Just finished about a 50 minute ride. Kind of cool today but decent otherwise. A few notes on the Edge 500:
1) It seems to take about 30 minutes for the temperature to equalize with the ambient temp if the device was in a much warmer place before going on a ride.
2) Not sure of the altitude accuracy so far…It’s supposed to be quite accurate but it seems to jump around sometimes. Maybe it’s just so flat where I ride that it’s an unfair test. Time will tell.
3) I need to check the mileage…The bike seems a little too fast. I have the tire size on auto which I think it determines the wheel diameter based on the cadence and GPS, but I’m not sure on this either…Just seems like I’m flying out there this year.
You can check my latest ride here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/26097544
This weekend, weather permitting, I’m hoping to put in a 20 to 30 mile ride. I can’t wait to get a decent ride in.
I’ve always been into data collection and how we can analyze that data to improve our situation or the environment we find ourselves in. I figured I would combine my love of cycling and data collection with a good bike computer. What would I want from a device? Here’s a list of things I thought I wanted on a bike computer:
- Cadence sensing
- Speed sensing
- Heart Rate capture
- Altitude sensing
- Ant+ wireless for all sensors
- Ability to change the layout of the display(s)
- GPS receiver
- Data logging
The trick was to find a device that would do all of this but not break the bank in the process. The Garmin Edge 705 seemed to fit the bill, but the $650 price was a bit too much for me. I know you can do a lot with an iPhone or an Android driven phone, but there is sill a disconnect between Ant+ and these devices.
When the Garmin Edge 500 was introduced, it seemed like the perfect option for me. Granted, the 500 doesn’t have the GPS mapping, but that wasn’t as important as the GPS logging for me. With the heart rate and speed/cadence sensor, the price is still $350, but that’s still a lot less than the 705’s price.
After purchasing the 500, I was planning on doing a whole write-up on it, but someone else had already done a more thorough review than I could ever hope to. Check out their Edge 500 review here. What I was mostly interested was the data and how I could report on my cycling progress and how it could help me improve.
After about 40 miles with the 500 now I thought it would be a good time to throw some data up that the 500 provided. One thing about the 500 is the way you download the recorded data stored in the device; you connect it with a USB cable to your computer, but instead of downloading the the data to your PC, it’s uploaded directly to Garmin’s site. I don’t really like some company having access to all of my cycling data, but it does seem to work quite well.
Here are some reports on an hour long spin I did:
Obviously, I’m not showing any GPS data since the bike is stationary, but these graphs help me to set some baselines for this year.
