Hello to all
I'm just going through the process of upgrading some of my training kit, so that I can have a much better Winter's training and really attempt to form some semblance of form for next Summer! Last Winter I ended up next to feck all as the weather was so pissing terrible.
At the moment, I'm riding my vintage road steel, and only have a Polar CS600X computer with HR and GPS to track my rides and progress - this is fine, as I also have a Polar watch and no matter what non-cycling exercise I'm doing, I can upload of my exercise data into the Polar software from computer and watch - this has worked ok until now.
I've just laid my hands on a LeMond Revolution turbo trainer. I bought it, as although it's fairly loud, it is generally regarded as one of the most lifelike trainers out there. My plan is to upgrade this with the Wattbox, as I want to take my training a little more seriously and make the plans / performance much more scientific and progressive.
This has landed me with quandry No. 1, as none of my existing Polar kit is ANT+ compatible. Therefore, will need to upgrade the computer to Garmin or similar to get any sort of data out of the Wattbox. My plan at the moment is get a Garmin 810 and make this my new main multi-bike computer and sell the Polar computer - Q1 - is there a better alternative/solution to this? I ask, as I'll still be using my Polar watch for non-cycling exercise, and ideally wanted to store/analyse all data in the one place!
Q2 - does anyone have a good tablet stand / holder that I can mount on the front of the bike somewhere and grip a tablet? I've seen that Tacx do one for 30 notes or so, but that seems expensive for a basic tablet holder! I've downloaded some of the Sufferfest videos, so am planning to give them a whirl whilst using the LeMond as I'll need the distraction whilst turbo'ing indoors...
I've also just landed myself a used pair of PowerTap hubs from a friend, that I've just laced up into a set of wheels - they're mostly ready to go, but I need to pop them down to Harry R to check that they're built and tensioned properly. They are PowerTap Comp hubs. This seems to be the second reason why I need a new Garmin unit, as I don't want to faff around with different computers for different reasons when using different kit - I am expecting that a new Garmin 810 will be fully compatible with both the LeMond Wattbox and the PowerTaps, and that all I'll need is two different bike profiles depending on which way I'm training on a particular day?
I.e. Garmin Profile 1 - LeMond Revolution paired up to the Wattbox (am aware that the Garmin combined speed/cadence unit isn't compatible when using the Wattbox (as the Wattbox sends speed data already) and that I'll need a separate ANT+ cadence only sensor) to get all of the data displayed on the Garmin
Garmin Profile 2 - PowerTap wheels paired up with the Garmin - this is where the combined speed/cadence Garmin sensor can be used fine, and just take power data from the PowerTaps themselves to get all of the data.
Garmin Profile 3/4 - Normal wheelset - with no power data at all, and just speed/cadence data from the Garmin sensor. I am assuming that this could be either of my steel roadies, and that all I'll need is a handlebar mount and combined speed/cadence sensor on each road bike and off I go?! (3/4 is for 2x road bikes)
Garmin Profile 5/6 - 2x MTB's! Again, am assuming that I'll need a handlebar mount and a speed/cadence sensor for each MTB?!
Therefore, Q3 - is my logic on all of this spot on and does anyone know if the Garmin can handle all of this?
And finally, it's somewhat heartbreaking to have to move computers at all, and I'm very reluctant to - I can remember the many times when my old Avocet 40 from bitd's battery would run out, and if it caught you out completely and died, all of that precious odometer and av speed data would be lost forever :facepalm: , and all clocks would be reset to zero! It's like a bit of a kick in the nuts to start over from zero!!
Therefore, I want this to be my final computer change - BUT, Q4: is there a way of transferring data over from either my existing Polar computer, or from the data that's been uploaded into the Polar software on my PC, or some other method using the new Garmin so that I can pre-populate the new Garmin and avoid starting all clocks from zero? I've never used Garmin kit before, so don't know what can/can't be done with them... just trying to avoid having the psychological blow of starting "over"!!
Many thanks for any responses - much appreciated.
I'm just going through the process of upgrading some of my training kit, so that I can have a much better Winter's training and really attempt to form some semblance of form for next Summer! Last Winter I ended up next to feck all as the weather was so pissing terrible.
At the moment, I'm riding my vintage road steel, and only have a Polar CS600X computer with HR and GPS to track my rides and progress - this is fine, as I also have a Polar watch and no matter what non-cycling exercise I'm doing, I can upload of my exercise data into the Polar software from computer and watch - this has worked ok until now.
I've just laid my hands on a LeMond Revolution turbo trainer. I bought it, as although it's fairly loud, it is generally regarded as one of the most lifelike trainers out there. My plan is to upgrade this with the Wattbox, as I want to take my training a little more seriously and make the plans / performance much more scientific and progressive.
This has landed me with quandry No. 1, as none of my existing Polar kit is ANT+ compatible. Therefore, will need to upgrade the computer to Garmin or similar to get any sort of data out of the Wattbox. My plan at the moment is get a Garmin 810 and make this my new main multi-bike computer and sell the Polar computer - Q1 - is there a better alternative/solution to this? I ask, as I'll still be using my Polar watch for non-cycling exercise, and ideally wanted to store/analyse all data in the one place!
Q2 - does anyone have a good tablet stand / holder that I can mount on the front of the bike somewhere and grip a tablet? I've seen that Tacx do one for 30 notes or so, but that seems expensive for a basic tablet holder! I've downloaded some of the Sufferfest videos, so am planning to give them a whirl whilst using the LeMond as I'll need the distraction whilst turbo'ing indoors...
I've also just landed myself a used pair of PowerTap hubs from a friend, that I've just laced up into a set of wheels - they're mostly ready to go, but I need to pop them down to Harry R to check that they're built and tensioned properly. They are PowerTap Comp hubs. This seems to be the second reason why I need a new Garmin unit, as I don't want to faff around with different computers for different reasons when using different kit - I am expecting that a new Garmin 810 will be fully compatible with both the LeMond Wattbox and the PowerTaps, and that all I'll need is two different bike profiles depending on which way I'm training on a particular day?
I.e. Garmin Profile 1 - LeMond Revolution paired up to the Wattbox (am aware that the Garmin combined speed/cadence unit isn't compatible when using the Wattbox (as the Wattbox sends speed data already) and that I'll need a separate ANT+ cadence only sensor) to get all of the data displayed on the Garmin
Garmin Profile 2 - PowerTap wheels paired up with the Garmin - this is where the combined speed/cadence Garmin sensor can be used fine, and just take power data from the PowerTaps themselves to get all of the data.
Garmin Profile 3/4 - Normal wheelset - with no power data at all, and just speed/cadence data from the Garmin sensor. I am assuming that this could be either of my steel roadies, and that all I'll need is a handlebar mount and combined speed/cadence sensor on each road bike and off I go?! (3/4 is for 2x road bikes)
Garmin Profile 5/6 - 2x MTB's! Again, am assuming that I'll need a handlebar mount and a speed/cadence sensor for each MTB?!
Therefore, Q3 - is my logic on all of this spot on and does anyone know if the Garmin can handle all of this?
And finally, it's somewhat heartbreaking to have to move computers at all, and I'm very reluctant to - I can remember the many times when my old Avocet 40 from bitd's battery would run out, and if it caught you out completely and died, all of that precious odometer and av speed data would be lost forever :facepalm: , and all clocks would be reset to zero! It's like a bit of a kick in the nuts to start over from zero!!
Therefore, I want this to be my final computer change - BUT, Q4: is there a way of transferring data over from either my existing Polar computer, or from the data that's been uploaded into the Polar software on my PC, or some other method using the new Garmin so that I can pre-populate the new Garmin and avoid starting all clocks from zero? I've never used Garmin kit before, so don't know what can/can't be done with them... just trying to avoid having the psychological blow of starting "over"!!
Many thanks for any responses - much appreciated.
