You could drag a ride to your desktop and then onto the watch to see.
my question is why do you want to do this? The bike computer/watch isn't really meant to be the store for activities, use Garmin Connect or Garmin Connect Mobile. The data is much better organised there. Or if you want sync with Strava and view it there.
Adding the Activity files to the watch will not include them in the over totals on the watch. You need to record the activities on the watch for the overall totals to include the activities. I record rides on both my Edge and 735 mainly for this reason and have a separate GC account for my Edge so I don't double count rides.
I just use GC/GCM to look at the combined totals from my watch and an Edge. I actually don't want the watch to show my history from the Edge (they are both on the same GC account so it's easy)
So if I do a ride with the Edge it shows there, or if I left the Edge at home, it shows on the watch, but shows on GC just the same.
Same thing for Hikes and Walks, BTW (Yes, Hike2 does run on an Edge 520! :) But in History there, they are called "Rides", but show correctly in GC)
Totals on these devices don't seem to be obviously stored. There is a TOTALS.FIT but only seems to contain (well according to the FIT File Repair Tool) an overall total for run and bike which AFAIK is not shown on the watch.
You can copy activity FIT files to the watch (put in NEWFILES or straight into the ACTIVITY folder) when last checked neither adjusted totals which is only done on saving an activity.
So short answer is don't bother with trying to keep your overall personal totals on one watch and use GC or your favourite alternative like Strava. With many people now have multiple devices, makes best sense anyway.
Ok, it's clear that everything is in the GC and GCM but I still believe that the 735 should show the rides that I do with the EDGE. For me there's no sense to wear the 735 while I go cycling, as this is cover with the EDGE. But in fact I used the 735 as an activity tracker, so for me does sense that will show my bike rides, calories, time, effort, heart rate, ....
From a technical point of view (and I'm not an expert) should not be a big deal.
I think I read on a DC Rainmaker blog that Garmin where looking at stats across platforms 'soon'. I remember he was saying relating to Steps on multiple devices but I am sure if they get their backend software right then this could apply to rides as well.
CW - I'm guessing that it is about step tracking. A competitor of Garmin allows you to switch devices easily, and I have seen a number of posts where someone has something like a vivosmart and a f3.
They might wear the vs day to day, but at night and on weekends when they run, wear the f3. As it is now, only one can be your step tracker, and switching which it is can really only be done at the start of the day if you don't want to lose any steps. So right now, if you want step tracking, people have to wear the vs all the time and keep it as the step tracker, even when they are wearing the f3 which can do step tracking itself.
Maybe it will also be for activities. In my case I have a few devices (edge, 230, and va-hr). Right now, I if record a ride on the 520 and recorded it on the va-hr at the same time, maybe GC will be able to sort out which to use (or combine the data from the two into a common activity). Right now, it shows as two activities and I get "credit" for both.
