I have an Edge 520 (almost new) and Garmin fr935 (7 months old). I use both for cycling rides but only upload the 935 which gives me heart rate but not cadence. If I upload the 4 or 5 rides I have on the Edge now will they just be treated as separate rides vs the 935’s?? Then I could just integrate crunched cadence data into my 935’s file in Strava as a note. Should that work?
They’ll be separate rides. You could combine the data in golden cheetah but not really worth it just for cadence. Both th 935 and the 520 can connect to the same sensors.
Why not just broadcast your heart rate from your 935 to your 520?
"Why not just broadcast your heart rate from you 935 to your 520? " - great idea - especially since that was my thought train when I decided to get the 520 in the first place (I’m very forgetful). So Strava has no problem accepting 2 rides from the same person which occurred at the same or overlapping times? As brilliant as Strava is it must lack common sense - good for me and for what I am after.
So to connect the 935 to the 520, it’s just a bluetooth pairing?
Then I can have the 520 upload to Garmin Connect / Strava and both cadence and heart rate will be included.
And then I should have the 935 stop uploading Bike (cycling) activities to Garmin Connect / Strava so I won’t have quasi-duplicates?
It’s an ANT+ pairing. On your FR935, go into:
Settings > Sensors & Accessories > Wrist Heart Rate > Broadcast During Activity = On
Next, Temporarily start a run (you can discard it afterwards)
Then on your Edge 520:
Settings > Sensors > Add Sensor > Heart Rate > (Then find the pairing and save it).
Done. From there on out, anytime you start a workout on your FR935, it’ll broadcast your HR. The battery impact is negligible.
Just be mildly aware that Garmin optical HR while cycling isn’t exactly the most awesome (it’s far better in running for me). However, for most triathletes on a fairly steady-state training ride or race, it’ll probably be pretty good (versus stop/start/sprints).
This means that any bike activities will no longer be factored into the “Peformance Metrics” (Recovery Time, Training Load, etc) that the 935 provides, right?
Or is there some way to combine activities from the 520?
It’s an ANT+ pairing. On your FR935, go into:
Settings > Sensors & Accessories > Wrist Heart Rate > Broadcast During Activity = On
Next, Temporarily start a run (you can discard it afterwards)
Then on your Edge 520:
Settings > Sensors > Add Sensor > Heart Rate > (Then find the pairing and save it).
Done. From there on out, anytime you start a workout on your FR935, it’ll broadcast your HR. The battery impact is negligible.
Just be mildly aware that Garmin optical HR while cycling isn’t exactly the most awesome (it’s far better in running for me). However, for most triathletes on a fairly steady-state training ride or race, it’ll probably be pretty good (versus stop/start/sprints).
Do you not suggest just broadcasting HR rather than starting an activity? I’ve traded a few emails with Garmin Support about this and it seems inconsistent to me.
“Do you not suggest just broadcasting HR rather than starting an activity? I’ve traded a few emails with Garmin Support about this and it seems inconsistent to me.”
Ray recommends only broadcasting heart rate while participating in an activity, not 24/7. So, to get the 520 to “see” the 935 as a heart rate meter, he starts a run as an activity. Once the pairing with the 520 is done, stop the run on the 935 and then delete the run…no need to keep it since it was only to force the 935 to broadcast heart rate.
Correct, the reason I’d recommend sport/activity mode versus general broadcasting mode is twofold:
A) Getting into general broadcasting mode is kinda a pain in the butt in the context of a race, and inversely, it’s easy to accidentally end up closing it out.
B) Whereas sport mode is super straight forward and ‘just works’. Also, it serves as a backup file for your bike ride in case something bad happens to your Edge (perhaps you throw it at a drafter or something).
Correct, the reason I’d recommend sport/activity mode versus general broadcasting mode is twofold:
A) Getting into general broadcasting mode is kinda a pain in the butt in the context of a race, and inversely, it’s easy to accidentally end up closing it out.
B) Whereas sport mode is super straight forward and ‘just works’. Also, it serves as a backup file for your bike ride in case something bad happens to your Edge (perhaps you throw it at a drafter or something).
Very interesting. I totally agree with A and thought maybe I was missing something, I didn’t understand why they would make it so hard to get to broadcast mode and at the same time easy to cancel out of. Have yet to need it for B but you’re right it is good to have.
I will add C) I had pairing issues when in broadcast mode that never appeared when I was broadcasting an activity. It seemed to drop at the beginning of an activity and then I would have to reconnect. Training that wasn’t a huge deal, though a tad annoying, racing it was something I didn’t want to worry about. I started to broadcast during an activity even though I felt like it was kind of a hack. Glad to hear an expert like yourself is doing the same thing!
I’m also slightly disappointed in the accuracy during some cycling intervals. Do you think that is a software issue? Something that might be fixed in the future? Any tips you’ve found to improve it? I have a ticket open with Garmin but getting them to understand the issue has been difficult. It seems to work fine while running, don’t really understand why there would be issues cycling.