howdy everyone!
i’ve been trying to diversify my fitness routine, and i live in a bicycle town with lots of great trails (so they tell me). i’m wanting to get into gravel biking because i have too much to live for to get smashed by a car or modify my collar bone with a tree (jk y’all are cool i’m just a wuss).
one thing i really enjoy is the data part of my workouts, but i’m increasingly wary of putting my data into walled gardens like Apple Fitness or even Strava to a certain extent. and i have the technical know-how to store and curate my own data if needed (4 years as a professional Android developer and 15 years of programming experience). i’ve been advised to get a cycling computer, but many of my friends aren’t so technical and just grab whatever “Garmin” they can afford. and the folks at the shops will have little knowledge of underlying OS versions or chipsets or whatever.
so i wanted to reach out to the nerdiest cycling community i could think of and ask about it. i know gadgets in niche spaces can be kind of a wasteland in terms of open source or open API access or whatever, but is there such a device that’s hacker friendly? i don’t need another shitty smartphone strapped to my bike, but i also don’t want to miss any fun data collection features like power delivery (once i fully build out my kit; i’m building this out piecemeal).
any advice would be appreciated 🙏
Huh, I bought wahoo because I specifically know that I could access the .fit files and upload routes via MTP. But I have to customize the layouts via the APP… Does Garmin also allow an MTP connection with a computer?
Yes. It used to show as a USB mass storage device, but a recent update changed it to use MTP (at least the Edge x40 devices). I don’t have my Edge here to check, but I’m like 90% sure you can also access the .fit files and load courses that way. It exposes a bunch of folders, including (I think) courses and activities. It should be possible to simply copy them to/from a computer that way.
This link is specifically about using Ride with GPS with Garmin over USB, but it should still be relevant (there is also a screenshot showing some of the folder structure): https://support.ridewithgps.com/hc/en-us/articles/12212969301147-Manually-Sync-your-Garmin