Any way to use wrist HR with a bicycle trainer paired?

Hi,

I just got an Epix 2 (came from a Fenix 3-HR). When I did an “Indoor Bicycle” activity at the gym today, the watch prompted me to pair a trainer sensor which is built in to the spin bike, so I did. I then got all the watt/power data, cadence, etc, that was showing on the bike on the watch also. However, the activity data screen was showing no heart rate, since I guess the spin bike itself supports sending HR if you have a chest strap paired to the spin bike.

However, I don’t have a chest strap and would like to get heart rate from the Epix’s wrist sensor. Is there any way to do that and still get the rest of the data from the trainer?

Thanks!

0 mcalista over 2 years ago

Pair it as a power meter, rather than an indoor trainer.

0 barnharts4 over 2 years ago in reply to mcalista

Thank you, I will give that a try. When I was starting the activity, the watch just popped up a prompt if I wanted to pair with the trainer. I guess there I should say no, and then manually go into Settings/Sensors and add as a power meter from there?

0 barnharts4 over 2 years ago in reply to mcalista

Turns out I couldn’t pair it as a power meter - when I searched for sensors of that type, the bike didn’t pop up. However, I was able to figure out a way to make it all work. First I paired it as a trainer and then started my activity with the trainer connected. Then I hit the Options button while in the activity, went down to Sensors/Wrist Heart Rate, and then turned on “Broadcast Heartrate”. Back on the bike, I hit the Pair button on it, and it found my watch, connected, and then showed my wrist heart rate on the bike’s display. It also sent it back to my activity on the watch and it showed up both in the data screen for the activity, and later in Garmin Connect.

I had no idea that it could all work like that with the watch both sending and receiving sensor data to/from the Trainer. But it sure is handy.

0 [Redacted] over 2 years ago in reply to barnharts4

Sometimes you can disable ANT+ FE-C on an indoor bike and set it up as a cadence/speed and power meter instead. That's how it works on mine anyway. My watch is always mounted, though, so I never knew I couldn't use wrist HR.