I just took delivery of a new Garmin Oregon 450 GPS unit. I really, really didn’t need it but…well you know how gadgets are for gadget geeks!
My justification for it is based solely on the fact that it has a barometric altimeter and I wanted to compare the readings I get with it to the readings I get simply by using MapMyRide. Oddly enough, since getting the unit on Tuesday I haven’t yet compared that data…be right back….
Okay, on a ride I did Tuesday from Niu Valley to Makiki around the inside of Diamond Head: 10 miles of flat riding except for the bit around Diamond Head.
MapMyRide gives me these figures…
- Start Elevation: 21 ft
- Max Elevation: 194 ft
- Elevation Gain: 236 ft
Garmin Oregon 450 said…
- Min Elevation: 4ft
- Max Elevation: 175 ft
- Elevation Gain: 349 ft
Now one should note that “Starting Elevation” and “Minimum Elevation” aren’t the same thing so they aren’t really comparable.
As for the maximum elevation it seems that the Garmin may be close to right. I traced the route using Google Earth and discovered that what I believe is the high point shows 172 ft in Google Earth and the Garmin said 175 ft. Given that the unit is about 3 feet off the ground…hmmm…it could also be just luck.
The difference in the total gain, 236 vs 349, may be due to how often points are taken in MapMyRide. I’ve heard it said that if you make the points much closer together you’ll get a more accurate reading. Since the Garmin is more or less constantly checking it’s going to give you those increases of a couple of feet that might be missed by MMR.
In any case I’m having fun with it.
I also picked up a cadence monitor and a heart monitor as well. They do work with the Oregon 450 even though it’s not listed as a fitness computer. It turns out that one has to upload track data manually into the various Garmin fitness apps in order to preserve the cadence and heart data, but it’s there if you want it. Sweet.
Here’s an example of the charting available from Garmin using their online version, Garmin Connect.
This was from a short flat 4 mile ride I did last night. As you can tell I coast a lot (cadence), but I am on a single speed so sometimes I just get ahead of myself. I may end up changing the number of teeth on my cog when I replace it in the future. But then I do like coasting so…
Finally to be sure the heart monitor worked I checked it against the one built into the elliptical machine I use at work every morning. They are dead even. I’m going to assume they are both correct or at least wrong by the same amount. I’ll never really know I suppose. Still I was able to determine, rightly or wrongly (assuming they are both equally wrong) that at age 53 and overweight my resting heart rate is 50 bpm. Wow! I knew it had improved with all the biking but 50! That’s lower than my age.
Aloha!