Latest Garmin speed and cadence sensors, what do we think?

[MartyWild]

Anyone want to post pictures of their new sensors fitted on their bikes?

[dolophonic]

the wheel- speed sensor looks ugly from what i remember... why do you need that if you have a garmin.. mine works fine without one..
Im sure they add weight

[kode54]

^^^ ditto. i had the new sensors, but like others have said, they are ugly. the cadence sensor also ugly with the bands to hold it. i had mine snug, but it fell off on a ride somewhere. i think i may have hit a pothole or some combination of hitting it with shoe and bootie combo that there wasn't enough clearance with the bands holding it on. i am riding without both and just using data from Garmin Edge GPS.

[ave]

WheresWaldo,
>"Cadence comes from my Power2Max."
Did you try to compare the cadence values with the GSC10? The power2max is very slow in responding to changes. Not much problem for many, I'm sure, but worth noting.
I use the cadence signal to syncronize my action camera videos with the Garmin's data.

[WheresWaldo]

@ave, haven't compared but I ride by feel and pretty much can tell you my cadence within +-5 rpm, which is good enough for me. I know at what cadence I start bouncing on the pedals, and I can definitely tell when I am lumbering along. How do you use your cadence to sync your action cams, curious?

[ave]

It's audible on the video when I do pedal. I do a coarse sync based on GPS on a slow corner, then find the closest pedalling break to make the sync perfect. Of course the cadence signal is still delayed with the GSC too, so it shows 0 for a bit while pedalling and shows 100 while I'm already coasting, but it's quite easy to find out how big the delay is.

[WheresWaldo]

Okay, I understand, you are actually listening for the sound of the chain and or the freehub engagement to sync. For some reason I thought it was something else. Personally I use GPS coordinates, since both my Garmin and Contour+ record the GPS track. Although now I am using a Sony HDR-AZ1 and if I want a GPS track other than Garmin I have to use the LiveView Remote 2 which has GPS in the remote not the camera.

[Dirty32]

So what do those with Giant Ridesense, or the Bontrager Duo Trap type systems think of these?

Do they then become redundant and not required, or would people still bother purchasing these either way?

[jvanv8]

I've always struggled to grasp the benefits of these Garmin sensors.
I suppose if you need cadence and have no other way of measuring it then the cadence sensor makes sense.
As for the speed sensor, the only time I've felt the need for it was in long tunnels or really big mountains where the mountain itself blocks the GPS satellites. Is this the reason for the speed sensor?

[jekyll man]

Its surprising how many times you lose GPS signals during a ride (trees etc),you know full well you aren't doing 2mph, then the next minute you suddenly appear to be doing 20.
if you use strava or whatever,it connects the points where it did have a signal and makes an average, which could be nowhere near the reality.

GPS speeds no good on the turbo for doing roll down tests either

[MartyWild]

^^^^^^As above, more consistent/reliable than the GPS speed reading and works on the Turbo.

[djconnel]

Robert Chung's test is the best I've seen for speed and cadence. If I divide speed by cadence at each time point, I get effective rolling radius of the wheel multiplied by gear ratio. So if I can see discrete levels doing this, with the exception of when I coast or during shifts, each level corresponding to a possible gear ratio, then speed and cadence are self-consistent. If I can't see such discrete levels (with the cited exceptions) then there's "noise" in either cadence or speed.

[Raineman]

I've always struggled to grasp the benefits of these Garmin sensors.

It is the consistancy that I find better than gps, I've seen my speed vary by up to 2kph despite using the same cadence and gear using just gps. With the sensor it just works every time. Also, it works on the turbo.

[knef]

Without the speed sensor i get spikes of 70km/h on training rides with bad reception, where I was definately going slow

[jvanv8]

Is this 'spike' issue more common with certain Edge models? It would drive me crazy too.