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I've just had a cheap old edge 200 off the classifieds.
I was intending to use it just as a backup/commuter logging device, but then out of the corner of my eye I saw the bike I'm currently building for my eldest daughter.
Whenever we go out for a ride together, she always wants to see my garmin to know how far she's ridden...
But then I got to thinking, should I log the miles for her rides somewhere and if so what with, I'm not sure I fancy setting her up a strava account (can an eight year old even have one?) but I reckon she'd like being able to look back at rides with her old man...
Or is it all just a bit much for a kid?
So has anyone else put an old GPS on their kids bike?
Sure, my son (9) has a 510 that I picked up cheap as "not working" and restored back to life. He loves to know how much further he has to go and where the next hills are (or where the top is!) He also races a fair bit and he likes to look at his post-race routes.
Mostly, though, it's used to keep a track of his miles for the end of the year and to watch the cool "Relive" videos afterwards 🙂
Use Strava + Garmin Connect (for sync).
She's no racer but I think she would actually find having her years riding stats a bit more motivation I might see about setting up a (all privacy enabled) strava account for her then, unless someone knows of a more appropriate service for kids to use...
Edge 200 will have to be direct upload only, so probably no point in setting up a garmin connect profile too...
All the usual training data arguments still apply even if we’re talking about a child, with obvious fun/competition possibilities too.
I can see why you might be a bit iffy about an online presence for your daughter, but to me at least I’m not sure I see why it should be a problem if usually privacy concerns are addressed. Blank out large area around home, don’t link to Facebook or any other social media, avoid photos etc. On the Internet no one knows you’re a dog unless you tell them. If all that’s up there is ride data them is there really anything to worry about?
I’m not sure I fancy setting her up a strava account
Why not? You can have private accounts, afaik. In any case there are dozens of ride trackers, including ones that don't even sync online. Training Peaks was one such, although you wouldn't buy that for a kid I'd imagine. If they even still make it.
You can have private accounts, afaik.
Can you?
You can default all uploaded data to private (this I already do myself), but the user profile is basically public and searchable, you can hunt individuals down on there to 'follow' and make contact with pretty easily, i<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">t is basically a pretty poorly secured social media platform where users frequently share personal location information, hence the slight parental unease...</span>
I think I'll look at some of the competition like map my ride and endomono (assuming they're still going)...
Just don't use her full (real) name or any personal details/pics etc. Don't let her to follow anyone or accept followers and set all rides to upload privately. And ask her to tell you if she ever recieves a message or follower request.
Who do you think is likely to search for a rider who's rides don't even show on any leaderboards?
She's 8. She's going to be using social media of some sort or another in a few years. Some of her friends/classmates probably already do.
If you're really worried about it. Another (and cheaper) option is to put your Garmin on her bike. upload the ride with a title she'll like and let her look at it. it's not like you're going to be wanting to study your own stats from a family ride ever. is it?
If you want something on your own computer, you could try Turtle Sport. It is free, and fairly simple, can give you plenty of stats if you want.
Or maybe something like Garmin Basecamp or Memory Map. They can show all of your rides on a map, so you can try and cover as much of the map as possible.
Or even just a simple spreadsheet, if you just want to record distances, and get monthly/yearly totals etc.
both my kids have GPS one garmin edge 25 and a lezyne mini. I upload their rides to strava. They don't log into it (8 and 13) but even if they did I've got no worries
Why not just upload the data to Garmin Connect and set it to private?
If the info you want to look at will be there for you to view.
Cheers all,
I had a bit of a look at alternatives to Strava (it seems to have become the default) and TBH it's all much of a muchness, half the apps that were new little start-ups a few years back seem to have been bought out by 'Under Armour' the rest seem to be trying very hard to be Strava by another name really.
So I think I'll follow the suggestions to just set her up a Strava Account under a false name with the minimum of Bio information and default Private uploading, its the easiest choice really...