I just use my Garmin Edge on the bike and have a Forerunner for the run. I rarely keep track of my time during the swim. If I do wear a watch during the swim, I just wear an el cheapo Timex that I won't be upset about if it comes off while getting knocked around in the water.

I do like having my overall time shown to me throughout the race. not that it affects my pacing, but it's a nice to have.

i wear a 910 and use a 500. i used used to try and record all my race info on the 910, but i didn't find the T1, T2 and swim data very useful for the trouble. I had a quick release kit for the 910 before I got a 500. it just made the big watch that much bigger and easier to lose, and i would frequently leave it attached to my bike in T2, so i stopped using it. I tried racing without the 910 all together and just the 500, but found i was bad at race-pacing the run on feel and end up running slower than I could with the watch.

In the near future I will probably go to a swim-proof running GPS watch if I can find one that is smaller (thinner) than the 910 and use that with the 500.

I run my 920 from start to finish but have an Edge 500 on the bike. Keeping it simple doesn't seem like the right statement with two devices on the bike leg, but I do find it easier and also have my power fields nice and big right in front of my face.

I hate using the triathlon mode on my 920XT. So, for better or worse, I set my watch to the "Run" setting at the start of the swim and it gives me my elapsed time for the race ..........and allows me to see my pace on the run. I might glance at it as I come out of the water (half the time). I use my 510 on the bike to watch my overall speed and keep up with the miles.

I do this as well. I run the 920 as my actual data gathering device for the whole race in triathlon mode, but on the bike I have a 500 that I use for real-time data. I am leery of using the quick-release setup on the 920 and possibly getting it kicked off in the swim, and trying to look at it on my wrist during a bike ride isn't terribly easy. So I run the 500 to provide me with the information I need while actually riding, but unless I end up with some data problem on the 920, I usually just delete the file off the 500 after the race.

In the past I used my 910XT with a quick release for all 3 disciplines (or 2 for duathlon). It never caused me any problem really. It is one extra thing to do, to transfer the watch from wrist to bike and back to wrist but the secret is not to do this in transition. Leave it on your wrist until you're out on the bike course, then transfer it to the bike at your leisure. Likewise don't wait until you're getting off the bike to put it back on your wrist. Do it well before you come into transition so you can forget about it and just worry about the essential transition activities.
Now I have a new 920XT I got as a present a few months ago. While the quick releases are very useful for triathlon, they do make the watches bulkier, and it seems there's a slight risk of losing it in the swim. Since I'm using the 920 as an every day watch now, I don't want the quick release and since I've still got the 910XT I can leave this mounted on the bike for easy viewing and keep the 920 on my wrist for recording the full event and seeing my cumulative time. There is of course the risk of the 910XT being taken form the bike in transition but there's only so much it's worth worrying about.

Incidentally, if I didn't have the 910 I'd probably just twist the 920 to the inside of my wrist for the bike leg. I don't find this satisfactory on the road bike and want a mounted computer, but when you're on the extensions it's pretty easy to view a watch on your inner wrist.

I just don't like fiddling with the quick release of the 920. taking it off wrist and mounting on bike after swim, then taking off bike and putting it on wrist after bike.

910xt and edge 500 on the bike. I don't really look at the 910 until I'm running, but wear it the entire time and "try" to hit the lap button during all my transitions to take a look at data after the race. Especially since I am seeing some big discrepancies in what the race says is a distance and what it actually is, I don't really trust any numbers they give me. I hit start on the edge 500 at the beginning of the bike to see any data during the actual ride, but usually forget to turn it off going into t2, so it's not really data I can review later without cutting out a lot of wasted time at the end.

I picked up a Vivoactive because I got tired of trying to use my 920 as an everyday watch. I've been really impressed with this thing. It does most of what my 920 does and it is really tiny. Sounds like what you're looking for. If it had an open water swim mode, I would use it in races.

I can't do the 910 QR thing. I don't care about my swim and would prefer a bike computer.

I just got a 735 this year so current plan is to look into setting it up to broadcast HR to a bike computer then using it on the run as normal. This way I never need to take it off my wrist.

Similar setup here, though with an Ambit 3 Sport. For me, having the Edge on the stem makes for more convenient monitoring and is one less thing to worry about during the swim or in transition.

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#cureMS

how do you find viewing the edge with it mounted on the stem rather than somewhere out in front?

I also have been racing with the 910 and QR but it was a PITA in transition, bigger to get the wetsuit over, scared to lose it in the water, etc. This year, I picked up a used 500 for cheap on ebay so I'm going the same route as most here. I'll use the 910 for overall tracking and the 500 stays on the bike. Plus the display's bigger.

So, I'll be the really ridiculous one here.
On most races i use my 910 on my wrist for the whole race, and my srm on my bike.

On a select few courses with tons of hills, I load up the course onto my garmin 810, so I know how long every hill climb is, and I can leave myself messages about power goals, etc.

So, 3 screens on occasion

That's what I do too but with an 810

I use a Garmin Vivoactive watch (and MIO link HRM) to record the whole race.
On the bike I have a cheap GPS computer that also reads my speed/cadence and HRM sensors (see below, will also do ANT+ PMs). I don't have it recording, I just use it as an easy-to-see display.


$43 on ebay: http://www.ebay.com/...d:g:rxcAAOSwll1Wy69v

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

I just lost my 920 and got a new wetsuit so wonder about what to do. I have a 520 on the bike. The question is, give up overall time, or fight to get wetsuit off over new 235. The wrists of this suit are crazy tight.

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To breathe, to feel, to know I'm alive.

I wear my 920 on my wrist in triathlon mode and use an edge 520 on my bike. I just delete one of the bike files.

For my upcoming ironman I plan on using the 920 for the swim, shutting it off for the bike and turning it back on for the run just to be sure the battery lasts the entire race. The only thing is I would like to know my total time during the run and I am not sure if there is a way to accomplish that?

910xt on my wrist for the whole race and my old school wired power tap head unit for the bike.

I use a 920 for the whole race, but don't trust the QR kit so use a 510 for the bike. Also use the 510 for stand alone bike rides.

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I ride:
Cervelo - P-Series/R3
GT - Sensor Carbon Expert

Supporters - Flo Cycling, Mount Bikes

I use a Fenix 3 for the whole race, but also a Lezyne Mini GPS for the bike.

It is tiny, easy to use (turn on/off, etc) and gives a clear display. I find it really useful and its better than twisting my wrist to look at the watch.

I'm using a Garmin FR910XT that's on my arm and a Garmin Edge500 that's on the bike (just makes it easier to see power, speed, distance, cadence (my 4 fields I want to see)). Works great. My wife is using her Garmin 910XT for the entire race and will keep it on her arm, but she's more of a "feel" cyclist that a "data" one... Darn fast though....

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"Suddenly the thought struck me. My floor is someone elses ceiling"-Nils Ferlin

I've tried using the 920 on the bike and twisting my wrist. it sucks.

wow. that is super cheap since it supports ant+ power meters. I ordered a stages power meter and was considering a polar m450 for the bike but at $43 it's almost worth a try. Then again, polar m450 is $140 and maybe I can get it on sale somewhere.

The Polar is BTLE only and the $43 ebay one is ANT+ only, just FYI.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

I use a 920 the whole race, keeping it on my wrist for the bike. I just turn the watch to the palm side of my wrist so I don't have to twist my wrist around to view. I honestly use it as a check-in though. I found with my 500, I was staring at numbers the whole time and didn't like the experience. I do have power connected and displayed and I use it to guide my efforts, I just don't let it dominate what's going on (or not going on) in my head!
That's the whole reason I went with a 920. One device to rule them all...

I go with Edge on bike and 920 on run.

I put overall time into that same "nice to have" category. What I do is I put time-of-day as one of the data fields, usually on a secondary page. Know your wave start time or peek at the clock as you cross the timing mat for a rolling start and you can then figure out your overall time based on time-of-day. Another option if worried about battery life, connection of 920 with power meter, or quick release connection is a hydrid approach. Use 920 for swim and run. Use 920 in swim mode with elapsed time and time-of-day as data fields. You can see the time-of-day on the watch as you hit start. Hit stop when you finish the swim. Use edge on the bike (you still are wearing watch, but it's now in power save mode). Time-of-day will be identical on Edge since they use GPS time (you can even just see the time-of-day as the default watch face in power save mode). In T2 switch 920 to run. Hit start. Pretty simple approach I find.

I wear my 920xt & run it in triathlon mode from start to finish. On the bike I have my Edge 510 with a screen that I have set up just for racing. I like having that as a dashboard on the bike so I can quickly look at my power, cadence, and time. If I want to see speed, I can flick my wrist & look at my 920, but I deliberately leave that off my Edge screen.

My 920 & 510 both connect to my HRM and power meter, so the data files are nearly identical. I usually delete the 510 file instead of uploading it to Garmin/TP/Strava.

I have been trying to figure out how to have my overall time available, as it does help me with pacing in terms of keeping a lid on my effort early on. For some reason I can never find a clock near the swim start, even at MDot races. Maybe I am not looking hard enough. I just got a new Roka Maverick and my 920xt fits under the wetsuit sleeve which I will try out at a "B" race this weekend. Hoping that this will negate the drag of the watch in the water.

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Strava