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Virtual Partner Speed - Hacks?

I use my 520 (and previously 200 & 510) mostly for Audax club rides (longer distance non-races). While we don't race we do have elapsed time limits and I use the VP to keep me ahead of the clock.

If I am not following a course (rare) then I could set the VP speed to the minimum required speed and the Time-Ahead field will tell me how I am going, if it says 15 minutes ahead and I am coming to a food control stop I know I have to be out of there within 15 minutes to keep on schedule or coming to a sleep control I will know how long I can snooze.

But If I follow a course (mostly) then the VP speed can only be changed as a percentage of the course pre determined speed. Different sites handle this differently also depending on how much money you pay them so I don't always have control of the downloaded course's speed. A TCX has generated (or actual) timestamps what the Garmin uses to determine the course time (and therefore an average speed) , GPXs don't have timestamps and I can't see what the Garmin uses to determine a course time for these. I can find no way of telling the 520 that I want to use a kph speed for the VP if I follow a course.

I have hacked the downloaded courses with an XML editor, previous discussions on other Garmin forums say you have to change the course "TotalTimeSeconds" but on the 520 (maybe others) this does not change the route implied time, you have to modify the timestamp on the first and last Trackpoints to reflect the time you want, hopefully the VP will then use this to determine its average speed.

I guess there is no other way as I have seen CIQ fields that keep track of "Banked minutes", essentially the same as what I want the VP to do, I would prefer to keep it all as simple as possible rather than using any other CIQ fields, widgets or apps.

Using the VP with a set kph speed that can be varied by the rider would be ideal as the required speed changes after the first 600 kms.

Does anyone have ideas to achieve what I want. I don't suppose Garmin is going to give me the option of setting the VP speed (rather than a %) while following a course.

Thanks.

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

GPSies can be used to set a speed. You can import an existing track and set a new speed. The link to import is at the bottom of the Create page. It is free with donations accepted.

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

Well, if it is a set route you could use the garmin courses tool to make it, and set the time for the cutoff time limit, and race that activity. I used that for a race where I wanted to beat my PR.

0 L.Rouge over 8 years ago

As Tigermountrider points out my quickie change to the first and last trackpoint timestamp does not work, it changes the course duration in the summary but the Virtual Partner still follows the speed implied by the intermediate trackpoints so I will have to use GPSies or similar to consistently change all the trackpoints to reflect the average I want. I was hoping to have a bit more control .