In the highly unlikely event that you didn’t get enough Garmin news today with the announcement of two brand new head units (the Edge 530 and Edge 830, see reviews at those links), you’ve also got yourself some new sensors to toss on the to-read pile.
This post will be part ‘finally!’, and part ‘as expected’. Today Garmin finally announced dual ANT+/Bluetooth Smart variants of their magnetless speed and cadence sensors, which had previously been ANT+ only. An update was somewhat expected however, given Garmin’s announcement of a dual ANT+/BLE heart rate straps three months ago. The goal of all these new sensors is making it easy to use them with apps like Zwift or TrainerRoad on smartphones, or Apple TV.
However, what might be unexpected here is that the magnetless speed sensor actually has a bit of a party trick: It can record rides even when you don’t have an app or device actively connected to it. Yup, the little pod gained a brain and can now remember any rides you complete sans-GPS, transferring them to Garmin Connect (or even Strava) afterwards – perfect for bike commuters.
I’ve had media loaners of both sets of pods for…well…a lot of months now, so plenty of time to get into the details and nuances of how they all work (actually, way…way…way more time and detail than I ever wanted to know). Once I’m done with the flotilla of them that I now have, I’ll get them back to Garmin here in the near future – and most likely go out and get my own to equip some of my bike fleet here. But more on my plans a bit later.
Oh, and typically I don’t release in-depth product review threesomes all at the exact same second on this site. But, sometimes things planned for one time period get shifted to an entirely different period. Thus, a threesome happens. Today’s that day.
What’s in the boxes:
I like simple boxes. Because it means I get to write less text and focus on eating more cookies. Starting with the speed sensor box, it’s grey – like the weather outside my window here in Amsterdam:
Inside here’s what you’ve got after shaken onto a table.
First, there’s a small manual. It explains how to use a rubber band twelve times. Once for each of the twelve languages it’s written in:
Next, there’s a small safety guide. It also repeats everything twelve times. Specifically it tells you not to eat the batteries, and to consult a TV technician if your cadence or speed sensor isn’t working. Really, I’m not kidding.
Oh, and then there’s a bag with the speed sensor itself. This is it:
Next, there’s the cadence sensor box:
And the stuffs inside:
It too has the exact same paper stuff. In fact, it’s the same manual and safety papers for both.
Except unlike the speed sensor, you get two baggies here. One includes two rubber bands, depending on your crank arm size. If you’ve got a large crank, you’ll use the larger rubber. If you’ve got a smaller crank, you’ll need a smaller rubber (and maybe an oversized truck to compensate).
And then here’s the cadence sensor all put together. It looks super similar to Garmin’s past magnetless sensor, albeit an itty-bitty-bit different in terms of some slants.
Oh, and if you happen to buy the combo box? Yup, all the exact same stuff in a single consolidated box – saving the world an extra box and an extra set of manuals telling you how to consult TV technicians and use rubber bands:
And now my unboxing job is done. Overkill, yes. Unnecessary, absolutely. But done.
How it works – Speed Sensor:
We’ll start with the speed sensor first. Getting it installed requires either consulting with one of the twelve language iterations in the manual, or, using common sense. You can choose to install it on your front or rear wheel hub. If you install it on your rear wheel hub, then it’ll work while on most trainers (assuming your wheel stays on your bike of course). In my case however, my rear wheel has a PowerTap power meter hub in it. As such, there’s some known magnetic interference there – so I just stick it on the front wheel instead:
The same is true of our cargo bike which I’m also using it on – since the rear wheel is simply too big for it.
And what if your rear wheel hub is too big for the band (as was my other commuter bike)? Well, in that case I just used a secondary rubber band. It’s hardly ideal, but it does work.
In any case, with all that done you’ll want to pair it up in Garmin Connect Mobile. You’ll go to add devices in the app, and as long as you’ve rotated your wheel a few times to wake it up, it should find it immediately.
Next, it’ll ask for the tire size and even will allow you to enter what’s written on the sidewall exactly as its written:
It only takes a second to add it, which then will show up in the devices menu, and allow you to tweak some settings, notably your weight and wheel size. Also, you can check for firmware updates and see the battery status, as well as learn about the sensor indicators:
Now, before we get to this sensor’s little trick – let’s take a step back and talk a more normal configuration – pairing it to a bike computer. Here’s it paired as an ANT+ sensor to a Garmin head unit. Simply go into the sensor’s menu and either search for all sensors, or more specifically search for just speed sensors. Then add it (add the ANT+ variant if available, so you don’t eat up any of the Bluetooth channels, as there’s unlimited ANT+ channels but only two Bluetooth Smart channels):
You can specify your wheel’s circumference, which is required for it determining distance. Alternatively, Garmin head units (and most others as well), will automatically calculate the wheel circumference if left blank, using GPS. So on your next ride, usually about 1/4th to 1/2 a mile later it’ll give you a little pop-up message that says “Wheel size calibrated”. I’d recommend doing this on roads where the GPS signal is good. Don’t do this at the start of a trail-head on a bunch of switchbacks.
Now, since the main thing of this sensor over others is the ability to see it via Bluetooth Smart, here’s it is with a Suunto Spartan Trainer:
And just fine with the Wahoo Fitness app:
In fact, like Garmin’s new HRM-DUAL, this device supports two concurrent Bluetooth Smart connections (plus ANT+). Thus, in total, the sensor can sustain three+ concurrent connections:
A) ANT+: It can sustain an unlimited number of connections via ANT+
B) Bluetooth Smart #1: The first available Bluetooth Smart connection channel
C) Bluetooth Smart #2: The second available Bluetooth Smart connection channel
Of course, the main reason you’d use this sensor is to display speed and distance on your bike computer, most likely off-road. For the most part, GPS is more than accurate and stable enough these days on-road for most cyclists. Whereas off-road mountain-biking in dense forest or with switchbacks, that’s where you’d probably want a speed sensor to give you better distance accuracy and better pace stability.
But Garmin decided to add a unique feature to this new speed sensor that gives it ‘value’ for on-road cyclists: Offline caching of your workouts.
This feature means that the sensor will automatically start a new workout (sans-GPS) every time you start pedaling. And then a few minutes after your bike stops moving, it’ll end the session. This is super interesting for bike commuters that may not really care about starting a GPS session for their daily rides, but are interested in the totals being accounted for.
So I did exactly that – I put the sensor on our cargo bike, which I use as my day to day getting around town bike and how we get the kids moved around the city (we don’t have a car, it’s Amsterdam after all).
This meant that every time I went somewhere it’d simply record the ride. No need for me to open an app on my phone or bring a Garmin GPS device along. After the ride, it quietly saves the file, but doesn’t sync it to your phone until the next time the sensor wakes up. So for most people that means your morning ride to work would sync in the evening when you started pedaling. Of course, you can always go wake up the sensor and sync it whenever you want. This results in rides that look like this in Garmin Connect Mobile:
In fact, these rides are also transferred to platforms like Strava too. The only downside I suppose is if you use your bike a lot during the day for errands as I do – this is what your day looks like. A random Friday in my case:
Which in turn means I had all these also in Strava. These are considered legit workouts from a file standpoint, no different than a 5-hour ride. My suggestion to Garmin would be to allow me to set a minimum distance threshold for sync to 3rd party services. Just don’t sync those.
Garmin says they’ll consider it, but that in the meantime you can turn off the activity creation bit altogether if you want if you have a Garmin Edge device (but it’s not on other Garmin devices yet – as of August 2021). Or, you could just disable the pairing to Garmin Connect Mobile. Either way.
Still, it’s a cool solution – and honestly, I’d love to see Garmin consider expanding it. For example, what if that sensor actually activated GPS on your phone and recorded the GPS track. Just like Fitbit’s ‘Connected GPS’ feature’. Obviously that’d be user configurable, but again for bike commuters it’s one less step than having to start/stop a GPS session. Being able to just have it track that in the background would be nice – and likely not a huge hit for most people with short commutes.
Accuracy-wise I’ve been doing some longer concurrent rides with both the speed sensor and GPS side by side. Obviously, that’s somewhat imperfect because if I’m talking a 50KM ride, then I don’t truly know which is which. In this case though, I’m looking for it to pass the sanity test, which is to say that it should be ‘really darn close’, and not something wonky. Typically when I’ve seen magnetless sensor issues, the wonky is readily apparent in either looking at the files, or the resultant cumulative distances.
For fun, here’s Sunday’s ride:
Now, what actually happened there is that we stopped our GPS devices at the train station, then ran like hell to make the train (rolling the bikes next to us). Since the sensor is accelerometer driven, it actually never went to sleep – even on the train due to the bumps and us occasionally moving the bikes around to accommodate people. So it then recorded the distance post-train ride, as I rode home.
So if I stop the distance at the same point as when I stopped the other units, here’s what I’ve got:
Garmin V2 Magnetless Speed Sensor: 58.53km
Garmin Edge 530: 58.52km
Garmin Edge 830: 58.47km
Polar Vantage V: 58.67km
[Note – Update July 2020: At some point between when the sensor first came out, and now, people have started reporting issues with the Polar Vantage V & M series. Whether or not this is widespread (everyone) or more limited (a few people) is unclear. Given this doesn’t seem to affect other devices, the drop-outs people are seeing are likely more on the Polar side of the house.]
Of course, there’s also some nuances there too. I rode a few hundred extra meters before I started the Edge devices which the sensor accounted for. So I tried to zap that from the beginning too by looking for the paused time.
Here’s how speed overlaid on that ride between the Edge 530, Edge 830, and speed sensor. Neither the Edge 530 or 830 were paired to the speed sensor. The speed sensor was simply doing its own thing and then synced the ride to my phone after the fact:
And, if you want to dig even further into the data fields, here’s the distance accumulation over time (also in my data set), which shows that the units are evenly adding distance. The Vantage does some weird data file stuff that hoses up the graph a bit with the dropouts, but otherwise, it’s following the same curve.
I’ve also done countless rides between my doorstep and office door, and ended up with near precisely the same distance each time. Given I usually take one of two bike paths the same exact way each time, it’s a pretty consistent test. Though, I have been tempted to take the cargo bike out onto the local running track. But, I don’t think that’d be looked kindly upon.
How it works – Cadence Sensor:
Switching over to the cadence sensor, it’s even easier than the speed sensor. First, you’ll utilize those rubber band skills to attach it to your crank arm. The recommendation would be to place it on the inside of the crank arm, since that gives you a bit more protection from the outside of your bike where your shoe may swipe past it:
Note that it included two rubber bands depending on crank arm size. Also, do at least one rotation of your crank arm before you head outside, simply to validate there’s no clearance issues – especially if you have a super high-end triathlon bike with extremely low clearance to the frame. For this sensor you need 8.18mm of clearance:
Pro Tip: Always put it on your left crank arm.
Again, for 99% of bikes out there, that won’t be an issue. But for the 1%’ers, I included the info you need to know. Plus, you can slide the sensor closer to the bottom bracket if you need to – no issue there. Usually there’s more clearance down there.
Once that’s done, it’s time to pair it up to the devices of your choice. First up I gave it a whirl on the Polar Vantage V (wanting to differentiate as much as possible). No issues.
Here’s a ride using the Garmin cadence sensor with the Vantage V (but more on accuracy there in a moment):
And then meanwhile on Garmin for the cadence over ANT+ (though this unit can also do Bluetooth Smart):
I also did it via Bluetooth Smart on the Suunto Spartan Trainer, and that paired just fine. In fact, here’s the data from last month with it:
As you’d expect, you see cadence on your head unit while you’re riding. And, if you’re using a 3rd party app like Zwift, you’ll see it there too:
So what about accuracy? At this point, things are all good. I had some initial quirks a while back that have since been resolved through the beta process (which, is what testing and beta processes are for). As of the last week or so I’ve actually been riding mostly outside with it paired to a Polar Vantage V series unit. Here’s how the data compares side by side to the Stages LR (dual-sided) unit also transmitting cadence, in this case to an Edge 530:
However, that’s only a snippet of the ride. If I zoom back a bit and over to another section, then you’ll see there were some odd drops over Bluetooth Smart with the Vantage V:
The precision of those drops is odd. and I don’t know if that’s a Garmin or Polar issue. I haven’t seen any other drops on any other devices that I’ve tested with. So this is definitely a first. If I look at my previous Polar Vantage V ride on Friday, I don’t see any dropouts (below). While it’s plausible the dropouts aren’t actually dropouts, that seems unlikely given the near-precise nature of them happening at the exact same interval.
Again, not something I’ve seen with anything else I’ve tested – so really just a single ride artifact I think. Here’s a quick ride again, this time on Zwift via Bluetooth Smart, without any issues. In this case, I started off at normal cadence (80-100RPM), and then I slowly crept down to 21RPM, at which point it dropped out (as expected). Then I went all the way up to 180RPM steadily, no issues (obviously you’ll see slight single-second differences recording from four different head units, as normal). Here’s that data set:
In addition, towards the end I did some super quick spin-ups, upwards of 180RPM. In that case, we do see it overcommit towards 220RPM (well beyond what I can do, I usually top out in the 180RPM range). Though, seeing cadence issues at 180RPM isn’t unheard of, and frankly affects but a fraction of 1% of people out there.
Also of note was that I was recording the Garmin cadence on both the Bluetooth and ANT+ channels. The iPad for Zwift had it via Bluetooth Smart, while the Garmin Edge had it on ANT+.
As you can see, virtually identical. Not that I expect any issues since this is basically proven tech just adding in Bluetooth Smart connectivity. However, there’s plenty of timing related nuances to broadcasting on any protocol, especially Bluetooth Smart, that can cause issues. The good news is those don’t appear to be an issue here.
(Note: All of the charts in these accuracy portions were created using the DCR Analyzer tool. It allows you to compare power meters/trainers, heart rate, cadence, speed/pace, GPS tracks and plenty more. You can use it as well for your own gadget comparisons, more details here.)
Summary:
I totally get it – sensors aren’t all that exciting. Especially ones that should have been released years ago. The good news here is that like the HRM-DUAL a few months back, these sensors become the baseline for new sensors included in various Garmin bundles. For example, the new Edge 530 and Edge 830 units released today have these dual ANT+/Bluetooth Smart sensors in their bundled variants. That’s a lot better than ANT+ only sensors. So ultimately, it’ll save you money in a bundle versus having to go out and buy a 3rd party sensor that costs more.
Still, we are seeing Garmin ever so slightly push the envelope here. Assuming one can envision an exciting manila sensor-laden envelope. There’s no other Bluetooth Smart cadence or speed sensor on the market that accepts dual Bluetooth Smart connections, let alone one that accepts dual Bluetooth Smart connections plus an ANT+ connection. So if you’re on something like a Polar or Suunto device and want to use Zwift concurrently, now you can actually do that….via Garmin products. Go figure.
Secondly, the automatic caching of rides in the speed sensor is cool for certain audiences – namely commuters. For most roadies or mountain bike folks, you’re probably going to have a head unit on the bike anyway. But for an around-town bike, it’s a nice little touch that you get your mileage added to Garmin Connect (and even Strava) each day. The only downside is that if you use that around-town bike a lot each day (as we do), then it frankly kinda muddies the water a bit (again, you can turn it off if you want). Still, hard to complain about that.
If you’re in the market for new sensors for your bike, these seem like an obvious choice. Like the HRM-DUAL, Garmin is basically matching the competition and then adding in a tiny few extras that you’re like ‘Ok, it’s the same price, might as well just get this instead’. So while they’re (super) late to the party….at least they brought Timbits.
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Hopefully you found this review/post useful. At the end of the day, I’m an athlete just like you looking for the most detail possible on a new purchase – so my review is written from the standpoint of how I used the device. The reviews generally take a lot of hours to put together, so it’s a fair bit of work (and labor of love). As you probably noticed by looking below, I also take time to answer all the questions posted in the comments – and there’s quite a bit of detail in there as well.
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Thanks for reading! And as always, feel free to post comments or questions in the comments section below, I’ll be happy to try and answer them as quickly as possible. And lastly, if you felt this review was useful – I always appreciate feedback in the comments below. Thanks!
Would using the speed sensor while on a trainer allow the edge 520 to record distance for that training?
Yes, as long the speed sensor is on the rear wheel, this will work with any wheel-on trainer. Note that it doesn’t have to be a Garmin sensor, just has to support ANT+ support (or now Bluetooth with some of the newer head units) in order to communicate with your Garmin.
(If you want to get into TrainerRoad or Zwift, you might also want a cadence sensor at minimum.)
Yup, definitely! Because it’s dual ANT+ & Bluetooth Smart, it’ll basically work with any device/app/anything you’ve got out there, even pretty old stuff.
Do you think the cadence sensor work on a crank with a rounded back (2006 Ultegra)?
My previous Garmin sensor used zip ties, and you could add an adhesive backing for ‘irregular’ cranks.
It would never stay in place, and eventually departed the bike, places unknown.
Shouldn’t be any issues in terms of rounded back cranks or otherwise, it’s really just a clearance question.
In paragraph 4, you say “new feature.” I’m assuming you meant “near future.”
As usual great review.
Hi Ray
Any idea on pricing and availability in Europe (UK actually but Europe works)? Interested in the bundle version – just bought the “old” one but it’s still in shipping from the store so can always return it and get the new one if the timing and cost equation work out.
Cheers
Thumbs up for the Timbit reference!
Great review Ray! Thank you!
Just a quick question: Is that all the stuff you where (secretly) testing on Mallorca?
Is there more coming? *thumpsUp*
Awesome reviews Ray, Thank you very much!
Just one thing: please don’t ride 59.1mph on your cargo bike, with or without your children in it ;)
Haha!
In case your curious how that happened, I had super quickly spun the front wheel to wake it up, which I think may have been excessive.
The fastest I’ve managed in that thing is 35KPH with a crazy strong tail wind last summer across some farm roads.
Since I noticed that you used the Spartan, is possible to add both sensors in the watch? I thought only one was possible as “bike pod”
Same limitation there, sadly. :(
Hi there,
Congrats on your great reviews and presentations.
just a quick question because I am a bit confused.
There is a limitation on connecting both the cadence and speed sensor with the spartan sport watches ( allow to connect bluetooth smart devices ).
As far as I understood you can only connect the cadence sensor only?
Bottom line though is that adding speed sensor to a gps watch is an overkill due to the fact that gps is accurate enough.
Hi Ray,
I’m confuesd. The picture for me with P1 & P2 in the cargo bike shows a Viennese tram in behind, but your writing says it’s Amsterdam? How comes?
Greetz from Vienna
Joe
Ask and you shall receive: link to museumtramlijn.org
Only the Garmin-branded side of these devices seems to be shown in any photos (here or on the Garmin store site) and there’s no mention of battery recharging, or cables included. Is it safe to assume they are powered by a 2032 coin cell like the version 1 items?
Everyday garden variety coin cell CR2032.
How does this different from the duo trap s that also uses Bluetooth and ANT + technology?
The DuoTrap/DuoTrap S sensors mount in the chainstay of Trek bikes and depend on a spoke magnet for speed and a crankarm magnet for cadence. They are extremely reliable as long as those two magnets stay put.
This new version of Garmin’s speed and cadence sensors (and the previous ANT+ only version) rely on accelerometers. They are extremely reliable as long as those two custom rubber bands stay put.
Garmin actually has an FAQ about this. The speed sensor actually detects the Earth’s magnetic field rather than using an accelerometer. Occasionally people will see strange results in the presence of overhead wires because of this. Seems like a strange thing for them to do because the geomagnetic field is not very strong.
Thank you for the correction and…
…holy crap that explains a “random” problem I’ve been having with the V1 speed sensor as I ride under a particular high power line.
Why would they depend on something so easily interfered with?
It’s always seemed weird to me.
Now that I’m sitting at my laptop, here’s the link to the FAQ.
Hi.
Great reviews. Been following you for a while.
What feedback do you have on durability of the cadence sensor? Specifically the case. I’ve own several and every time is time to change battery the device just crumbles in my hands. Fortunately Garmin has stepped up to the plate and replaced both sensors each time.
Does Garmin give you any specs on the plastics, did it change on this V2?
Do you notice a latency for cadence? In particular with changes in cadence (e.g. starting/stopping).
Zero latency. Check out the quick Zwift workout I did above where I did some crazy instant sprint high-RPM changes where I went from 90RPM to about 160RPM in 1-2 seconds. Zero issues.
For what it’s worth, I use the Wahoo magnetless cadence sensor with the Vantage V and have similar half speed dropouts. Usually only a few per hour.
How does the new speed sensor compare to the old one, size wise? Looks a bit narrower…
Also, can Bluetooth be turned off to prolong battery life? (I only use ANT+ devices and an ANT+ dongle in my Mac)
I have the ANT+ cadence sensor but never bothered with the speed sensor. The accuracy comparison between GPS speed and separate sensor does not seem to make a compelling case for the latter, unless I miss something (I don’t do indoor training).
You’re lucky. I’m constantly seeing speed drops on my Wahoo when going under trees, so it’s nice that there’s some competition in terms of modern speed sensors.
Trees, tunnels, and tall buildings are the enemy of GPS-based speed. YMMV (literally!)
Continuing the whole “automatic workout logging” thing it would be very nice to have the same feature for cadence sensor as well, or, event better, to allow it to be paired to speed sensor so it can record both speed/distance and cadence.
Add wrist HR to that! And why not, Tempe… All your sensors automatically get all the data to Garmin Connect, and then Garmin just has to figure out when you were doing something and create a nice little activity out of it. Kinda like the Google Maps timeline thing, but better!
Following on from the recent genius move from Polar…any chance Garmin can/will firmware update the older sensors with BTLE? They were fairly recent too so presumably the chipset supports it :)
I’d guess zero chance.
I think that’s mostly because the hardware Garmin has previously they didn’t plan for that. Specifically around firmware updating. In talking to them (Garmin, generally), they learned a lot about Bluetooth with these sensors. There’s a lot of nuance on some of the BT specs that is just more ‘simple’ on ANT+. We see companies often struggle with this, especially in power meters, but even more generally too.
With the inverse (Polar adding ANT+), technically it was a much (way much) simpler thing for them to do, since they already had all the OTA bits done.
To say Garmin has innovate a cool product wouldn’t be absolutely true.
Magene (the company that produces the trainer Gravat2) has a product called Gemini which can switch between being speed and cadence sensor (2 modes) also has dual ANT+/bluetooth transmission. It has been around for like a year from aliexpress for under $20.
The cache function for a speed/cadence is not really useful comparing to caching HR rate in Polar OH1+.
It wasn’t to say others aren’t doing cool stuff, but merely to point out that Garmin actually did something unique here. Also note there’s a difference between dual ANT+/BLE, and dual-BLE plus ANT+.
As for caching, again, that examples is apples to oranges. I just easy-pedaled my daughter to a dance class halfway across the city. The cargo bike quietly recorded that ride using the magnetless sensor as a commute. I don’t care about my HR on this ride, nor the ride back in an hour. Two totally different use cases.
The old speed sensor when placed on the rear wheel was well known to regularly drop out from connecting to a head unit over a ride meaning a few seconds of auto-pause every once in a while which added up to an irritating amount over longer rides. This therefore forced you to place it on the front wheel where I always found it completely flawless.
Is there anything about this new one that suggests it will be better on the back wheel in this regard? I’d really like to put mine on the back wheel if at all possible, just for aesthetics…! Cheers.
Running Polar Vantage V and Garmin SS2 on the rear wheel. Done couple of five – six hour rides and it’s constantly dropping the connection… I now regard my SS2purchase as a mistake and will go back to Sigma dual sensor that just does what is supposed to do…
My Garmin speed sensor 2 also stopped working after a few days. What a piece of shit.
Hi Ray,
Thank for three awesome reviews :)
I am seriously loving the idea of using the Edge 530 on my MTB and I was hoping for a word on these sensors on a technical forest trail. Do you think they would hold?
I seem to remember the normal speed sensors are rated for a satisfactory 100 hours… so I get it might take a while to evaluate the battery, but unless Garmin made miracles I’d be surprised if these can outlive the previous generation.
Cheers!
I know Des from DesFit has been using the same sensors, almost exclusively on his mountain bike. I don’t think he’s killed them yet (and he’s a legit good mountain biker doing jumps and all sorts of other crazy stuff I don’t do as I prefer to stay alive).
Do you have any idea, how a GPS head unit can precisely detect jumps? just by checking when there is bike movement without wheel rotation? But during jumps the wheels keep rotating for a bit… What about wheelies?…
Or it uses the altimeter? Would it really detect altitude changes of like half a meter or so?
When you’re in a jump, you’re in free fall (well, close to it, there’s still some air resistance). With an accelerometer, you can see that (this type of accelerometer will show essentially zero in all three directions when in free fall). Having a big upward acceleration (one to push you up, one to keep you from sinking into the ground) before and after will help define the interval of the jump.
I dont think so. When you pedal evenly, or just coast… similarly no acceleration in any direction. Moreover, measuring the direction of the acceleration is totally unreliable, if you roll over an obstacle, but not jump, you may get the same readings…. I’m not sure purely by this logic one can precisely tell if you are jumping or not.
There’s one big 1g acceleration up keeping you from going into the ground in that case. You’re not in free fall like in a jump. Accelerometers measure “deviations from geodesic motion” (essentially deviations from free fall). A jump should be fairly easy to detect, unlike almost everything else. I wouldn’t, for example, want to try to measure incline with an accelerometer on a gravel road.
That I understand, but still i’m doubtful if it will really work in the everyday use. imagine… if you are in a rollercoaster your accelerometer will go crazy about the accelerations in all the directions and still you are not flying because you are attached to the rails. The same with a bike on a rough trail… you can have huge vertical elevation differences and accelerations and still you are just rolling over steep bumps or into ditches.
But all that you worry about disappears in a jump. There are (almost) no forces besides gravity acting in a jump, so for the moment there is no noise, and accelerometers are general relativists and don’t recognize the “force” of gravity anyway. Gravity is just a curvature of space-time. So this is relatively simple for an accelerometer, compared to almost everything else one can try to do with one. Now of course the accelerometer chip is not at the center of mass, there may be residual vibrations, etc., but during the jump it’s a much simpler physical situation. Once you’re on the ground again, then you need to worry about all of the other stuff.
Check out Des’s video on the jump metrics: link to youtube.com
In there somewhere is his Garmin Connect screenshot showing the astounding number of jumps and metrics associated with it. He’s a fairly technical guy and I know he gut-checked some of those numbers (not sure if he actually measured them or not).
No. When coasting there is about 9.8 meters per second squared acceleration because of gravity. This force is opposed by the road pushing up on the wheels. When you jump the road’s force is gone.
Inside the accelerometer, the sensor is compressed by the actions of gravity and the formal forces. During the jump, the normal force is gone.
I like the idea of caching the ride with the speed sensor for my commute bike. At the moment I log these rides with my Garmin Vivoactive 3, but I need to remember to start it. With the sensor, you have no manual action required.
Oh and a tip for commute rides synced to Garmin Connect and Strava: commutemarker.com Here you can add commute routes and this site marks the ride automatically as commute, changes the bike used and sets them as private on Strava. The last part is due to API issues not possible at this moment. But I have set Strava to set all activities to private and only my longer rides I change manually to see for everyone. So Strava is not clogged with small rides and walks, frustrating my followers ;)
Thanks for the interesting link to commutemarker.com. It would be nice to see this functionality built directly into Garmin Connect though – as Ray suggests, allowing you to skip the upload of your commutes to Strava altogether, either based on a distance threshold, or alternatively based on which device you have used to track the activity. The problem with 3rd party solutions is that you need to keep track of an additional account, and their functionality may break when there are API changes (as is the case right now).
will this pair with a vivoactive3 to get heart rate in the same file?
Yup!
Just a few questions:
– For this V2 speed sensor, is it compulsory to add the tyre diameter? I dont remember V1 sensor asking for it during setup. Or am I mistaken?
– Are these V2 sensors will be compatible with older devices (I have Garmin Edge 130)?
Thank you
Both Forerunners and Edges calibrate automatically the speed sensor by interpolating the measured distance with the GPS distance. Personally though I prefer going manual and input the measured wheel diameter. I seem to remember that Garmin Connect allows a different calibration for each workout (if you don’t upload the GPS track)
One reason to use manual calibration is that the head units recalibrate on occasion and can get it wrong. There’s no way of forcing a recalibration from GPS that I know of when that happens. Safer to use manual calibration, where the number never changes.
The calibration factor is required for pairing to the Connect app, which is of course optional. It isn’t required for the pairing with your Garmin devices.
Of course it is. Speed sensors are misnamed. They actually measure wheel rotations. In order to convert that to speed/distance, you need the circumference of the tire. Head units will automatically calibrate from GPS distance if you don’t tell them otherwise, but as I said, they recalibrate on occasion and once in a while get it wrong. You have no control over that, so it’s safer to enter a manual number, which you can adjust if necessary using GPS distance. But usually the numbers that you find in a search work pretty well. (I just got a new bike, with 700×40 tires, and the 2200 mm number I found on the Web works fine.)
I don’t think the Connect app pairs with sensors, anyway. It’ll get speed/distance from the head unit, so it’s using whatever the unit is using.
Of course, Connect pairs with *this* speed sensor, but not sensors in general.
Yeah, this is one of the few. It also pairs with Vector 3. Mostly it hasn’t in the past due to lack of Bluetooth Smart.
I believe that while it doesn’t pair with the cadence sensor today, they’ve setup the pipes such that they can, in the event of firmware updates.
Hi Ray.
You wrote:
And what if your rear wheel hub is too big for the band (as was my other commuter bike)? Well, in that case I just used a secondary rubber band. It’s hardly ideal, but it does work.
Can you elaborate on this? How do you attach the secondary rubber to the first one? Where do you purchase the secondary rubber?
Thanks for your help. Regards.
Just a regular rubber band. Like, one from a grocery store. :) Like I said, it’s not exactly ideal, but seems to work just fine.
I’ll take a picture tonight at home (didn’t ride that bike to the office today).
I’m really interested in understanding your method because I’m getting a Rohloff for my mountain bike and I have been trying to figure out what and how to fix it over there.
If you post that picture I will be eternally grateful :)
Is there any benefit to using a separate cadence sensor over the cadence being detected by a power meter?
Generally no. About the only scenario I can think of is some estimated cadence metrics at higher RPM. For example, the PowerTap hub (not pedals) isn’t awesome at estimated cadence. Neither are some trainers.
Any idea what the cache size is? (Number of trips, total duration, etc.)
Good question, I’ll defer to Garmin there. I suspect it might not be till Monday that I get a clear answer on that one.
The speed sensor can hold 300 hours of activity data.
Thanks. (impressive. Will certainly upgrade. )
Hi Shawn@Garmin
Is it possible to turn off the Activity Tracking as I have a Garmin head unit for this task and just need the sensor to send speed data only because Garmin and Strava double up on the activities.
How does a tire dimensioned 20×2.15 have a circumference of 801mm??? I get doing a rough calculation:
20″ = 508mm
2.15″ = 54.61mm
so using those numbers alone (disregarding rim width) you get:
C = π*d → C = π*508 → C = 1595mm
Funny you mention that…
So, those screenshots were the last thing I did before hitting publish. I basically re-did a unit and did the screen-shots. Then that night after riding home I’m like ‘Huh, no distance. That’s weird.”.
Poked at it more yesterday and there appears to be a bug in the latest beta app (since only beta apps can see these sensors), that’s causing something funky there. I dug through screenshots from way earlier this year when I did it and let it autocalc and it was more in-line with yours. I sent a note over yesterday. Something broke on the app side (not sensor side) in the most recent beta app build.
That makes much more sense! I was worried my 5yr Engineering degree and general love of mathematics was all a lie haha!
Is it just ne or are we missing a release date?
Any idea? The thing is my old garmin cadence seems to have died a few days ago. Switched battery 4 times already.
So I tend to immediately buy at least the cadence sensor
Sorry, effectively immediate. Sounds like you should start seeing units in the next week or two at worst, depending on where in the world you are.
Aw man. I was doing really well resisting Garmin’s new offerings but this speed sensor is sweet. For people using simple ANT+ bike computers this looks like a great way to upload ride info.
The feature of recording the ride without any app/device connected in real-time makes it particularly sweet for track cycling, since visible Garmin devices are forbidden in most velodromes.
The official Garmin UK websites says “Available 2nd Quarter 2019” ( see link to buy.garmin.com ). Do you have any insight on the actual release date in Europe?
Thanks!
Would that prohibition apply to the sensor itself? I have the gen 1 sensor, and it definitely says “Garmin” on it and is easily visible on the hub. Do you use on bike speed sensors on the track?
At least at my velodrome (the London Olympics 2012 one), sensor are not prohibited. A Garmin device is forbidden and actually only if it’s mounted on the cockpit or somewhere visible by the rider. It’s because of distractions.
> Devices such as bike computers or digital displays must not be fitted.
You should start seeing them globally in the next week or two – production began weeks ago and they’ve been in stock-pilingmode. Garmin always defines availability in quarters, and so we’re in Q2. :)
UCI CYCLING REGULATIONS, PART 3 TRACK RACES:
3.2.005 Riders may carry no object on them or on their bicycles that could drop onto the track.
They may not bear or use on the track any music player or radio communication
system.
In addition, any electronic device with display (for instance speedometer or
powermeter) must be hidden to that it cannot be read by the riders.
So you might run afoul of the first one, since in theory the sensor could come loose and drop off. I’ve never had it happen, though, and I’ve been using gen 1 since they came out and got my first one for my mountain bike where I’ve been using it ever since.
But that brings up another question. I only ever see track cycling during the Olympics, but I though that these days track bikes had disc wheels front and back. So how would you get the sensor on a hub in the first place?
Use a zip-tie on top and nobody will be able to complain it might fall off.
Would these devices work with a Garmin Edge Touring Plus?
Yes, they will.
Another great review.
Does the head unit calculated circumference get fed back to the sensor so it keeps that if it looses connection to the head unit (ie you are using the bike for commuting duties and can’t be arsed with the head unit)? Or does it revert to the one stored?
Anything set is stored on the sensor.
Hi just a quick question, are these speed/cadence sensors compatible with all edge head units? ive got a 510 for example?
if not is it just the ‘lovely’ GSC 10 unit I need? or any other recommended versions please?
thanks
Yes, fully compatible with the Edge 510.
Nice, but sad that “the little trick” is totally useless, as long Garmin does not allow to assign sensors to the used gear (i. e. bike). I’m totally clueless, why Garmin does not allow to assign gear to (sub)activities (beside of one bike for cycling, instead of another bike for mountain biking) and/or sensors to gear. I highly doubt that many people would swap speed sensors between different bikes a lot.
So when I take a small ride around the block (no real activity) it would very comfortable to have the sensor report and save the distance of this small ride. BUT you still have to edit this record, because the chance not very small, that you are not using this sensor on you default gear for “cycling”.
DC Rainmaker, wouldn’t you like to suggest this to Garmin!? I could imagine that they are listening to you.
While I’d agree mapping of activities to gear within Garmin Connect isn’t exactly how I’d like it, I don’t know that it makes the special features of the new speed sensor useless. Not as convenient as I could imagine, but still a nice unexpected feature.
I would imagine the Garmin people weighed the choice of linking sensors to specific activities/gear against the support calls they forecasted would result when customers didn’t correctly configure the associations. Having the head unit never ignore a sensor may be slightly more foolproof. Whether they continue that philosophy now that GCM is pulling sensor data into GC remains to be seen.
Making things highly configurable for experts can be difficult to achieve without making products too complicated for the basic user, or the average support person, to understand. Personally I don’t have a problem with editing an XML file to force behaviors their UI doesn’t allow, and I would have no problem at reverting the XML file to factory spec before making a support request. An the other hand, I did have to walk two of my friends through the menu cascade to change their FR per-Activity GPS selections.
While I’m sure Ray passes along major feedback themes to Garmin, they do have a web-based product suggestion form too.
I am now waiting for a new footpod version.
Yep; I’m hoping that’s not far behind. Must be a stronger market for a foot pod nowadays with the advent of Zwift running.
Made a suggestion to Garmin sometime ago, and this is partly there…..
Most of my bikes have a cadence sensor, that cadence is unique and therefore identified the bike in use.
In Garmin Connect under bikes it would be quite handy if one could allocate a cadence (or speed) sensor to a bike.
Then, when a work out is detected with that sensor the bike is automatically added.
Exactly my thought. I spend time in both Connect and Strava assigning bikes to new rides. There must be a smarter way.
Great review as usual.
What’s the score with switching to a different wheel sized bike and calibration.
I have an Edge 800 and a Fenix 5.
How do they compare with the Wahoo ones? My head unit is a Wahoo Bolt and my current bike has the Blue SC sensor.
However, as I am getting a new bike in a couple weeks I need a new set of sensors so I was tempted on trying these Garmin as they are newer than whatever Wahoo has in store (I think they are at least a couple years old). Plus I have grown very frustrated with Wahoo’s new App as their engineers removed a few features that were very critical for my training.
Thanks for the review! I wanted to ask only one quick thing: I would be willing to buy a cadence sensor for my road bike but I am undecided between version 1 and version 2 of this garmin sensor. I only go out on the street and sometimes spinning. What would you recommend? Greetings from Italy.
PS: i’ve got a forerunner 235 but i’m planning to get a fenix soon
Rather than suppress (i.e. do not report) very short rides (configurable distance) to 3rd party sites, I’d like to see the ability to consolidate all the short distance rides into a single “block”, over a configurable time. Say all [short distance] rides within a 12 hour period, etc.
can you post a photo of the old vs. new cadence sensor thickness / stack height
great reviews as always – thanks
Can someone tell me wat program is being used to generate the graphs with rainbows rows for HR zone, etc?
That’s Polar Flow, if using a Polar device.
Thanks.
Are you concern that rubber strap can break? Is your plan to leave sensors permanently on bike and what do you think if cable ties can be used. How to make this small units harder to disappear? :-) Any ideas?
I’ve been using the gen 1 sensors since they’ve been released and never had the rubber strap break on any of the 4 that I’ve used. I’ve worn through any number of cadence sensor bands, so much that I keep spares I’ve bought from Garmin. (Never lost a sensor, though)
Does it happen to broadcast battery state that can be picked up by the Garmin 830 (or similar)?
I always am wanting to know when to replace the battery without having to go on a ride where I just end up with no real data!
Possibly if you look under sensor details it’s there (I can’t at the moment). What I do know is that when the battery gets low, you’ll get a very visible warning on the head unit when you pair, and you’ll keep getting it when you pair until you do something about it. The battery has to be changed about once a year for the gen 1 sensors. The warning comes in plenty of time that you can do several rides before fixing it (I have done just that).
Hi!
any experience with mounting the cadence sensor on shoe?
It should works and could be comfortable if you have more than one bike.
If you have more than one bike, you can afford more than one sensor. Sensors are much cheaper than bikes. But if you really want to know, try it. The sensor won’t be rotating, so there’s a chance it simply won’t work.
Paul, whether or not I “can afford” more than one sensor is irrelevant. I have 3 bikes, which I’m guessing is not a lot by commenter standards. Buying 3 identical sensors that cannot be used simultaneously won’t put me in the poor house, but I’d rather buy 1 and allocate $80 to another line in the budget.
The Wahoo cadence sensor comes with a shoe clip as well as 2 types of crank mounts, and works pretty well, but not perfectly. I’m also curious if the Garmin sensor works in this way, though you can also just move the sensor around from one crank to another (unlike Wahoo, which uses zip ties or adhesive).
But you can say that about almost any part of your bikes! Why don’t you have just one chain and swap it between your bikes? Why not just one set of pedals, or chainrings, or bottom bracket?
The sensors are part of the bike. If you have one for each bike and one ever fails (never happen to me yet) you have ready spares. Way better than messing around beforehand swapping the sensor around.
I don’t begrudge you for wanting a separate sensor mounted on each bike you own, but it’s perfectly reasonable to clip it onto a shoe that you use on multiple bikes or, heaven forbid, take 10 seconds to move it over to another shoe.
Taking your other questions at face value…
-My chains are all different (11s, 3/16″ SS, 1/8″ SS), and cannot be swapped due to differing drivetrain components and chainstay lengths.
-My pedals are different (SPD-SL, double-sided SPD, single-sided SPD) and meant to suit the bike they’re mounted on, though, yes, I actually do swap them around occasionally
-Chainrings are all different sizes and cannot be swapped due to differing mounting patterns (130 BCD, 144 BCD, hollowgram spidering) and width.
-Bottom brackets cannot be swapped due to different interfaces (BB30, British thread + ISIS drive, Swiss thread + square taper)
Anyone had issues with pairing the Cadence Sensor 2 with an Android phone? This sensor is not on the list of available devices in the Connect app. The sensor works since its LED lights up after a few revolutions of the crank.
I had no issues with the Speed Sensor 2 since it’s on the list.
The cadence sensor doesn’t show up as a pairable sensor in Garmin Connect (only the speed sensor at this point). That’s because Garmin Connect Mobile doesn’t record workouts by itself (except for the speed sensor).
Whereas if you were to use a 3rd party app (for example, Strava), it’ll find it.
@DC Rainmaker: Am I right in thinking that Strava have since revoked the ability to pair external sensors? If so, it may be that my initial plan of avoiding the need for a bike computer may have failed and this cadence sensor is useless for rides IRL?
The get the data to Strava. Download the Wahoo Fitness app. This app is not a bad “bike computer” it is free and seems to work with any blue tooth sensor. This app uses the GPS built into your phone.
Then there is an option in the app to upload the ride (or run) to Strava. It is not live. The data is sent after the ride is complete.
The problem I found with trying to use an iPhone as a bike computer is battery life. If the display is kept on full-time and GPS is used full time I get at best 2 hours of battery life. For longer rides you will need a charger battery pack and cable.
Thanks for the suggestion! Will give this a go. I agree about using a phone as computer. In an ideal world, I would record the workout with my Fitbit Charge 4 (including self-supported GPS) in conjunction with the garmin cadence sensor. Upload to strava. Done. But I don’t see a way through here either.
Riding with a speed sensor through a tunnel I learned that some head units, such as the Wahoo Bolt, don’t go with it even GPS signal has been lost.
Hello Ray,
it dosen´t work with my Polar Vantage. I can pair both sensors, but the speed sensor then is jumping for example 25-15-25-15 then it stops and starts again. Paired for example with wahoo app everything works fine.
Is there anyone with similar proplems using Polar Vantage V??
Thanks Gerald
That’s odd. In my testing with the Polar Vantage V was primarily the cadence sensor. I had validated the speed sensor paired, but didn’t do any comparison data there. My speed data tests were mostly with the Suunto Spartan Trainer.
Have you ensured GCM shows the correct wheel circumference (in case the Polar is trying to automatically set it)?
Yes i have the correct wheel circumference. I have now tried it again on the indoor trainer without gps signal… Same problems with speed data it jumps every second!!!!
Cadance is shown properly – Again a problem Polar vs. Garmin.
It´s very disappointing…
Hello.
If my experience could help, I had the exact same problem as you describe with the combination Garmin Edge 520 and Magene Gemini 200 speed sensor. After long discussions with Magene which even offered to replace the sensor with a 201 model with no success regarding the problem, my solution was to purchase a Garmin speed sensor to pair it with the Garmin Edge 520. All worked correctly since then, even with automatic wheel circumference calculation.
Regards.
Gerald,
I have exactly same problem with Garmin Speed Sensor 2 and Polar Vantage V… On outdoor riding or home on trainer… I tried to reconnect it, change batteries on speed sensor but nothing worked… speed is going 25-15-27-15-26-15- and so on….
Cadence sensor is working as I think pretty normally…
Have you maybe find solution? I have connected with Samsung tablet with ANT+ connection and speed and cadence is then shown normally, without that droputs to 15 km/h…
Hi. Since few days I use the speed sensor 2. Unfortunately I have doubled workouts now – first one from main unit (edge explore) and the second one from the speed sensor 2 – is that normal? GC should now that both of them were recorded in the same time and main unit should be priority. It happens even I removed the speed sensor from GC app. How can I solve the issue?
Is it worth the upgrade to this new sensor? I have the last generation Garmin ones.
It’d honestly depend on if you needed the Bluetooth connectivity side. If you haven’t had a use for it, then no real reason to upgrade right away.
I have problem with pairing the speed sensor to Connect mobile because its not in the list of devices to pair. I live in sweden but that shouldnt make any difference. How do I get the speed sensor in the list so I can choose to pair it.
I presume you woke it up first (by either spinning your front wheel, or just twisting it a bunch of times in your hands)?
It should have a little light illuminate briefly when you do that.
Yes, when I spin the wheel the light flashes a couple of times, but the connect app doesnt find the sensor.
My Watch finds it 735 xt and I have no problem when i start a workout on the Watch.
Odd. I assume Garmin Connect mobile is fully up to date? And on GCM you’re going into the ‘Add device’ option as well?
Yes its up to date and the speed sensor 2 is now in the list but it doesnt find it.
Things to try:
1) Pull the battery for 10-15 seconds, then re-insert.
2) Double-check that it’s not showing as a paired device in your Bluetooth control panel. If so, select to ‘Forget’ it.
3) Toggle airplane mode on/off for a few seconds
I have exactly the same issue. I am not able to pair my speed sensor 2 to Garmin connect mobile 4.19.1 on my Google Pixel 2 XL. Does anybody know an Connect version that worked fine?
I have a OnePlus 5 using Garmin Connect Mobile Android 4.19.1 I have paired the Speed Sensor 2 without any problems. I used the Garmin Connect App to pair the two as per the instructions
Sane connection issues here: link to photos.app.goo.gl
Tried with two different OnePlus(6t and 3t) phones and one Asus Zenfone6
Hey Ray, I know you have been a solid user of the Wahoo cadence sensor on your bikes before now. Enough here to change your allegiance?
Yeah, I’m not sure if it would vastly change recommendations overall – nor would it be something I’d be like ‘throw away your Wahoo sensors and get the Garmin ones’, but for my specific use case of testing lots of devices – some of which are BT only (Polar/Suunto), it’s useful for me specifically to be able to connect up to two devices via BT.
For the speed sensor side, I think it’s a bit more of a no-brainer in the favor of Garmin, assuming costs were roughly equal.
Perhaps a weird question, but is there some cheap head unit or display option that I can use to aggregate devices? I have a fenix watch and was thinking about picking up the cadence sensor for biking purposes. Would love to have the data from my watch and sensor aggregated on a handle bar mounted solution without shelling out big bucks.
I am using Bontrager’s node for that purpose (i.e. ANT+, non-gps head — Extra Long battery life). Discontinued, but can still be found
I have exactly the same issue – paired with Fenix and Edge without issues in both ANT+/BT modes, but couldn’t pair it in app, tried both iOS and Android…
Any chance that you paired two bike computers over BLE and that took those two BLE channels up?
no, I removed it from everywhere… wrote to Garmin support, will see.
Thanks for taking care :)
Wondering if I could use the sensor for a unintended use case (chain counter on a sailboat’s windlass)
Any idea on the maximum distance at which we can still read the sensor signal? (8M?)
8 meters shouldn’t generally be a problem if there’s clear line of sight. But no real guarantees.
Hi there,
Anyone else having paired the cadence 2 sensor to a Polar V650? I am experiencing very inconsistent readings, with 0 values nearly every other second!
Quick update: troubleshooted the issue with Garmin telephonic support (very helpful and not at all robotic) and concluded that it probably is a faulty unit, which I will be sending back.
Got the same issue. Don‘t think it is a matter of faulty sensor. Paired with Wahoo fitness there is no drop. DC said that he saw a drop in his Ventage. I believe this is an issue with the Ploar unit.
Did it help?
any idea if it is working with the edge 500? thanks
….because with o-synce (another old type device) it is not – it’s pairing without problems, but the readings are more than inconsistent.
.
Hi, In your review above you mention that you can turn off the activity creation bit altogether if you want. Or, you could just disable the pairing to Garmin Connect Mobile. How did you do that as I haven’t found the setting as I don’t want to disable the pairing as I like the idea of checking the firmware? Thank you for a great review.
The GCM bit apparently hasn’t been released yet. On the Edge x30 series (530/830/1030) you can disable it though.
Hello,
First of all, thanks for your excellent work with Reviews, podcasts and more!
I have a question, wherein the Edge 1030 FW 8.00 can you do this setting?
Thought of an interesting use for the speed sensor.
I record rides using a Fenix 5; when using GPS on the Fenix the device life is limited to 10-15 hours (haven’t measured exactly)
Have a few long events forthcoming (20 hours plus) so the Fenix wouldn’t last, recharging on-the-move isn’t really an option.
Thought if turning off GPS battery life of the Fenix would be greatly extended (already use an external HRM strap and Bluetooth is off)
Speed sensor is ideal for this battery life extending as enables speed to be recorded.
Altitude would be barometric.
Not so bothered about location, as this is recorded from a Garmin hiking GPS and/or Garmin inReach.
Hi Ray,
Do you know if this is available for sale in Canada? Garmin Canada does not allow to purchase, and can’t find anywhere else.
Thanks!
Should definitely be (especially since the team responsible for it is actually based out of Alberta).
The exact V2 SKU’s you’re looking for are:
Speed sensor: 010-12843-00
Cadence sensor: 010-12844-00
Combo package: 010-12845-00
Alternatively, you could order it from the US via the Clever Training link to the side. Supports the site, though probably costs you slightly more (but, I suppose better than not at all).
Ray — I’ll point out another perspective. Roadies desperately need accurate speed readings and everything seems to be going the wrong way! Why? When training in a group, you need to hold the group pace at a steady speed, say 28mph on a flat road. As you rotate up to the front, your power numbers will climb and then jump as you hit the front. Most riders will start to fade after about 30-45 seconds…but it’s very hard to tell. You’re still a hero in your head because you’re legs are still screaming (shut up legs) while your speed is dropping. Power fluctuates too much to be a true gage of fade.
My brand new wahoo sensor, my old garmin wheel sensors both fluctuate way too much — sometimes more than GPS speed. My old bike’s wheel magnet speed sensor (bontrager speedtrap), the garmin ziptie to chain stay, the front wheel sensor, all dead on and very responsive. Nothing has come close.
Like the Wahoo, is “consumer grade” at best. Still searching.
Hmm, I’ll be honest – I’ve never really had that problem. For most road riding, GPS is usually more than accurate enough for me on roads where you’d be in a tight group. And the same goes for both the Wahoo and Garmin magnetless sensors I’ve tried (which I’ve done a ton of work with in super sensitive aero testing scenarios where they have to be rock-solid for pace).
Appears to be a problem a lack of averaging. My other sensor lie to me with a short term average (just a few seconds is enough) and smooth out the reading. (Good.)
My guess is that I’m being exposed to the ‘jitter’ exposed to the device sampling rate and the ant+ broadcast being slightly out of sync. Like riding with instant-read power, it’s super annoying to be riding smoothly along with number jumping up and down. Wishing for a 3-second ave.
Garmin as the option to expose it or not – making a competitive product appear inferior, less helpful.
Anybody else getting issues that the speed sensor duplicates rides if you also track it with a gps? I would have thought that Garmin would have implemented a system for ignoring the speed sensor ride if there is a matching one from a gps unit.
Yes, indeed, all rides are doubled. Garmin, read this!
Oh god, I was hoping there was just something odd with my setup. That’s pretty awful if Garmin have completely overlooked this. Surely it would be incredibly simple to implement, just check to see if a speed sensor ride has an overlapping time with a GPS ride with speed data. There’d be other complications, but I’m sure it could get done easily.
Typical Garmin, good idea, not quite finished.
Sorry, meant to circle back on this. For those with the 530/830/1030 you can enable a deduplication feature where the Edge tells the sensor not to record. For others, Garmin is is enabling this in Garmin Connect Mobile shortly.
However, this is more of a blanket all or nothing thing. Which, i think is what folks want anyway (and technically you can already achieve by just depairing it from Garmin Connect Mobile).
I struggle to see a scenario where you’d have a bike that has a GPS device on it, but also a speed sensor that you want to routeinly record the offline file as well. I’d think it’s far more common to have a secondary bike (like a commuter bike, cargo bike, etc…) where you do want it recording the offline file (sans-GPS), since you simply don’t record a GPS ride there.
Hi Ray, thanks for responding to this.
Good to know they are on it. I’ll be upgrading to the 1030 shortly so I’m glad to learn that will solve the issue.
I can see that for a lot of people, just unpairing it from connect with be fine, as you say. Though some people commute and train on the same bike, either because of a lack of space to store extra bikes, or just not being able afford them.
I myself commute and tour on the same bike as it is pretty ideal for both jobs. It’s not a massive bother to go and delete the extra activities from Garmin Connect and Strava, but it is a bit of faff it seemed could have been eliminated fairly simply.
Overall I love the feature. I wouldn’t have bothered upgrading had it not had headunit free recording.
As a complete aside: Another trick would be matching sensors to bikes in Strava, so it automatically assigned the right bike to it. Though, I don’t think the data Strava gets from connect includes the sensor ID, so probably not possible.
“Another trick would be matching sensors to bikes in Strava, so it automatically assigned the right bike to it.”
Woah woah woah, let’s not get crazy now. That’d require Strava to actually add features. Can’t have none of that action.
Having the sensor paired to GCM is (slightly) useful in that it lets you access the battery state (I don’t know how granular that is) &, potentially allows for software updates on the sensor (I noticed it checked for an update when I paired my newly acquired speed sensor this week).
I didn’t need a v2 sensor but had more wheelsets in use than sensors & that was what my local bike shop came up with. The “deduplication” option in GCM would be useful (not there yet in GCM v4.20) otherwise I may just unpair it for now & try again when GCM gets updated.
I know this is an old thread, so no one may see my comment, but just reading while thinking of buying.
Doesn’t your comment of not seeing a scenario contradict what you said in the review, “Whereas off-road mountain-biking in dense forest or with switchbacks, that’s where you’d probably want a speed sensor to give you better distance accuracy and better pace stability”?
I’ve not noticed problems with GPS, but maybe I’m not riding the right sort of trails for it to occur.
(separately, my VA3 has been a mess on switchbacks on several hikes)
I’m not quite saying that – I’m saying I don’t see a reason to secondarily record the sensor by itself as a standalone file when you have a GPS unit already recording it. Meaning, in this case if you had a Garmin Edge (or whatever), and it had GPS but also was using the speed sensor for more accurate mountain biking speed/distance – that’s great!
But I just wouldn’t see a reason to secondarily enable the offline caching bit, since you’d already have that data with the file of your Edge (from the speed sensor no less).
Hope this helps! Oh – and thanks for being a supporter!
Thanks! Yeah, that helps. I missed the part about saving a separate track, versus what head unit would. Can’t think of a site I use more or that I’d rather support. Keep it up.
I’ve also wanted this feature for a while. My friend developed a strava app called “Activity Fix” and I urged him to include this feature, which he did. So now my Strava rides automatically get the right bike based on the sensor.
Hi Ray!
Any luck pairing and using these with an Apple Watch?
Natively the Apple Watch doesn’t support cycling sensors, so you’d have to use a 3rd party app to do it. It should work though with the appropriate 3rd party apps, assuming they (the apps) follow the standard BLE specs.
DC: great review. this is the only place i could find on the web that fully describes the new features of the two sensors. Thank you!
Just picked up the Speed V2 for an older bike. The bike has an old Dura Ace front hub which has a small diameter. The sensor band was limp when installed and would have fallen off if left like that. Made a shim out of a piece of old tube and it mounted fine. This is the other end of the spectrum from those having problems with big hubs. Would have been nice if Garmin included some nice shims you could cut down similar to what you often see with other accessories which attach to handlebars, forks, seat stays, etc. FWIW, I also have the Wahoo magnetless speed sensor on another bike and tried it on this wheel and had the same issue.
I want to simultaneously connect using ANT+ to my Lezyne and BT to my iPhone. Anyone see any potential issues with this setup?
No issues that I can see there. Enjoy!
Hey DC,
Thank you for another great in depth review! Sadly these aren’t compatible on my Instinct, as per Garmin’s site. I’m actually surprised, any thoughts on the matter?
Also having a tough time tracking the older model down.
The older model wouldn’t be any different. Both buy.garmin.com and Ray’s review says the Instinct will support speed sensors, so buy one from somewhere that allows returns and try pairing it. The 2 is an ANT+ speed sensor with extra tricks. If you can’t use the tricks, you can at least use the basic sensor.
I bought this because I think the offline caching is a great idea.
A couple of observations:
“After the ride, it quietly saves the file, but doesn’t sync it to your phone until the next time the sensor wakes up.”
This is not fully accurate. It syncs either after the workout ends (if your phone is in range) or when sensor wakes up (confirmed this twice today when the workout synced when the stop workout pause threshold has been triggered).
Which leads me to second issue – no ability to configure the timeout period that ends the workout. I think it’s OK if the sensor goes to sleep after let’s say a minute or two – but the workout shouldn’t necessarily end. The current setup makes my grocery store trip two workouts… and two entries on GC and Strava.
Hmm, that’s odd. Mine definitely doesn’t do that. I can walk back past the bike or stand next to it – but unless I wake up the sensor, nothing gets transmitted.
I think what you’re running into is that it’s actually ending the session before you really want it to, and thus, it wakes up and sends you that first piece. No?
I don’t think so. I went into a shop, left my bike outside. As I was browsing, the sensor ended the ride (arguably earlier than I wanted to as I wanted to register the trip to and back as one activity) and a GC notification that an “Activity is available” appeared on my phone. Same thing when I got back home.
My Speed Sensor 2 event is showing up with a time 4 hours later than my MoveIQ cycling events from the same ride. The time the Speed Sensor gets may be UTC. I need to check if there is a time setting available via Garmin Connect’s device setting menus.
So it appears to be a bug with GCM app not showing the timezone in the My Day > Heart Rate timeline view. The website version of GC does show the time in UTC but it lines up properly on the daily summary timeline.
I’m having the same issue. Garmin Support says there is an open case on it and engineers are working on a fix.
Great I hope they fix it! Seems like an easy problem.
I don’t think so. I went into a shop, left my bike outside. As I was browsing, the sensor ended the ride (arguably earlier than I wanted to as I wanted to register the trip to and back as one activity) and a GC notification that an “Activity is available” appeared on my phone. Same thing when I got back home.
Any chance of fitting this to an aero wheel?
I have a tri spoke carbon wheel and there isn’t a hub to fit the speed sensor on.
Do you think the cadence sensor 2 have a conflict with the same BLE channel as Wahoo Kickr Snap?
My friend case is, her MacBook can only either detect KickrSnap or the cadence sensor……
Hi, is anyone else having this problem? I started with the speed sensor on my back wheel on my mountain bike. I am using a Polar m450. It pairs fine but auto pauses constantly when riding! Sometimes every few seconds, other times every few minutes. It is a large mountain bike so I moved the sensor to the front wheel and it keeps happening. Non stop auto pausing and then auto continuing.
Does your Polar allow you to set the minimum speed for auto pause? A typical reason this kind of thing happens is that you’re climbing and going slow and falling below the “your not actually moving” speed set for auto pause. If that’s not it, you should probably just turn off auto pause.
Hi Paul, thanks. Actually it pauses at high speeds more often than low speed. And it is set at 0.0 mph. Any other ideas?
The only other things I can think of are to turn off auto pause and see if you still get choppy speed/distance profiles and to pair the sensor with something else if you have something else. If you’re using Bluetooth you’ll need to de-pair it with your Polar, if ANT+ then that doesn’t matter. See if you get the same behavior with another device if you can.
It works with auto-pause off just fine. No drop outs but frustrating that I can’t rely on auto-pause.
Hi,
I have Polar Vantage M. Should this sensors work with my watch and therefore Polar Flow data? They seem much better than Polar’s own sensors.
There’s an option to have 3rd party sensors via BT, but I never tried that. Also, Polar compatible sensor page looks pretty outdated.
It should no problems. I tried it with the Vantage V, which is firmware-wise identical to the Vantage M in these respects.
Hi,
I bought the mentioned sensors pack.
I paired them with my M, as well as independently with Ride with GPS app.
I see strange dropouts with M/Polar Flow (speed having strange “fallback” to 15.7 kph speed) whereas speed on Ride with GPS seem constant and unchanged.
Any thoughts?
Hi,
after couple of rides, I can say that my new Speed Sensor 2 is NOT working with my Polar Vantage M, but producing rubbish (switching between real speed and 15.7 kph every second). Cadence sensor is good. Also, both sensors work with my Ride with GPS app just fine. I take it it’s some Polar thing.
Update:
After further testing, I found a culprit. I’m using Polar H10 connected to both my RWGPS app and M. With these new sensors, that makes a total of three to each device connection and is somehow problematic. When I’m not wearing H10, both sensors work in every app/device.
This begs the question what is the max number of devices supported to connect via BLE in Vantages?
My phone supposedly has support of three BLE channels so that should work (but is losing connectivity somehow).
Hi Ray,
after talking with Garmin support I’m told that these sensors are NOT meant to be used with two concurrent BLE connections (like my case – Polar Vantage M and mobile phone both in trainings) but only to have capability to pair to two devices.
Now, I find this not to be true reading your review.
Can you please share your thoughts?
Yeah, simply put Garmin support is wrong. It’s a core feature of the device and one Garmin has often advertised.
I suspect the issue you’re running into is probably more Polar related than not, though it’s hard to say. If you’re not seeing a dropout with other apps but just on the Vantage M, it’s probably Polar specifically and maybe the current firmware now?
Hi Ray,
after further testing, I found out the issue is with Polar only. I connected sensors only to my M, and I saw constant dropouts.
Working with RWGPS, everything seems fine.
I guess it’s a fw issue. I will write to Polar about this.
Hi Ray,
Polar Customer Care says that officially these sensors are not supported with Vantage.
I wonder if they’ll make it work in the upcoming October fw.
Even with the new Polar fw, I still have issues with Speed Sensor 2 (constant dropouts) that makes it unusable. Problem arises going with speed bigger than 15kph.
Cadence sensor is working fine.
Ognjen, thank you for sharing your story and testing!
I have same problem (Garmin speed and cadence sensor 2 with Polar Vantage V) and I can’t find solution… cadence sensor working good, speed sensor constantly have dropouts to 15 km/h, every second as you mentioned.
Milan
I unpaired both Garmin sensors and then paired only Garmin speed sensor with Vantage V… Now without droputs in speed in short indoor testing on home trainer….. We’ll see,,,
Milan
Unfortunately, repeated tests showed speed dropouts…
I’ll return it to the seller, there is no value in this Garmin sensors for me…
“My suggestion to Garmin would be to allow me to set a minimum distance threshold for sync to 3rd party services.”
any progress on that that you would know of?
Nothing I’m aware of.
I installed on speedsensor on the bike of my daughter. As she doesnt have a mobile phone i use a Android tablet to sync her rides. But with every connection to the sensor only one ride gets transferred and then the sync stucks (the led stops blinking red/green)
I can wait until a error comes ir deactivate/activate bluetooth to start the next sync.
The sync-circle gets full only after i synced 5(days)*2(rides) times…
To be shure its not a problem of this special tablet i used another tablet and got the same result. Thats annoing.
I’m going to contact Garmin support as they’re usually very helpful but thought I’d log my issue here to see if anyone else is experiencing same.
The sensor has a hard time pairing with my Google Pixel (1st Gen). Usually stops halfway through a sync. I can sometimes get it to work but I have to hold the phone very close to the sensor.
Does anyone else use this speed sensor on a back hub for indoor training.
If yes, does it work without speed dropping in half every other second?
I bought it specifically for this reason, but speed is constantly jumping.
I tried it outdoors on a back wheel and speed still jumps around, compared it to GPS and it’s off by 10km/h avg.
Then I tried it on the front wheel and it works perfectly.
So after more testing on the back hub I came to the conclusion that chain itself is triggering sensor.
If the rear wheel is stationary and I rotate chain backwards it pick up speed – jumping around.
If I hold the crank with chain stationary and rotate back wheel it pick up speed – no jumping around or not much
After more testing I found out that it’s affected by any ferrous metal up to 10cm away from sensor.
Is this a feature, a bug, do i claim warranty?
It’s a feature. Garmin has an FAQ about how the speed sensor works. In short, it’s detecting the Earth’s magnetic field, and that’s why ferrous metal (which has a good chance to be magnetized) interferes. I’m not sure how other manufacturers do it; you might have better luck with another sensor. Or if you can find an old GSC-10, which counts rotations by detecting a spoke magnet, that will work as well.
Another interesting feature (or bug?) is that it seems that if the device connects through the ANT+ channel, it no longer records the ride for offline sync. It doesn’t matter if it connects half way or at the beginning of a ride.
It looks like a fairly logical way of preventing duplicate entries in Garmin Connect but given things are a bit rough with the stability of this products it might be a bug as well :-)
@Juro is your computer an Edge x30? The Sensor 2 records duplicate activities and uploads them to GCM via Bluetooth for me every time I record with my computer (an Edge Explore, to which the Sensor 2 is connected through ANT), whereas several people (you and a few on the Garmin forums) have reported the behaviour you are describing.
There could be a difference of behaviour for Edge x30 computers and all the other computers.
I bought this purely for offline sync, I.e. without an Edge.
I installed on my electric bike, BUT
Front when had some kind of Shimano dynamo in the hub, and the speed 2 recorded speeds of up to 200km/hr. FUN!
Then the back wheel, mainly it did not transfer filed, once it did (4 files) but all the files showed zero speed and zero distance. They did show some “strokes”. Wheel diameter was in the sensor correctly. I opened a ticket with Garmin but they were honest that they had other similar reports and were not sure if and when a FW update might come.
Not sure if it was the electric bike, but I returned it and bought a basic cables speed meter with a magnet.
I’m having some difficulties connecting my cadence sensor to my Garmin edge 830. It seems to think it is a speed sensor instead of a cadence sensor. When I went for my test ride it didn’t give me a reading on cadence. Sometimes when I search I can find it as a speed sensor, but most of the times my Edge can’t find it at all. I’ve tried switching batteries but no luck there. Any ideas?
Can I send this data to the phone as well just like the wahoo sensors so that i can use the phone as console.
Question for you…Using a new Speed sensor paired with my Edge 500. While riding everything shows up (speed, distance, etc.) but upon syncing my Garmin with Strava the distance shows up as zero on Strava despite showing up correctly on the Edge 500.
Any suggestions?
What does it say if you send it to Garmin Connect or somewhere other than Strava?
Hi Ray, keep up the great work, love your stuff. Is there a way to hook this up to a Peloton bike so that I could join swift?
I have a Keiser M3 with a controller that does not have bt or ant – I think the cadence sensor would work on the bike but would the speed sensor work? The rear wheel on the M3 is magnetic – would that interfere with the sensor?
We got the Garmin Speed and Cadence sensors for winter when one shared bike sits in a stand indoors where it can be ridden by any of us without dealing with ice and snow. How can we turn off the feature that floods my wife’s Garmin and Strava accounts with everybody’s rides? Ideally, each person’s Garmin watch would only receive info for that person — while the person is doing a “Bike Indoor” ride. We do not want the watch to receive any info that is generated while the watch is not tracking an Indoor Bike ride. This “feature” was completely unexpected and so annoying that we thought something was wrong at first.
Simply remove it from your Garmin Connect mobile smartphone app. It won’t sync any longer. It doesn’t impact the ability to use it with a watch or such.
Hi, im thinking of buying one of these speed sensors to use on my bike with a turbo trainer. My question is, do I need a garmin watch or will the data transfer to the garmin app on my phone?
Just the app and sensor are enough if you want only distance and speed without gps data.
Why can’t I add the cadence sensor to Garmin?
Which device/watch/etc are you trying to pair it to?
Did you try and pair it as a combined Speed/Cadence sensor, or a standalone Cadence sensor. It should be paired as a standalone cadence sensor.
Thank you, great reviews!
I imagine this question has been asked, but now if I purchase these blue tooth sensors will they pair with Zwift?
Thank you!
Hi All,
it is 3 days I’m using the speed sensor on my commute bike. I bought the device just for offline traking of the km I do during the year going to and back from workplace.
What I’ve experienced in these three days is the following:
– when i start the ride back home in the evening the morning ride is synched to GC properly
– when i start the ride the next morning the evening ride home is not synched at all :(
I’ve to mention that I store the bike in an underground garage during night (as many of us I would assume) and there I do not have any internet connectivity on the phone… could this be a potential explanation why the synch is not completed???
Or is there a time limitation for the rides to remain on the internal memory? Such that only the rides on the same day can be synched???
At the moment the behavior of the sensor is pretty annoying since I’m loosing half of the rides I do :(
If you have any suggestion/help that would be highly appreciated! :)
You can force the upload of the missing rides by turning the wheel 2 times and the sync in garmin connect mobile. It only transfers 1 ride with each sync and then gets stuck. To force the next sync just disable /enable Bluetooth on the phone and wait if the circle in gc gets completely green now. Data is only transferred as long as the led of the sensor blinks. When it stops blinking do what i wrote above.
I’m even more unlucky than you. I park my bike in a bunker both at home and at work. Ultimately, here’s my troubleshooting:
1. go to the “Garmin Devices” section of the Connect App. You should see the sensor as “Gen3 BSCM” in there. If it’s not there, follow the steps to pair it using bluetooth.
2. Make sure your phone has internet connectivity (maybe google something like “how to not lose your mind trying to use Bluetooth devices”).
3. Rotate the wheel with the sensor to wake it up.
4. Disable/Enable bluetooth on your phone.
5. Wait for Gen3 BSCM to connect and start synching.
6. If the sync progress bar goes a little way but doesn’t complete, then don’t wait, go straight back to 3. (essentially if your system works like mine at this point it synched a ride but got stuck, so resetting bluetooth connectivity will trigger the next sync).
7. If the sync progress bar immediately completes, then your sensor is fully synched and you can go to your Cycling Activities.
8. If any ride is missing or seems shorted than it should, then welcome to my world: your sensor is defective, send it back if you can. Or save yourself some nerves and time and just bin it.
You know what they say, what really gets you is the hope. The hope that one day it will actually work. That you will understand it, tame it. Find a way to have a reliable way to record your effort if like me you’re a heavy commuter with a side dish of week-end rides, where most of your mileage happens in short rides.
Let me tell you, it won’t happen. You’ll end up with your bike upside down, outside of your bunker of a parking space, in the rain just because you’re worried that any weather protection will somehow prevent your phone from uploading rides, rotating the wheel to keep the sensor awake and repeatedly disabling and enabling BT on your phone while hoping that Connect can sync more than one ride at a time (hint: it won’t).
After 3 months of using this, and going to all the stages of grief, I’m definitely of the school that this device is conceptually defective. It only really works in lab conditions: if your bike is essentially your roommate and your phone coverage is 100% at all times.
Wait for the next version, or use a bike computer or smartwatch to record your rides (hint: if you have an Android phone, by default Google records everything you do anyway). Or maybe it’s a new chapter in your life, where data is not important and you cycle for the fun of it. Maybe, it’s better this way (that’s the last stage of grief by the way, resignation)…
Thanks Gordon, Michael for your replies. I’ll try to perform the suggestions you gave me.
I’ll let you know what happens…
But basically for the synch of the evening ride (the next morning) I think that the issue is a awkward BT connectivity between my iphone 6S and the sensor… because the sensor is well awaken by the fact that I’m doing the morning ride to work… so no need to do a “dummy” wheel spin to wake it up…
the next strange thing i did not expect is why in the evening when the sensor is synching correctly the same day morning ride it is not uploading also the evening ride of the day before…
you are right Gordon… these BT devices drive us crazy… :(
ciao
Luca
I’m fairly sure that the sensor won’t download ride data while you are riding as it is busy broadcasting live ride data for any paired devices to pick up.
I can’t remember if I’ve ever had more than one ride download as mine is on my least used pair of wheels & I always use it paired to an edge 1000 (& delete any duplicates created by the sensor)
Hi Rick,
thanks for the reply! Nice observation.
So that would mean that before starting to pedal we need to give the wheels a spin and wait for the synch happening :(
That is a bit irritating… if you are in a hurry waiting for the sync is really not so nice…
BTW, thanks to Gordon suggestion by disabling/re-activating the BT on the phone this morning I was able to synch friday afternoon Ride back home :)
Still… not that nice user experience I was waiting from this sensor… I thought I could forget about sport watch and bike computer… but the experience is not that flawless :(
Ray, a question I cannot really find an answer for:
I want to replace my Sigma bike computer which I’m using for commuting.
The reason is that I’d like to integrate my data in garmin connect.
These sensors are great as you are mentioning since they have internal memory and sync to Connect.
If I’m not commuting I use my Fenix to track the activities.
However, I’d also like to have a head unit displaying the data. The problem is that all the ANT+/BLE head units have a lousy battery life (e.g. Edge 25). The sigma and similar computers last much longer.
Is there any alternative to this? How could I solve this?
Hi Christoph-
I’m not sure I entirely understand. Are you looking for an alternative head unit? There isn’t anything in the Garmin line-up that gets crazy good battery life for commuting weeks on end without recharging.
However, this will connect to just about any ANT+/BLE capable computer, including the recent Sigma ones. The Stages Dash L10 is another one that gets crazy-long battery life too that’s worth looking at.
I just used this toys for nearly a month, and what intrigued me me, is that the distance I ride with is farther than when I ride only with my garmin fenix 5X. The distance are 25 km (with sensors) and 21 km (just with fenix 5x).
What should I do? Which one is more accurate?
Assuming no major GPS errors in your Fenix 5X track, then it sounds like you’ve probably got the wrong wheel circumference entered in on the speed sensor.
Yes. I set the wheel size with 27.5 mm as my bike size. Tomorrow I will set it to automatic and will find the answer. I’ll let u know. Thanks.
Hi there,
I have enormous trouble connecting my speed sensor 2 with my mobile on a regular basis. In fact, I have unsynced activities since September. When I link the phone and the sensor, the syncing process takes forever and does not end succesfully.
Is it possible to pair it with my PC and thus download all the data that way? I have tried to no avail yet (with the USB ANT+ garmin dongle and latest Garmin Express (6.20)).
The unit does pair with Garmin devices w/o any issue.
Any reply will be highly appreciated.
I”m planning to make my (non-smart) spinbike a smart trainer which I can connect to Zwift.
Can this be done only with a cadence sensor (although it will not be exact, but that’s not needed also), or do I need also a speed sensor to make this work?
The speedsensor might be just too large for my spinbike (have approx 2 cm space). Perhaps there are smaller speed sensors on the market?
Thank!
The review says that the speed sensor can record data with no head unit. OK, that might be true but how does one access this recorded data? I’m not able to find how this is done
You’ll use your phone, via the Garmin Connect smartphone app.
Thanks for the review! I was in doubt with all functionality of sensor speed against the current version, but now it’s everything clear and reasonable to change. Best!
Hello,
I just bought the Garmin speed 2 and cadence 2 sensor and paired with my Polar V650. It looks like the speed sensor is not working properly since every few seconds my speed drops to half of the real speed, si i.e. if I go at 24.2 km/h then it drops to 12.1 km/h and then back to 24 and so forth… Any guess?
Thanks,
Nico
It seems to be a problem at Polar’s end of things. If you read through earlier comments the sensors read fine recording to other devices but the same sensor gets dropouts like this when connected to a Polar unit.
Hi Ray
Do you know if there are any compatibility issues with a SRAM AXS rear derailleur causing interference with the speed sensor 2? Of course I could move the sensor to the front wheel, but that does not work well for trainer use:-)
I have asked a Garmin tech support, but they did not know, and so far have not gotten back to me :-(
Thank you!
I haven’t heard of anything there. Different protocol.
The speed sensor works by detecting the earth’s magnetic field. (link to support.garmin.com). The earth’s field is pretty weak, and it’s easy to find fields stronger than it, like perhaps from an electronic derailleur which undoubtedly has flowing currents and maybe permanent magnets in the actuators. In short, it’ll work better if you move it to the front. (Why Garmin does this has never made any sense to me.)
Hi Brian, exactly the same issue over here, in the front wheel there is no problem at all, but back at home on the trainer with the speed sensor on the rear wheel mi speed readings are not constant, i have a SRAM AXS group, a garmin speed 2 sensor and a Garmin edge 530 Ciclyng Computer. It seems to be related with the magnetic field created when you move the crank, because when you are not pedaling the reading remains constant and accurate. Saddly, i haven’t found any solution. Hint: when using the TACX app for training on the laptop there seems to be no problem.
How accurate would you say are the speed/distance readings while on a (magnetic) trainer? I just installed my sensor and had the impression that it was recording double (watch said 30km/hr and my perception was more a 15km/20km hr)
You may need to check settings for your wheel size. That is how the speed sensor judges speed, number of revolutions x circumference of the wheel + tire
Hello,
Thank you for your review. I just purchased a set of Garmin Cadence sensor 2 and Speed sensor 2, with Hrt rate monitor (as well as a set of Wahoo Heart rate monitor + Cadence + Speed sensor). I installed the Wahoo sensors, got them connected, up and running in no time at all (on an iPhone SE, running Wahoo Fitness app).
The Garmin sensors were just the opposite. Only one of them was recognized at any one time, when I tried to connect using my iMac laptop, iphones (3 iPhone 6 SE, 1 iPhone 7 Max, 1 iPhone XR, 1 iPhone 11 Pro) and 1 Samsung Galaxy S8+ (with various apps). I read what I can on the net. Finally, I called up Garmin customer services. They told me that the Garmin sensors were not made to connect to other apps. They were made to be used with Garmin devices specifically (and not other apps). I know others were able to connect them to 3rd party apps and that is great for them.
I wish I knew this from the outset. I’m just a regular Joe Public and not a dedicated enthusiast, not even an amateur cyclist. We ride as a family (of 4) casually. I don’t see myself invested heavily into garmin products, just so that they can sit in my garage collecting dust.
Which apps did you try on your phones? Again, as noted in the review the cadence sensor doesn’t pair to the Garmin app. But it’s just a generic Bluetooth Smart cadence sensor. I outlined numerous apps in the review that it does connect to. And have used it for more than a year now with other apps.
That said, I’m not sure what Garmin support is talking about – but perhaps there’s some confusion in their answer.
In any case, can you clarify what apps you used to try to connect to the Garmin sensor, where it failed?
Hi, I have the same problem with sensors bought 1 week ago. I already have Ant+ speed and cadence sensors but decided to buy the new ones because the Bluetooth feature. My wish is to connect these sensors to the Sufferfest or eventually Zwift apps installed in iPad Pro.
Tried to connect speed sensor 2 with Garmin connect app, the device has been detected but not associated. After several attempts (In different hours, days) the process went o.k.
So I opened the sufferfest app and installed the speed sensor 2, started to pedaling and the speed was right displayed on app’s monitor. Everything ok but.. I stopped, then after 10 minutes started again end nothing worked ! even the connection to Garmin connect app did’n work. Switch on/off iPad, remove battery from sensor but no way.. nothing worked.
So I removed the device (speed sensor 2) from Connect app on iPad and tried with iPhone 11 Pro.
Same procedure (including several attempts to associate device to Garmin connect app)
and same results.. worked once and stop.
Worried abut the reply from Garmin service regarding the possibility to use this sensors only in Garmin apps. It’s unacceptable!! the features of the products didn’t mention this.
Really hope that Garmin will comeback with a solution.
Hi, I have the same problem with sensors bought 1 week ago. I already have Ant+ speed and cadence sensors but decided to buy the new ones because the Bluetooth feature. My wish is to connect these sensors to the Sufferfest or eventually Zwift apps installed in iPad Pro.
Tried to connect speed sensor 2 with Garmin connect app, the device has been detected but not associated. After several attempts (In different hours, days) the process went o.k.
So I opened the sufferfest app and installed the speed sensor 2, started to pedaling and the speed was right displayed on app’s monitor. Everything ok but.. I stopped, then after 10 minutes started again end nothing worked ! even the connection to Garmin connect app did’n work. Switch on/off iPad, remove battery from sensor but no way.. nothing worked.
So I removed the device (speed sensor 2) from Connect app on iPad and tried with iPhone 11 Pro.
Same procedure (including several attempts to associate device to Garmin connect app)
and same results.. worked once and stop.
Worried abut the reply from Garmin service regarding the possibility to use this sensors only in Garmin apps. It’s unacceptable!! the features of the products didn’t mention this.
Really hope that Garmin will comeback with a solution.
I’m also having problems connecting the two sensors to various iPhones. Tried pretty much every app I could find: Garmin, Wahoo, Cyclemeter and several others.
What DOES work, however, is using TWO iPhones (via the Wahoo app). One iPhone (SE) for the cadence sensor, and another iPhone (5s) for the speed sensor. Cumbersome procedure, but flawless uninterrupted connection from both sensors.
When I try to connect both sensors to one phone (Wahoo app), the app keeps losing the connection.
Could it be that the problem is with iOS? Maybe it has a maximum number of Bluetooth connections? (The only other device I sometimes connect is my Bluetooth headset…)
Would be interesting to get to the bottom of this. I do like the sensors’ magnetless design, but unfortunately will have to return them unless I find a solution (one with ONE phone I mean)…
Thanks a lot for the – as always – great review!
I recently started to migrate from primarily running into cycling and got a new road bike. I was thinking about buying a Garmin Edge 530 given my Forerunner 245 watch seemed to be less suitable for the cycling I did over the last weeks but then came across this sensor bundle. I am currently considering getting the sensor bundle and pair it with my Forerunner to get the additional accuracy on speed and cadence while cycling and holding on with the purchase of an Edge 530.
Would you recommend this approach for someone who wants to save the extra expenditure for the Edge device but has the desire to get a bit more data on cycling performance?
Hi,
based on my recent experience with Garmin sensors (speed and cadence)
i can suggest you to buy these sensors only if you intend to pair then with Garmin devices using Ant+ protocol.
But, the problem is with the Bluetooth connection that didn’t works at all (or partially random).
This doesn’t allow to connect the sensors to the smartphone end use different training apps (I.e wahoo, Zwift etc..).
Maybe you don’t need this now, but in future you never know
At the moment, despite the several complaints (in Garmin forum) it seems that Garmin doesn’t really take care of this problem.
I have these two sensors and use it with Ride with GPS and Polar Vantage M, both over BLE.
Speed sensor 2 don’t work reliably at all with M (constant dropping of speed – unusable), while it did work with RWGPS (didn’t try it yet in this year). I remember having occasional issues also with RWGPS (speed missing in some rides) but not sure who the culprit is. Cadence always worked good anywhere.
I agree with you, it seems like both Polar and Garmin are putting this story “you need to use all Garmin or all Polar”. What good are the open standards then? Garmin having better cycling gear, I like Polar watches more but they suck at cycling.
I’m supposed to use Polar for running and Garmin for cycling? Oh, common both.
I’d much rather don’t buy anything from any company promoting open standards and interoperability and lie about it.
I have a question – the sensors are great for using with a trainer – when you go outside, how is the Garmin watch recording velocity, with the sensor or GPS-based?
In general the sensor is preferred because it’s more accurate, and that’s what is used. But I think there are still some Garmin watches and maybe even low end cycling devices that don’t support cycling speed sensors, so they’ll use GPS. Most (I think) Garmin devices will auto calibrate the speed sensor using GPS unless you tell it not to by giving it a manual wheel circumference.
Most Garmin watches give you the choice of sensor or GPS in the watch settings.
Thank you very much for the review. It has been very informative. If i may ask, does the speed sensor paired with a cycling computer make for a better navigation unit, as in Sharp Bend Warning, or distance to next point calculation? I am just thinking that you mentioned above that the on its own, the cycling computer uses GPS to work out the speed/distance but this can be issue if there is no GPS coverage at a given point (mid-ride).
The speed sensor has absolutely nothing to do with navigation. All it does is measure wheel rotations.
Hi,
I have Garmin Vivoactive 3 and I just purchased the Garmin speed and cadence 2 sensors. Is there a way to display cadence on the Indoor Bike activity? It does display speed and distance. It records the cadence but I can’t view it until it uploads in Garmin Connect.
Thank you.
Thanks, Ray, I bought the Speed Sensor 2 after reading your review. Is there a way to link mileage from previous rides on a bike to the sensor odometer? It’s not a huge deal since I’ve only added about 35 miles on the new bike, but thought I’d ask.
In order to avoid the uploading of the auto logged workouts to Strava, could you avoid syncing Garmin connect to Strava and simply comer this the sensors to each app separately?
I usually start a GPS event for long rides anyway, but would love that extra data. Any insight or advice appreciated!
And I apologize if this has been asked, 12 pages is a lot of comments to sort through..
Is ist possible to connect the Garmin speed sensor and cadence sensor to Suunto Spartan? Or van I only connect one of it?
I have a question regarding setting the wheel circumference. I’m thinking that if I set my wheel circumference to a higher figure, then it would read my distance further… is that correct thinking? So setting the manual circumference to 2000 for example, would give a further distance reading than if it was set to 1500. Is that right?
Thanks for a great article. I like this one better than the Suunto solution (I have a Suunto watch) and since they appear to work well together, I’ll be trying it out.
Do these work with a Garmin FR935? And if so, do I need the speed sensor and cadence, or would the gps in the 935 record speed too? Thanks!
GPS will record speed. Wheel sensor may be more accurate under some circumstances, but is mainly redundant if you have an 935XT.
Tanks for the review!
I am interested in linking the speed sensor with the iPhone 7 app. Will I get all m rides completely automatically synced while/after riding, without unlocking my iPhone and/or starting any App?
Or will I have to run a specific app every time manually, when I want to sync?
You don’t have to sync every time, just whenever you want. In general I find that I can keep the Garmin Connect app in the background and it’ll sync when I’m nearby the bike again (basically, the next ride), just after it starts waking up again (the sensor).
However, with the iPhone and iOS, it can hold/kill/put in jail, apps in the background, and there’s not much Garmin or other apps can do about that.
Thanks for the information! I will definitively go and buy one! That is exactly what I was searching for and I think it is also not very attractive / visible for thiefs.
Regarding the sync on the iPhone: I think that it cann ot sync anything, as long as the Garmin app is not opened and active in the forgreound of iOS, or? I think that was the same problem with all the corona tracing apps, that iOS does not allow Bluetooth communication for apps in background. So I think that sensor can’t sync anything to the iPhone, as long as the app is not started in foreground, or can it?
iOS allows Bluetooth in the background and many apps leverage it today for sports tracking or wearables. The key there is that it’s paired to specific devices ahead of time that you own, and that you purposefully paired.
Ok, thanks again for the explanation!
Maybe do you also know a similar device, which does also monitor the speed and kilometers on a little display on the bike + sync to iPhone? Should be just a very cheap solution which can stay mounted all the time on the bike.
I’m sure there’s some other ones out there, but this is the only major one I’m aware of that does all the background recording and then sync pieces.
Do you know if this Gamin speed sensor v2 can also be mounted on a thinner wheel hub (without inside dynamo) of my MTB?
I think mine has only 2 cm or 3 cm diameter.
Yes, I have mine on a front hub that is about 2.5cm in diameter.
Is it possible to see the current speed of the sensor in the Garmin app also?
No, but you can see it in other 3rd party apps (like the Wahoo app).
Cool, thanks a lot!
Can you please tell me, what is the correct wheel circumference?
I have that MTB: link to serious-cycles.com
With tyre: KENDA K-905 // 58-559 (26×2,30″)
This link seems to work well enough. Looks about right for the tire sizes I have. I’ve often found I have to tweak such numbers, though.
You need to measure the wheel you are putting the sensor on. One easy way to do this is to pump the wheel up to the pressure you ride at, then place a starting mark with tape on the floor, position the wheel with valve stem directly over the tape, then while applying weight on the bike, roll it forward until the valve stem is directly over the floor. Tape a mark for the spot, then measure between the 2 tape marks- that is your wheel circumference. This will be different with different tire pressure and different tires, so if you want high accuracy repeat with changes.
I received my speed sensor 2 yesterday and it is working, thanks a lot for all your information!
But it is uploading all activities with GMT-1:00 Azores time, although my profile is in middle Europea summer time. Do you have the same problem?
My new speed sensor works now. But I always have to open the iPhone app Garmin connect, when I am near my bike and the speed sensor is turned on, so that the last rides will get synced.
I thought it would also sync in the background automatically (without a need to open the app actively). Or did I understand that wrong?
Hello Jurgen and Ray. I installed my speed sensor a few days ago and I noticed it uploads its activities with gmt tz whereas we are currently at gmt+2 in France. To temporary work around this I tried to modify the related activities but garmin connect does not accept moving hours forward (in my case 2 hours later), only backward hours change is possible ! Well, I don’t know what to do and, according to the forum I found, Garmin does not seem to consider regular customers’ problems with the relevant seriousness. People like you Ray are listened to. So help !
Regards.
Stéphane
Thanks for the Review Ray and all of you for your questions and comments!
I read in one of your Garmin Edge reviews that many people asked for pairing an Edge with a foot pad. It is clear that this is not a feature Gamin does support. But nonetheless I desired such a gimmick as well. The Cadence sensor can do part of the job. Not perfectly, but it does work mounted with an ankle band (used normally for champion chip tags) while running. The information that it works mounted in that way for biking cadence is already somewhere around here on the side. As I did ask Garmin support for that information and they only answered “we don’t know” after a second request, the information found here was what brought me to buy the sensor and try it for running. For comparison I did collect the data in parallel with a Gamin Vivosmart 4 (probably not the best reference but the one easily available for me).
So here is the result of that test:
– The cadence shown on the display of the Edge is half of what you expect, but that is a definition issue (cadence for biking is full turns of the crank per minute, while for running it is number of contacts of both feet to the ground per minute). As the Edge does only support biking activities, you have to switch over your run in Garmin Connect. Doing that the cadence will be switched as well too fit the definition of the sport.
– Beside that the sensor seems to be much more nervous, which means it reports more low readings for cadence or even some zero points, while you still move. (I don’t really think that this is a sensor issue, it seems to me more the logic behind, which for a dedicated running computer implies that while you have a speed, you must have a cadence, while for a bike you could roll without cadence.) This makes the displaying of the cadence nearly worthless and the average for the trip or the round that the Edge could display unusable.
But the faster I did go (or better the higher the cadence became) the less nervous the sensor became. So for cadence control during a high speed interval the display of actual cadence might do.
– Looking at the data after the run (which is what I want to do), showed that beside the more frequent low readings the measurements by the Viovsmart 4 and the Edge via Cadence Sensor 2 are in very good accordance.
So for me it works and I thought that this might be of interest for others as well. Thanks again for the information you provided, which was essential for me to try this out.
I just bought the Edge 1030 bundle, which included both the Speed & Cadence Sensors.
Now I just ordered my first power meter, the Favero Assioma Uno.
Is there any benefit to using these two units at all for me then?
The speed sensor is more accurate than GPS, but unless you ride a lot in cities, mountains, and/or forests you’re unlikely to notice. The cadence sensor is superfluous if your pedals also send cadence.
Just to add another record that the Garmin Speed Sensor 2 does not work reliably with Polar M450 and Polar Vantage M. The speed dropouts is consistently every second. I have an older Wahoo Blue SC which utilizes magnets and this has been superb both serving Polar and Garmin equipments.
Please see the dropouts on an actual ride on my city bike attached here.
If you have Polar equipment, stay away.
I bought the sensors based on this review but it turned out that the review was superficial regarding iPhone connectivity. It does not work in practice. I have tried several apps, including Wahoo Fitness and it just does not work. The sensors pair to the iPhone but they do not feed any data. The most I have succeeded was to connect just one of the sensors at a time – it looks they exclude each other.
I ended with needing to buy a cyclo computer in order to be able to use the sensors – waste of money in the end, you shouldn’t spread fake/ incomplete information.
Please remove from the review the Wahoo Fitness example on iPhone before other people through money at it or show us some screens with the sensors feeding data and not just being detected.
Thank you
I can absolutely confirm that!!
And yet people above confirm it also connected just fine with the Wahoo app.
I can try again and see if perhaps something changed in Wahoo’s app in the last 16 months. I’d be surprised though, since this is super-standard stuff. There’s nothing mysterious about these Bluetooth Smart profiles – they’ve been around a half a decade now and tons of apps use them. If you’re trying with multiple apps and it isn’t working, then something else is up.
If you’ve tried several apps and aren’t getting data – then I’d strongly suggest you double-check the sensors. It sounds like something could be wrong (such as being misconfigured with the wrong wheel circumference).
Hi Rainmaker, no offence but there are dozens of reports similar to mine. I drained the internet in search for a solution/ workaround with iPhone but I found nothing.
Indeed nothing mysterious about Bluetooth in general but in this case it remains a mystery why Garmin Speed and Cadence Sensors 2 don’t work with iPhone. They do work in my case, flawlessly with a Garmin Edge 130 – but this is not my point.
Please try again if possible and if it works with an iPhone (by working I understand reading realtime cadence and speed info simultaneously in Wahoo Fitness app for iOS), mea culpa, I would even be amazed, but at this moment I consider the review to be misleading with regards to using it with Wahoo Fitness app in iOS environment.
I even tried contacting Garmin support Romania but when they asked where I ride my bike (?!WTF) I understood there was no way they would be able to provide a solution. Their resolution was to recommend me to buy a Garmin Cyclo-Computer…
Thanks
Yup, I’m happy to try again tomorrow at the office and see if something is changed. My main phone is an iPhone, and I’ve absolutely used it with it.
Any luck? :)
My new speed sensor works now. But I always have to open the iPhone app Garmin connect, when I am near my bike and the speed sensor is turned on, so that the last rides will get synced.
I thought it would also sync in the background automatically (without a need to open the app actively). Or did I understand that wrong?
i confirm that, only one sensor can use in the app of wahoo, buy two sensor for a cicling indoor.
iphone 6S plus
sorry for my english… only speak spanish
what other app can use for indoor cicling with these 2 sensors ??
need help please
thx
I would also like to have a confirmation about this. Was about to buy the pack with Speed and Cadence sensor and then read many reports and comments on different websites that the speed and cadence sensor won’t work at same time over bluetooth. Read about Android and iOS and different apps be it Wahoo, Zwift,… Both might be detected and paired but then only one transmit information.
I am not planning to use mine with any Garmin device at the moment.
I may buy Garmin Speed sensor due to the offline memory and Wahoo for cadence (or maybe one of cheaper Chinese ones) and hope that works if the above being discussed is true. Maybe those reports are user error, defective units or apps, Android/iOS needing updates.
After mounting the Garmin Speed & Cadence Sensors 2 on my spinner, I downloaded the Wahoo App on my iPhone 6s. Both sensors paired with the Wahoo app but when I tried to exercise on the spinner, the only data I get is elapsed time. However, both speed & cadence sensors work with my Garmin Edge 130.
Ray,
I think you should update this article and let people know that Speed Sensor 2 is NOT compatible to Polar Vantage M, as there are constant dropouts. Reading this again, I still don’t understand if it works reliably with V.
Thanks. Added it in the accuracy section where I talked about my (non-issues) with it, that folks are having issues with it on the Vantage series.
Cheers!
I can confirm that dropouts are definitely also present with Vantage V…
I have an old iBike Newton 6.
On my newest bike, after it’s original sensor died I purchased Wahoo speed and cadence sensors. The speed sensor had a speed dropout. So I purchased Garmin sensors to try them.
The Garmin speed (2) sensor is working well so far, except it takes awhile to discover prior to most rides.
The Garmin Cadence sensor2 though has many cadence drop outs.
I swapped the first GC2 for another at the bike shop where I purchased it and the new replacement acts the same way.
At the moment Garmin connect server is down so I can’t check for FW updates yet.
Oh well…
Cadence sensor 2 is not meant to be updated, it has no firmware update capability. Speed one does, although I haven’t seen newer than 2.30 lately. I have both sensors and use it with Polar Vantage M. Cadence sensor works afaik, whereas speed is problematic.
My 2004 Lemond Revmaster spinner has a solid flywheel which leaves no way to attach the Garmin Speed Sensor 2 to it. However, I accomplished it by gluing a short dowel to the end of the axle spindle and then wrapping the Speed Sensor 2 around the dowel. It works perfectly! See attached photo.
I should add that to calibrate the speed sensor to my spinner which has a gear ratio of approximately 3 flywheel revolutions to one pedal revolution I use a wheel circumference of 1675mm which gives me a speed of 15mph at a cadence of 80.
Bob,
Thanks for posting/sharing.
Nice way to think outside the box.
I have a yellow revmaster as well & will use your idea.
Thank you!
James
Bob,
My 10yr old ripped the dowel off even before the glue was dry. I then figured out that if I put a magnet at the end of the dowel, I could place it on/off anytime I wanted w/o fear of child manipulation.
How does it pair with Connect? Has anyone else had issues with that? It connects fine Edge and even with iPhone, but no can do with Connect. 100% fail, 100% of the time.
Time to call a TV repairman.
I was able to paired it the first time, then I don’t detect it, I deleted it, I successfully Paired it again, then I don’t connect, I couldn’t link it to connect anymore
when I want to do it, the bluetooth of the iphone appears asking me if I want to pair it
I use the Garmin Speed Sensor 2 on my spinner with a Garmin Edge 130. I couldn’t get it to work with the Wahoo app. All I got was elapsed time.
Hi everyone, I just bought my first Garmin few weeks ago. Every time I finish my exercise, the number of maximum cadence is way too high. It goes over 200 RPM where normally my maximum cadence is only between 100-110. Any thoughts ? Thanks
Have you done any comparison Bluetooth vs Ant+ for latency, accuracy or battery life? I just got my bundle and paired it with my 130 just fine. I used Ant+.
I did changed the battery and using Ant+. Did morning exercise and the cadence go up to 249 again.
Hi and thanks for your great Review.
But to be honest: The Foto from your 2 Girls and the old man waving from the Tram made my Day – sooo wonderful ?
Cheers from Belgium,
Jan
Haha…thanks Jan!
Just got a speed sensor 2, and whn connecting it to my edge 510 via ant+ if find that if I have my wheel size set as manual – 622mm, then i get random drops to 5kmh while I’m riding, but when I swap the wheel size to auto its fine, no clue what is going on, just got it yesterday, could this be a problem with my garmin?
Maybe it’s because you’re supposed to put the wheel circumference in. A 622 mm circumference wheel is very, very, small, with a radius of about 100 mm, which is not your typical bicycle wheel. Typical bicycle tires have circumferences of more than 2 meters; there are tables that you can find online that give numbers for various sizes. If you look in the wheel size field after you’ve set it to auto, I think you’ll find the proper number.
yup, it lists it as “wheel size” so i just though it meant like diameter as in 700c or 622mm, originally when I set it to auto it didnt list the wheel size but now it says 2082mm, so it was circumference, thanks
I have had the speed sensor for almost a year now and managed to get it to pair with Garmin Connect literally once, for a few minutes, 9 months ago – never has since, and certainly not long enough to transfer any stored data on rides etc. Connects fine with Forerunner 45, juts will not talk to Garmin Connect regardless of what levers or tricks are pulled to try to get it to work…removing all devices, clearing caches, restarting blah blah blah – literally everything the internet has to say on the topic. Note, this is the second unit I’ve had that behaves like this – I sent the first one back after a month of constantly attempting to pair – it succeeded once, no data transfer, never again – I think it’s just the way it is. Stays on the bike at the moment more in hope than expectation, but it’s junk.
Hello Ray,
You’re still my reference site when it comes to these sport devices.
Sorry if this question is duplicated but as it doesn’t appear in the list today, I ask it again. Is it possible to attach the cadence sensor to the shoe just like it can be done with wahoo sensor, to record the indoor workouts (gym) ?
Actually I need to buy a new one and I have to choose between the wahoo and the Garmin.
For cadence, yeah, no problems with that. But for speed, no luck there (same as Wahoo).
Great review. Is there a reason why my speed on my garmin watch during the ride ( both current and average speed) is higher than when it uploads to garmin connect?
Well, I purchased the Garmin Speed Sensor 2 couple weeks ago and have not been able to successfully put it to use. I ride on a trainer when not on a trail. I have hooked it up to the rear wheel (following instructions) and initially had intermittent red and green light flashing and had it connected to my I-phone. Have since changed out the battery and no better luck. Put the original battery back in and it blinks a few times, but cannot connect to my phone or my Garmin 735 watch. I fear this might be user error, but I am stumped and ready to to return it.
Any suggestions (that might be so obvious that I am missing?)
Thanks!
If one is riding a bike with a GPS computer and a Speed Sensor, which is the speed displayed by the computer, the one recorded by the GPS, or the Speed Sensor, and what is uploaded on Garmin Connect?
Any compatibility issues if the GPS Computer and the Speed Sensor are of different brands? Am using a Garmin Edge 500 and intend buying a Wahoo Cadence (if stand alone not available, then a Speed +Cadence Combo).
It shows and uploads the speed sensor, since it’s both more accurate and not subject to GPS problems. (It is subject to sensor failure, which happens rarely.) Any ANT+ speed sensor should work with your 500.
The worst sensor ever. I have had this replaced twice and the quality of the manufacturing is really poor. None of the sensors worked, ever. Giving Garmin a bad name.
Thanks
Thanks for the great review! Do you know an app that automaticly tracks the data from the cadence sensor+ speed if they are active? An Upload to Strava or something else would be perfect. Garmin Connect only reads the Speed Data and in Wahoo I have to click start every time.
I have the first Gen cadence and speed sensor. Any reason to get Gen 2?
Mainly if you need Bluetooth connectivity, or, if you want offline recording for the speed sensor.
I tracked the speedsensor as you discribed. But now all my rides are saved double both with GPS and without, and both on garmin Connect and Strava. How Can i save only One pr. ride?
If you’ve got an Edge x30 device, you can set it to exclude the duplicate recording on the sensor.
Otherwise, duplicate recordings are somewhat the name of the game unfortunately if you choose to have both paired up to a phone and bike computer.
I have a edge 1000, I bought the sensor, because it can record km. even when the edge is of. Can i get it to record without duplicate recording?
Hi Ray,
I am looking to use these for general riding as well as for Zwift with my wheel on trainer. I see you have used it successfully on Zwift for cadence sensor but your review didn’t seem to have both used together. Zwift website suggests that these are supported hardware whereas Amazon reviews seem to suggest enough people are having trouble with using both together but they seem to be able to use single one just fine. Would these work or do you recommended getting the Wahoo ones instead.
I will be connecting via Bluetooth not Ant+ for the Zwift session.
+1 on all people experiencing dropouts! Sitting on (I think) 36ishkph I see my garmin 830 reading fluctuate between 0 (which then autopauses) and 44kph! plus when stationary sometimes it reads a speed reading which restarts my autopaused ride….not happy!
Thanks very detailed and helpful I have forwarded to a friend. Any thought for using the sensor for indoor training? I got my road bike set up for the winter on my trainer its a basic spinner. I imagine the same principles would apply? I am not a techie so forgive what may be a basic question.
Yup, you can use it for that no problem.
I have this paired with my Wahoo Element Bolt on my MTB bike. I am constantly about 3/4 of mile shorter than a riding buddy that is just using his Garmin head unit. I have the unit set to auto-could that be the reason? Is it trying to calculate the wheel size? The opening track is twisting and covered with trees
Given the conditions you describe, I’d trust the wheel sensor more than GPS. (How do you know his Garmin is correct?)
You should find somewhere where you know the distance independently and ride it to see what your Bolt+sensor tell you. I presume auto on the Wahoo means about the same as it does on an Edge, that the unit initially calibrates the wheel size using GPS. I never use auto, because Edges (I currently use an Edge 830) will periodically recalibrate without telling you, and occasionally get it wrong. I always use manual calibration, looking up the circumference (there are plenty of sites around that will tell you the circumference of a given tire size) and then readjusting if it gives the wrong answer to an known distance. Once the wheel is manually calibrated correctly, you don’t need to change it again unless you change tire size.
Have the same problem as hundreds on the Internet. The speed sensor 2 connected once with garmin connect (android) and now will not connect or pair again, completely useless as a bluetooth device, ANT+ works fine. I’ve tried every solution online for days. Basically the unit has huge bluetooth issues rendering it bluetooth useless after 1 ride. DCR you should mention in the review that a huge percentage of people have bluetooth issues with this sensor and replacement sensors go the same way its a fundamental issue with the device. Just to keep your review unbiased. Cheers
Just to make sure, you mean pairing with the same device you paired with before? Because of the stupid way that Bluetooth works, I have many pairs of cheap Bluetooth headphones lying around the house paired to various devices, because it’s too much trouble to switch devices. If your sensor is paired to something, it won’t pair to another thing until you release it from the first, unlike ANT+ which doesn’t care how many devices you pair with.
Yeah, I’m honestly just not hearing about widespread core Bluetooth issues here. I think some people are indeed having issues, but within that, I think the majority are having issues because they’ve either paired it wrong or such. And then a think another small pile of people are probably just having underlying phone issues.
Don’t get me wrong – I totally get it sucks if there’s an issue, but it doesn’t sound like you’ve reached out to Garmin specifically. I’d really encourage folks to talk to Garmin support, otherwise one ends up as you did – spending days browsing forums.
I got my speed sensor 2 got replaced twice from Garmin support, and nothing changed.
Same problem on iPhone 12 as on iPhone 7. There is no underlying phone issue.
Even re-installed the app a lot of times and deleted all BT pairings. Nothing helped.
Hi there.
I have been having issues with the speed sensor ever since I purchased it about 2 years ago. As a matter of fact, I have only been able to sync it with my phone twice or so. I have owned 3 different Android phones during that time-frame with no different outcome. The device connects, tries to sync and stays there forever. My frustration growing in the meantime, as the only goal of this sensor is to track my commute miles throughout the year.
I had given up on any hope of making it work and concluded that I had wasted my money (as many of the posts in here).
When I read Ray’s last comment, I decided to give it a final try given that the warranty is about to expire.
My steps and results:
1- Contact Garmin service online (France)
2- Get a basic reply several days later w/o any info, only asking me to contact a phone number “if your problem has not been solved” (how could it be if they provide no feedback whatsoever??)
3- Phone them and waited about 15 minutes on hold
4- The “first line” Garmin support guy reads to me the product basic description on their site and concludes that the unit can not be used w/o a bike computer.
5- I try to reply and mention that based on public info and this specific blog, the unit can work as a stand-alone device connected to the phone to download data.
6- He concludes that I have not any issue at all, reading over and over the basic info on their site.
7- I conclude that Garmin support sucks in France.
I wasted more time than what the unit is worth (as I had foreseen) plus 5 minutes of extra frustration…
See you on the road all.
I am using the Garmin speed sensor 2 with Wahoo Fitness app. Although the app indicates, take the sensor is connected to the app, the app never shows the distance from the sensor. It displays distance measured by GPS. Does somebody have any advice, how to make the Wahoo Fitness app to use the distance from the sensor? Thank you
Hi, thanks for a great review. I have a question regarding the speed sensor 2, when not paired with a GPS device. To avoid transferring short unwanted activities to Garmin and Strava, you write: „… you can turn off the activity creation bit altogether if you want. Or, you could just disable the pairing to Garmin Connect Mobile.“. However, I do not find any setting that would allow it. How can I turn off the activity creation (it just does it automatically) or disable pairing? The only option it shows is to delete the sensor in the app…
You have to enable it on a Garmin Edge device, so that it doesn’t create duplicate ones.
I don’t have an Edge device. I just use my Forerunner watch and there is no such setting. So it seems there is no solution to get rid of those duplicate and short activities. I wrote to Garmin support, but have little hope they would improve something, after 2 years or so with this product on market. Let‘s see, perhaps there will be a surprise.
There is a solution, so I am sharing it: deleting the sensor in the Connect app. Like this, the sensor cannot send any duplicate or short unwanted activities to Garmin and Strava, and a nice plus – the irritating Bluetooth pairing problems are forgotten. The sensor still connects to the head unit (in my case Forerunner watch) and the distance is correctly taken from the speed sensor. Just as the cadence is taken from the cadence sensor without having the sensor in the app.
According to Garmin support the software updates will come to the head unit directly, no need to have a sensor in the app. But beware spam – any future adding of the sensor to the app will transfer all the saved (redundant) data. I am somehow missing the added value of that device in the Connect mobile ?
Thanks for the review. I always look to your advice when buying a new gadget. I just resurrected my old Garmin speed and cadence sensor (after selling my road bike a year ago) to put in my new Proform spin bike. I have not been successful in making it sync and provide feedback. Does the new Garmin set u allow for use on a spin bike?
Magnetless sensors – it’s a BULLSHIT
On photo Compare magnetless Garmin vs O-Synce (magnet)
Use Google.Translate for read full theme link to forum.velomania.ru
Looks like you’ve either got a defective sensor, defective battery, or something else going on (potentially interference if placed on a power meter hub, like a PowerTap wheel).
These have been out a few years now (two years to be precise, in a week or so). And whatever is going on there isn’t normal…or even abnormal.
Brutal if comparing it to Stages as they are so inaccurate, angular calculation versus magnetic light speed impulse magnet and old GSC 10
I did not fully understand the stand-alone recording of the speed sensor 2:
Let’s I assume, I generally have it paired to a Garmin Edge 830, but from time to time I take rides without the Edge on my bike:
1. Would the speed sensor 2 then log those rides, so that I have a full overview of my total mileage with that bike?
2. Would the speed sensor 2 also log the rides, in which the Edge was used (and maybe lead to double entries in Garmin Connect for those rides then)?
3. Did Garmin take up the points you mentioned above, Ray, and improve the sync settings?
Many thanks!
Yes, it’ll create duplicates if you have the sensor there and also synced to your app.
However, on an Edge x30 series (530/830/1030/1030 Plus) as long as the sensor is paired via ANT+ to your Edge (this is important, double-check this), it’ll tell the sensor not to record that ride for offloading via the app.
I haven’t used this newish feature, but others have.
And if I don’t pair it with the app, will it then also sync rides with the head unit (all I want is to have an overview of my total mileage without having to use the headunit all the time – e.g. for my shopping rides)?
No. The app is what does the offloading, not the head unit.
But if you pair it to the app, it’ll keep total mileage there via offloading, and then when you do use it with your Edge 830, it won’t upload duplicates as long as that pairing to the Edge 830 is via ANT+.
Last one: That is also true, if I do not use the head unit all the time?
Correct, as long as your phone connects to it, it’ll simply offload the data all the time. That’s how I use it with my cargo bikes, never with a head unit.
Hello,
I have Suunto 9 baro and im interesting if it is compatible with Garmin Cadence Sensor V2. Will Suunto recognize
Garmin sensor ?
Thanks
Hey Ray, or anyone else,
I’m considering getting this sensor as I’ve got an issue with my Wahoo RPM Speed sensors since last year. I got a new bike with disc brakes and it seems that when descending (especially if the roads are wet) the sensor goes bonkers at times… We’re talking it thinking I’m doing in excess of 125km/u (as if I would ever) while I’m nearly at a standstill… The sensor then seems to recover until to freak out again at the next braking point. Last year after a long descent with a lot of braking it got so bad I turned my Bolt off and On again in the hopes it would recover. On the flats it would think I was doing 80+ when I started pedaling…. Never had it that badly again though.
I am in touch with wahoo over this issue and they’ve actually sent me a new sensor at the end of last year, however that sensor does the exact same thing…. Currently I am suspecting it has to do with my disc either resonating or maybe causing a magnetic field when braking or something…
Is this something someone else has been experiencing with these sensors? (Garmin or Otherwise)
Would I be okay trying this garmin sensor assuming it doesn’t cause this issues?
Full disclosure, the sensor is on my front hub so as close to the head unit as I can get it I imagen.
Can anyone please test Speed Sensor 2 with Vantage M2 to see if it’s now working correctly?
Thanks.
I have an edge 520 plus and got the sensors now but since then garmin data is great but when transferring into strava ot catches the elapsed time instead of moving time, reducing my average speed drastically.
Have you seen this issue? Any advice to share?
That’s more of a Strava thing, and is what they do for all devices – not just these sensors.
Oh upsetting then 😭.
Really appreciate your feedback.
Hopefully this will be an appropriate place to post this question. I am running the Garmin 830 with both of the Version 2 speed and cadence sensors on my road bike with 25mm tires. I am using smart recording and autocalibrate for the speed sensor. My girlfriend is using a Wahoo Bolt and the Bontrager DuoTrap S speed/sensor package on her bike with 32 mm tires and using the Wahoo continuous auto-calibrate function.
Interestingly, no matter where we ride over the last few months, my Garmin always registers an average of 0.3 miles longer distance (range 0.2 to 0.5 higher) than the Wahoo for rides of ~ 25 miles. I have turned off all auto-pause functions on both computers to make sure that is not affecting the actual distance recorded. One time, I did get difference of the Garmin being 1.0 mile greater, but that was right after I uploaded a new version of firmware for the Bolt. After that one ride the difference came back to be between 0.2 and 0.5. I contacted Wahoo about it, and they requested that I reset the DuoTrap and also try a roll-out measurement to get a more accurate measurement for the calibration. I have not done the latter, but the reset did not seem to matter.
Some may say it could be because we ride differently on the road, but I tend to follow more of a straight line during the ride than my girlfriend. :-)
Anyways, I was curious what you might think of that difference as you have tested alot of these types of electronics? Is that difference just a function of the existing accuracies of the technology?
Thanks, Myck
Cite: “Garmin says they’ll consider it, but that in the meantime you can turn off the activity creation bit altogether if you want. Or, you could just disable the pairing to Garmin Connect Mobile. Either way.”
How can you actually turn off activity creation? (without disabling the pairing, so I can still use Garmin connect for firmware updates and settings).
Now found in older comments that there seems no way to turn off activity creation from within Garmin Connect.
I still want to be able to check for updates, and I do not currently own an Edge device so de-pairing from GCM just fixes one problem but creates another.
@Ray, would be great if you could make that clear in the review. I would not have bought the unit had I not read your comment, and it seems I am not the only one annoyed by the lack of any option to turn this feature off. I would probably just have gone with the Wahoo sensor instead.
Michael, it seems I had exactly the same problem and I found a solution. See the comment #354.
Gotchya. I’ve added a line to the review to note that the de-dup option isn’t available on non-Garmin Edge devices. Thanks!
Thanks Jana. Are you sure updates are coming through a Forerunner? I know this is reportedly working with an Edge Device, but not sure about Forerunner.
I also have the Speed 2 connected to a Forerunner 645 at the moment. Just switched connection mode from ANT to BLE, and now the Forerunner is showing Firmware Version and Battery status of the Speed at least.
I am not really sure the updates are comming. Since February 2021 it shows the firmware version 2.3 (I can see this in my recorded activities). But it works fine and the Garmin support stated that the updates will come.
By the way, I noticed in the watch that I use ANT as a connection mode.
Updates for all Garmin sensor products will indeed come via all even semi-recent Garmin products (Forerunner/Fenix/Edge/etc…). By semi-recent, I’m talking at least 5-6 years old.
This is true for sensors like Garmin Vector, cadence/speed sensors, and HR straps. Note that you’ll need to ensure it’s been paired for at least one full workout sync so that Garmin Connect knows that that sensors is on the watch, and then sends the data back to the watch to grab the firmware file on the next nightly catchup, which in turn then offers it to the sensor the next time it sees it.
Practically speaking, for any athlete using their sensor + watch/Edge on a regular basis, this will just happen basically the next day or so after a firmware update is out. But if you’re trying to ‘force’ an update on a brand new out of box device, it’s a bit more tricky. The fastest way to do so is create a workout with the sensor paired, save it (even if just one minute long). Then connect your watch to Garmin Express (desktop) or Garmin WebUpdater (desktop), which will grab the updates on behalf of the sensors. But again, normally this just quietly happens in the background.
Any issues with the cadence sensor on carbon crank arms? This seems like the one Garmin device that doesn’t come with something to place between it and the bike.
No issues there.
It sounds like your issue is more with the clearance space between the arm and the frame, but that’s more of a frame issue than an arm issue.
Sorry to bother people here about this, but I am running out of options. I am not able to pair the SS2 to the phone via BT. Anything I tried, also reading in Garmin forums, ends with “Pairing Failed, Setup was not successful”, with a blue button “try again” – which of course leads to the same result. Funnily enough, every time a click on “retry” the SS2 does not appear in Connect, but Strava notifies me of a new activity (with some duration, sometimes of a few seconds, and zero km).
The sensor works nicely with the Forerunner and the bike computer.
Any suggestion? or just give up and stop loosing time?
Hmm, I wish I had some good suggestions there.
When I get myself in a pickle on Garmin pairing, I try and get rid of everything, and that usually solves it. So remove it from Garmin Connect Mobile (under devices), and then remove it from your phone’s Bluetooth control panel too. I usually restart my phone at that point, and then go back into the GCM app and add it there.
That’ll usually get things back and good.
Similar happening to me. I only use bluetooth. My sensor was working fine for months. Then I decided to update the firmware.. is not connecting anymore. When I insert a battery it blinks red then green several times. Garmin app detects a sensor and also it shows on Bluetooth list. But the setup is not successful. I have tried on one iPhone, one iPad and an LG Android phone.
I suspect the update has bricked my sensor which I bought August last year in the USA so now out of warranty.
I also checked the Garmin forums for solutions. Nothing worked.
suspecting the issue was with a non-empty buffer of rides in the sensor, I kept repeating until no new activity was created. At that point the sensor pairing succeeded.
Of course only afterwards I found the right Garmin forum, where somebody else already went through the same sufferance. Last post of this:
link to forums.garmin.com
Thanks for these great reviews. I am considering both these items at their current REI member discounts.
Some questions, for someone who has never used a speed or cadence sensor. I currently record all my rides with my Elemnt Bold V2 head unit, which in my opinion has quite an annoying lag in its speedometer. Would the Garmin speed sensor help with that? Does it “overwrite” the head unit speed if connected on my display? If I manually pause my head unit (say at slow speeds or if walking the bike for a short time), does the final Strava recording respect the pause even if the sensor doesn’t know there is a pause?
In other words, is there a strong case for using the speed sensor if I also have my Bolt V2 unit on for every single one of my rides, and I don’t appreciate or trust the lag on the Bolt’s speedometer?
Thanks!!
Once the wheel diameter is set using the app on a cell phone, can you turn the phone off and put it away, or do you have to have a working cell phone nearby? I want to use it on a stationary indoor trainer. I don’t want something that is dependent on a cell phone to work. Thanks!
Will this sensor set work the any ANT+ device? I have a Bontrager RIDEtime Elite computer I want to repurpose.
Hello, can I pair my garmin speed and cadence sensor with another computer bike that is not from Garmin Brand, like Coospo, Cycplus, etc…? Thanks
That depends on whether or not the brands you mentioned (which I never heard of) support ANT+ or Bluetooth sensors. The sensors are not restricted in any way to Garmin head units. They work with Wahoo, Hammerhead, and others that support ANT+ or Bluetooth sensors.
Does the Garmin Cadence sensor work reliably when attached to a cycling shoe? If yes, does it need to be oriented in a special way?
Thanks DCR…
My guess is no, that it has to be rotating. But there’s one way to find out. Borrow (or buy, they’re not expensive) one and attach it to your shoe and see if it works.
Hey Ray,
Does having a speed sensor save more battery and how much?
(Because distance and speed is not recorded via gps)
Groetjes vanuit Suriname
Assuming you leave GPS on for the track or navigation, none at all. If you turn GPS off (why?), you still have the ANT+/Bluetooth radio on, and it’s now handling two more sensors. I really doubt it makes any difference at all. My guess is the screen chews up the most battery on a cycling head unit. What a speed sensor does (I use them) is make you immune to GPS glitches caused by foliage, clouds, buildings, mountains, etc.
Question for anyone reading this: I use the Elite Suito trainer for my indoor stuff but find the cadence to skew exceptionally low whenever I greatly ease up on my effort (unloads the flywheel to the point where it doesnt accurately pick up my cadence). I’m assuming the cadence sensor here would eliminate that issue, correct?
Correct. On a trainer, what you describe is semi-common with estimated cadence. A direct measurement sensor would indeed instantly resolve that (such as this Garmin one).
Does anyone have any insights into how easy it is to replace the battery on this? I have the Wahoo cadence sensor and every time I replace the battery I end up mangling the unit with its shallow opening slot and having to request a replacement. Looking for options that are easier to open.
Will these sensors pair to a Garmin forerunner 610?
This would be so the stoker can see cadence on an old running watch…
Hey Ray,
A late comment, but is it possible for you to check the speed sensor 2 when also connected to a watch. I bought a speed sensor 2 for both my wife and myself and it is clear that there are quite a lot of reasons why the speed sensor doesn’t save a trip when both connected to the phone and the watch:
-a bike activity is started: should not save, ok
-during a bike activity on the watch standing still for longer, part after break is saved on sensor, not ok, but easy to fix
-a message arrives and you open that on the watch (from watch face, no activity started on watch): does not save, not ok
-watch on watch face, scroll to glace during ride: sensor does not save ride, not ok
I haven’t tested that good, but it seems that with a connected, but disabled sensor starting music on the watch is enough for the sensor to decide not to save the ride..
Can you inform with Garmin, so this can be solved?
I prefer having to delete duplicates instead of missing lots of short rides..
have you had issues with the Speed Sensor 2 where you used the additional band for a larger hub with the sensor accuracy or function – maybe it has even broken or not worked all the time?
I ask because you stated regarding it, that if the ‘wheel hub is too big for the band (as was my other commuter bike)? Well, in that case I just used a secondary rubber band’.
My hub is a bit big, but I then discovered Garmin state Maximum Hub sizes on the support page for the Sensor 2 of 130cm circumference, so anything bigger than the 130cm band fits it should not be used on as it might ‘damage the band and cause the sensor to not operate correctly due to increased centrugal force’. (My hubs 150cm at narrowest point, the band just stretches but looks like it would break).
If you havent had any functional issues, why would Garmin state this – I dont think it has moving parts – but given my hubs not big for a modern MTB, why do they even sell this with this limitation if its real?
sadly but unsuprisingly, this is not mentioned in any manuals, or any product info or details by Garmin or retailers that you would see before buying.
Maybe odd question, but i’m having problem mounting the speed sensor. The axis of my wheel is to big, does anyone know a solution for this. Maybe an extra rubber band or a bigger third party casing. I’m using it on a regular bike, a koga F3 6.0.
I used an extra band, a strong one (I think a cut ring of old inner tube) and cable ties sound it for good measure. Works fine.
I even asked garmin UK regarding the stated ‘maximum hub size because it might be damaged by centrifugal force’, because they don’t state a max rotation speed, and of course it would depend not only on distance from the centre of rotation but the speed of it also. They were not able to advise, but passed Q to tech team, but I never heard back.
Mine is on my mtb, so the speed sensor can obviously cope with a small hub at e.g. Bike speed of 50mph, it must cope with being further out at max 30mph. (same wheel size so rpm relative).
Do they should make bigger mounts imo as the statement about centrifugal force is clearly bunkum in normal bike use
I looked into to speed sensor because I am buying a new bike soon and I want something that counts the KMs, I do have a computer but just like you wrote above I don’t want to start a ride every single time. However from what you wrote this isn’t the best for what I’m looking for, I would like a ‘total KMs traveled’ data not lots of small rides, do you think this could somehow work as an odometer simply that I could use to add up all KMs taken? I do intend to record bigger rides but I want to see how much km my bike has.
The Speed sensor has to connect to a Garmin device to send it the speed data.
If you want to just always record distance, then i suggest you also fit a small cheap Bike odometer, like a basic CatEye one or similar, with a Magnet you attach to a spoke and the sensor on the fork. I would recommend a wired one because you will also have the Hub speed sensor for when you are tracking longer rides and might encounter some interferance with either or both if having a wireless one because they will be so close (I did)
These small bike computers that just do time speed & distance, also log total KM’s.
Something like Cateye Velo 5 or Velo 7 Wired. link to cateye.com
Please inform yourself correctly.
The speed sensor v2 can be connected to your phone only and it will automatically trigger recordings of all your rides and sync them afterwards or at the start of a new ride.
Mine is connected to both my phone as my fenix and when I use my fenix to save a ride it won’t record a ride, but when I don’t make a connection from my fenix while cycling it will show up in garmin connect a couple of minutes after stopping or shortly after starting a new ride.
It can surely be used to record rides/total distance.
The question reagrded best way to just record total mileage (including recorded rides and those not recorded as well in the same total), not individual rides that would need to add up or review ‘total for month’ for example, as would be the case the the V2 connected to a garmin device – By which obviously I include Garmin Connect as such (though of course its technically a Garmin App on another device). But thank you for your helpful need to add such a level of precision where it was immaterial to the question and my personal suggested solution to the other person.
I am sure it is helpful to some later readers.
Hi, I am encountering a difference in distance between a speed sensor with manual circumference based on tire size and friend’s riding with automatic circumference calculation. Their’s is precise between each other, also when we rode a race my distance is usually 2% higher.
I am not sure what is really more precise and I feel the peer pressure as others have the same distance and mine is higher. On the other I am used to the sensor manual calibration from the era before GPS computers. When I tried the automatic calibration it was a quite low, maybe the conditions were not perfect as it was not a flat rode and perfect GPS conditions.
The obvious thing is to reduce your circumference number by 2%. Unless you did an actual roll out to determine the circumference, the number you use may well be off. If you did do a roll out, then you’re right and they’re wrong.