Inconsistent HR during trainings on Forerunner 955 Solar 17.26 and 18.23

YA

Thank you for sharing, I'm sorry to hear about this! We were tracking a HR bug where it was erratically spiking or dropping, discussed in High Heart Rate. That thread was closed because we released an improvement on Beta 18.20/18.21. We are currently investing heart rate data after  18.2X and tracking concerns. Cycling activities, however, were not included in these reports and were not changed on 18.2X.

Can you first view The Heart Rate Sensor on My Garmin Watch Is Not Accurate and pay special attention to the section under the title "Wrist Flexing Types of Activities Can Affect Heart Rate Tracking"? For certain types of activities (like cycling), we recommend trying out wearing the watch a little further up on your wrist. If your next activity (or two) is still showing erratic spikes, please let me know.

Okay, good to know! Is there a release date for the firmware with the HR fix?

I read the article and will try the watch even further up on the arm but I don’t think this is the reason. This started between 8th and 12th February. On 8th I had normal HR during my activity and the next similar cycling activity was on 12th with all the erratic drops and spikes. I always hold my handlebars with the same grip, no experiments or deviations there.

Also it’s maybe worth mentioning that I restarted the watch. There were some battery issues in the past which were solved this way but unfortunately it doesn‘t fix the problem now.

I seriously hope you're going to fix the optical/wrist HR readings.

This hasn't been working for months now. Is like the feature is not there.

Problem being that feedback coming back from from beta testers aren't that good: https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/running-multisport/f/forerunner-965/360704/18-20-hr-bug-still-here

Garmin-Sierra I can't imagine you're not going to fix this issue.

Please provide a coupon for a HRM plus chest strap for those with a non-working OHR.

We still have Beta18.21 available and have not yet released our live update. I am not sure when that will be available, but it will not include a HR improvement for Cycling activities. Only Run, Walk, and Hike. 

If your HR concerns are only with Cycling activities, we will need to investigate. May I have permission to reach out via email and view your activities in Garmin Connect?

Okay, this is bad. It looks like I will have to contact support and make use of warranty because the watch lacks its promiment feature due to some firmware problems.

In the meantime an HR strap will give you completely reliable readings. Even with a fix the optical sensor in a watch will never likely be satisfactorily responsive.

I was not complaining about the accuracy, I can perfectly live with a slightly worse accuracy of a watch compared to a strap. I am complaining about the watch not providing one of its basic functions.

Just letting you know that you have a viable option in the interim. It can never be good for cycling HR data from an optical wrist sensor.

Again, Garmin advertises its optical sensor on a watch as a viable source of HR information. If they change their software at some point so that function is no longer reliable then we should talk specifically about that and not about what else could I use.