heart rate monitors

Bruce Thornton

I'm going to get a HRM for my birthday. I saw a Garmin forunner which my son in law has which he uses for running. Are these ok for cycling and how much should I spend, there are so many models with a vast price ranges?
I also wondered about going the whole hog and get a Edge 800 as it also has a GPS which a mate uses when we do audax's or would it be better and cheaper to buy these seperatly. I'd be gratful for any advice.
Bruce

mrwibble

if you are not after a bike specific garmin, I would get a 405, bike mount, heart strap and with a cadence sensor. Perfect set up for running and biking

ChrisSA

I have a forerunner 305 which I bought for running. It does the job on the bike too.

MountainMonster

Only you can decide which is better for you. Do you want a GPS? If so, get the 800, or one of the other GPS enabled models. If you don't need or want GPS, then it's a waste.

Alibran

It depends on what you want it for. If it's purely to train within different heart rate zones, any Garmin with a HRM option will do, and a bike mount if you buy a forerunner.

If you want maps and directions, 705 or 800.

If you're trying to find out how many calories you're burning, read this before making a decision:
http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2010/11/how-calorie-measurement-works-on-garmin.html

niblue

I use a Forerunner 305 which was just over £100 from Amazon. For that price it's an amazing bit of kit and works well on the bike. Bike mounts are cheap and you can also add a speed/cadence sensor which also works well (and will also then allow you to use it indoors on a turbo-trainer). If you also use it for running you can also get a pod to attach to a shoe so that it can also be used for speed/cadence when running on a treadmill.

stovesym

Dont discount the Polar CS200CAD at about £90. They pretty much invented the HRM genre and this thing is good value in that it does all the bike functions like speed, disctance, etc, plus cadence and of course heart rate & calories. I've had mine for 2 years and it has never missed a beat & its easy to set up too.

Bruce Thornton

Thanks for these comments. My mate had a Polar but had to send away just to have the battery changed which cost him£30. Thanks niblue if you read this re the cadence sensor, does this mean you don't have to have it for normal riding ? cos when you add that it pushes the cost up. Another question, when you have a 305 does this do away with my sigma cycle computer?
Bruce

niblue

For normal outdoor riding there is no need for the speed/cadence sensor unless you actually want cadence info. You'll still get route, speed etc. I only have the speed cadence sensor on one of my bikes but use the Forerunner on all of them.

I don't see any need for another cycle computer now I'm using the forerunner.

dodgerdog

stovesym wrote:

Dont discount the Polar CS200CAD at about £90. They pretty much invented the HRM genre and this thing is good value in that it does all the bike functions like speed, disctance, etc, plus cadence and of course heart rate & calories. I've had mine for 2 years and it has never missed a beat & its easy to set up too.

Another supporter of the simple and effective CS200CAD, admittedly now looking to upgrade to the 500CAD

Avezius

Forerunner305 with HRM works great for me & comes in at a good price point.

niblue

Does the Polar CS200CAD have GPS?