Custom Garmin Fields

[Kevin Williams]

Hey Randos!

I found this great article on ridefar.info that outlines how to add custom fields to your Garmin device:

https://ridefar.info/2021/05/how-to-add-custom-data-fields-to-a-garmin-device-using-appbuilder/

This piqued my interest because it outlines how to add data fields that shows, among other things:

• Total stopped time

• Overall speed (speed including stops)

• Current stop time

• Moving % (ratio of moving time to total time)

I wanted to expand this a bit and include fields that would help me leading up to and including PBP. I decided to add:

• MaxTime

• Time Ahead

MaxTime shows the maximum amount of time you can be at your current distance and still finish on time.

Time Ahead shows how far ahead you are of your Max Time (shows negative if you are behind!)

For example, if I am in the 90hr group, my Overall Speed needs to be at least 8.4 mph (756 ÷ 90). This means at 10 hours, I need to be at least to mile 84. Let's say I get to mile 84 in 7 hours. In this scenario, MaxTime will show 10:00 and Time Ahead will show 3:00. The data fields update every second so you will always know exactly how much time you have in the bank, based on your current distance.

I recommend installing AppBuilder 5+ and at least one instance of AppBuilder 5.

AppBuilder 5+ is a data screen containing 6 custom data fields.

AppBuilder 5 is a single data field. I use this for Time Ahead for one of the fields on my main data screen. You can add multiple instances of AppBuilder 5 data fields to your normal Garmin data screens.

Here are the formulas and data types I use for AppBuilder 5+:

MaxTime

(distance/13.34)*3600

Time

Time Ahead

((distance/13.34)*3600)-elapsedtime

Time

Current Stop

elapsedtime - max(elapsedtime)

Time2

Time Stopped

elapsedtime - timer

Time

Moving %

100 * timer / elapsedtime

Number

Overall Speed

avgspeed * timer / elapsedtime

Decimal

I realize there may seem to be redundant parentheses in MaxTime and Time Ahead, but this is the only way I could get it to work after many attempts. Feel free to experiment if you'd like!

Aside from PBP, this data can also help us during our normal brevets. The min overall speeds listed below can be used in the MaxTime and Time Ahead formulas above. Simply replace the "13.34" with the value you would like to use. Please note the 200-1200 brevet speeds are based on exact KM values (i.e. they may need to be adjusted if they go too far over). It's just miles / time (200 * 0.62  / 13.5 = 9.19)

Min overall speed (MPH)

PBP 2023 (756 mi)

90hr     8.4

84hr     9.0

80hr     9.45

CM     13.34

--------------------

200     9.19

300     9.3

400     9.19

600     9.3

1000     8.27

1200     8.27

I know this might seem like a lot and can be a bit intimidating. If you are interested, I encourage you to take a shot at setting it up. If you need help, please reach out to me and I would be happy to assist!

Full disclosure: I have only set this up and tested it on my Garmin Edge 830. YMMV.

Also, if anyone notices any glaring errors in this post, please let me know! 

--Kevin W.

[Robert Sexton]

Hello Kevin!

This is a 'Time in Hand' calculator for randonneuring available on the Garmin App store: Time in Hand Calculator v2, Universal.  The source code is publicly available.

It supports all three PBP schedules, RUSA rules, ACP, rules, and LEL schedules..    You select the desired rules from your phone or computer. 

During the ride it displays your time in hand/in the bank.    It's proven useful on many rides.    

- Robert

    

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[Yasmin Boakye]

This is so brilliant! If anyone knows how to do something similar for Wahoo, that would be amazing! 

Best wishes,

Yasmin

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[Kevin Williams]

Hey Robert!

Thanks for the information regarding the Time in Hand Calculator app. I am sure the app would be much easier to setup. I still think it's good to have options. If someone wanted to create more customized fields, I think the AppBuilder method is still viable. You can basically leverage and manipulate all the ride data of your Garmin to display whatever information is most useful to you. They have some descent documentation, if you want to get creative you can do pretty much whatever you want:

https://ciq-appbuilder.blogspot.com/p/overview.html

[Tim Foon Feldman]

Kevin:

As implied by Robert's note, there are different "schedules" for various events and the minimum speed for the last control is not necessarily the minimum speed for other controls. The consequence is that your equations are not correct for intermediate controls.

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[Kevin Williams]

Hi Tim, thanks for chiming in! The formulas I posted do not take intermediate controls into consideration. They apply to the entire ride. So basically, how much total time do I have left before I don't finish the ride in time? Just another tool in the tool belt, if it's helpful to anyone :)

--Kevin W.

[Michelle Grainger]

Hi All.

I have been following this thread and wanted to add something. What will a rider do if there Garmin or other device dies or is lost? I've seen this happen several times and riders tend to get off track or get too anxious to stick to sleep or eating plans.

Go to the results page, pick a group of riders of various finishing times that seem to be consistent with your own Brevet times and look at their control times and speeds. You’ll start to notice that there are clumps of riders with very similar times throughout the whole ride and then finish very close to each other. Riders tended to stop and sleep in the same places and had very similar speeds at each control (between). You'll notice this for Charly Miller riders, too. Most got to Brest between 24 and 25 3/4 hours and all finished very close to each other. These patterns of ride groups and where people decide to sleep and (also) if riders do better in the first 600km or do better heading “home”, are not coincidental and they reflect large groups of riders of similar ride styles and how groups ebb and flow together.

Yup, this is an old school way of calculating times and speeds at and between controls and then posting a range of times on your handle bars. We did this all through the 90s and early 2000s and it worked great. We also used something like this in 2015 in case any of our Garmins stopped working. We found it useful when we were tired and couldn’t easily see the head units.

Just a thought as a back up.

https://www.pbpresults.com/2019

Michelle

Michelle Grainger
michelle...@gmail.com
www.athleticexcellence.net

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[Kevin Williams]

Hi Michelle,

Great point, it's always a good idea to have a backup. Thanks for the tip!

-Kevin W.