Smart watch / Fitness tracker for HRM with cycling computer?

wotnoshoeseh
wotnoshoeseh Posts: 531
in Training, fitness and health
Hi,
I posted the below in Road Buying Advice but thought it might fit in here and there might be a few more answers from this section.
Basically, with Father's Day coming up my nearest and dearest is wanting to buy me a fitness tracker watch. Is there a watch that will also communicate with a cycling computer when on the bike?

Basically a fitness tracker (such as FitBit, Garmin Vivofit, or other) that can then communicate with my Wahoo Elemnt, while out on the bike.

I just can't get on with chest heart rate straps, so that's not an option.

Also in terms of riding the bike, are these types of Smart watch, or fitness tracker, a compromise for heart rate accuracy?

Thanks for all input.

Cheers,
D.

Comments

  • bobmcstuff
    bobmcstuff Posts: 11,196
    There are several optical HR bands which will broadcast to your Wahoo, this Polar one got a good writeup https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2019/03/polar-oh1-plus-optical-hr-sensor-in-depth-review.html

    However all optical HR monitors, especially wrist ones, seem to involve some compromise for accuracy - none of them are as good as a chest strap, and especially for cycling they seem to have more problems. If you read that website frequently you'll see a lot more dropouts during his cycling related tests. I used to use a Fitbit and the HR data from that was essentially total rubbish for cycling. It seemed to cope slightly better on outside rides than for turbo rides, for some reason, but generally speaking it was not much better than a random number generator half the time.

    That OH1 with the upper arm band seems to avoid some/most of the wrist-based sensor issues: "Also – the fact is this $70 sensor easily outperformed the optical HR sensor on the wrist-based $1,500 Garmin MARQ watch and the $99 Fitbit Inspire HR activity tracker.". So maybe look for an armband type strap?
  • wotnoshoeseh
    wotnoshoeseh Posts: 531
    Cheers Bob.
    Just wondering if there is a smart watch compromise that would do the same thing, but maybe not.
    I was considering the OH1+, or the Tickr Fit, or Scosche Rhythm originally, but those are dedicated armbands, whereas the desire was to get something a little more rounded, if that makes sense.
  • wongataa
    wongataa Posts: 1,001
    Many of the Garmin watches can broadcast the heart rate over ANT+ which can then be picked up by the bike computer.

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