Best zwift setup for Felix 6

When I’m riding on Zwift I don’t even use my fenix 6X or my Edge 1030.  I have Zwift set up to sync with Garmin Connect immediately after my ride.  No duplication.  Zwift gets its power, speed, and cadence stats from my Wahoo Kickr Core.  Sometimes I have it set to get power from my Vector 3 pedals.  As far as heart rate, Zwift is getting that via Bluetooth from my Garmin HRM-Dual.

Chose either the Fenix or Edge - not both. 

If you sync via Zwift you probably do not get all the recovery data your watch or Edge generates.

I don't have an indoor trainer yet - but for outdoor I now use mostly just my F6x and leave the 1030 at home.

I have a similar setup, though I have Zwift on my Macbook and a Tacx Neo instead of a Hammer. I have the Vector 3 paired as a power source to both Zwift and my Fenix 6. My trainer is paired as a smart trainer to Zwift and as a speed sensor to my watch. I do not have Zwift set to sync to Garmin Connect and instead record the activity on my Fenix and syn that. The reason for that is so that I get intensity minutes and the training load metrics. I don't really care that the distance in Connect doesn't match Zwift but I could just edit that if I wanted to.

I also have an Edge 530 that doesn't get used indoors, only for outdoor rides.

I think I have cracked it!  Do a Zwift ride with 'virtual run' selected on the watch.  KEEP the virtual run - the HR will display within Zwift but the data won't be measured in training status etc.  Then on your following Zwift ride select indoor cycle and it seems to remember the settings and connects to the Fenix via Bluetooth.  Save both the Zwift ride in the game and also the indoor cycle - the data is retained.

I think I have cracked it!  Do a Zwift ride with 'virtual run' selected on the watch.  KEEP the virtual run - the HR will display within Zwift but the data won't be measured in training status etc.  Then on your following Zwift ride select indoor cycle and it seems to remember the settings and connects to the Fenix via Bluetooth.  Save both the Zwift ride in the game and also the indoor cycle - the data is retained.

Unfortunately, this is an area where Garmin face plants.

If you want to get the impact measured (e.g. load, training buckets), and your biomarkers calculated (e.g. VO2 max), you need to record on a Garmin device with all the power/HR data, which will cause duplicates in Connect, and sometimes in 3rd party systems like Strava. It's baffling that Garmin doesn't do anything useful with data that wasn't recorded on their hardware, but it is, what it is.

For Zwift I use a Neo 2 and a TickR chest strap.

My Zwift data, which reflects the simulated ride in terms of speed, distance, ascent, segments and ride title all gets synced to Strava to aggregate with my outdoor rides and do the social thing. There I can track annual mileage and things like component or shoe wear.

At the same time I also wear my Fenix 6X. Data from that goes to Garmin Connect, where I don't care about speed/distance, ascent is not available and neither are segments. What matters with my Garmin data is a record of ME, rather than the ride. It's the physiological impact, fitness, training load and recovery, FTP, VO2max etc along with all the other aspects of my life that are recorded by the watch 24x7.

There is no duplication within any one system, simply parallel records to track different facets of my indoor rides (and runs with Stryd).

Another slightly minor point - if I enter the start pen in Zwift for a warm-up my efforts there are not reflected in Zwift and thus not in Strava. However, my Garmin sees everything. :-)

So yesterday I thought I had cracked it. Tonight I jumped onto Zwift and my Fenix came up on the screen with the correct heart rate. I started to ride and the signal dropped. So I started indoor bikon Garmin and it refused to display the heart rate. So now I have no HR in either Zwift OR Garmin. Seriously considering going back to Apple Watch which seemed so easy. My Garm tracks my heart rate coming down when I climb hills. I just don’t get how they’re not connecting any dots. 

Just record a Indoor Cycling Activity on your watch?!

You can broadcast heart rate, if you want, but I would recommend a chest strap. Sensors connect to both the watch via ANT+ and to your Zwift setup (in my case a iPad with BT). Record on both, Zwift goes up to Strava - but not to Garmin! Garmin has Speed, Cadence, Power, Heart Rate, but no Elevation or GPS data which is fine. So you get Training Load etc. calculated for the indoor cycling activity and have the fancy map data on Strava. And no problems at all, works fine for me for thousands of indoor sessions. When dropouts happen, than usually in Zwift, my watch didn't lost the connection once.

Because the calculations happen offline and not in the cloud, which is pretty nice.