Getting some poor GPS on bike rides

I noticed on bike rides the watch defaults to "Lock on Road" setting. Try going to Bike Settings-Maps. Turn off "use system settings", then turn off Lock On Roads...Also go to Settings-Maps and turn it off...

Ride today - I was using 1 second timing with GPS/Glonass setting. Friend was using iPhone with Strava. Hopefully the pics are attached. GPS was way off on 5x. Funny enough on a Sunday ride through a heavily wooded area it did much better!

Hmmm files failed to upload.

Anyway, the iPhone shows tracking along the trail pretty much spot on. The 5x shows the 'up' trail not following the curves of the trail and the return ride is about 20 foot away. Disappointing.

I noticed on bike rides the watch defaults to "Lock on Road" setting. Try going to Bike Settings-Maps. Turn off "use system settings", then turn off Lock On Roads...Also go to Settings-Maps and turn it off...

Tried to upload the files again - tried png and jpg and just refuses. Oh well.

I'll tried that setting - I had lock on road turned off on system settings and use system in Mountain Bike.

It made the Strava segments ineffective where it was off by so much. Would start them in the wrong place, miss them or end them wrong. I switched that off anyway because it was pinging so much though!

Interesting too was the Garmin data reported the ride as 9.5 miles and Strava reported it as (Correctly) 10 miles. Same as the other three people I road with. One used the iPhone and the other two had other Garmin watches (not fenix) - my mapping was the worst. Seemed once it went off track it just got progressively worse but then seemed to recover towards the end.

Hmmm - was playing with settings and noticed that the maps were not enabled for biking, etc. Think I was playing and didn't realise that they had to be 'green' to be enabled. Don't know if that somehow has an impact. Also going to play with those 3D settings to see if those have an impact.

Tried to upload the files again - tried png and jpg and just refuses. Oh well.

I'll tried that setting - I had lock on road turned off on system settings and use system in Mountain Bike.

It made the Strava segments ineffective where it was off by so much. Would start them in the wrong place, miss them or end them wrong. I switched that off anyway because it was pinging so much though!

Interesting too was the Garmin data reported the ride as 9.5 miles and Strava reported it as (Correctly) 10 miles. Same as the other three people I road with. One used the iPhone and the other two had other Garmin watches (not fenix) - my mapping was the worst. Seemed once it went off track it just got progressively worse but then seemed to recover towards the end.

I spoke with the Garmin Tech support earlier today about these gps issues and they suggested letting the device soak in the sun in gps mode for around 20 minutes. Nothing to lose so will try that when I leave work!

Hmmm - was playing with settings and noticed that the maps were not enabled for biking, etc. Think I was playing and didn't realise that they had to be 'green' to be enabled. Don't know if that somehow has an impact. Also going to play with those 3D settings to see if those have an impact.

Ride today - I was using 1 second timing with GPS/Glonass setting. Friend was using iPhone with Strava. Hopefully the pics are attached. GPS was way off on 5x. Funny enough on a Sunday ride through a heavily wooded area it did much better!

Hmmm files failed to upload.

Anyway, the iPhone shows tracking along the trail pretty much spot on. The 5x shows the 'up' trail not following the curves of the trail and the return ride is about 20 foot away. Disappointing.

Hi,

Just a question you don't have any additional sensors (cadens etc..)?
If so have you set your wheel size?

I hade the same problem with my F3 but correcting all setting made it close to perfect :-)

Regards, Mikael

I just went on a mile walk around our office complex to test the 'wash'. Whole thing is appalling - I'm walking through a building, missing the road by 20 feet. I thought maybe the slower pace might result in some reasonable GPS but its bad, very bad.

The GPS accuracy (rather consistency) is atrocious for the price tag on this watch.. between that and the laughable wrist based HR data it's really more of a rich man's novelty item rather than a useful tool

I'm thinking of returning it if I can't get any better. GPS is the backbone for pretty much everything it does. Heck I could have bought a hundred dollar fitbit for the bits that do actually work well. For 850 dollars I was expecting some premium results.

The GPS accuracy (rather consistency) is atrocious for the price tag on this watch.. between that and the laughable wrist based HR data it's really more of a rich man's novelty item rather than a useful tool

I'm thinking of returning it if I can't get any better. GPS is the backbone for pretty much everything it does. Heck I could have bought a hundred dollar fitbit for the bits that do actually work well. For 850 dollars I was expecting some premium results.

Did you have GLONASS enabled? Doing so made a signicant improvement in accuracy for me.