Garmin edge 500 weirdness!!

norwichdanny

Hi everyone,
So i've just got back from a ride with my mate, who, on my recommendation has just got a garmin 500. Before we left we synchronised them with the same settings and so on. We pressed start and stop at precisely the same moment and rode exactly the same route. At the end we were confused because although there will obviously be some small differences, mine says that i have climbed an extra 50 meters. Even more confusing is that once the elevation correction is applied in garmin connect, he ends up with 50m more than me. Both Garmins have the latest firmware. Just wondering if anyone else has had issues with the elevation gain, and if there is anything that can be done to correct this.
Cheers.

pipipi

I think there can be discrepancies whilst you are on the ride but I'm surprised that they don't match once they have both been out into the PC.

LegendLust

norwichdanny wrote:

Hi everyone,
So i've just got back from a ride with my mate, who, on my recommendation has just got a garmin 500. Before we left we synchronised them with the same settings and so on. We pressed start and stop at precisely the same moment and rode exactly the same route. At the end we were confused because although there will obviously be some small differences, mine says that i have climbed an extra 50 meters. Even more confusing is that once the elevation correction is applied in garmin connect, he ends up with 50m more than me. Both Garmins have the latest firmware. Just wondering if anyone else has had issues with the elevation gain, and if there is anything that can be done to correct this.
Cheers.

Has he got a taller bike?

norwichdanny

yeah, i don't expect them to match perfectly but this was a ride with about 600m of climbing, lots of short steep hills, so a difference of around 50m seems strange. The only differences between the garmins is mine is about 18months old and red and his is new and black and white!

norwichdanny

bikes are both 56cm although his bars are slightly higher than mine!

rolf_f

Have you both calibrated your units to the same elevation?

Oh hang on. Your mate had his tyres pumped up more than you. It's all the extra bounce in your tyres that made the difference!

wongataa

Altitude on GPS devices is notoriously inaccurate. I wouldn't worry about it at all.

norwichdanny

It doesn't really worry me, i was just surprised to see such a difference.

Mikey23

I rarely ride with others but the two guys I occasionally go out with always register more altitude with their garmins by some distance. On Sunday we did 37 miles and my mate did 500 ft more than me although we rode together all the way.

wongataa

norwichdanny wrote:

It doesn't really worry me, i was just surprised to see such a difference.

If you do the same route again you will see different numbers again. It's normal.

chris_bass

if it makes you feel better i got 40 meters of climb on my last turbo session!!

Mikey41

wongataa wrote:

Altitude on GPS devices is notoriously inaccurate. I wouldn't worry about it at all.

500's have a pressure altitude sensor, which can still be led astray by changes in atmosphere pressure. For example on a cool day I went for a ride and ended up at the LBS, went inside and left the Garmin running, then rode home. The upload showed me suddenly dropping 600ft when I was inside the shop then jumping 600ft up again when I left. :shock:

chris_bass

Mikey41 wrote:

wongataa wrote:

Altitude on GPS devices is notoriously inaccurate. I wouldn't worry about it at all.

500's have a pressure altitude sensor, which can still be led astray by changes in atmosphere pressure. For example on a cool day I went for a ride and ended up at the LBS, went inside and left the Garmin running, then rode home. The upload showed me suddenly dropping 600ft when I was inside the shop then jumping 600ft up again when I left. :shock:

hopefully their prices aren't as steep!!