Old 12-11-21, 08:18 PM
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Seattle Forrest
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Originally Posted by grnmasi
My partner had been using a Bolt on her Trek along with the Duotrap S speed/cadence sensor while I use the Edge 830 with Garmin Speed 2 and Cadence Sensors on my bike. We noticed that for every single ride that we do together, and I am counting dozens, the Bolt always registers 0.2 to 0.4 miles (most often 0.2 miles) less total distance on ~ 25 mile ride. We have both computers set to autocalibrate wheel sizes. We have seen that difference on both longer and shorter rides. Although the consistent difference (rather than a random difference due to precision) bothered me a bit, I just attributed it to differences in the pairing of the computers with the different sensors on the two bikes.

But recently I was able to compare both computers paired with the exact same sensors (Garmin Speed/Cadence 2) on my bike for close to a dozen rides. The difference of 0.2 to 0.4 miles (Bolt always lower) on a 25 mile remain still remains even using the same bike and paired sensors. I really don't have a possible explanation except that it is something regarding the difference in the autocalibrate functions on the two computers. I guess the next thing to try when I get a chance to ride is to enter a fixed and same value for the wheel calibration for both computers and see what happens.

In the meantime, any ideas on what is causing the difference? In reality, I don't know which is "correct".

Thanks.
​​​​​​You're exactly right. Both computers auto calibrate against GPS. The trouble is that GPS is very "noisy" and although it's very good, it's never perfect. Both the Garmin and the Bolt have programming to smooth out some of the noise in the GPS data, sightly differently, resulting in the difference you see. It isn't that one is right and the other is wrong, it's that both are very very close and one is a little more so.
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