Garmin or strava what is right

skinnydog1973

I usually use strava but i bought a garmin edge 500 yesterday,today i did my first 100 mile ride, the garmin at one point said i did 72mph and when i got home it said i did 102 miles and burned 3200 calories, i then transferred the data to strava but that came up saying i had done 106 miles and burned 4000 calories which one should i take notice of

drlodge

Neither - they're both wrong. Strava is probably more accurate on distance but take the calorie figure with a bucket of salt. Max speed can be skewed due to GPS errors.

roger_merriman

If the garmin said you did 72MPH that rather suggests it lost reception for a while, have a look on the map may find a clipped point or deviation.

realistically it's a decent ride either way, and GPS's are not perfect i'd not worry too much about it. if your really worried maybe get the mileage from one of the routing sites.

Barteos

ademort

I bought a new charger for my iphone and wanted to know just how long it lasted so i used my iphone until the battery said 18% and then attached the charger and set strava on to a new ride. I left the phone overnight on the sofa. To my amazement the battery charger lasted 7Hrs and 55 Minutes and according to strava i,d travelled 1.4 Kms So i would say theres def room for improvement.

JDinho

Is your Edge 500 setup to record every second? I found that when mine wasn't, the default option, I was getting weird results once uploaded to Strava. I was missing from segments I knew I had ridden and looking closely at the trace there were too many gaps and it wasn't tracking me on the roads... I was cycling through back gardens and over walls.

You can alter the settings in the unfathomable menus, it's called 1 second recording. Otherwise I belief the default is Smart Recording.

I used Raceshape's SNAP tool to tidy up the ride I had done (not cheat).

charlie_potatoes

Using the elevation correction option on Strava should result in more consistent readings.
Also worth checking that you have input your correct weight and that of your bike.

Gizmodo

The most accurate measure of speed comes from a wheel magnet and sensor, it is far more accurate than GPS as long as the wheel circumference is entered correctly.

Elevation data is only "approximate". GPS data is not very accurate for elevation, so Garmin add a pressure sensor, but, to quote Garmin's web site "The barometric altimeter is not temperature compensated. Temperature changes in the device will affect the barometric pressure sensor and altimeter readings."

Again distance is most accurately measured by a wheel sensor if the wheel circumference is setup accurately.

There is no accurate measure of calorie consumption without a power meter and some serious measurements of your body. Did the web site know the wind speed and whether you we're riding into a head wind or whether you had a tail wind? So it can't work out the effort it took you. Ignore calorie consumption data.

rolf_f

Gizmodo wrote:

The most accurate measure of speed comes from a wheel magnet and sensor, it is far more accurate than GPS as long as the wheel circumference is entered correctly.

It's not really 'far' more accurate. TBH, the differences are minimal unless there are a lot of tunnels on your route. And unless you properly calibrate the computer to the true rolling circumference of the tyre on your bike (rather than using tables) I'd expect the wheel magnet would be no more accurate than the GPS which calibrates pretty well to plotted route distances. Certainly the differences aren't really worth losing any sleep over. This at least is my experience having recently put a combined cadence/speed sensor on one of my bikes.

Cleat Eastwood

Strava (not that I'm on it)always knocks a mile off my distance and mile off my av speed - so I'd say Garmin

Graeme Jones

Strangly I have a wheel sensor for speed and cadence and the average speed of my ride tonight was 17.4mph for the 20miles but then strava went to 17.1mph does strava not use the speed sensor and just GPS?

Gizmodo

Graeme Jones wrote:

Strangly I have a wheel sensor for speed and cadence and the average speed of my ride tonight was 17.4mph for the 20miles but then strava went to 17.1mph does strava not use the speed sensor and just GPS?

From the Strava support FAQ:

Strava takes the same file off the Garmin, but we enter and parse the data in our own system. We enter all the numbers, then calculate out the time, moving time, average speed, segments, etc. with our own algorithms we developed.

If you did 60 miles in 6 hours your average speed would be 10mph right? Now factor in that you stopped for a 2 hour lunch, is your average speed 10mph or should it be calculated on the 4 hours you were actually riding - 15mph?

Every time you stop at traffic lights, junctions or anywhere, your Garmin may have "Auto Pause" turned on and has 3 different options. When you upload to Strava it calculates stopped time differently. So you may well find a slight difference in average speed.

All the differences are minimal, just enjoy the ride. This data can be fun but don't get hung up on it.