scotroutes – Member
I’m sure that my old Edge 705 has the option to use the wheel magnet/GSC10 or the GPS for speed. I reckon the latter is more accurate
Technically a speed sensor should be way more accurate as it’s tracking actual wheel roll, and GPS itself has a lot of inaccuracies.
However it does need to calibrate the wheel size, inc tyre. Though it will try to auto calibrate. Not sure how accurate that is. Can manually set it also. If you want to get really accurate then should adjust it for tyre pressure changes in theory. i.e. you need the circumference at a given pressure basically.
Anyway, the GSC10 came with my 510 but just got in the way. On a mountain bike it kept getting knocked out of position. Also I wasn’t interested in cadence. I did think about getting a hub wheel sensor, but then realised 99% of people on Strava use their phones or basic GPS from Garmin etc and speeds from a sensor don’t compare well (sometimes faster, often slower I found. Probably more accurate though).
On MTB it also may not clock accurate air speed 😀 (unless your wheels are spinning like crazy while in the air 😉 ). Though not an issue for me as wheels never get off the ground.
Potential benefit with uplifts and you don’t stop the Garmin on each lift. Wheels not spinning, so no speed. Not sure if Garmin & Strava account for that.
Would have been a downside when I did some hike-a-bike, as half the ride was bike on the back, so no speed. Although then again that’s accurate as not actually riding. Would Garmin just straight line it though?