I set my virtual partner at 16 miles per hr before setting off on my ride. At the end of my ride I beat the VP, but my avg mph is only 14! why? how?

Were you following a planned course or free riding?

When following a course, the VP rides at a pace determined by timestamps in the course file and ignores the on-screen settings. If free riding, it should work as expected.

I was free riding. Would you advise a hard reset of the Garmin Edge? I wonder why it's not working. 

If it is constantly happening and you have eliminated other possibilities such as GPS dropout, faulty speed sensor etc, there is nothing to lose by resetting, but backup your activity profiles and other settings first so they be restored afterwards.

https://support.garmin.com/en-MY/?faq=eWswdSH4aC3xrXxmQj7U9A

I use the VP everyday during my rides and find it reliable (almost). I tried replying to this query 3 times, but deleted the answers before posting as there are two many variables in your problem especially when it looks like a one of and not been confirmed as an issue or user issue

Did you confirm that you had actually set the VP in the settings to 16mph correctly, and not 14mph. Only a 0.1mph difference over 30 miles would give an error of 2+ minute difference. Did you misread your avg speed at the finish and it was not 16mph, once again, a very small difference of 0.1mph will give you an error of 2+ mins

How did you know you beat the VP, by looking at the map, at the elevation profile or by the "Time Ahead" datafield.

VP also can default to 12mph for some unknown reason.

Did you accidently reset the VP?

Now that you have said you was free riding, things make a bit more sense, VP does not work well freeriding and is best used in conjunction whilst riding a course or a training activity. Basically, your VP does not know where its going or when to stop etc at the end of a course or a training activity.

When I say VP is reliable "almost", the only reliable indications of where the VP is, is by looking at the map or the elevation profile, the two data fields "Time ahead" and "Distance ahead" can be way out in a "530". I queried this a long time ago and got no feedback.

Posting a "Fit" file may shed light on what happened.

Basically check and confirm all settings including making sure you did not misread the avg speed of the ride, retry the ride, retry the ride from a course created from it and see what happens.

Experiences must vary a lot because free riding is when it does work on mine.

@leginswal   

Did you confirm that you had actually set the VP in the settings to 16mph correctly, and not 14mph. Only a 0.1mph difference over 30 miles would give an error of 2+ minute difference. Did you misread your avg speed at the finish and it was not 16mph, once again, a very small difference of 0.1mph will give you an error of 2+ mins

Yes, yes, no. 

How do you reset the VP??? I don't think I did. 

I've been using the VP in free riding on every single ride since I bought the Edge 820. I took a break from cycling and didn't use it for 6 mo and now it's doing this crazy thing. 

How do I post a "Fit File"? What's a "Fit File"? 

I've done the ride multiple times and get the same results. I've never even created a course from my rides. 

This shouldn't be happening since I haven't changed settings and it has worked for me for the past 3 years. 

Thanks for you input. At least I have some things to look into now. 

There are situations when the VP will "snap" (forward or back) to your current position, most related to loss of GPS signal eg if you lose GPS satellite lock by going through a tunnel or where the line of sight is lost for more than a few seconds, the time/distance ahead/behind is then reset, ie starts again. PS Do you have a 530 (this forum) or a 820 (you mentioned above)? Their behaviour may vary, the above (snap) behaviour is likely a newer addition to the VP, maybe not on a 820

Thanks for the info. But this shouldn't be happening since I haven't changed settings and it has worked for me for the past 3 years. It's worked fine for 3 years, then this happens.... very weird. Only thing I can think of is, maybe I clicked on a button and changed some setting by accident. So far, I can't find what that is. 

I have been out today doing a simple 31 mile free ride. Set the VP at 15mph so it made it easier to do the maths in my head as I ride to see if things were correct and at the the end of the ride, the VP was spot on as it was in various places where I rode to be in front of the VP and also let it get in front. Luckily never got any loss of GPS which happens in a couple of places I pass through for some reason known reasons.

But, out of curiosity, I asked in my other posting, how do you know you are beating the VP with a lower average speed than it is set at?

To add to @L.Rouge comments, if you turn around early during a course with VP on an out and back course, the VP starts over even with you where you turned around.  Also, even on a loop course, I believe if you go backwards at any point (let's say you go back for a dropped water bottle), then it will start over at that point.