edge 305 Cadence Sensor

Simon Notley

This is a continuation of one of the C+ threads which I can't seem to find. We had been talking about the Edge and I had been hijacking the thread and asking if the cadence sensor was worth having. What are your thoughts? I've heard it's a pain to fit... would be nice to have the data, but I'm not sure it's worth paying extra and having to stick loads of extra stuff to the bike for one measurement.

Someone also offered to sell me their's (the sensor) but I don't recall who...

Simon

oldwelshman

It was proaly me who offered to sell mine. I actually sold it to some one off here recently so guess he beat you :-)
To be honest I find a cadence unit pretty useless.
I had one on training bike and it was interesting for a week to see what I was doing on climb and on flat but after a couple of rides never looked at it.
I never even fitted the garmoin sensor.
Save your money and get some good tyres

rohloff-rich

Have to say I completely disagree - I like to keep my cadence up in the 90's so I think it's a really useful tool. Mine was also quite easy to fit (just don't zip up the zipties tight until you're sure everything is in the right place and working!).

Gary D

Simon,
I have a 305 with Heart Rate and Cadence functions. The cadence sensor is not really a pain to fit - its just that it doesn't fit neatly on my bike (Spesh Tricross). There is a maximum gap of, I think 5mm, required between the magnet on the crank arm and the sensor unit on the chain stay. So on my bike, the sensor unit has to lean outwards to maintain this gap. It doesn't look ideal but it works OK. I guess it would vary from bike to bike. On a "proper" road bike it might fit better anyway as everything is a little tighter with less clearances etc.

As to whether it is necessary - my view is that if you are going to spend that sort of money on the unit anyway - another £30 is not a lot more! I have actually got in to the habit of looking at the cadence readout quite frequently during a ride in an effort to maintain a minimum of 80 rpm if possible. Therefore I find it very useful.
It is also interesting to analyse all of the data when you get back from the ride and cross compare all of the parameters.

Sorry, I'll just go and get my anorak :oops:

Gary.

Simon Notley

Cheers for your answers. I've decided just to try the main unit without cadence for now. I have to admit, I was tempted by the anorak-factor of being able to analyse the changes in my cadence over the ride and try and locate an optimum cadence, but you'd need to know the wind speed to make any really insightful calculations...

I may yet go back on my decision, but I feel I have a fairly decent idea of optimum cadence when I'm riding anyway, so I think I'll save the £30 for now (not quite enough for a new set of GP4000S or veloflex though!).

I'm really looking forward to trying out the training and route/profile mapping features though.

Simon

rohloff-rich

It's an awesome bit of kit - couldn't be without mine now!

method

Simon Notley wrote:

but you'd need to know the wind speed to make any really insightful calculations...

Not at all, wind speed makes no difference to cadence whatsoever, you may go slower but your cadence shouldn't change. In terms of improving your cycling, the cadence senser is the most important bit of the Garmin. Once you have used one for a while, you may not need it as you generally know what cadence your riding at.

moonie

You need to be sure that it will fit the frame too, a mate has a Spesh roubaix and the sexy curves means he cannot fit the now redundant cadence unit.

Simon Notley

method wrote:

Simon Notley wrote:

but you'd need to know the wind speed to make any really insightful calculations...

Not at all, wind speed makes no difference to cadence whatsoever, you may go slower but your cadence shouldn't change. In terms of improving your cycling, the cadence senser is the most important bit of the Garmin. Once you have used one for a while, you may not need it as you generally know what cadence your riding at.

I wasn't suggesting that wind speed was a factor in cadence measurement. I was thinking more along the lines of being able to identify an optimum cadence from the historical data, i.e. the cadence at which you can acheive the best power output for the same heart rate. However, in order to make a decent estimate of power from other stats, you really need the wind speed. In fact, I believe this method is used by some designs of power meter...

Either way, I'll do without it for now. I'm fairly happy with my cadence, so I probably wouldn't have been using the unit to change my riding style anyway.