Love (!) Xert Mobile - but have some questions

After a year of frustrations with trying to use the Garmin 520 with Xert and struggling with daily signature updates that don’t take, failures of the Garmin to accept new versions of the data fields and lockups with the player application, I decided to get a Samsung S7 and just make the switch. Did the first ride yesterday and I’m really happy I made the switch (though I would like a few more data fields on the Activity page). I really like the “Xert-O-Meter” (or whatever you call it). For the first 30 miles, I was pacing my wife who was back on her bike for the first time in 4 months after breaking her collarbone in a fall. So it was all LSD and as I studied the screen I was thinking, “Where’s the MPA display?” not realizing that the Meter would actually adapt once I actually started to push. On the second 30, after my wife had left to go home, I noticed how it the top value was declining as I started to amp up the ride. I found this visualization FAR better than the data fields on the Garmin and highly motivating to go for a breakthrough. Love it and really happ y I made the switch.
I’ve checked the website y questions are these:

  1. Laps. I have a page on my Garmin that I use to time free form intervals. There’s a “Events” button labeled “Lap” but it doesn’t seem to do anything on the display. Is there support for a lap timer in Activity mode?
  2. Gear display. This is all very confusing. There are items called “Gear Detections” (what does this mean?). “Gear Display: on/off” (which doesn’t seem to turn anything off and “FD/On|Off/RD and Semi Auto” (can you explain this too?)
  3. I have a Bike Speed sensor on the hub. There’s also an option for GPS Speed. Which takes precedence?
  4. Finally, does Bioshift remember all rides to provide its recommendation (or, perhaps, uses fitness signature for this) or is this calculated anew each time?

Hi Fred! Thanks.

  1. If you tap various fields, you’ll be able to see lap summary data (Power, BPM, …)
  2. The software will attempt to detect the gear you’re in. It was developed in support of our automatic shifting prototype - Bioshift. If you set your cassette and ring combination, and enable Gear Display it will show gear changes after “gear detections”. Fewer is better but less stable.
  3. You should disable GPS speed if you have a speed sensor. Speed sensor should take precedence.
  4. Check your “Cadence at Threshold” value. This should reflect your preference and will adapt the recommendation from that value.

For #1: Thanks. I will use a watch to time my free form intervals.
For #2: Thx.
For #3: I assume Speed Sensor uses the “Tire Diameter” setting. Is this value supposed to be “Rim + Tire Diameter”?
For #4: Thx.

#3. Yes.