Bike Computer Question (5)

Triathlon Forum
1

New to the bike thing…I bought a tri bike and purchased the speed/cadence sensor for my Garmin 610. I did the spinervals DVD that came with my bike trainer and it mentioned a threshold test…but this required knowing how many watts you burned in 20 minutes.

  1. On a trainer, the only thing the Garmin tells me is cadence…is that all I can expect?
  2. It seems like I am limited on data that the Garmin tells me…and that I would “need” a lot more information.

What do you recommend as far as bike computers go…what information am I missing and does the Garmin 910 solve my issues as well. Not sure about a bike computer or the watch, if the watch does it all. Sort of like the idea of a dedicated bike computer…but have very little experience in this area.

Advice appreciated!

2

The computer won’t give you watts unless you have some kind of power meter (power tap, etc). I don’t know much about the 610 but most speed/cadence sensors come with a magnet that attaches to a rear spoke to give you speed. Very helpful when spinning.

3

Speed/cadence sensor should register your speed as well, if you’re getting cadence, I would push the little white button on the sensor, then spin the wheel, you should get green blinks as the wheel magnet passes by (red for the cadence magnet). If not, try and reposition either the magnet or the sensor until that happens.