Garmin Connect IQ · Watch app
Your Garmin wasn't built
for bikeparks.
This app is.
Standard MTB mode records your day as one long blur. Uplift counts as riding, your average speed is nonsense, and nothing tells you how many runs you actually did. This app splits the day where it matters — runs and lifts, counted and timed separately, on your wrist and in Garmin Connect.
Free trial: 2 full sessions · Then €12 once · No subscription
The problem
One activity. Two completely different things.
A bikepark day is half sitting on a chairlift and half riding down a mountain. Your watch records it as a single averaged smear, and every number that comes out the other end is wrong in the same direction.
Standard MTB mode
- Chairlift time counted as ride time
- Average speed dragged down by the uplift
- Hundreds of metres of fake climbing
- No idea how many runs you did
- No split between a fast lap and a slow one
- Strava inherits all of it
This app
- Lift and descent detected automatically
- Descent speed averaged over descents only
- Climbing kept out of your riding stats
- Runs counted as you go
- Every lap timed on its own
- Clean numbers into Connect and Strava
How it works
Start it once at the bottom. That's the whole workflow.
There is nothing to press between laps. No lap button at the top of the run, no pause at the lift station, no cleaning up the file afterwards.
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It reads the mountain
Speed, vertical rate and GPS together tell a chairlift apart from a descent. Slow and steadily rising is a lift. Fast and dropping is a run. The app watches all three and decides for you.
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It splits the day as you ride
Each transition closes one segment and opens the next. Run counter goes up at the top, descent timer starts when you drop in, and lift time collects separately instead of polluting your riding average.
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It saves a file that makes sense
The activity lands in Garmin Connect as a normal cycling ride with the extra fields attached, so it syncs onward to Strava without anything special on your side.
Detection quality depends on GPS reception and lift type. Sheltered lifts and dense tree cover are the hard cases — the free trial exists so you can check your own park before paying.
On the wrist
The numbers you actually want, while you're still riding.
Glanceable at the top of the run, readable on the lift. Fields are configurable, so the screen you look at between laps shows what you care about.
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28.0km
Descent distance
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52.4km/h
Max speed
-
-5880m
Vertical dropped
-
14
Runs
Runs 8
- Run count
- Current run time
- Total descent time
- Descent distance
- Current, average and max speed
- Descent-only vertical drop
- Descent heart rate
- Jumps and longest airtime (beta)
Lifts 5
- Lift count
- Time on lifts
- Lift distance
- Average lift speed
- Standing time off the lift
Whole session 5
- Total distance
- Total elapsed time
- Session ascent and descent
- Session average and max speed
- Session heart rate
Watch and conditions 8
- GPS signal quality
- Barometric pressure trend
- Lowest and highest altitude
- Battery percentage and hours left
- Heart rate zone
- Ten-minute heart rate graph
- Time of day
- Time spent not recording
After the last lap
Your bikepark day in numbers: runs, descent time, vertical.
Example of a full bikepark day as it lands in Garmin Connect. Illustrative figures, not a recorded activity.
Runs
14
Time descending
1:07:12
Lift rides
14
Time on lifts
1:52:30
Descent distance
28.0km
Average run time
4:48
Max speed
52.4km/h
Vertical dropped
5880m
Lift distance
18.2km
Average lift speed
9.7km/h
Total distance
46.2km
Total time
3:48:20
The same day in standard MTB mode: one number for distance, one average speed that matches nothing you rode, and 5880 m of climbing you never pedalled.
Where it ends up
Straight into Connect. Straight on to Strava.
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Your watch
One ordinary cycling activity (Cycling / Downhill) with the bikepark fields inside it. Nothing to export, nothing to upload.
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Garmin Connect
The activity saves as a normal cycling ride, so it appears in your calendar, your totals and your training load exactly like any other. The bikepark fields ride along with it as extra data.
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Strava
Because the file is a standard activity, your existing Garmin-to-Strava connection carries it across untouched. Segments, kudos and leaderboards all behave normally.
- 7screen layouts
- 39data fields
- 3main screens: park, lift, trail
- 8languages
Make it yours
Build the screens you want to look at.
Edit on the watch between runs, or on your phone in the Garmin Connect IQ app. Pick a layout, drop any field into any slot, and keep different screens for the run, the lift and the ride home.
- Separate screens for a park run, a lift ride and a trail ride.
- A run card as soon as the app confirms the lift: time, distance, descent, top speed, heart rate. It goes away after 15 s and comes back with one button as the “Last run” page.
- The LAP button ends a run by hand when you want to; after the first ride up, the chair is recognised in about 10 seconds.
- On the phone, in Garmin Connect IQ, you set thresholds, which screens show, layouts, fields and language. Screen order is changed on the watch.
- Hide the screens you never look at and reorder the rest.
- Eight interface languages, or let the app follow the language of the watch.
- A short buzz when the app switches between run, lift and pause.
- A touch lock, so a branch or a crash cannot flip your screen mid-run.
Interactive preview: tap a layout, then tap any field to swap it. On the watch and in Garmin Connect IQ you pick from the same layouts and fields.
Compatibility
Garmin watches and Edge computers that run the app.
Watches
- epix Pro (Gen 2) 42 / 47 / 51 mm
- epix (Gen 2) 47 mm
- fēnix E 47 mm
- fēnix 8 AMOLED 43 / 47 / 51 mm
- fēnix 8 Solar 47 / 51 mm
- fēnix 8 Pro 47 / 51 mm · MicroLED
- fēnix 9 43 / 47 mm
- fēnix 9 Pro 43 / 47 / 51 mm
- fēnix 9 Pro Solar 47 / 51 mm
- fēnix 7 7S · 7 · 7X
- fēnix 7 Pro 7S Pro · 7 Pro · 7X Pro · Pro Solar · Pro No Wi-Fi
- fēnix 6 Pro 6S Pro · 6 Pro · 6X Pro · Sapphire · Pro Solar · Dual Power
- Enduro 2 · 3
- tactix 7 · 7 AMOLED · 8 47 / 51 mm
- quatix 6 · 6X
- D2 Mach 1 Pro · Air X15
- Forerunner 955 · 955 Solar · 965 · 970
- Venu 3 3 · 3S
- Venu 4 41 / 45 mm
- Venu X1 41 mm
- vívoactive 4 4 · 4S
Every model here was built and run in Garmin's simulator, including tests and a replay of a real bikepark ride. Connect IQ delivers the right build for your device and the layout adapts to its screen — there is nothing to choose at download time.
Edge bike computers
- Edge 530 / 830
- Edge 540 / 840 540 · 540 Solar · 840 · 840 Solar
- Edge 550 / 850
- Edge 1030 Plus
- Edge 1040 / 1050 1040 · 1040 Solar · 1050
- Edge MTB
- Edge Explore 2
Same app, same detection, laid out for the portrait screen. START and LAP have their own keys; on models where you change pages by touch (1040, 1050, Explore 2) you swipe between pages and hold the screen for the menu. Verified in Garmin's simulator with a replay of a real bikepark ride; not yet ridden on a physical Edge.
Device not listed? Tell me which model you ride and it goes on the list.
Trial and price
Try it in your own bikepark. Then pay once.
Free trial
2 sessions
The trial counts saved activities, not days. Download it in February, ride it in July — nothing expires while the app sits on your watch waiting for the season.
Get the appFull version
€12
One payment, yours to keep. No renewal, no subscription, no feature held back for a higher tier.
Buy the full versionPaid once. Includes updates.
From download to full version
- Install free from the Connect IQ Store
- Ride two full sessions on the trial
- Buy a licence key here when the trial runs out
- Paste the key into the app settings in Connect IQ
- Full version unlocked on your watch
Questions
Bikepark app for Garmin: frequently asked questions.
Do I have to press anything between runs?
No. You start the activity at the bottom of the first run and stop it when you are done for the day. Everything between is detected.
What happens if the detection gets a lap wrong?
A detection error can shift that segment's boundaries and the stats tied to it. Detection leans on GPS, so heavy tree cover and enclosed gondolas are the hardest cases. Ride the free trial in your own park before you decide.
Does this replace the built-in MTB activity?
For bikepark days, yes. For pedalling up a fire road it is the wrong tool — that is what the standard MTB profile is good at.
Will my ride still count towards my training load?
Yes. It saves as a standard cycling activity, so Garmin treats it like any other ride.
Why does Garmin Connect show a different number of runs than the watch?
Garmin Connect counts its own “Runs” for the Downhill profile and starts a new one at every short uphill on the trail, even a dozen metres. The app counts runs between confirmed lifts. The right number is in the Connect IQ section below the activity stats.
Is the trial time limited?
No. It is limited by the number of saved activities, so buying a watch in winter and riding in summer costs you nothing.
Is there a subscription?
No. One payment, one licence, yours permanently.
What if I buy a new Garmin?
Licences are tied to a device, but you are not starting from zero. Bring your existing key and the replacement licence is half price.
Which languages does the app itself use?
The app speaks English, Polish, German, French, Italian, Czech, Slovak and Spanish. By default it follows the language of your watch; you can also pick one by hand in Settings. This site is in the same eight.
Count your laps.
Not your chairlift.
Free on the Connect IQ Store. Two full sessions to make up your mind.
Get it on Connect IQ