I have the exact same issue, also on an H3. I just replaced a Wahoo Cadence sensor with a new Garmin Cadence 2. At first, I saw it 3-4 times in a 1 hour workout. Reset Bluetooth, took out the battery and then restored everything. That got me to the point where I didn’t see it in every workout, but still saw it.
I started with TR support but didn’t get anything definitive. I reached out to Garmin and they had me do a reset on the sensor: take out the battery, flip it over, put it back in, close it up, wait a minute and then put it back to normal. That was earlier this week. I’ve had one 2-hour workout with it, no spike. I’ll wait a few days before I decide it’s resolved.
Interesting that you are seeing the same behavior.
Did a 1 hour recovery workout in TR and got 2 cadence spikes.
TR shows them as cadence of 255. Looking at that data in Garmin Connect, they show it as 0, likely throwing away those datapoints.
I never saw this with my Wahoo. Given that two of us have the same symptoms with the same configuration (Saris H3 and Garmin Cadence 2), this makes mean lean back to a TR issue.
Also, when I first saw this, not long after getting the new Cadence sensor, I recorded a session on my Garmin watch while also doing the TR workout, both connected to the Cadence sensor (The two workouts didn’t start at the same time, but the big dip in the Garmin data is when I was switching workouts in TR to start Taku). When TR reported a spike, the Garmin workout didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
I was using an older iPad Mini (gen 4) with TR and my Saris H3. When I used my older Wahoo Cadence sensor, no issues. Replaced the sensor with a new Garmin Cadence 2 and the spikes started.
My indoor trainer was getting my older devices, so I temporarily swapped in my newer iPad Mini (gen 5) and, after 3 hours of trainer time (2 1-hour sessions, 2 30-minute sessions, across 3 days) I had no cadence spikes. I suspect the newer Cadence sensor was expecting more current Bluetooth/BLE tech.
If you are US based, as it happens, Best Buy is running a promotion on 10" gen 9 iPads, for $269. They also offer trade ins. My gen 4 Mini was in good shape and I got $55 on the trade in, bringing the cost down even more.
I’ll know more in the next few days, after I ride with the new iPad, but the 3 hours using the other mini would point to this being resolved for me.
Thanks for comparing notes. I am using a 9th gen iPad as it would happen. Did the whole battery reset thing. I’m still averaging about one cadence spike per workout.
Based on the comments here, I did cross-reference the workout data with Garmin Connect. One way or another, Garmin is avoiding or correcting for the issue somehow (Garmin Connect max cadence readings are much more ‘normal’ for all the workouts in question).
It was this post above that made me wonder if there was a TR tech issue going on. 255 is a VERY high maximum cadence reading, and it is a VERY specific value.
“Uh oh” on the iPad gen 9. Fingers crossed for me, as I haven’t had a chance to test it yet. But my newer mini results make it seem promising.
I agree with Bbt67’s assessment that at it’s core, this likely an error when reading the Cadence sensor at that moment and getting back a 255 (xFF). When I looked at that same data in Garmin, it showed 0 or skipped it, so it’s handling the error better.
As you pointed out when you first posted, this just started for you and is happening once per workout. I was able to get varying results, with no consistent repro behavior. Something in the tech stack could have changed (iPad OS update, Cadence Sensor got new firmware, TR picked up a new BT library, TR made some other code change …).
I’ll report back early next week, after I’ve gotten a few rides in with my new configuration.
