Pair your Garmin devices with MoguWind Plan

"Pairing a device" usually means Bluetooth, a blinking light and a manual you lost. With MoguWind Plan it means something smaller and duller. You type six digits into your phone, and the nutrition plan you built on the web turns up on your Garmin.

That is the whole idea. Below is what pairs with what, which devices actually work, and what to expect the first time.

What is being paired, exactly

Two things talk to each other here. On one side, your account at plan.moguwind.com, where you build the route and the fuelling plan. On the other, your Garmin Edge, running a free data field called Bidón that you install from the Connect IQ Store.

Bidón is the piece that lives on the bike. It shows two boxes on your head unit, EAT and DRINK, each with a countdown, and it fires a full screen alert with a different beep for each. It is not a separate gadget and there is no hardware to buy. It is software sitting on the Garmin you already own.

So when we say pair devices with MoguWind Plan, what gets linked is your web account and your Edge. Nothing else joins the party.

Which Garmin devices work

Bidón runs on Garmin Edge head units, which is where it makes sense, since that is what most people have on the handlebar for a long ride. The Edge range it supports covers the 520 Plus, 530, 540, 550, 820, 830, 840, 850, 1030, 1030 Plus, 1040, 1050 and both Explore models.

If your Edge is on that list, you are fine. If it is an older unit or a different Garmin family, check the Connect IQ Store listing before assuming, because the store will only offer you the install if your device is supported. That is the quickest way to know for certain.

You also need your phone nearby with Garmin Connect installed. The Edge has no internet of its own, so the plan reaches it through the phone.

The pairing itself

You do this once per device. Not once per ride, and not once per plan.

1. Build your plan at plan.moguwind.com, dated for the day you ride.
2. Press "Pair my Edge" and a six digit code appears. It is valid for 30 minutes and for a single use.
3. On your phone, open Garmin Connect, then Connect IQ, then Bidón, then Settings, and type the code.
4. Leave the Edge switched on near the phone while it syncs. A few minutes is normal.
5. Start an activity with Bidón on screen. It begins in Auto.
6. When the plan lands, the label changes from Auto to Plan.

People get caught out at step four more than anywhere else. Typing the code is not the end of it. The Edge has to be awake and within range of the phone to actually collect anything.

What happens on the days you forget

This is the part worth knowing, because it stops a lot of unnecessary panic.

Once paired, your Edge looks for the plan belonging to that day. If you did not build one, nothing breaks. Bidón falls back to Auto and works out your eating and drinking from how long you have been riding, how hard you are going, the temperature and the bottles you told it you carry.

That fallback is covered in more detail in automatic nutrition alerts.

It also will not reach back and grab an old plan. Yesterday's numbers stay in yesterday.

And sending a plan is not instant. You will often see Auto for the first few minutes of a ride while the plan makes its way across. That is the system working, even though it looks like it is not.

Once paired, the Edge looks for that day's plan. No plan, no problem, it just runs in Auto.

If the code will not take

Codes expire after 30 minutes and die after one use, so the most common failure is simply an old code. Generate a fresh one on the web and try again. There is no limit and no cost.

If the code goes in and nothing seems to change, it is almost always sync. Open Garmin Connect with the Edge powered on beside you and wait. Bluetooth sync between a phone and a head unit is not famously fast.

If you are still in Auto much later, check the date on the plan. Building a plan for Saturday and riding on Sunday is an easy mistake, and from the Edge's point of view there is simply no plan for today.

And if you are wondering where the numbers come from in the first place, that is carbs per hour.

You can unlink an Edge whenever you want from your account on the web, which is useful if you sell the unit or switch to a new one.