got a garmin for Xmas, its not set up yet and have to wait until the big day! To date, ive been using a cateye on the road bike and commute bike. The garmin will be used for 50km (2-way) daily commute and longer wkend road rides. I’ve been riding a long time and know my limits and know how fast i spin etc

The question is should i get in to the habit of using the hear rate monitor? ive not used one before so dont really know what i’m supposed to be looking for/aiming for, whats good/whats bad etc?

Cadence sensor – is it worth mounting?

The main reason for the garmin is tracking rides and recording the stats (distance, alt, route etc) just not sure whether i need to put much effort in to learning how to use heart rate monitor and cadence sensor.

ta

If you’re actively looking to train then HR can be useful, if you just want to ride I’d not worry. I’m not too fussed by cadence, can be interesting to see – mine drops when I’m tired, but I’m not sure it’s vastly useful as a training metric.

Agree with ^^^^^

Heart rate is interesting but generally tells me what I already know – ie Im knackered
Vaguely useful on a mega ride, if I go over 160bpm for 5-10mins I know I wont get home

Cadence again sounds like it should be useful, I use it on the road but Im not really sure what value it gives me from a training point of view

Top geek heaven though when you get to look at your stats….

+1 for geeky uses. Some training plans ask you to pedal at different cadences but you can guess them most of the time. I find it useful as 90% of my riding is on the singlespeed so when out on the road bike I like to deliberately ride at a higher cadence than I’m comfortable with to compensate, so setting the cadence limit to 90rpm helps that, otherwise I’ll happily plod along at 60.

If you’ve got it, you might as well use it. It can show some interesting results.

I wear mine, just got into the habit of it now, so it feels odd without it now.

If you’ve got it, you might as well use it. It can show some interesting results.

I wear mine, just got into the habit of it now, so it feels odd without it now.

2nd that ^^^^^^

Top geek heaven though when you get to look at your stats….

Power meter FTW for geeking out! Quadrant analysis, torque, all sorts!

unless you are going to ‘do’ something with the data then it is o ly of interest. however you’d need to know what your stats are before you make the decision to ‘do’ something.

I have an edge 500. I like cadence measurement as someone who mostly rides SS i find the cadence on my geared bike has a tendency to drop, cadence sensor keeps me in check.

I only wear the HR monitor when i’m going to use it to determine pace. i don’t wear it on my commute. it can be useful to see the HR on a normal ride with mates, just to monitor what you’ve been up to.

I use it to establish the number of calories used.

That way I can see how many big macs I can have 😆

So that’s 2 SS riders who find cadence drops with gears… I thought people said it makes you good at spinning?

Originally I bought my Garmin to track rides but with the idea it would be good for training. Now it’s my best training partner, I can plan roots on it (breadcrumb style) , training sessions and obviously use it to track my ride miles, calories averages etc.

For my daily commute I make sure my Garmin tells me if my cadence drops below 80 and likewise if my HR drops below a certain level. It’s a great tool for just making sure you don’t get lazy and obviously if your aiming to go for it training wise can accomodate that too.

could be talking out of my arse but isn’t the point of the cadence monitor to keep it high (>90?) as it’s more efficient?

Sounds like the 200 would have been a better buy.

Power meter FTW for geeking out! Quadrant analysis, torque, all sorts

Like hiring an accountant to tell you how poor you are!

(courtesy of Velominati)

Yep. Not really true though is it. Amateurs stand to gain more than pros if anything as they don’t have coaches on hand 24/7 doing bespoke training plans, and endless hours to train.

Sounds like the 200 would have been a better buy.

Why?

So that’s 2 SS riders who find cadence drops with gears… I thought people said it makes you good at spinning?

Depends where and what you ride I suppose.

Off road I tend to set the gear to be slightly too high for a normal-ish gradient climb around here. Then that seems about right for pedaling out of corners etc as the flat/downhill sections are on average slower than the same bits on the road. e.g a fire road climb and a section of flat twisty singletrack are probably about the same average speed, so picking a gear to suit both is easy.

On road there’s a greater difference in speed between the climbs and flat sections, so you have to spin more on the flats if you want a gear that’s useable on the climbs.

That and on the road bike you can keep upping the cadence until you bounce in your saddle, then try and go a bit faster as part of your training. Off road if you pedaled that quickly you’d be bounced off the saddle by the trail before you reached the same cadence.

I have cadence on my Cateye, only time I really keep an eye on it is on the turbo. And long rides when I’m suffering and don’t want to be reminded of how many miles are left!

That said I’m in the market for an Edge 500 and will be getting both cadence & hrm, partly out of interest and partly because I like the idea of adding a bit of structure to my road riding in a possibly futile attempt to get quicker.

I have a 200 on the oaf bike, and a cadence sensor and ant+ connector for the turbo on a different bike.

As a training tool heart rate and cadence is good, but not on the oaf, for me the only thing I would use the heart rate monitor on the road for is making sure I keep my heart rate low for an easy zone 1 ride.

Unless you are cat1 or 2 it doesn’t really matter. If you love the data and looking at graphs then fair enough.

I find the HR monitor useful to real yourself in if your starting too fast. Try to keep my HR under a set limit to start, then build it up as it goes on.
Similar to the cadence. Too easy to be pushing too big a gear without really realizing until its too late. I try to keep between a set low and set limit.
I find it helps me anyways.

I use a Polar HRM/computer and always used the HRM when commuting, mainly to stop myself pushing too hard all the time and also as a general check on what the numbers said vs how I felt on any day.

Now I’m almost beginning again with fitness, I’m using the HRM to ensure I take it easy – my “muscle memory” wants to propel me at evens on the flat. My heart does not appreciate this.

+1

I have a habit of going too faset “out of the blocks”, especially in company. Using a HRM to keei t steady st the start means I can go further, faster and be less tired.