photonick

Is the only way to find out the elevation gain of your ride by using a GPS comp like a Garmin 305? Is there anything cheaper that will do HRM, cadence, and elevation.

Brandy

Garmins are known to inflate elevation gain.

I like my Polar to keep track of ascent.

mattm

how about for free? take your pick:

https://veloroutes.org

https://bikely.com

https://mapmyride.com

Brandy

I know veloroutes is your site matt, so I have a question. I've had it up to HERE with bikely, sanoodi, mapmyride, etc. They all inflate elevation gain, sometimes OVER DOUBLE on climbs where I'm certain of the gain. Anyway, I tried to use your site this morning to map Glendora Mountain Road and see how accurate it was. It told me the elevation gain was a big fat 0 ft. Wassup with that?

Oh, and if you could offer a site that didn't hang and freeze and gave accurate gain, I'd love you! <~~~not saying that yours hangs and freezes, that's just my experience with other sites.

subframe

veloroutes reported the 1800' I climbed on Saturday as 6800'

I was pretty happy with my time for that climb, let me tell you

(nothing against veloroutes, of course, it's a useful site)

It would be very interesting to get some comparison data for a given climb from someone with both Garmin and Polar, with maybe a non-cycling-specific GPS thrown in, and the ascent data from the various sites...

umd

It's not the Garmins that do it, its MotionBased. Any altimeter based on barometric will give similar results. There are many out there, such as the Garmins, many Polars, Ciclosport, etc.

Edit: MotionBased does better on "pure" climbs, it just has trouble on the flatter stuff because it adds up all the tiny little inacurracies in the data. On a pure climb, as long as the start and end elevation are accurate it should be fairly consistent, and that is my experience.

photonick

I was reading about the 305 which I've had my eye on for awhile but read alot of negative reviews online and here in the history. Battery life, and the fact that it has no odometer, I don't know if it's worth it to shell out for a 305.

Is there anything then that does HRM and Cadence that isn't too expensive?

Brandy

My BF had a 16,000 ft day on Sunday and the Polar and Ergomo came in within 300 ft of one another. We've also been curious and will probably hook the Garmin up one of these days to see what kind of difference we come up with.

Brandy

Define "too expensive."

umd

The odometer thing is overblown. People don't like that you have to hit "start" for it to count movement in the history. But it has to work that way, because otherwise how would it know the difference between movement on the bike and the car, for example. So you hit start when you start the ride and stop when you are done. It's not a big deal. I managed to use one for nearly 30,000 miles and have only missed maybe 20-50 miles total because I forgot to hit start at one time or another. Any ride that is recorded gets added to the history and accumulates in the totals, so the totals act as your odometer. And you can view the history by ride, by week, or overall. One oversight IMO is that you cannot get a "by day" total, i.e. if you did more than one ride in the day.

Used or refurbished 305s are not very expensive. I still have one I'm willing to sell (replaced by a 705).

photonick

How much are you looking to get? Also can you still use the Garmin to track a ride without gps I hear that if you turn teh gps you get way better battery.

umd

Was thinking $150. Don't know about using it without GPS, I guess you could but honestly the battery lasts over 10 hours, so unless you are doing double centuries or are really slow, it shouldn't be a problem for most people. I used a cell phone battery booster with mine for doubles.

photonick

$150.00 I could justify a lot easier, that's with the HRM and the Cadence right?

cadencesdad

+1 My Polar s-725 does a pretty accurate job. I'd like a Garmin though. To make me feel better about myself. Garmin says a local canyon is 4500ft gain, it's more like 4000.

Enthalpic

+1

That’s why I feel total elevation gained for a rolling ride is pretty useless info. A bunch of little hills added up may sound impressive, but it’s a worthless number. It’s all about time and intensity.

When I climb anything significant I check Google Earth for no other reason than curiosity.

ken cummings

Anyone want to try the old analog method? Just buy a USGS 7.5" topo map of the area and count the contour lines.

umd

Yeah, I have to find the cadence thingie but it should be around my house somewhere...

felt1

Lets see how inflated my garmin 305 is.

Breathless Agony: 12,242 total gain.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=https:%...5&ie=UTF8&z=11This Mulholand practice route gave me 9,300ft.

Alpine Challenge in San Diego gave me 6,700ft.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=https:%...9&ie=UTF8&z=10Tour of three saddles starting in Diamond bar gave me 11,497ft.
on this ride there is about 1,000ft of climbing before you even get to Encanto.
Garmins are close enough. Always within 500ft of known climbs like Breathless and Alpine. And mostly under not over like people say.

jonestr

https://www.performancebike.com/shop/...tegory_ID=4110 hope that link works for the blackburn nero. Although for $150 the used Garmin would be my choice since you can dl everything.

Any altimeter that works on measuring changes in barometric pressure will have a degree of inaccuracy due to the fact that changes in the weather are indicated by changes in barometric pressure.

johnny99

I have tried several of the freebie (and not free) computer mapping programs. They ALL give wildly inaccurate cumulative elevation gain numbers. For the same route, one of these programs might report 3 times the elevation gain of another program. Also, the errors depend on the type of route (hills, switchbacks, etc.), so you cannot just try to "divide by 2" to get a reasonable answer.

Several people in my club have bicycle computers with barometric altimeters. When they are calibrated properly at the beginning of the ride, the different brands and models on our ride rarely give more than a 15% difference between biggest and smallest cumulative elevation gain. That includes the cheapest products, such as Specialized, Cateye, and Avocet. Also, the differences between brands are usually consistent (e.g., Cateye usually calculates the biggest number and Avocet usually gives the smallest), so I have a lot of confidence in their results.

jonestr

I have no idea what is analog about that.

photonick

What kind of condition is it in, instructions and everything? Also is the battery replaceable or does it take a factory battery. If you've had it for awhile i'd worry about the battery going kaput sooner than later.

umd

I'm pretty sure I still have the box and instructions. The battery is not replaceable but I have 2 (one for me and one for my wife) and I'll sell you the lesser used of the 2. Give me a few days to find everything and if you haven't heard back from me, IM me to remind me

photonick

Cool man, I wouldn't mind heading up to Santa Barbara, (Brooks Alum) and I've never ridden up there, could make a day of it.

kudude

UMD in the same vein, and not to start another thread, in YOUR opinion is the 705 worth the upgrade?