Garmin speed/cadence sensor on MTB

Just ordered an Edge 500 and along with a HRM it comes with a speed and cadence sensor. Not bothered about cadence but apparently the speed sensor is useful when riding under tree cover.

The whole thing looks fairly fragile and though it mounts to the chainstay it would appear that even a bit of mud on the spokes might pull it into the wheel.

Does anyone here use it on a mountain bike and have you had any problems?

Cheers,

Dave.

I’ve used a garmin off road loads and never had any problems with it that made me want a speed sensor. I also could be interested if you wanted to sell it.

What he said, I’ve used mine on the road loads, but it’s not needed asside from the cadence function (or for on the turbo trainer). The garmin doesn’t drop the signal often enough to matter (I’ve never looked down and seen a blank display).

Never had any issues with my sensor since the release of the 305. Rock solid. Incidentally, the new 510 is available direct from Garmin uk . Looks like a great unit.

I have a 500 and a speed/cadence sensor. Again my 500 hasn’t dropped a signal very often when off road so I wouldn’t bother. For me cadence is more important on my road bike so i keep mine on there.

OP out of interest what price did you pay for you Edge with HRM? Thanks

speed cadence great on road bike or working out what gear you were using (if you need to!) and on turbo but on an mtb just askign to get damaged and clagged up with mud.

Used mine almost exclusively off road in all conditions for years and its never been caught up, obstructed, damaged or failed to work perfectly.

I wouldn’t use it on an MTB. The speed data you get from the GPS is rarely very bad under tree cover anyway and the chance of the unit getting clagged with mud or kicked into the wheel is so much greater than on a road bike. The sensor has to mount on a chainstay and the speed sensor is the arm that pokes out towards the wheel, very close to the spokes. You tend to have more float on mountain bike SPDs so it’s very easy to clout a heel on the sensor, push it into the wheel and rip the arm off.

The cadence data it will give you on an MTB is mostly useless as it will show peaks and troughs of pedalling and freewheeling.

As a distance counter it will be more accurate than the GPS, especially if the trail you are on has lots of switchbacks. If you’re not using it for cadence and you are worried that you are losing speed/distance data then you could always attach it to your forks/front wheel instead. I think that’s a lot more bother than it’s worth though.

I use it on my road and cross bike. Mainly for getting a speed reading on the turbo but also interested in Cadence. Very rarely lose a signal with the GPS and when I do it picks it up quickly, so I see no point on the mountain bike.

The cadence data it will give you on an MTB is mostly useless as it will show peaks and troughs of pedalling and freewheeling.

I can confirm this. Totally invaluable on the road, but erratic to say the least off road. I used the cadence feature on the MTB to raise my cadence after a knee injury. Helped fix the knee and left me with a great spinning technique 😉

I had the cadence/speed sensor fitted to my Inbred for over a yr which I used on & off road with 2 sets of wheels.. The speed magnet was fitted to the road wheels (slick tyres mtb wheels) just because.
Someone on here advised me that I would get better accuracy off-road using the speed magnet when I moaned on here about a constant error with distance on my Garmin. Turned out a s/w update cured it.

With respect to damage, I had no issue with the cadence sensor getting whacked or dragged into the wheel. It used to get clonked a bit when swapping wheels, but it was always fine.

I wonder how accurate the GPS is: on a road ride downhill yesterday, those of us using ordinary computers were getting 40-45mph, whereas GPS users were recording about 10mph more. They weren’t going any faster…