Ridecontrol data in Garmin Edge head units

[Purpledog]

I have an 2020 Explore E+1 with the Ridecontrol Evo controller, and a Garmin Edge 800. These two cannot communicate as I'm sure you all know.

The Evo does, however, send data via bluetooth (I believe?) to the Ridecontrol app on my phone, but sadly I can find no way to extract data from the app except to Strava, which then hides my data from me unless I pay them (!), so would a newer Edge unit, say 830 or 840, receive the data via bluetooth? It's an expensive experiment if it's not going to work, and I can't find anything definitive from Giant or anyone else for that matter.

The only other way I can see is to 'downgrade' from the Evo to a Ridecontrol One, which does transmit Ant+ data my Garmin can pick up (I've got this working on my wife's bike which came with the 'One' so I know that works). If I swap to the Ridecontrol One, can I still connect the Ridecontrol app to the bike and adjust the power assist levels? I have them adjusted to the minimum values right now and would be loathe to lose that ability. I can't connect from the app to my wife's bike, but the app does see it, insists on an update then fails - no idea whether the problem is generic to all 'One' units or just ours.

Information from Giant is very hard to find, so I'm hoping someone out there knows how these things work together (or not as the case may be).

Thanks,
Dave.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Dave,

You cannot say you would "downgrade" the Evo to the ONE. It is upgrading it.

If I swap to the Ridecontrol One, can I still connect the Ridecontrol app to the bike and adjust the power assist levels?

Yes, positively, you can.

My brother rides formerly mine 2020 Giant Trance E+. At some time, I stupidly "upgraded" the e-bike with the Evo. Fortunately the Evo display broke due to water ingress. My brother reinstalled the Giant RideControl ONE but he needed a display. Following the advice of @DaveMatthews, he bought a Garmin Edge 530 and it has become his only Giant e-bike display since. Yes, he can use the RideControl app in parallel with the Garmin. It is because the app uses Bluetooth but the Garmin works via ANT+.

P.S. After the Evo for ONE swap, my brother could see two e-bikes registered with Giant RideControl App. He had to delete the EVO entry. I think your 800 is too old? Yes, you need to pay for a newer Garmin. Or any new Wahoo ELEMNT computer such as Bolt v2, Roam v1 or v2.

 

[Purpledog]

Dave,

You cannot say you would "downgrade" the Evo to the ONE. It is upgrading it.


Yes, positively, you can.

My brother rides formerly mine 2020 Giant Trance E+. At some time, I stupidly "upgraded" the e-bike with the Evo. Fortunately the Evo display broke due to water ingress. My brother reinstalled the Giant RideControl ONE but he needed a display. Following the advice of @DaveMatthews, he bought a Garmin Edge 530 and it has become his only Giant e-bike display since. Yes, he can use the RideControl app in parallel with the Garmin. It is because the app uses Bluetooth but the Garmin works via ANT+.

P.S. After the Evo for ONE swap, my brother could see two e-bikes registered with Giant RideControl App. He had to delete the EVO entry. I think your 800 is too old? Yes, you need to pay for a newer Garmin. Or any new Wahoo ELEMNT computer such as Bolt v2, Roam v1 or v2.

Stefan,

Thanks, that's a lot of excellent information. I know what I'm doing now, thank you for taking the time to reply.
Cheers,
Dave.

 

[startupped]

Stefan,

Thanks, that's a lot of excellent information. I know what I'm doing now, thank you for taking the time to reply.
Cheers,
Dave.

I have done the same thing. 2019 Road E with RideControl EVO display. I purchased a Ridecontrol ONE unit and replaced EVO. Now I see and track the data on my Garmin 1030 and adjust the power levels with my Ridecontrol app as needed while changing the actual power with the ONE unit just fine.

 

[Purpledog]

Well, I bought myself a Ridecontrol One, took the EVO off and set up the new controller. Connected to the Ridecontrol app and all is good.
Almost...

The power data it reports is utter rubbish!
I just went for a ride, 27km, first half climbing over 1000m, gradients as high as 19.8%. One section was 9km long and climbed 855m, average around 10%, max 19.8% and according to the power data from this ride, 91% was in "active recovery" zone 1, another 5% in easy zone 2 and less than 5% in all the "working" zones, but my heart rate data shows I spent a lot of time in threshold zone and 4% in maximum.

Heart Rate Zones​

Zone 5 > 156 bpm • Maximum 4:47 4%
Zone 4 138 - 155 bpm • Threshold 35:01 32%
Zone 3 121 - 137 bpm • Aerobic 20:02 18%
Zone 2 104 - 120 bpm • Easy 13:31 12%
Zone 1 87 - 103 bpm • Warm Up 23:16 21%

Power Zones​

Zone 7 > 248 Watts • Neuromuscular 0:57 0%
Zone 6 198 - 247 Watts • Anaerobic 0:38 0%
Zone 5 173 - 197 Watts • VO2 Max 0:26 0%
Zone 4 149 - 172 Watts • Threshold 1:02 0%
Zone 3 124 - 148 Watts • Tempo 1:25 1%
Zone 2 91 - 123 Watts • Endurance 5:13 4%
Zone 1 0 - 90 Watts • Active Recovery 1:38:04 90%

These two data sets bear no relation to one-another, so it seems I wasted my time and money!

Weirdly, while it seems to ignore most of my power uphill, it is happy to report over 1200 watts when sprinting downhill with the same max effort as some of the shorter uphill sprints sections?!

Is this a known issue? Is there anything I need to do to get the One to report some meaningful data?