Sure this will have the haterz frothing at the mouth, but if you have an Edge 1000 or 810 then you may be interested in this:

http://gniza.org/segments

Put in a segment ID, and you can export a GPX with times of your choice (KoM, your PB etc), drop into the “segments” folder on your Edge and they’ll pop up as you’re riding along and give you real time info on your progress against said time. I’ve been very underwhelmed by Garmin Segments, but that seems to work very well.

Sort of feels how Strava should work on a properly connected device. It’s a bit laborious – you have to manually choose segments and export individually, you can’t send them in bulk or anything. But it’s quite neat, particularly for tracking progress on longer segments.

So, when you hit a segment, and the edge 1000 is telling you how you are doing in real time….is it using gps data or mobile data from a sim to do that?

GPS, there seems to be a very slight discrepency, two segments yesterday it said I was exactly the same time as my PB, but when uploaded one said 2s faster and one was 2s slower (both short 90 second segments), I’d imagine that’s mitigated on longer segments and probably to do with how Strava processes the data samples.

Sort of feels how Strava should work

yeah having your PB “ghost” for comparison is what it should be like, bit of a visual distraction tho huh? future google glass application? (if you go in for the borg look)
Better for big climbs and long flat sections (same as all strava segments IMO)

Yeah I did find myself attacking a downhill segment conscious that I kept looking at the Garmin.

I imagine the novelty will wear off very quickly, but was quite impressed with it, shame they’ve not made it easier. Why they didn’t just buy/partner with Strava I don’t know. Garmin Segments itself is crap IMO!

Does it not give any audible prompt?

Like, say, R Lee Ermey shouting at you to pick up the pace maggot!!

I thought that Strava did do this but only for premium users. Of course you then need the phone on the bars…

Does it not give any audible prompt?

Maybe, I have tones turned off as I find them intensely irritating! I imagine it’ll be a beep when you start and one when you finish. It’s not too distracting – the bottom right eighth of the screen shows progress, it’s ‘clear’ if you’re ahead, and red if you’re not, and for climbs and what not obviously it’s easy to steal a glance. Could be a bit iffy on technical descents though!

I thought that Strava did do this but only for premium users. Of course you then need the phone on the bars…

I believe, and I could by wrong, that it only tells you as you finish how you did, rather than giving you real time updates mid segment. As you say it also means you have to have your phone on your bars and thus can’t use ANT+ speed/HR/cadence/power meters etc without third party add ons.

yeah having your PB “ghost” for comparison is what it should be like, bit of a visual distraction tho huh?

That’s even distracting on Mario Kart, let alone hooning down a trail!
I guess it would be pretty cool for climbs though.

And being a shit descender I’m all about the uphill segments!

Possibly also works for the 510 and other models with Virtual Partner, though not sure.

There’s a guide here for doing this kind of thing for Virtual Partner http://www.scarletfire.co.uk/use-your-garmin-virtual-partner-to-get-strava-koms/

Possibly also works for the 510 and other models with Virtual Partner, though not sure.

Sort of, you can save a segment as a course like that, but you’ll have to select each one individually for the prompts. The Segments thing just works automatically, so you can have hundreds, and every time you ride through it’ll start automatically, counts down from 0.1 miles out too.

But yes, saving a segment as a ride will work on a 500/510/800.

Why they didn’t just buy/partner with Strava I don’t know. Garmin Segments itself is crap IMO!

I’d imagine the investors in Strava value it quite highly and given it’s not a competitor I’d bet that price wasn’t worth paying for Garmin. Their bike/running GPS aren’t their main earner after all.

But in “Garmin Segments” they’ve set up as a competitor to Strava, to someone who has a monopoly, with (IMO) a crap rival. Why bother?

I agree that their products aren’t rivals, but I’d have thought pairing with Strava would have been a massive selling point for some, whilst having Garmin Segments really isn’t.

But in “Garmin Segments” they’ve set up as a competitor to Strava, to someone who has a monopoly, with (IMO) a crap rival. Why bother?

Agree it’s a massive missed opportunity, given the mobile-phone connectivity potential of the 810/1000.

A partnership might not make sense financially – but opening up the 810/1000 and allowing other smartphone apps to display messages, etc on the screen would make them much more appealing and generate more sales for Garmin surely? I know I personally would go out and buy one tomorrow if it integrated properly with Strava in realtime!

And I’m sure you’re not alone in that. I reckon it’ll happen at some point. It doesn’t even sync with Garmin Segments in real time – you have to manually push them to the device, and as far as I can tell it only wants to do that with segments you’ve already crossed.

And being a shit descender I’m all about the uphill segments!

Having just bought a Stages I now only partialy agree – it’s all about the uphill segment power (until it’s about the battery life…..)

A partnership might not make sense financially – but opening up the 810/1000 and allowing other smartphone apps to display messages, etc on the screen would make them much more appealing and generate more sales for Garmin surely? I know I personally would go out and buy one tomorrow if it integrated properly with Strava in realtime!

The FR920XT announced today supports Connect IQ so apps will be able to integrate with it.

Interesting, will Strava bother to make it compatible though? Doesn’t support the real time segments either, surprisingly different functionality to the Edge 1000 – I’d expect more commonality. How prevalent is Strava in triathlon circles considering the cycling set can’t benefit?

Continues to seem a little short sighted by Garmin to me.

Sorry to resurrect this old thread but I’ve just bought an Edge 1000. I’ve put some strava segments on there using the gniza tool. When I ride tomorrow, will they automatically pop-up on the device when I approach the segment, or do I need to have the virtual partner on?

The latest firmware on the 510 (3.40) has segment support supposedly…

“New feature! Added Segment support.
To use segments, go to connect.garmin.com to find or create segments. Then, connect the device to your computer via USB cable and send the segments to your device. Once your segments have been downloaded to the device, disconnect from your computer. Then press the folder icon > Segments to access the list of segments on your device. After sending segments to your device, simply go ride through them to test the on device experience!”

https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?181621-Firmware-Version-3-40-Now-Available!

So the gniza stuff I would guess also works on the 510 now. Haven’t tried.

When I ride tomorrow, will they automatically pop-up on the device when I approach the segment, or do I need to have the virtual partner on?

Nope, they’ll automatically pop up.

So the gniza stuff I would guess also works on the 510 now. Haven’t tried.

Someone said the 810 doesn’t work the same way as the 1000 for segments, so I’d not take that as read.

There’s a beta version (3.41) of the Edge 810 firmware available that’s hopefully improved the way that Segments and Courses behave.
If you want to follow a Course and have the Segments still show up.
Currently the only way to do it is to create the Course and embed the Segments using Garmin Connect.

http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=7573

Didn’t know the 1000 could do this. Awesome for those segments where you aren’t quite sure when they start or finish.

Been doing this for ages on my 705 and 500, you don’t need a 1000.

Paste the URL of the time you want to use as a virtual partner to http://strava-tools.raceshape.com/vpu/

Copy the resulting file into your garmin.

Before you arrive at the segment, find the file in ‘do course’ menu.

As you cross the start of the segment your virtual partner will start dishing out some pain 😈

OK, so it’s not automatic but doesn’t seem to be much clunkier than the 1000’s implementation, and you don’t have to ride with a massive screen on your bars.

The 1000 is far shallower than the 705, I find it much less obtrusive on my stem. You can also do multiple segments, the manual thing would be a PITA for more than one, and no use if you’re following a course.

I was on market research a couple of months back for Tom Tom. They’re planning on bringing out a unit to rival Garmin and were looking for suggestions along with opinions on some of their own ideas.
Not sure what they’ll take forward but it was very Strava led, questioning about “real time” information.
They also brought up the possibility of a power meter at 50% cost of current market alternatives and set of glasses that links to the unit to give a heads-up display.

Will be interesting to see what it brings to market.

Hope you didn’t sign an NDA…

The more players in the market the better

Power meter could be interesting, but not sure what “current market alternatives” are, there’s about a 500% price difference between a Stages and a top SRM, and there are several units poised to undercut Stages significantly in the next few months.

It’s a shame Garmin didn’t partner with (or buy) Strava for their segments, the interface isn’t great, and I just think Strava has too big a user base to tempt folk away from Strava. It would be good if someone could do something that pushes Strava segments to the device, rather than having to choose them one by one. Then again it can’t handle overlapping segments, so you’d probably lose a load of functionality.

Well that worked a treat on the 1000. I wouldn’t like to have to find a file on the unit before each segment.

I’ve been reading about Connect IQ (http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2014/09/garmin-connect-iq-apps.html). Hopefully they’ll support Edge devices soon as it could lead to some interesting apps.