dmanthree

OK, I recently acquired an Apple Watch, loaded Strava, and made the huge mistake of comparing those results with that of my Wahoo Bolt. Sure enough, there's a 2.5% difference, consistently, between the two. The watch is always longer in distance. Of course, I really need to check against a measured course, but, well, you know the old saying. A man with two watches never knows what time it is.

;-)

Ogsarg

Does the Wahoo use a speed sensor? I had an issue with the cyclemeter app using a speed sensor because the wheel circumference was incorrect throwing off speed and distance by a very small amount. I wasn't aware till I got a gps and compared them.

fooferdoggie 

sträva is not as bad on the watch as apple bike is that is way off calories are calculated almost only on speed. I have tested garmin computers Several garmin watches two apple watches snd the computer on my bike. none of them match exactly . the gamins come close to each other. average speed is always lower on my watch. you can really only compare averages to get the actual speed since the gps jumps around.

dmanthree

Haven't used Apple bike. No plans to. Honestly, this was just a curiosity test, nothing more. I'll continue to use only the Bolt going forward. I use the watch for walks and hikes, though.

dmanthree

I've tested the Bolt with and without the sensor. Made no difference in distance.

fooferdoggie 

gps's pause differently and start differently. so it can really throw things off. I think the nI have two gamins running they are pretty close.

Trsnrtr

I only use my Apple watch 4 if I forget my Garmin but it is consistently longer in mileage than others on the ride and generally at least a mile or two on a thirty mile ride.

rlmalisz

On my rides, I run the Apple watch and my Elemnt Bolt both. I think the watch doesn't factor z-changes into distance, as it nearly always reads shorter than the Wahoo, which does have a speed sensor to work with. And GPS stuff is fun. Near the top of the first (long) hill on the MUP I ride in the summer, there are a couple picnic tables, and I take a "whew, ten miles!" break at one of them for a couple minutes and a dab of fuel. Official distance from the bottom there is ten miles. Bolt reads ten miles every ride. Watch reads 9.9 and a smidge. But frequently while I am taking my break, seated in place, it will give the little "every five miles" chime...additive GPS errors are enough to make it think I've moved enough distance to catch up with the Bolt reading.

RideWithGPS has a recorded route for this MUP. About mile 12, there are a pair of steep switchbacks leading down to and up from a state highway. The MUP is mostly a rails-to-trails project, so crosses a few roads on highly improved trestle-bridges. But the trestle over this highway must be 200 feet above the road, and while it's still there, looks like the first good earth shake with take it down. Maybe even a stiff breeze. I'm guessing there just wasn't enough will or funding to try to upgrade and revive that thing. But the RWGPS route this guy recorded had a pretty funny GPS error at this crossing, and shows the path dropping straight through the woods to the highway, following the highway for several hundred yards, and then plowing up through the dense woods at a 20% grade to rejoin the actual route. I had actually loaded his route file into my Bolt before I rode that section the first time, and it became somewhat befuddled about there. After that, I used Komoot routes I rolled myself.

But things have improved. My Polar HRM (which had the slowest sattelite acquisition I've ever seen) routinely showed recorded hiking routes that could only have been followed using high-wires or a hang-glider.

--Richard

dmanthree

Interesting responses. I guess I'm not the only one who "never knows what time it is."

But I really do like the Apple Watch. Nicely integrates into the Apple ecosystem, and does things like unlocking my mac (if it's been unlocked itself), tracking noise, blood Ox, etc. More useful than I thought.

fooferdoggie 

me too I liked the garmin watch for workouts I like it always replayed heart rate did sleep on its now without another app mine did blood ox too. but notifications and smart watch stuff it was not good at.