ol geezer

I backpack, hike, kayak, canoe, and cross-country ski. Oh ... and I cycle. My budget can't afford separate GPS units for cycling and all those other things so I bought a Garmin Oregon 450t handheld unit and the bracket to mount it to my handlebar (it works with a cadence sensor and HRM, too!).

The Garmin 450t has a "Trip Computer" screen that lets me see a variety of things: time of day, distance, moving average, average speed, maximum speed, etc. I did my first century the other day and was surprised at the inconsistency between the data displayed on the Trip Computer screen and the uploaded data (to Ride With GPS).

The screen said 101.5 miles but the uploaded track says 100.9 miles. That I understand - the trip computer is giving me realtime GPS positioning data and measuring my distance accordingly whereas the track data is calculating point-to-point distances (the unit is set to drop a track point or breadcrumb every 0.02 mile or about every 105 feet). It will shortchange me a little distance on curvy roads or when turning a sharp corner. Even with that, the uploaded track was within 0.6% of the Trip Computer which - to me - is totally acceptable.

What sort of astounded me was the difference in moving time. The trip computer said 6:47 but the uploaded track data said 6:32 ... a difference of 15 minutes or about 3.6%. A friend I did the ride with used a Garmin Edge and her stats came up at 100.8 miles and 6:34 moving time - both of which are pretty darned close to the uploaded data from my unit. The difference in moving time - from 6:47 down to 6:32 - bumped up my average speed from 14.9 to 15.4 ... I like that but I'd like to have relatively accurate data.

My question: Before I call the Garmin support number, have any of you experienced this "time warp" and can you help explain it to me?

cplager

On Garmin Connect, they quote (up to) three times:

Total time
Total moving time (according to your GPS if it pauses when you go too slow).
Total moving time (according to website that removes when you're going too slow).

Is this what you're seeing?

ol geezer

Garmin Connect doesn't work with this unit but Garmin Base Camp does. I've uploaded the track to Base Camp and can't find any reference to different times - only the detailed info for each track point that was dropped. I suppose I can take that data and add up the seconds between each track point to see what that gets me ... but I still wonder about the 15 minute difference.

Unlike the Edge computers, I don't think my unit has any sort of pause feature when moving below a certain speed (like 2 mph, for example) since it's not a cycling-specific unit. The owner's manual doesn't mention it and I've looked through the settings on the unit itself and don't find anything. Since the unit is a handheld and is also used for slower-paced travel like backpacking I wouldn't think it would have a pause feature.

Thx.