GPS Accuracy / Sensitivity

jShort

jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
i have a Garmin 705. My buddy has a cateye computer on his bike. If we do the same ride my 705 shows a shorter ride. Sometimes by as much as a couple miles. :hmmm:
I would assume his cateye is more accurate because its just counting the revolutions of the tire...

Anybody else with a GPS notice this? Is there anyway fix it? :popcorn:
 
I have never had a problem with distance with my garmin. I would say that his might be off alittle. UNLESS you have a poor signal. This might sound wierd but can you post a link to your ride?
 
Cycle computers are likely to have greater calibration errors given you are riding in areas with good signal reception. Usually you just put a rough estimate of the wheel diameter which changes with tire selection/tread life vs the estimate.
 
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One thing I have noticed is that at 6-mile I always get a mile or two less distance than people with computers. I think the GPS has problems in the tight twisties and can't accurately measure or update fast enough to track you well in there.

I know some others that have both and say that they match fine when riding the road or straighter trails, but not at 6-mile.

Tim
 
GPS will work better on the road, for sure.

But syadasti is right. Your wheel rotates so many times that any small error gets magnified tremendously over the course of any given ride.
 
beats me about the gps, but my cycle computer is dead on with the trip meter in my truck, (and the speedometer), maybe its a fluke, maybe im lucky, but i ahve checked it against the trucks trip meter when i was setting it up to make sure i had it correct
 
M3Tim said:
One thing I have noticed is that at 6-mile I always get a mile or two less distance than people with computers. I think the GPS has problems in the tight twisties and can't accurately measure or update fast enough to track you well in there.

I know some others that have both and say that they match fine when riding the road or straighter trails, but not at 6-mile.

Tim
Click to expand...

there is a mode on the garmins to record data every second or something, but it stores more data thus shorter record times, this would be most accurate, I with I could look at my 305 now but it is getting replaced under warranty.
 
shrpshtr325 said:
beats me about the gps, but my cycle computer is dead on with the trip meter in my truck, (and the speedometer), maybe its a fluke, maybe im lucky, but i ahve checked it against the trucks trip meter when i was setting it up to make sure i had it correct
Click to expand...

Sidenote: GPS are good tools to check automobile speedos. There is great variability in accuracy, I was surprised when I saw a test in an auto magazine a few years ago. My car's speedometer is only off by about 1 mph though...

I wonder if that means the odometer is off too. You'll get some variation due to tire selection/wear/variation over the lifetime of the vehicle too :hmmm:
 
I am always short on my GPS by 1-2 miles compared to my buddy's Cyclo-m-puter. We always attributed it to "poor signal", but now that you mention it :hmmm:
In any case, we always go with his distance since it is the longest :D
 
syadasti said:
Sidenote: GPS are good tools to check automobile speedos. There is great variability in accuracy, I was surprised when I saw a test in an auto magazine a few years ago. My car's speedometer is only off by about 1 mph though...

I wonder if that means the odometer is off too. You'll get some variation due to tire selection/wear/variation over the lifetime of the vehicle too :hmmm:
Click to expand...

lol i am well aware of that, its why i get my speedo recalibrated everytime i get new tires put on it so i know its pretty damnd close :D
 
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