Garmin.Are they always accurate

[dandare]

Just got back from a 40 mile ride which seemed hard as it is a cold wind blowing. Downloaded my ride to Garmin connect and it appears that 50 minutes into the ride and in a spot where I was rolling along nicely my heart rate peaked at 195 bpm. Now as I am 65 years of age this seems a bit strange and was showing it to be 105% of my maximum. Being new to this heart rate malarkey would it be a blip with the garmin itself ?. I cant say that I felt I was working overly hard and felt just fine at the finish of the ride.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Sometimes HR sensors lose their mind for a second or two,enough to give the impression of spiked HR.

 

[Nebulous]

Did you have on a windproof jacket?
You get something known as windflap with a flapping jacket at times, which gives a false reading.

 

[johnpembo73]

Also make sure the contacts are wet when you are attaching the strap to the skin. With that make sure the strap is tight in all your body movement. Sometimes the contact move away from the skin and with a little as Nebulous above causes a blip.

When you store the strap it helps to do this on a flat surface and try not to roll them up.

 

[HLaB]

HR monitors seem to have blips all the time, I don't know if interference from electrical boxes or cars passing too close or the thing suggested above. My max HR is in the region of 198bpm, Ive had 202bpm (102% of max) reported which is just believable but I've also had 239bpm (121% of max) recorded regularly which certainly is not

 

[RaRa]

My Garmin HR monitor is patchy at best - I regularly see points in my rides where my HR is listed at less than 20 which can't be right.

 

[HLaB]

My Garmin HR monitor is patchy at best - I regularly see points in my rides where my HR is listed at less than 20 which can't be right.

Are you sure

 

[lulubel]

Mine seems to be OK most of the time. I get very occasional high blips (although not higher than my max), but my heart does "race" for no reason sometimes, just when I'm resting, so I don't think it's inconceivable that it could happen when I'm cycling.

 

[dandare]

Thanks all. Sounds like it could be just a spike then brought about by something. The strap was wet before putting on and nice and snug. No flapping clothes either.

 

[Sherlock]

Just got back from a 40 mile ride which seemed hard as it is a cold wind blowing. Downloaded my ride to Garmin connect and it appears that 50 minutes into the ride and in a spot where I was rolling along nicely my heart rate peaked at 195 bpm. Now as I am 65 years of age this seems a bit strange and was showing it to be 105% of my maximum. Being new to this heart rate malarkey would it be a blip with the garmin itself ?. I cant say that I felt I was working overly hard and felt just fine at the finish of the ride.

If you download the information from your Garmin to Garmin connect and also up load to garmin. you can review your heart rate graph. I adjust my reading there if I get a stupid stat. This also applies to cadence

 

[Glover Fan]

I find I usually get duff readings in the first 10 minutes of exercise. The only problem being that it can cause un-necessary concern. Like when you are pootling along warming up, look at the display and see that your heart is apparently chatting over at 180bpm.

 

[Gary E]

What were you doing at the time (obviously cycling but how much effort?). If you upload your ride to Garmin Connect you can review your ride and see what sort of gradient/speed/cadence you were at. If it turns out you were going downhill without peddling then that's obviously more worrying than if you're travelling up a steep hill. Oddly enough I always have quite a high HR when going DOWN one particular hill . I do hit about 55 mph though so it's probably an adrenalin thing

 

[Keith Oates]

I also had a high reading of 190 bpm once when cycling at an easy pace on level ground. It hasn't happened since so I guess it was just a false signal for some reason!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

 

[jdtate101]

When I 1st got my 800 unit with the soft "premium" strap it was showing me with HR of between 278 and 330. Now I know I was unfit, but not that unfit. Called Garmin and they sent me older "hardshell" HR strap free of charge (I've heard that these are much more durable) and now it works flawlessly every time.