I'm a slave to cadence - the Garmin flavour of!

jefflad

Hi,

I’ve recently discovered the joys of cadence and have to say I’m completely in love with it!

On my main bike I’ve fitted the Garmin GSC-10 that I run with my Foreunner 305 but for my commuting bike I want to fit a cadence sensor to this too and is where my dilemma lies. Do I buy another GSC-10 for the commuter circa £30 and will this marry up with the Forerunner and effectively recognise the two different sensors (I would obviously adjust the settings to which bike I ride and have a bike 1, bike 2 setup) or should I get this for half the price http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.100-6555.aspx?utm_source=GoogleShopping&utm_medium=GSF_NormalFeed&utm_campaign=GSF_TescoDirect&utm_content=100-6555? Sorry not too sure how to make the link smaller :oops:

Thanks
J

c0ugars

Im facing the very same problem, ive got the 305 and the cadence sensor and im loving it too and i want to get a sensor for my TT bike, ive decided to get another Garmin on as i i find it helpful to be able to download the data after.

jefflad

Yeah I think I'm too edging more towards the 2 sensor route...

robdaykin

unless Garmin have fixed their firmware (hahaha) then the 305 does not automatically recognise the sensor and change profile. For that matter, unless you rescan or manually select a bike profile, it will ignore any and all sensors. Which means that I have lots of rides with no cadence data, despite having sensors on every bike.

For that matter, you will also get a popup every time you switch bike profile and upload to a computer, because Training Center only understands one profile.

If you're only interested in cadence, then I've just bought the Bontrager cadence only sensor from allterrain for £20 + p&p, which is half the price of the GSC10. It has the added benefit that without the speed sensor arm, I can put it closer to the bottom bracket, and cant it across further, which helps on my race bike which has very curved chain stays. Being Ant+ it works fine for me with a non Garmin head unit, I don't know how the Forerunner will behave.

http://www.allterraincycles.co.uk/product/123913.html

Dmak

It helps when you're f**ked. After a while you know what you're doing roughly.

The overall average is an interesting figure. I cycled when it was really cold the other day and my average including freewheeling was 81 over 30 miles, I was just trying to keep warm.

Max is another. 171 I recall. My legs must have been a blur!

jefflad

Thanks for the replies but a couple of questions...

quote="robdaykin"]unless Garmin have fixed their firmware (hahaha) then the 305 does not automatically recognise the sensor and change profile. For that matter, unless you rescan or manually select a bike profile, it will ignore any and all sensors. Which means that I have lots of rides with no cadence data, despite having sensors on every bike.[\quote]

So if I manually selected the bike setting and then bike profile on the watch and pressed the reset button on the GSC-10 it'd work? and there'd be no issues with different wheel sizes (as there is between the two bikes)?

For that matter, you will also get a popup every time you switch bike profile and upload to a computer, because Training Center only understands one profile.

What about Sports tracks?

If you're only interested in cadence, then I've just bought the Bontrager cadence only sensor from allterrain for £20 + p&p, which is half the price of the GSC10. It has the added benefit that without the speed sensor arm, I can put it closer to the bottom bracket, and cant it across further, which helps on my race bike which has very curved chain stays. Being Ant+ it works fine for me with a non Garmin head unit, I don't know how the Forerunner will behave.

http://www.allterraincycles.co.uk/product/123913.html

Would this have a display of cadence through something on your handle bars, the 305 for instance or it's own display?

Thanks again

J

antfly

Dmak wrote:

It helps when you're f**ked. After a while you know what you're doing roughly.

The overall average is an interesting figure. I cycled when it was really cold the other day and my average including freewheeling was 81 over 30 miles, I was just trying to keep warm.

Max is another. 171 I recall. My legs must have been a blur!

You get false maximums when you go downhill without pedalling.

If the forerunner is like the edge 305 {manual looks the same} you just need to set up a profile for each bike and when you use the bike tell it which one you are on and it will pick up the sensor.

robdaykin

jefflad wrote:

Thanks for the replies but a couple of questions...

No problem

jefflad wrote:

So if I manually selected the bike setting and then bike profile on the watch and pressed the reset button on the GSC-10 it'd work? and there'd be no issues with different wheel sizes (as there is between the two bikes)?

Shouldn't need to press reset on the GSC-10. Each unit seems to have an id, and if your profile has the right id, it will record data. You only therefore need to switch profile.

jefflad wrote:

What about Sports tracks?

Don't know, never used it.

jefflad wrote:

Would this have a display of cadence through something on your handle bars, the 305 for instance or it's own display?

It sends data to the head unit, in your case the 305. It does not have it's own display.

amaferanga

Dmak wrote:

It helps when you're f**ked. After a while you know what you're doing roughly.

The overall average is an interesting figure. I cycled when it was really cold the other day and my average including freewheeling was 81 over 30 miles, I was just trying to keep warm.

Max is another. 171 I recall. My legs must have been a blur!

If the 305 is like other Garmins then periods when you're not pedalling are excluded in the average (i.e. if you ride up hill with a cadence of 80 then coast all the way down the other side your average cadence is still 80).

robdaykin

I don't use Garmin software to analyse my rides, I use something called Ascent on the Mac, which does all the useful stuff of working out when you're pedalling, when you're slowing down to a junction, when you're not moving and so on, and provides moving speed and cadence figures. It also has a different calorie calculation which they reckon is more accurate, but I'm not sure.
Ascent connects direct to the GPS or can handle exported files, which allows for flexibility. I'm sure something equivalent must exist on other OSes.

jefflad

Thanks for the replies... I'll get a new sensor in the next week or so... I'm a windows man but Ascent does sound a great piece of software.

c0ugars

Jefflad


On a side note, how do you mount your garmin watch to your bike???

jefflad

I mount it on the handlebar via the clippy on thing you can buy.