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What's a good buy?
Thought I'd get myself a fancy GPS type watch for riding, swimming etc with hr monitor and can show texts from my phone and whatever else they do.
Thanks
I have the Polar V800, works great for me. Tracks activity as well as training, so you get an overall idea of what you have done in a day. I use mine for everything, riding, running, weights, martial arts, swimming.
Nice Polar Flow app as well
I've got a Tom Tom multisport (the older style with the chest strap). There were some good deals about, picks up satellites quickly and uploads to my phone via Bluetooth. I tend to run based on pace rather than heart rate and it does everything I need it to.
Garmin Fenix 3 in a few weeks?
Suunto Ambit3 Peak. Excellent kit!
Get yourself over to www.dcrainmaker.com and start reading his products reviews and recommendations.
Thanks for the info. dcrainmaker looks good, thanks. I'm torn between the Ambit 3 and Fenix 3 so will try and get my hands on them, but hadn't really looked into Polar so will do so.
This looks quite good:
I've got an Ambit 2, great watch, and the HR belt is a lot more comfortable than the Garmin one. (This is obviously my opinion, other people may think the opposite!)
The Garmin FRXXX watches are also pretty good, just be aware that some of the cheaper models aren't 100% waterproof - they'll survive rain and the shower, but you can't go swimming with them.
I'm waiting out for the Fenix 3. Half price to anyone with Pru Health too 😀
A heart rate monitor chest strap probably won't work for swimming. Because it can't transmit the signal to the watch underwater. A heart rate monitor on the wrist should work better, eg Mio Link or Tom Tom Cardio.
^v800 works fine underwater
I'm waiting out for the Fenix 3. Half price to anyone with Pru Health too
Sadly not 🙁
The announcement was a bit vague and Garmin was added as a partner last night. Only devices eligible for discount are:
Vivovit
Vivosmart
Forerunner15
Forerunner 220
Edge 510
Edge Touring Plus
I've linked my account t o my Garmin Connect to start earning points and just about to hit the button on the Fenix 3 (with no discount 😥 )
EDIT: - well I would order, but you can't yet
Double 😥
Heart rate can work whilst swimming. The issue is the Ant+ or Bluetooth Signals can't be transmitted from you chest strap to your watch. If you have a watch with an optical HRM it will work fine (might need to not register it as a swimming workout though as on some models this cuts the HR out.) It will also work if you have a watch and an optical HR band worn next to it. DC rainmaker has some stuff on this.
In addition to this Wahoo fitness makes a HR strap that saves the data it records, the tickr X. This doesn't have to transmit a signal so the HR works fine. i have a tickr X and use it for OW swims it's not the best quality data however see here as an example: [url= https://www.strava.com/activities/255383523 ]OW Swim Strava[/url]. I believe this is more down to the physical location of it with reference to swimming though.
Provided you wear a tri-suit you could use a tickr X for swimming, if you wear speedos or jammers the strap will fall off very quickly, at the first flip turn for me.
I use a Polar M400 for similar things to what you're looking to use. It has none of the fancy features such as phone connectivity and for swimming I use it only as a basic stopwatch as it doesn't count laps. But it is superb value especially when compared to Garmin products. I team mine with a tickr X and I also use an edge 500 for cycling. With this combination I have the data saved in 3 places for rides and 2 for runs so there is always a backup, the tickr X can transmit to both the M400 and the edge500 at the same time with no issues. The polar flow software is ok but the interaction with other sites such as Strava, TrainingPeaks etc is very, very poor. You need to manually download the tcx and re-upload it with no apparent bulk download option. That being said I've used it all year, worn all the time and in the region of 4 hours training a day, in the sea, in the pool etc. and had no issues what so ever. My main bugbear with my previous Garmin watch was that it just didn't handle being used a lot very well and crashed frequently.
Iain