[Closed] What Data Fields? (Nerd stuff)

Time, speed, distance covered, remaining distance to destination, one other that I can;t remember

I set up a couple of screens with four or five data fields on each. The primary screen depends on the profile and is data I like to have to hand: my road ride profile has six fields - activity duration, current speed, distance, cadence, heart rate, total ascent. Zone 2 profile has two - heart rate and cadence.

The road profile has a second data screen with items I don't usually need to access whilst riding: time of day, average speed, battery, VAM.

Once you go past five (on a Garmin 520) then the text size shrinks as the layout moves round to accommodate the extra fields.

My Explore is set up for long rides where I mainly like to know how far I've gone so far and whether I'm on schedule or going slower than I'd expect.

I have 7 fields:

- top row contains speed and average speed
- the big one is distance
- next row contains time and elapsed time (the least important; when I've had Garmins with thermometers in, one of these gets replaced by temperature)
- bottom row is time of day and ETA

On the map page I have time of day and distance.

On particular rides I sometimes swap a field or two, or have a whole separate page, for ascent info (ascent and ascent remaining) and/or sunrise and sunset.

Speed & distance

On the road bike I have multiple screens set up and can flick between them using the di2 buttons on top of the hoods. Main screen has 7 fields, speed, distance, time elapsed, HR, 3s power, cadence and heading. Next screen has 10 and adds a few things including total elevation and ride average speed. I also have screens for climbing which shows current gradient, %max HR and %FTP; intervals which is time elapsed in lap and power metrics and a ride average power screen.

For MTB it’s a lot simpler, speed, distance, time, heading and heart rate.

Once you go past five (on a Garmin 520) then the text size shrinks as the layout moves round to accommodate the extra fields.

This was basically the issue I had (although I'm using a 510).
So at the minute I've changed my profiles as follows:

Road:
Screen 1:
-HR Zone
-Cadence
-Distance
-Avg speed
-Heading
-Battery %

Screen 2 ( just for climbing):
-HR Zone
-Cadence
-Gradient
-Total Ascent

But I'm thinking I might chop Battery% from Screen 1 and put it on screen 2 just to keep it down at 5 fields.

For MTB it’s a lot simpler, speed, distance, time, heading and heart rate.

Yeah, It also occurred to me that I normally look at my Garmin less when riding off-road and don't use a cadence sensor (maybe I should though) so even fewer data fields makes sense to me:

MTB:
Screen 1:
-HR Zone
-Distance
-Avg speed
-Heading
-Battery %

CX:
Screen 1:
-HR Zone
-Distance
-Avg Speed
-Heading
-Time

TBH I think I should consolidate the MTB and CX profiles into a single Off-road one (possibly with 2 screens)...
I also think maybe I've a bit of "Range anxiety" and feel the need to keep track of the battery (manly because it's an older device), but it's really a mostly useless field, unless I'm out for an Epic ride (more than 10 hrs) so maybe I should create a separate profile specifically for that...

For Indoor use I will probably just have HR, Cadence and Time/Lap time...

Why heading? Not a lot of use on most roads IME - on yesterday's ride the next village was SW, the road we were taking to get there was only within 10deg of SW for the last kilometre if that. There are lots of occasions where you come to a junction but the option "on heading" isn't the best one to cycle for whatever reason - surface, gradient, traffic, etc.

Screen 1:
- Speed
- HR
- Distance
- Elapsed time
- Time of day
- Gradient

Screen 2:
- Average speed
- Di2 Gear
- Di2 Battery level
- Speed
- Distance
- HR

I do have an MTB profile, which had different fields (and none of the Di2 ones) but I never use them.

My 3 setups on Edge 520 as follows:

MTB:
Gnar/Stoke Ratio
Maximum Roost
Bro Props/km
% Send
E-rage/m vertical ascent

Gravel:
Beard resistance
KCal Foraged
Country miles

Road:
Pain

Page 1: Time, Duration, Distance (the one I display most)

Page 2: Current, Average, Max Speed (rarely have that one displayed)

Page 3: Current Altitude, Total ascent/descent

Bonus page is "Return to Start" compass/distance

Hiking is much the same (since it's a multi sport watch), but there I'll often have altitude displayed when hiking in mountains.

If training I'd have nothing but HR, power of some kind and duration.

Keep it simple.

MTB:
Gnar/Stoke Ratio
Maximum Roost
Bro Props/km
% Send
E-rage/m vertical ascent

You joke but... "Grit, Flow, and Jump" scoring is now a 'thing' on Garmins... A brave new world innit.

Why heading? Not a lot of use on most roads IME

Well it's a marginal one really along with battery for me, plenty of my road rides are "follow your nose/roadsigns" type things and having a notion of your general heading could be handy on occasion, dunno might be more use for off-road navigation...

Well the first thing is always use different profiles. I have Race, train, TT25 and TT12HR
For the 820 I like five per window. For the 510 I prefer 3.
No more than two screens for any profile, plus virtual rider for the TT12HR

Oh and I have CdA using iConnect - which is why I moved to a 510 in the first place. I do miss the touch screen. I also miss the nice HR plot on the 500 I used to use.

For me distance and speed are irrelevant. Surely you know the route and therefore mileage so no real benefit. Also speed. You’re not going to be riding to a speed so just there for interest with so real purpose for most. For me heart rate and power and cadence are the three parameters I use mostly. All the rest can be reviewed after the ride.

I ride to power for target training intensity, also HR and cadence to keep legs under control. It’s easy to drop to a top low cadence if you’re not keeping an eye on it which means you’re going to be pushing too high a gear and prematurely fatiguing.

Heading seems pretty useless to me… but then 95% of the time I’m on the map screen, I only check the data screen occasionally.

Time of day - for obvious reasons
Altitude - for quick reference
average speed - not interested in current speed, it's pointless
Distance - again, fairly obvious

Screen 1:
Time
Heart Rate
Power 3s
Distance
Cadence
Grade %
Speed
Time of day
Av Speed

Screen 2:
Temperature
Heart Rate
Power 3s (need these on both screens)
Elevation
Total ascent
Calories
Pedal balance 3s
Battery
TSS

Quite a few are only there to keep me entertained. I can't say knowing my pedal balance makes much difference to the ride.

distance and speed are irrelevant. Surely you know the route and therefore mileage so no real benefit. Also speed. You’re not going to be riding to a speed so just there for interest with so real purpose for most. For me heart rate and power and cadence are the three parameters I use mostly. All the rest can be reviewed after the ride.

I agree speed is largely irrelevant to me, so I don't use it. But I like to know my average speed as it lets me know my general pace and gauge how long the ride is going to take or if I'm looking to train a bit of speed into me I can try to up my pace.

As for distance, I do like to know where I am in a ride distance wise I don't always plan a set route so it's useful either because I'll have headed off planning to do 'X' No of miles, so once I'm at 'X/2' distance out I can start thinking about navigating my way back, or because set against that Avg speed I can work out roughly how long the remainder of a planned route is likely to take...

I tend not to go out for rides with hard cut off times so having a time field is less of a concern, and I never go anywhere without a watch on either so I'll know roughly how long I've been out.

I suppose for epics a reminder to eat every so often might be nice but I could set some sort of auto alert/lap for that.

for epics a reminder to eat every so often might be nice

Nah, useless. I've got that feature hardcoded into my brain 🙂

On my Oregon I've two average speed fields, one is moving average and one is overall average. For long rides (multi-day ITTs) then trying to keep the two as close as possible, i.e. reduce the stopped time, is the goal.

I miss having both moving and overall average speeds, it’s really useful to see both. ☹️

Directions to cake - map
Distance to cake - distance remaining
Am I going to reach cake - heart rate

Distance: how much longer do I have to go?
Ave speed: how much longer should it take?
Current speed: oh God, why am I now slower than earlier?
Elapsed time: I've only been out for how short a time?
Time of day: Can I have a lunch stop yet?
Heart rate: am I dying?
Gradient: the biggerer the number, the more justification for being so slow.