# Stages Dash



## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

Anyone running one?
How limited are they if you don't pay Stages lots of money per year?

Expecting mine to arrive for testing any day...

Totally customisable display, landscape and portrait modes and no navigation.
Got it cheap just to have a play.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

NordieBoy said:


> Anyone running one?
> How limited are they if you don't pay Stages lots of money per year?
> 
> Expecting mine to arrive for testing any day...
> ...


Hm, looks interesting for the metrics folks.

But yeah, the pages are slim on the nitty gritty deets.

https://stagescycling.com/us/the-stages-performance-system/

Especially vague about the Stages Link software, which seems like it's the critical component to the question you're asking. I had to dig just to find out what the software does at all, and even that was mostly marketing-speak. I can't find a simple chart anywhere that outlines what the software does in the basic vs paid plans. Go here and all you get is the option to login or sign up.

https://www.stages-link.com/en/calendar

I guess you've gotta download the software and login to find out. Which sounds like you'll be doing soon enough.


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

Will be interesting to see how far the free software goes.
Only cost about $90us instead of the RRP of $299us so even as a cheap head unit with a good clear screen, good battery life, totally customisable layout, it should be fun.
I don't use a "proper" power meter (Powertap PowerCal HR belt) so realtime power isn't really useful, but it works well after a ride looking at the data.
Will still use the Garmin 935 to do the recording and uploading.

One thing that might be useful is the Stages Link website's ability to grab incoming data from Garmin Connect and strip out erroneous HR & power data and replace it with either a null, a set value, or the last known good value and then send that data on to Strava.
No manual intervention required.
To be seen if that works on the free version.
If so, that might be useful for anyone riding with power.


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

One thing I like the idea of, is the training calendar that can sync to the device and also include notes about the interval/effort like "Sub-maximal here until you puke" or whatever.
I think that might be one of the pay options though.

One of the pay options that should be free is the ability to sync phone notifications like every other head unit on the market at the moment...
$200us a year!


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

NordieBoy said:


> One thing that might be useful is the Stages Link website's ability to grab incoming data from Garmin Connect and strip out erroneous HR & power data and replace it with either a null, a set value, or the last known good value and then send that data on to Strava.
> No manual intervention required.
> To be seen if that works on the free version.
> If so, that might be useful for anyone riding with power.


This DOES work.
No more loading the GPX in Golden Cheetah, error correcting, and uploading it to Strava manually.

The Dash was sent last Thursday and hasn't arrived yet...


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

NordieBoy said:


> This DOES work.
> No more loading the GPX in Golden Cheetah, error correcting, and uploading it to Strava manually.
> 
> The Dash was sent last Thursday and hasn't arrived yet...


What sorts of errors were you getting from Garmin (which Garmin?)?

I know Strava is fairly sensitive to errors, and I have used devices that had PLENTY of them, which resulted in unfavorable results in Strava and RideWithGPS. But my Edge 520 has been solid in that regard, and I haven't noticed Strava scrapping a bunch of my data because it's full of errors.


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

Not so much errors, never had a ride rejected, more like erroneous spikes in power or heart rate.
Heart rate has been pretty good for the last few years, power gets a bit spikey right at the start of a climb that follows a descent that's long enough for your heart rate to drop. One of the pitfalls of the PowerCal.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

NordieBoy said:


> Not so much errors, never had a ride rejected, more like erroneous spikes in power or heart rate.
> Heart rate has been pretty good for the last few years, power gets a bit spikey right at the start of a climb that follows a descent that's long enough for your heart rate to drop. One of the pitfalls of the PowerCal.


Ah, so more a sensor problem than a head unit problem.

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

NordieBoy said:


> The Dash was sent last Thursday and hasn't arrived yet...


Still not here...


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

NordieBoy said:


> Still not here...


2 weeks in transit? what is this, 1985?


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

I'm entertaining the possibility he hasn't sent it yet...


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

NordieBoy said:


> I'm entertaining the possibility he hasn't sent it yet...


What vendor did you order from?

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

2nd hand.
About $80us


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

Status moving from "miffed" to peeved".


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

NordieBoy said:


> Status moving from "miffed" to peeved".


time to get your money back (via a credit card complaint - I doubt you'll get anything from the "seller" at this point)


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

Got my refund from the seller yesterday (wasn't paid for by credit card).
Would have rather had the Dash 

So now I'm waiting for the Stages Dash L10 to be released


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

Released and will be ordered as soon as I get paid for the 810 I just sold by auction.

Christmas already!


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

Interesting...
With the Stages Dash series, 1s recording is the "low resolution" recording and there is no "smart".
They also do "live" recording of all packets at about 0.25s.


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

My race day Edge 25 is above reserve with 30min left on the auction.

So going from an:
Oregon 680 (cheap - 2nd hand)
Edge 810 (new)
Edge 810 (really cheap - 2nd hand)
Edge 130 (new)
Edge 25 (new)
Forerunner 920XT (2nd hand)

to:
Oregon 680
Edge 810 (really cheap - 2nd hand)
Edge 130
Edge 25
Forerunner 935 (new)

To:
Oregon 680
Dash L10 (new)
Edge 130
Forerunner 935


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

Speak of the devil.
Look what just arrived...


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

Well, teething issues aplenty.
The main one was the sensors wouldn't stay attached to the activity profiles (old style Garmin profiles with sensors attached to each instead of the newer pool of sensors).
You had to attach the sensors EVERY ride.

Finally worked out that if you create a new profile OR play with a profiles attached sensors on the Stages Link web site, it would stuff up until 1 specific file was copied back from the backup you've made onto the device.

Any settings you change via the device itself are sweet.

The simplicity and customizability of the screen is brilliant.
Large fields for HR & Cad, smaller for time, dist etc.
Easily readable without my bi-focal Tifosi sunnies.

Feeling very much like an alpha tester rather than a retail customer, but I enjoy this sort of stuff


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

Raining and heavy tree cover.

Stages Dash L10








Garmin Forerunner 935


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

First race today since getting the Stages Dash.
As I don't trust the safety of the Dash on the out front mount on an unknown track, I'll be using the Edge 130.
Which is much smaller and much more expensive...

Oh and just found I've forgotten my HR belt.
Should be a good test of the 935's OHR then


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

17 min of reading low (climbing in the 120's - I don't think so) and then it was good for the next hour.


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

Ordered 2 over-the-stem mounts from a local bike shop.
Only available on pre-order from the importers in Australia.
Arrived overnight to New Zealand from Australia!


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

Been refining the layouts.
Got the race layout pretty nailed, this is the latest iteration of the training layout (I don't have a power meter).







The screen is the same size as the Garmin 810, but the clarity is much better and landscape is brilliant.


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

Stages have kindly suggested I may be interested in complaining about their L50 instead of the L10.
They prefer to call it "beta testing"


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

It seems they're focusing on the colour (M50 & L50) units for at least the next few months and as I'm the only one nagging them and logging issues with the L10, they'd rather I focus my immense brain on the L50.

Well, that's what I got reading between the lines 

Only bummer is I have to send my L10 back 
Thing is, it's much smaller and half the price of the L50 ($500au) and I don't mind racing with it on my bars.
The bigger, more expensive, colour unit? My old Garmin 130 may be pressed into race duty again.
For training? Hell yeah! This beastie should be fantastic!


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

Not as big or as... precision feeling? As I thought it was going to be.
From all the online pics, it looked like a huge unit and very much something you wouldn't want on the bars of your MTB whereas in reality, it's only 20mm taller than the L10, not much heavier and doesn't give that feeling you'd get strapping a phone to your bars.
It feels like a bike computer. Like a Garmin 810 in a much bigger case but only weighing 30g more.
Not as polished in the screen detail as the Garmin's, but much brighter and more colorful!
Booting it up and it's cool to see it's running on Linux 
Which is why I think I ended up with one.
Comparing the L10 and L50 when setting the L50 up and it's immediately apparent they're running different OS's and are completely different families of devices and the L10 feels very old school compared.
The wording in the data fields and even the data field names themselves are different which was confusing when setting them up side by side to get the screens the same.
The L10 feels very old tech under the hood compared.
Already got a few niggles though, so the bug tracker will still be getting a workout


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

Not as obtrusive on the bars as I thought it might be.

The colour outlines around the HR data field are cool. Shows you more easily what zone you're in without detracting from the HR number.

The mapping is based on Open Street Maps and showed all the forestry tracks as I rode today.

The L10's monochrome screen is really clear with no backlight, but the extra clarity and information density a really good colour screen gives is something else again.

Battery draw was about 10% per hour with the backlight on auto.

The GPS trace is quite jagged, like someone was drawing the line with a vibrating pen (jagged, but only 1m each way), but that could be that it uses live recording and 1s smoothing might help a lot there.


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

Garmin Forerunner 935 (GPS + GLONASS)
View attachment 1273397


Stages Dash L10 (GPS)
View attachment 1273399

Similar to Garmin in the pre-high resolution days.

Stages Dash L50 (GPS + QZSS)


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

Of course my Dash L50 hiccuped and now displays the "Exiting USB mode, please wait" pop-up now.
All The Time 
Just when all the support staff are on holiday.

They wanted me to test it. They're going to get their moneys worth


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

2 weeks of fiddling and I think I've solved it!

I rename all my devices so it shows a friendly name on the PC.
An external drive would get renamed from "Western Digital blah blah" to "BACKUP", that sort of thing.

I renamed the Dash L50 from "DASH" to "DASH L50" and my L10 to "DASH L10".
Otherwise they both appeared as "DASH".
As soon as the L50 was renamed back to "DASH" it worked fine.
Change the name again - stuck on "Exiting USB mode, please wait".
Change back, and we're away again.

Have logged it with Stages.


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## candyspan (Sep 15, 2017)

*Becoming a "tester"*

Hi there, how did you connect with Stages to kind of test things out for them? I actually just ordered a unit because I think they are a great idea, at least in theory. But I keep having this feeling that I should just send it back, and order an Edge 530.

What are your thoughts after using it for a few weeks?



NordieBoy said:


> 2 weeks of fiddling and I think I've solved it!
> 
> I rename all my devices so it shows a friendly name on the PC.
> An external drive would get renamed from "Western Digital blah blah" to "BACKUP", that sort of thing.
> ...


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

candyspan said:


> Hi there, how did you connect with Stages to kind of test things out for them? I actually just ordered a unit because I think they are a great idea, at least in theory. But I keep having this feeling that I should just send it back, and order an Edge 530.
> 
> What are your thoughts after using it for a few weeks?


The screen is huge. And bright.
The 530 is more fully featured and more polished, but the Stages is more customisable.
The Stages does the things I need. HR, Cad, maps, speed, distance, climbing.
I don't use power, but if course it does that VERY well.
The training side is brilliant too.
I can read it without my glasses.
It doesn't do Stava Segments. Yet.
I've still got a Garmin 130, but haven't used it since the Stages L50 arrived...


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

Don't use the L10 much anymore as the Ant+ aerial is a bit weak.
The L50 gets used for 95% of rides and races.

One thing i would like to see is an equivalent of Garmin's ClimbPro.
It'll do an elevation profile of a course, but you see the profile of the WHOLE course, not just the next few climbs and data from the current one.


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

Stages has updated to firmware 3.0.
A new UI which is much nicer and little features like the ability to set a gps autolap position, although it could be a bit easier to get to or preset (garmin style where your first lap button press is taken as the GPS autolap position).
Eat and drink reminders, although it makes one quiet beep and the popup remains on the screen until you press a button which is a little annoying.
It was colouring the border of the HR & power fields with the zone colour if you enabled that before, but now it colours the whole cell which is brilliant.

I sometimes still use the old L10 as I get around the weak Ant+ antenna by connecting to the power meter and HR by BT.
Clear screen but no maps.

Of course they've just (pre)announced the new Gen3 devices...
Garmin style mount!
Most likely no Strava segments though.

I still use the Garmin 130+ if I just need a small device on the bars.
The Garmin 530 has better maps but the inflexibility of the display layout is REALLY annoying.

I was using the 530 for training and the 530 and 130 for racing, but with the 3.0 update, the Stages L50 is back in the lead for (almost) everything.


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## NordieBoy (Sep 26, 2004)

Just used the 530 tonight and realised how much I prefer the customizability of the Dash L50...


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