Activity tracker for the active cyclst

[MarkC]

Tnx. A colleague asked me if there were any bluetooth ear buds worth owning that would do a decent job with HR. Believe she just wants a small package for travel and gym use that would serve multiple purposes. I'm a chest strap guy and had advised: "get a tickr". But she likes gear and came back with the ear query.

I'm with you on keeping ears open. Except on airplanes.

[rmplum]

I'm about 6 weeks into Steel HR ownership. The "normal" appearance and battery life are fantastic. My only really major gripe is that the info display on the face is completely unreadable in any sort of sunlight. I was out walking today and it buzzed a few times - even shading it with my hand I couldn't see a thing (text message, HR, distance, steps)

As a pure wrist-mounted heart rate monitor for running, etc I still prefer the Mio Fuse (I've owned this for 18 months or so) - the HR zone color displays (and buzz alert when changing zones) are very convenient. However, wearing/using it (the Fuse) as an everyday "timepiece" is frustrating.

Ideally I would combine some of the Mio (functional) and Withings (design, battery life) into one unit.

[AngryScientist]

VERY happy with the new Garmin Fenix 5s. Made to be less comically large @ 42mm. does everything very well. looks like a normal watch with a bunch of faces to download. gps enabled for running. comfortable. the only downside is price. i bought the sapphire version and it's not a cheap device.


fenix.JPG

[dashDustin]

Battery was down to 1% on my steel HR this past Saturday. I will admit to completely forgetting how to charge it, as it had been a while.

[roseyscot]

Been using my Withings steel HR for a few weeks:

- I like the battery life
- I like the look
- I like the silent alarm
- I like the text and call alert

- I don't care for the band - I'll remedy this if I decide to keep the watch
- I don't like the mobile app - setting an alarm is unnecessarily difficult. The alarms on my Pixel are much easier and faster to set
- I don't believe the sleep tracking - I've woken up at night, gotten out of bed, hit the button to see the time and yet the sleep tracker doesn't show time awake. I've woken up and laid in bed in the morning and it doesn't recognize that I'm awake
- I don't really care about my step counting so that's a wasted dial for my purposes
- Why can't any synched devices (this watch and Wahoo Elemnt) alert me when I get a group text?
- Now I'm noticing others with Apple watches and similar who can read their texts or emails on their watch and that's suddenly a lot more appealing than just a notification that I got one

All in all, for the much lower cost of entry, I like what the Withings offers, but if there was an option with longer battery life than the Garmin Fenix or LG watches that offered more phone integration than the Withings, I'd probably pursue that instead. Maybe one of the Samsung S3 watches

[rec head]

I'm more into Smartwatches than Activity trackers but the smarties all seem to do the activity stuff too. I had the Moto 360 Sport and it was good while it lasted. I think it got a little too hot at work one night and lost its water resistance. I replaced it with the Pebble Time. Pebble is out of business but I bought mine on Amazon for about $55. It is light, comfortable and does everything I want: I can read notifications, silent alarm, music controls (on Android) and it is water resistant. I might buy a second one to keep in a drawer til I trash this one.

[roseyscot]

My Withings Steel HR didn't make it to 3 months before I started seeing condensation inside. Nokia has been very responsive and from their tone, it sounds like the Steel HR is getting a redesign by Nokia due to this and maybe other problems - they won't have a Nokia versioned replacement for me until the fall they say.

Overall, I am happy with the watch and it's still a lot less expensive than other more "feature heavy" options, but 2.5 months before it fails - that's unacceptable

[rmplum]

Yo Angry,

- after a few more months with your Fenix 5 do you any further thoughts or a long term real-world review?

I'm kinda meh on the Apple Watch after a few months -

Thanks

[rmplum]

Anything new hear that people want to upvote or downvote?

I've been "content" with my Garmin Vivoactive 3 for 4 years or so, but the battery life is starting to suffer and the notifications and screen contrast were never great, so I just pulled the trigger on a heavily discounted Venu 2 Plus.

I know all the cyclingtips (now escape collective) folks were pretty hyped on the Wahoo watch a few years ago in their "best of the year" lists, but there's also significant negative chatter on it as well out there. My old Garmin was a very reliable (but imperfect) unit so I figured I'd try the modern version.

Samsung Gear 5 watch looked promising but they annoyingly kneecap some of the features if you don't pair with a samsung phone (I have a Pixel 6)

Ryan

[KonaSS]

Anything new hear that people want to upvote or downvote?

I've been "content" with my Garmin Vivoactive 3 for 4 years or so, but the battery life is starting to suffer and the notifications and screen contrast were never great, so I just pulled the trigger on a heavily discounted Venu 2 Plus.

I know all the cyclingtips (now escape collective) folks were pretty hyped on the Wahoo watch a few years ago in their "best of the year" lists, but there's also significant negative chatter on it as well out there. My old Garmin was a very reliable (but imperfect) unit so I figured I'd try the modern version.

Samsung Gear 5 watch looked promising but they annoyingly kneecap some of the features if you don't pair with a samsung phone (I have a Pixel 6)

Ryan

I moved from a Garmin Vivoactive HR that lasted for years and years (and still works) to a Vivoactive 3 for about a year, which was a nice upgrade. Then my wife stole it and I got a used but great shape Fenix 6 and love love love it. With the right settings, battery lasts for a couple weeks. Has some improved features over the prior versions that I use. And no features that seem to just be bloat that get in my way (that I can't turn off). If you happen to use a Garmin computer on the bike, I think it is nice to stay within the Garmin ecosystem.

[rmplum]

Holy cow there are a hundred different versions of the Fenix 6!

[KonaSS]

Holy cow there are a hundred different versions of the Fenix 6!

I know. It is a pita. Mostly just size differences, and be aware that I think the smallest size takes a hit in the battery life. I think this is helpful https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?fa...1r84GMfzvGlQ36

[TTX1]

If we're going by the thread title, the only all-in-one options for cyclists are Garmin or Wahoo - I think. Both connect to cycling sensors (cadence, wheelspeed, power meters...). Some Garmin watches might also support Varia Radar (not sure about Wahoo).

That said, I don't love Garmin or Wahoo watches. Garmin is slowly migrating toward touch control, which has some benefits for setup, but remains super retrograde in terms of UI and UX - I don't have the time or motivation to deal with a Fenix 6, for example. Wahoo is simpler, but more limited. All watches are are super hard to read on the bike, IMO - so while a watch makes a lot of sense for triathlete on game day (and Garmin multisport mode is perfect for this use case), the same watch might not make sense for cyclist/runner/person the rest of the year...

I've found that the Apple Watch Ultra hits the sweet spot for me in terms of daily wear as a watch - battery life is finally 2+ days, easy to charge while I'm in the shower or overnight, great readability, and built-in metrics like vertical oscillation if you want to check your stride, etc., for training. However the Apple Watch does not have native support for 3rd party cycling sensors, so you'll want to continue to use a cycling computer - which is probably for the best in terms of readability/usability anyway. $0.02.

One spot where Garmin shines is non-running/cycling activity: It's fun to use a Fenix when skiing, for example - you get a detailed map of all your runs at the end of the day. Apple will track "snow sports" activity but you don't get the same list of metrics Garmin provides (I might be missing it somewhere).

If the priority is daily wear and not active use - I still like Withings. The Scanwatch looks and wears like a normal watch, fits under a shirt cuff, has a battery that lasts weeks, provides haptic notifications, can snap a momentary ECG, and has automatic activity detection (which Apple and Garmin still do not provide).

I've also tried the Suunto Peak 9 Pro and a Coros watch, but I keep coming back to the Apple Watch Ultra.

Happy shopping.

[j44ke]

My wife is my activity tracker. Her favorite question is "What are you doing?"