Heart rate is not registering properly on first 15 minutes of a bike ride.

When I ride my bike the first 15 mins or so always show a really low number, despite how hard I’m working (wrist based, Epix Gen 2). Then it’ll sudden go up. It happens consistently every ride. How do I sort this? Example below - see the sudden spike to where I would expect it to be.

0 UFFDADA73 over 1 year ago

I notice the same thing on my Marq an Epix Pro watches

0 Bitti over 1 year ago

That's more or less what happens with wrist-based optical HR and riding a bike. The wrist gets vibrations from the handle bar, and its blood flow is restricted because you lean on the wrist and grip the bar. It takes some time before your blood pressure raises enough for the optical sensor to get a proper pulse reading.

I think getting a HRM strap is the only solution for now. The new optical HR sensor on the Epix/Fenix 7 Pro has more leds, which is supposed to help in these kinds of tricky situations, but I haven't seen any tests yet.

0 nklove over 1 year ago in reply to Bitti

That makes perfect sense - I get alot of vibrations from the bars. I have a chest strap but hoped the accuracy on wrist-based sensors had improved enough to ditch the chest strap. I'll go back to that for rides. Then the question - would I link that to my head unit or my watch?! Head unit not Garmin. I guess I want the accurate HR data into Garmin so can you do that? Over-ride the EPIX HR data with input from the chest strap? (also not Garmin).

0 Bitti over 1 year ago in reply to nklove

I would connect the HR strap to the watch (which should use it automatically when it's worn after it's been paired). Some straps (like Garmin's HRM Pro and Dual) can connect to several devices at the same time, so check if yours can also.

0 SETM over 1 year ago

Please read support.garmin.com/.../

0 SETM over 1 year ago

nklove said:
Over-ride the EPIX HR data with input from the chest strap?

During exercise when watch paired and get HR from chest strap then the Epix HR sensor is turned off. So yes it will work and you will only get HR data from chest belt

0 pxl over 1 year ago in reply to Bitti

There are arm straps on the market that are not object to vibration (or less extent) and more comfortable than a chest strap.

If someone ok with the slight delay in HR (10 sec) then it could be a viable option.

0 7017726 over 1 year ago

I've noticed that too. It kicks in aroudn 11-12 minutes. Seems like a feature/bug of OHR sensors, at least for Garmin.

0 Dr Phil over 1 year ago in reply to 7017726

7017726 said:
Seems like a feature/bug of OHR sensors, at least for Garmin

And all other watches with OHR. OHR is one of those things that works well for some and not so well for others. Forums and discussions abound with threads discussing this for all watches with OHR, even the much lauded Apple Watch. The worst of it is that when tweaks are made to the sensor or algorithm OHR can be impacted negatively for those for whom it used to work while improving it for those for whom it didn't.