Virtual partner rant

Since this forum is simply a user to user forum, your complaint is not going anywhere. I would suggest complaining directly to Garmin. VP has been around for at least 15 years so I would think that it is liked more than disliked.

I have already complained to garmin on every channel available. Nobody likes the VP, except maybe cyclists in flat areas without traffic and wind. Like some of the bigger craters on the moon, for example. That's probably where it was "tested".

I guess I don't understand why there are negative comments about VP. It's just a dot on the elevation and map screens. Never bothered me. The jingle at the end is somewhat annoying. I do think Garmin should provide a option to turn off VP like they had on the 705 series but I don't think Garmin is getting many complaints about VP or they would have done something about it after all these years.

I came over tons of complaints online on my quest to find a way to disable it. My guess is that the team responsible for the 530 is dysfunctional and no one is responsible for user experience. Or it is made by the guy responsible for the rerouting feature (nicknamed u-turn), simple incompetence and lack of interest.

I don't want to go back and forth on this but surely you realize that Garmin sells a lot of bike computers and the "tons of complaints" you encountered on line are a very small percentage of users. I recall a few years ago I asked the guys I ride with what they thought of the VP. Their response was, " what's the Virtual Partner". It didn't bother them at all.

If you create routes in Garmin Connect you can modify the average speed so it is so low you will always be ahead of the virtual partner.  You may be able to do something similar in other route planners.

If you create routes and export them as GPX files and manually put those GPX file on your Garmin the default average speed for the virtual partner is low enough that I have not had it been in front of me unless I have stopped for quite a while.

Those are two work arounds.

Learn how to use VP before ranting:-

"It forces the user to race against a partner that is immune to traffic, red lights, hills, headwind".

Only on newly created courses, create a course from an old activity out of the History menu and its a different ball game. Create a course from a ride you have done in your history folder, your VP will match exactly how you rode that activity, it will speed up and slow down on hills, stop for the same time etc at junctions, slow down where it was headwind, but it might not match the wind you ride the course but there is nothing you can do about that. When you ride the activity, it can be neck and neck at times and on completion of the course, you may only be seconds in front of the VP or behind. If you beat the VP, delete the old course and make a new course from the history of that ride and add as part of the name "Fastest" or "Record", The next time you ride the course, you will have to race faster to beat it. During the course of a year, I will beat the VP several times on a course and each time, make a new course from the history. The VP can be an invaluable training tool and knowing how to use the VP correctly can be a lot of fun, basically, you would be racing yourself and if you gave it 100% and created a course from it, to beat it, you need to dig deeper and give more.

When I used to go to work, I had a course made from a history file of me going to work and arriving bang on time and not to sweaty. When I went to work, I would set off at the right time, and just keep an eye on the VP and it would pace me to arrive on time and not get panicked that I might be behind time.

Also, I know of no one who has a dislike to the VP and most people don't even know its there, If the map is at the correct zoom level, probably 99% of the time, you will never see it, unless of course you are riding a course made from a history file. 

If you do not like it, give the VP a stupidly slow or fast time and you will never see it, especially when it finishes a few minutes after you have set off.

leginswal said:

Learn how to use VP before ranting:-

I don't want to learn how a tool I hate works, I just want to disable it. I also won't ride the same course twice just because Garmin sucks. Most of my rides go more than 3 hours, and if I repeat one, I don't need the navigation feature in the first place. If I want to beat PRs, I just use strava like everyone else.

Great for you. I don't want it gone, I simply DO NOT WANT TO BE FORCED TO USE IT.