Suunto

steowen

Afternoon all,

My HRM needs to be replaced and was wondering if anyone had any experience of the Suunto brand - are they any better/worse the Polar and the likes?

Cheers

fidbod

Hi,

I have got a Suunto T3 and I am generally very happy with it. The decision to buy was driven by two points

1) The ability to also pair the watch with a foot pod or GPS pod attracted me as I hope to do a triathlon next year

2) all my instruments for scuba diving are Suunto and they have never let me down so I felt plenty confident in the brand.

If you do go for the suunto make sure you spend the bit extra to get the QR skewer mounted bike sensor as the standard one is badly designed and slips away from the wheel magnet too easily. Also whilst not fragile they are not unbreakable, I managed to break the strap on mine whilst doing a tractor tyre flip as part of preseason rugby training.

In summary a great bit of kit for multisport physiology measurement perfect for wannabe triathletes like myself. If I wanted a 'pure' bike HRM I would probably spend an equivalent amount of money and end up with a computer that could do cadence measurement as well - possibly even GPS, not sure what a Garmin goes for these days!

Captain Fagor

Hi there

I have used a Suunto X6HRM for three years now, and would certainly recommend them. It isn't a cycling specific watch, but it measures both altitude and heart rate and stores all the information for uploading to a computer. I'll admit that I chose it because of aesthetics - i.e. unlike Polar stuff, it doesn't look like it came out of a Christmas cracker. Check them out at:

http://www.heartratemonitor.co.uk/index.html

SteveR_100Milers

I wouldn't recommend the cheapest one - I had one for 6 hours and returned it. Kept losing the (analogue) signal from the chest transmitter, and the ambient temp measurement was reading my skin surface temp...all that for £90 wasnt too impressed. The more expensive ones look very good though.

Have you looked at the Timex Ironman series? Excellent value and have more preset and programmable zones than any HRM I was able to find (total of 8). I have the 3D GPS and datalogger so it logs route profiles as well as speeds etc. The software that comes with the datalogger is easy to use and comprehensive, and importantly is user definable so is easily tailored to your own preferences. Had mine for about 12 months and its not failed or let me donw yet, though the GPS unit only last for about 8 hours on each battery.

Hotblack Desiato

I have a T3 which I'm thinking about selling as I mainly use my Garmin Forerunner for both cycling and running now.

PM me if you're interested.


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sloboy

I've got a T6, which has been fine over the last couple of years. Picked it to have a look-see at the EPOC estimation stuff.

If I was buying bike specific now, I'd be tempted to look closely at the Edge 705 when it comes out. Non bike specific and I might be sticking with Suunto.

flattythehurdler

The edge is great. I also have a HAC 5 which is good, doubles as a cheapish watch, and has lots of toys to play with. My first HAC5 died after a week but the company replaced it without quibble, and the new ones has been fine so far. The Garmin is a great bit of jkit though, mainly because you can switch it from bike to bike without magnets.