I just got a new Garmin 1000. Hope the unit is better than the instructions.

First question: I like to keep track of my odometer for maintenance purposes. I have a road bike and a mountain bike. I don't see a separate odometer setting for a second bike. How do I do that?

Second question: How does the unit know my wheel size? I have a speed sensor, but that is useless without knowing my wheel size.

Thanks.

The Wheel size will automatically calibrate if you ride about a half mile on the road. If you upload your stuff on Strava, you can identify the bike you are riding and it will keep an odometer for you.

Garmin instructions are dismal so the unit cannot be anything but better, once you figure it out.

The Garmin's as well, singularly lack the ability to port data on what bike you used on a ride up to any online data website - Garmin Connect, RideWithGPS,

My 810 does allow me to change on the unit, which bike I'm using, but that info stays on the unit. I use Connect and just edit the ride data to have the particular bike and any notes or comments. Doing this allows me to track on Connect, yearly mileage on a bike, when I changed tires, etc...

I had this very conversation with Garmin tech support a year or so ago that "the unit needs to port the bike data up to Connect". The response on the phone was "Yeah, that's a good idea, you should write that up and send it in". Yeah, thanks.

IIRC (I keep my maintenance record in SportTracks) you create a profile (e.g., Road / MTB) on the 1000 for each bike, and choose that profile when you ride that bike. The profile will record mileage ridden.

Can you clarify that the profile for the bike that is set on the unit automatically gets ported up to Sport Tracks upon the completion of the ride and the ride is saved ?

No, what I was trying to say is that I use the equipment feature in the PC/local version of SportTracks to track mileage for maintenance purposes.

Example 1 - I have 17 pieces of equipment that I've entered in SportTracks as "part of" my road bike: two wheels, a pair of pedals, a cassette, brake cables, derailleur cables, chain, chain link, bar tape, two sets of brake pads, rear derailleur, RD hanger, tire 1, tire 2, tube 1, and tube 2.

Example 2 - I have 1 piece of equipment that I've entered in SportTracks as part of our trainer bike: the chain.

For every ride I import into SportTracks, I select which bike I rode. All the parts get updated with the mileage. If I used a different set of wheels (not often, but I might swap them because I've got the usual pair off for the truing stand) then I can easily unselect the individual parts for that ride, and select the original set of wheels which I also entered into SportTracks.

When I take a piece of equipment off the bike long term, such as putting on a new chain, then I uncheck the "currently in use" box for the old chain, and assign the new chain as in use and part of the road bike or the trainer bike.

That way, I always know the hours used, miles used, age, expected remaining life, etc., of every individual piece of equipment I care to track. Seventeen on one bike may be overkill, but it's so easy to set up that after I discovered the feature I figured why not. The same feature can be used for shoes, shorts, whatever you might care to track.

I'm not particularly interested in an on-bike odometer, or a Strava odometer, because I want more detail than those offer. I'm not against them, but they're irrelevant for me, because I'm more interested in the mileage on my chain, cassette, tires, etc. And those come on and off a single bike, and a single odometer reading for a specific bike will not tell me how many miles I've ridden that tire. I've got to keep a record outside the odometer reading for the frame/bike.

[But the 1000's profiles will let you keep individual odometer readings for a bike, as long as you always use the profile exclusively for that bike.]

Oh, OK, got it.

That is very specific and I can see the usefulness of it, sort of. Not sure I need to know the mileage on a set of pedals, but I can understand the others.

Interesting use.

Thanks. What is SportTracks?

Also, how do you change the odometer on the the unit. Say the battery dies on a ride but I know the millage from Strava and want to update the odometer.

I don't know if you can physically change the odometer, but you can display it on one of your screens. If you hold down on one of the data fields, you can change it to odometer. Usually, if I run out of battery on the Garmin, I usually start my Strava app on the phone.

SportTracks is a workout log for cycling, running, etc. It is in the same general marketplace as TrainingPeaks and WKO4, among others.

It exists as a subscription-based online service and as PC software (ST3). I started using the PC version in 2008 and I've uploaded every ride in there for the last nine years. It offered hooks for third party extensions and there was/is an active developer base adding features.

Several years ago they added an online, mobile-friendly service that still has traction though I don't think it has the user base of TrainingPeaks, not to mention related but significantly different services like Strava. I've stuck with the PC app so I'm not familiar with the online version.

I just use Strava to monitor all my bike maintenance. You can add the bike, it's components ect then track the mileage on each. When you replace the cassette for example, just retire the old and add the new. After that Strava will keep a running mileage total for each component you added based on the mileage ridden after that item was added.

Of course, this only works if you upload all your rides to Strava.

Interesting. I haven't noticed the capability to track in greater detail than the whole bicycle. I see now that you can drill in on the web page https://www.strava.com/settings/gear to add components to a bike. Not quite as flexible as SportTracks (it looks more cumbersome to swap wheels, for instance, on the fly) but it looks like it would cover most to nearly all purposes.

Is it possible to add/edit components from the iOS app as well? I don't see a way to get to component or bike configuration on the iPhone. I see only being able to select existing bikes.

Don't know, to be honest. I have an Android and do not use the Strava app at all.

I've been using Strava for bike maintenance for about 4 years now. It works well but like you said, changing something on the fly would more than likely be cumbersome using Strava to track it.

For most and for keeping track of the mileage on each component it works great though.