How To Correct Abnormal Heart Rates On A Cycling Computer

From time to time it is possible to get wildly high or low heart rate readings on your cycling computer. If it goes on for more than a couple of rides and you haven’t keeled over with a massive coronary, then, most likely, the problem lies with your heart rate sensor.

The good news is that there are several things that you can do to get your heart rate back to normal and luckily they are lot less time consuming and inconvenient than getting a heart transplant.

Prevention, they say, is better than cure and with this in mind, one of the best things to do is to wash your sensor’s strap after every ride. You can do this quickly and easily underneath a tap when you get home, making sure that you detach the actual sensor first, which just pops off. Garmin also recommends sticking the strap in the washing machine after every five rides. This prevents excessive static build up which is one of the major causes of the strange readings.

The first thing I would suggest is to ensure that your heart rate sensor and cycling computer are correctly paired. If necessary, go through the whole search and pair procedure again on your computer. If you have a Garmin Edge 510 I show you how to do this here.

The next obvious thing to do is to replace the battery in the sensor. Its a very quick and easy job, the batteries cost next to nothing and I show you how to do it in a another film I made earlier. Simples.

If, after replacing the battery, you still get weird heart rates, then there are a few other things to try.

Because lycra is a synthetic fabric your cycling jersey itself can also generate its own static charge and cause interference. If you wear a light cotton undershirt this can be reduced.

Next, ensure that you are actually wearing the thing correctly. The electrodes should have good, direct contact with moist skin. If the skin is dry the sensor will have difficulty picking up the little electrical signals from your heart. Normally when you start sweating it should be enough but if needs be, you can always just lick it. Form an orderly queue ladies.

If your chest isn’t quite as round as mine, the electrodes may also have trouble making contact. If so, try wearing the sensor where it can, for instance on your side or your back.

The sensor communicates with the computer via the 2.4 giga herts band which is the same frequency as just about every other other wireless device including home broadband routers so if your ride is through a built up area your strange readings could be due to electrical interference. If possible try to ride in the country where its much more pleasant anyway.

By now you should be getting pretty normal heart rate readings If not, there is an outside chance that the 220 beats per minute its giving you is actually correct. If you are also feeling ill or not quite right then its possibly time to at least have a basic health check at the doctors.

But it might equally be something fairly innocent. I found that concentrating on my cycling rather than other things helped get my heart rate back down immensely.

If you would like to follow my efforts on the bike you can follow me on Strava. My profile is here:   / strava