Garmin Cadence or HRM?

Xherdan

I've been using a Garmin 500 for a few months now and am thinking of getting the Speed/Cadence sensor or the HRM. I can't decide which is more worthwhile though?
I mostly do relatively slow rides with a friend but will be gradually increasing our speed in line with him getting fitter. I also go out alone and do some training rides, these will increase in length and speed as I play less football over the summer.

Bar Shaker

Cadence is the single most important data you can have when riding. Learn to increase your instant and average cadence and your speed and endurance will come up with it.

imposter2.0

Bar Shaker wrote:

Cadence is the single most important data you can have when riding. Learn to increase your instant and average cadence and your speed and endurance will come up with it.

Sorry, that's nonsense and I don't know where you got it from ?

Go for HR if you want to monitor effort and measure improvement over time. Cadence is nothing more than a measure of how fast your pedals are turning and is fairly useless from a training point of view.

Bozman

Bar Shaker wrote:

Cadence is the single most important data you can have when riding. Learn to increase your instant and average cadence and your speed and endurance will come up with it.

Amazing

junglist_matty

HRM by a country mile.

Cadence is pretty useless info, you should know a good cadence, it's not difficult, look to be spinning at around about 90RPM, if you're really wanting to go for it, up to 110, but 90 is good.... Plus you can count your cadence with a lap timer, it's not hard, whereas you can't count your own HR.

Bar Shaker

Imposter wrote:

Bar Shaker wrote:

Cadence is the single most important data you can have when riding. Learn to increase your instant and average cadence and your speed and endurance will come up with it.

Sorry, that's nonsense and I don't know where you got it from ?

Go for HR if you want to monitor effort and measure improvement over time. Cadence is nothing more than a measure of how fast your pedals are turning and is fairly useless from a training point of view.

If you look at the OP's stated riding profile, he isn't going to be into HRM interval training for quite some time.

If he wants to get quicker and get his stamina up, getting a good handle on cadence will be a good place to start. Someone counting pedal strokes hoping to hold 90 will be dropping to 70 or less on climbs and will be lucky to average more than 75. Being able to see the number is a great aid to getting your speed up.

Once you consistently ride in the 90s and 100s and average the same for multi hour rides, you are ready for HRM training.

NeXXus

Bar Shaker wrote:

Imposter wrote:

Bar Shaker wrote:

Cadence is the single most important data you can have when riding. Learn to increase your instant and average cadence and your speed and endurance will come up with it.

Sorry, that's nonsense and I don't know where you got it from ?

Go for HR if you want to monitor effort and measure improvement over time. Cadence is nothing more than a measure of how fast your pedals are turning and is fairly useless from a training point of view.

If you look at the OP's stated riding profile, he isn't going to be into HRM interval training for quite some time.

If he wants to get quicker and get his stamina up, getting a good handle on cadence will be a good place to start. Someone counting pedal strokes hoping to hold 90 will be dropping to 70 or less on climbs and will be lucky to average more than 75. Being able to see the number is a great aid to getting your speed up.

Once you consistently ride in the 90s and 100s and average the same for multi hour rides, you are ready for HRM training.

My average cadence hasn't changed dramatically in the past year, yet I'm much faster. FYI: it's nowhere near any of the figures you have listed either.

What do you suggest I do since my average isn't anywhere close to your suggested 90-100rpm threshold for use of an HRM?

drlodge

junglist_matty wrote:

HRM by a country mile.

Cadence is pretty useless info, you should know a good cadence, it's not difficult, look to be spinning at around about 90RPM, if you're really wanting to go for it, up to 110, but 90 is good.... Plus you can count your cadence with a lap timer, it's not hard, whereas you can't count your own HR.

^--- Pretty much this. You can hazard a guess at cadence during the ride, but after the ride knowing what your HR was doing is pretty useful info - how hard you were pushing it up those hills, how it varied etc. It also drives your suffer score if you've got Strava Premium

Bar Shaker

I think HRM training on a turbo is a superb aid to improving fitness, I have just never been able to get anything useful from it whilst I am riding on the roads. On a turbo, it is current data and I can train in HR zones. On the road, I can't. If I have a hill in front of me, my heart rate will be what it is. On a ride HRM is useful for recording HR data and seeing a historical trend, but that's all. It is a monitor of fitness, not an aid to it.

NeXXus I am also much quicker than I was this time last year. I don't use a HRM. What would you suggest has caused that?

imposter2.0

Bar Shaker wrote:

If you look at the OP's stated riding profile, he isn't going to be into HRM interval training for quite some time.

Nobody suggested doing intervals. In fact, a HRM isn't actually much use for interval training. Very useful for 2-3hr steady/tempo rides though.

Bar Shaker wrote:

NeXXus I am also much quicker than I was this time last year. I don't use a HRM. What would you suggest has caused that?

An improment in your aerobic fitness brought about by increased riding, I would imagine. Although my guess is that you think it is all down to your cadence...

NeXXus

Bar Shaker wrote:

I think HRM training on a turbo is a superb aid to improving fitness, I have just never been able to get anything useful from it whilst I am riding on the roads. On a turbo, it is current data and I can train in HR zones. On the road, I can't. If I have a hill in front of me, my heart rate will be what it is. On a ride HRM is useful for recording HR data and seeing a historical trend, but that's all. It is a monitor of fitness, not an aid to it.

NeXXus I am also much quicker than I was this time last year. I don't use a HRM. What would you suggest has caused that?

I'm waiting patiently for you to explain how I got faster whilst not increasing my cadence. Afterall,cadence "is the single most important data you can have"

keef66

Stop being obtuse you lot.

To the OP you clearly need to buy both HRM and cadence sensor. Then you can come on here next year and tell us all which you found most useful.

hatch87

It depends on what you plan on using it for. If your actually going to go out and do HR based training then a HRM is useful, but if its just to see how hard you pushed after a ride then its nothing more than a stat. Personally find a cadence sensor more useful, but just as much as a rev counter on a car, you use it occasionally but after a while you know what your legs are doing and what feels best.

Going back to HR based training, I tried it and hated it, trying to keep my hr in a zone was boring and distracted from the riding. When I'm going up a hill I don't want to slow down just because I've gone into zone 5, but if you don't then it makes the training pointless. Also everyone is different, my avg HR is at the 180's most of time, anything below 160 and I feel like I'm doing nothing. Other people can average 140 over a strenuous ride

city_boy

keef66 wrote:

To the OP you clearly need to buy both HRM and cadence sensor. Then you can come on here next year and tell us all which you found most useful.

+1
I have the 500 and use both quite happily. Wondering why you are choosing one or the other?

bazzer2

I have both, and a 500.

Cadence is useful to look at post ride, or at most, an average figure while I'm out, on one of the less important screens.

On my main screen I have speed, distance and heart rate zone. I use the HRZ as my 'how much effort is my body putting in to this section' and if it's 5.9 I know if I try harder I'm going to wake up to a beeping machine and comfortable folded bedding shortly - maybe back off a shade!

Get the more expensive strap too, I've used a cheap Polar one seemingly made of tin and barbed wire and the super comfy posh Garmin version is simply superb.

Xherdan

Bar Shaker wrote:

If you look at the OP's stated riding profile, he isn't going to be into HRM interval training for quite some time.

If he wants to get quicker and get his stamina up, getting a good handle on cadence will be a good place to start. Someone counting pedal strokes hoping to hold 90 will be dropping to 70 or less on climbs and will be lucky to average more than 75. Being able to see the number is a great aid to getting your speed up.

Once you consistently ride in the 90s and 100s and average the same for multi hour rides, you are ready for HRM training.

I think I misled you slightly there. I have done a little bit of interval training in the past with an HRM for running. The Garmin one would save the data in sync with my route though I think so I could view it through Garmin Connect? I have wondered about my cadence before as I have literally no idea what it is, I try to keep it high but without having counted I don't really know what high feels like at the moment.

City Boy wrote:

keef66 wrote:

To the OP you clearly need to buy both HRM and cadence sensor. Then you can come on here next year and tell us all which you found most useful.

+1
I have the 500 and use both quite happily. Wondering why you are choosing one or the other?

I'm a masters student on an extremely tight budget so I can't stretch to both. In 6 months time when I hopefully have some kind of job I will treat myself to the one I don't buy now and hoopefully a nice new Bianchi. In the meantime I want to get the one which will benefit me the most for a bit of training and other rides during the summer.

city_boy

Fair point. In that case I'd go for the HRM as it will give you useful training data both on the road and the turbo.
Good luck with the job hunting!