Went for a ride today with my new 310xt. I also used my 705 to see what the difference-if any-would be. I noticed while riding that the 310 kept dropping power. I don’t mean occasionally it would drop, it dropped a ton. Here is what my data was using my Quarq-
The above are the averages for the ride. My question is why all the drop outs? The 310 should have a straight shot at the PM. The 705 has more aerobar to get through to actually pick up the signal.
I found the placement of the 310 to be very important. I have it mounted on the stem of the bike, otherwise I got lots of signal dropouts. I wasn’t able to get a consistent signal wearing it on either wrist.
I got my Quarq last year. Apparently there is an update/change to the Quarq to include a different antenna to give it a stronger transmit signal, which may work better for allowing other placement options for the 310.
This involves sending the crank back to Quarq though, so it’s a bit of a pain to fix.
I’d contact Quarq to see if yours already has the antenna update, or if this might be an option for you.
I haven’t had it done yet, as I’ve got a race coming up this weekend, but planning to get that done this summer.
I don’t get any dropouts with it mounted on the stem, but it’s a bit of a pain to transfer it in T2 for the run. I don’t need it on the swim, since GPS and HR won’t work in the water.
How is the 310 and power? It seems that the 310 cant “average” power, so it can be difficult to do power intervals with the power constantly jumping around?
I thought with the 2.9 update the GPS was supposed to work? I hate stem mounted stuff because I can’t see it without really straining.
chris
It works “better”, see the other threads on here comparing it. It post processes the route through a smoothing algorithm basically so the distance is not so jacked up. But that’s the only real change. GPS frequency just doesn’t work through water, so it’s not something that can be magically fixed through software. You need to change physics to make it work ( or get GPS on a diff freq. )
I’m just not really that concerned with swimming times(I’ll get my splits after the race), and it’s one less thing to worry about on the swim or in T1 if it’s already mounted on the bike and ready to go.
I say stem, but it’s actually at the stem/base bar junction, so it’s actually not too hard for me to see while in aero. Your position may be different. And I don’t spend a huge amount of time watching it. I use a 3 screen setup for racing: power (2x window), cadence (1x window), HR (1x window).
Anyone been able to use the 310 and power readings accurately to do intervals? I’ve seen where other devices average the power, so does the lack of averaging power numbers really that big of a deal?
I’ve had the same issue. I also dropped power when it was attached to the aerobars with a bottle mounted on the bars. I wore it on the inside of my wrist and it works better.
My 310 drops out once and a while but never for more than a few seconds. It does make it tough if you are doing many short intervals - I have spent more than a few minutes trying to figure out why one interval had so much lower power than all the other ones. Maybe I’m just making excuses for myself though…
If you have the newest ant+ pod the quarq communicates perfectly with the 310xt whether it’s on your aerobars or wrist.
If you aren’t swimming or running w the gps device, get a 500. If you are swim/running then get the 310xt. The 500’s 8x data readouts for the 500 are pretty awesome! I can’t believe some people are looking at joule and other computer with the 500 out there.
I had very similar experiences with a Powertap unit. After much debating with Garmin, they recently warrantied the unit. I still have not received it back yet, but it took a while. I tried outside of left wrist, inside of left wrist, same on the right and had no luck.
I just got the new quick release kit and hope to give it a shot when I get the 310 back and mount it on the stem.
Sounds like its connected to the 310 and how it handles that power signal. I would see the exact same differences in wattages etc.
Got the same problem even with one of the newer Quarq units. +1 with mounting on the bar solving the solution, but I can see the advantages of having it on your wrist. I placed a similar thread on the Quarq forum about this but haven’t heard any response yet. Let us know what Quarq says when they email you back.
I received my Quarq in late Feb / early March, and ride typically 4-5 times per week, and have it paried with a Garmin 705 mounted up near my hands on the end of the aerobars. In that time I have only had a dropped readings momentarily probably only a handful of times (i.e. drops the signal, lose about 1-2 seconds of data, then it picks the signal back up). I also have it paired my my 310xt, that I race with, and even though I used it only a few times, I didn’t have any issues wearing it on my left wrist, and I even had a waterbottle on the aerobars and the 705 on at the same time. Also, I asked Quarq about the transmitter and I have the new stronger transmitter.
I received my Quarq in Feb this year.
When wearing the 310xt on either wrist, various orientations, I had much more drops than data. I purchased the quick release this week, installed it between my aerobars about midway using Profile Design extension, and the drops are now infrequent.
