Experience of Garmin Incident Detection?

TGD

Has anyone got experience of this - either real ‘incidents’ or false alarms?

Macy0161

I have it on my watch, which I use off road. No false alarms - it's only triggered once when I did crash*! Only my ego bruised so I cancelled it before it contacted.

*came off on fire road black/ brown ice where they'd been felling (so it was muddy rather than gravel). Saved it enough that I went into the ditch on the high side, so stayed on the bike kind of upright leaned into the hill.

dastardly00

It was being triggered quite often (for example, if I braked strongly in any way), so I turned it off. It happened a few times when I had chunky winter gloves on and I found it tricky to silence the alarm on my Garmin 520+ with the silicone cover. It's loud and I got a few strange looks when it was triggered

I haven't had any experience with it in a real scenario!

lissard

I have it on my watch (Vivoactive 4) and does work well for road cycling. MTB well that's a different story, particularly if you break hard. The last time I was up in Ticknock I had to stop suddenly - a kid was stuck in the middle of the trail. My watch started buzzing and about a minute later a number of messages were sent to my wife. I got a call from her asking me if I was alright so I guess the system works - it's just a bit sensitive for MTB spins.

iwillhtfu

I haven't used the garmin one but the strava beacon did go off after I crashed on the MTB over in Galway. Just aswell it wasn't serious as my brother rang me about the text he got about 6 hours later

secman

Turned it off as it was going off if braking hard and having to ring herself to say false alarm.

Mercian Pro

Worked as intended when I came off on black ice on New Years Day and I just managed to silence it before it rang home. Not letting my wife see the grazes before they healed up was a bigger issue!
Other than that it's gone off a few times when I tilted my bike up to go through kissing gates or stopped suddenly but, having had my first close call in a long time with a car today, I think I'll leave it switched on.

CantGetNoSleep

secman wrote: »

Turned it off as it was going off if braking hard and having to ring herself to say false alarm.

Had the same experience. It can't handle cobbles at all. I use Strava Beacon instead so she can see if I'm still moving.

CramCycle

Mercian Pro wrote: »

Worked as intended when I came off on black ice on New Years Day and I just managed to silence it before it rang home. Not letting my wife see the grazes before they healed up was a bigger issue!.

I find it good advice to run straight upto the shower, the blood always makes it look worse. My most recent scrape happened on an old scar that now looks better than before :rolleyes:

crosstownk

secman wrote: »

Turned it off as it was going off if braking hard and having to ring herself to say false alarm.

Same here. It turned out to be a nuisance. Brake hard - 520 starts chirping - phone starts vibrating. I turned it off.

mamax

Yeah it goes off if you brake hard but I find it easy to turn off so I still use it, a bigger issue is constant problems with the garmin livetrack, more times than not it wont work for herself when trying to see if I'm still moving, garmin support is quite rubbish so I might go back to using strava beacon at least the tracking in that worked.

YakerK

On my Garmin Edge 1030 it reguarly goes off when I roll to a stop, never mind brake hard! Way too many false alarms!

Works fine on my vívoactive 4 though, only experienced it going off once when I had a fall skiing!

Macy0161

Is everyone's poor experiences on older than 530/830 devices? fwiw my watch is relatively new (245). Haven't experienced any false alarms, despite poor off road skills/ confidence (and therefore fond of the brakes).

YakerK

Edge 1030 I think was introduced in 2018, not sure where that puts it relative to the other devices you mention. It does get regular enough software updates however.

seamus

I've had it go off on the MTB twice when I came to sudden (controlled!) stop. And once on the road bike when I wasn't on it and it fell over.

You've got 30 seconds to turn it off, which is a lot longer than you actually realise.

I always remind herself that I have it before I set out, puts her mind at ease.

I imagine bike-mounted devices are considerably more prone to false alarms than watches.

Macy0161

1030 is definitely a year or two older than the 530/830 or 245. But like you said, is getting the same software updates. I've no idea what role hardware (v software) plays in incident detection though.

I'd be interested to here from 530 or 830 users though, as I was that impressed my one off using the watch, I was using it as part of my justification to upgrade from my Bolt!

Oberkon

I had the Edge 1030 , would go off regularly. One time it went off and I had a big pair of Gailiber winter gloves on as it was freezing . Couldn’t get it to it quick enough and it contacted the wife .
Wife was at home looked at the spot on google maps where it happened and there was a tailback . Was because of a river burst . She got in car and decided to drive out and on way sees an ambulance with flashing lights going in that direction .. needless to say she thought the worst !
When I got home I was told if it ever goes off again to contact her immediately! Even if I was nearly home ..
I’ve since bought a hammerhead Karoo

Mercian Pro

Macy0161 wrote: »

I'd be interested to here from 530 or 830 users though, as I was that impressed my one off using the watch, I was using it as part of my justification to upgrade from my Bolt!

My feedback yesterday was based on using a newish 830.