Recording a Ride
“How I”, not “How to”
I cycle to the start of my ride, switching on my Garmin Edge shortly before I reach the start point. This gives time for all the sensors (heart rate, RTL515 rear light and radar), Rally pedals (on one of my bikes) to be recognised. If the Garmin shows that I have ridden any distance, I stop the route and discard it without saving; Audax guidance is specific that you should remove any distance unrelated to the ride, although you can ignore “stationary” time.
I load the route and when the Garmin prompts that I am near the start and asks if I want to start, then I choose Ride on my Fenix 6 watch and get started; I’ve set the Garmin Edge to auto start (but not auto pause or auto stop).
Why both?
OK, I have to admit to a pessimistic side, fearing that what can go wrong, will go wrong.
I take some comfort that the Audax guidance acknowledges that some devices can “crash” and that batteries, including internal batteries, will run out. The guidance refers to downloading a phone app. That’s not going to cut it on a long ride unless you can recharge the phone on the go.
The Garmin Fenix is my solution; it’s overkill for most of my outdoor activities and it’s expensive. On the plus side, it gets a GPS fix quickly, keeps it under my clothing and records a 200 km ride with enough battery life remaining for another 200 km.
When I’ve needed both
I’d just bought a Garmin RTL515 rear light / radar to replace or supplement my original RTL510 which would not last for the whole of a 200km at my pace. The 515 had given me two warnings of low battery from about 175 km; I acknowledged them with a tap on the Edge screen. At 198 km, only about 4 km from the end, the Garmin Edge froze. Nothing I could do would restart it. I rode on and used the gpx file from my Fenix to document the ride.
When I raised this problem with Garmin Support, they suggested that I get it replaced by the retailer as it was new. I recharged it and no problem since. Coincidence, rare problem? No idea, but the Fenix saved the day.
Multiple Tracks
A 200 km ride is just four 50 km rides - just one after the other on the same day! If your cycle computer won’t last for the whole distance or if you want to play it safe, you can record your ride in several sections. They don’t all have to be the same length and you don’t need to combine them before submitting them to the organiser for validation.
And Finally
I’m firmly embedded in the Garmin ecosystem and I find the support to be very good. Because I’ve used Garmin devices for some years, I have some experience of what can go wrong.
From time to time, the Edge 1030 Plus will declare an incident, usually for no apparent reason. After I have cancelled it to prevent it from sending an alarming message to my emergency contact, the Edge continues to record the ride.
Not so the Fenix. On the rare - very rare - occasions when it decides that there has been an incident, it is “game over”. The ride, or other activity, is not recorded, it’s lost, can’t be recovered. The solution is to turn off “Live Tracking” for one device (in this case, the Fenix) in Garmin Connect on the phone.
