{"id":18046,"date":"2014-12-03T11:04:57","date_gmt":"2014-12-03T16:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/?p=18046"},"modified":"2014-12-03T12:36:18","modified_gmt":"2014-12-03T17:36:18","slug":"garmin-hub-based-speed-sensor-for-fatbiking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/2014\/12\/03\/garmin-hub-based-speed-sensor-for-fatbiking\/","title":{"rendered":"Garmin Hub-based Speed Sensor for Fatbiking"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For years I’ve advocated for the use of a wheel speed sensor to augment the data of\u00a0GPS-based bike computers in order to alleviate distance issues caused by aliasing<\/a>. Up until recently the only good options for this were traditional magnet-and-reed-switch<\/a>\u00a0units like the Garmin GSC-10 Speed\/Cadence Bike Sensor<\/a>\u00a0and the Wahoo Cycling ANT+ Speeed\/Cadence Sensor<\/a>. These sensors work well in general, but I’ve had issues with them on my fatbike.<\/p>\n

Because of \u00a0snow buildup on the rim (photo<\/a>) the sensor is positioned closer to the hub (photo<\/a>) to keep it from scraping in the snow. Withof the further-back position near my heel and the frequency of falling over when\u00a0when riding in snow, it’s not uncommon for the sensor to get knocked around and tilted slightly inward. This causes the\u00a0reed switch arm of the sensor to knock\u00a0against spokes:\u00a0the usual\u00a0tick-tick-tick sound. It seems that these repeated, gentle physical impacts break the\u00a0switch, as I’ve now had two which stop picking up wheel speed after\u00a0a year or so on my fatbike. The rearward positioning also\u00a0makes it impossible to use the cadence side, which feels a bit wasteful.<\/p>\n

Garmin\u00a0recently released a new series of speed\/cadence sensors which use internal motion sensors instead of magnets (sensor bundle page on Garmin’s site<\/a>). These were reviewed in great detail over here by DC Rainmaker<\/a>, and the hub-based speed sensor seemed a perfect fit for my fatbike. This design will stay away from both the snow and my heels, and lacking a reed switch there isn’t that part to fail. The lack of cadence sensing on a fatbike is fine with me, as it is used in such mixed conditions such data isn’t very useful. When cleaning up my fatbike earlier this week I ordered the standalone speed sensor ($39.99\u00a0from Amazon<\/a>) and fitted it last night before heading out for a ride.<\/p>\n

My first impressions are very positive. It connected to my Garmin Edge 510 just as I’d expect, and a ride through River Bends parking lot automatically calibrated it to a sane number. A 1.5 hour trail ride near dark went fine with it, and it just seemed to work, similar in function to the GSC-10, but with a technical implementation\u00a0that is\u00a0more suited to fatbiking. I’ll stick with the traditional reed switch sensors for my other bikes, as I haven’t had the same kind of difficulty there and I don’t strap-to-crank-arm sensors, but for here on the Mukluk, it seems a good fit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For years I’ve advocated for the use of a wheel speed sensor to augment the data of\u00a0GPS-based bike computers in order to alleviate distance issues…<\/p>\n

Continue readingGarmin Hub-based Speed Sensor for Fatbiking<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-acquired-things","category-cycling","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18046"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18048,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18046\/revisions\/18048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}