Heart rate monitors?

So.. I'm interested in getting a heart rate monitor.

Somethings I want to get out of it:

I want to hook into my phone/strava, wirelessly.

I want to be able to race to a certain heart rate. This means getting feedback somehow, through audio or visual.

Some comments or concerns:

Accuracy of a wrist watch vs chest strap?

In terms of being able to see my heart rate, wrist watch or unit mounted on the bars/stem?

Possible to smash the unit on the bars? Wrist watch a better option?

Possible to use chest strap only and have my phone give me audio cues?

Friend was saying its easy to loose the unit on a chest strap?

I'd love to hear some product pro's and cons! Thanks!

I didn't know there were pulse monitors without a chest strap. Polar make some quite inexpensive units with low and high pulse alarms in watch format that you can attach to the bar with a hunk of foam in wrist dimensions wrapped around the bar or with a simple mount. Bar is best for seeing the pulse. No idea how to link to strava or phone. I don't think they do that with the cheaper units. I use a Garmin and it has a Bluetooth link so I expect the Garmin system will link to your phone or strava. Actually the Garmin does link to my iPhone or iPad. Not cheap though and that may be more info and capability than you want.

DC Rainmaker's site will answer all questions on basically every piece of sports tech ever created. In excruciating detail. I always consult it before buying geeky cycling stuff.

The wrist watch HRMs (where it's detecting on your wrist) are relatively new. Good 'ol chest straps work great and you get used to wearing them in a hurry.

If you want to hook into your phone, you either need an HRM that can hook directly to your phone (e.g. Wahoo TICKR) or a head unit that can talk to your phone (e.g. Garmin 510/810/1000). Also check out the Wahoo RFLKT for displaying info from your phone on your bars. I think that phones and stuff like the RFLKT are the future but battery life is still a big negative. The Garmin units will stay alive for epics.

I run a Garmin 800 on the bar and then sync to Strava by and old fashioned cable later. In the nearly four years I've been running it, it has never been knocked fully off the bar. I have nearly twisted it off twice when I've gone OTB and my knee hit it.

I didn't know there were pulse monitors without a chest strap.

http://www.mioglobal.com/explore-mio-products.htm

Vancouver based tech firm. Wriststrap, Bluetooth connectivity, Analytic tracking app, yada yada yada. I've been contemplating buying one of their devices for a while.

I second Dc Rainmaker for info.

If you live in Vancouver go to MEC on Broadway and talk to the big dude with the beard. He can give you the pros and cons of the models they have.

I use a Suunto T6d which is old tech so no idea if it works with Strava. On the bars no prob and you can set the screens to have whatever you want including alerts. Newest watch is the Ambit 3. The Rainmaker was mixed on the latest version but with the ability to change the software it might represent an excellent option.

I think the garmin edge 510 will sync up with your phone. I have been using an edge 500 on the bars for years with no problems.

Trying to look at your wrist while riding would be way harder than looking at the bars.

Friend was saying its easy to loose the unit on a chest strap

I can also confirm this, having lost my HRM unit following an OTB incident. Stupid thing attaches via a couple of poppers and is very easy to dislodge….

I can also confirm this, having lost my HRM unit following an OTB incident. Stupid thing attaches via a couple of poppers and is very easy to dislodge….

havent lost mine yet, but can see it happening

the timex chest strap doesnt use the removable HRM unit. They are a decent unit watch/strap combo to start with, but if you're looking for lots of info then a Garmin or Polar would be a better option.

I now use a polar RC3GPS and have been pretty damn impressed with it

I just picked up a garmin forerunner and I'm really happy with it. The GPS is a watch so I can wrap it around the bars or wear it depending on if i need to watch my heart rate or keep the unit out of harms way. The unit is waterproof to 50m, blue tooth compatible with my phone so it up dates my strava as soon as it gets close enough to the phone, and the batteries last about 8 hours. At $340 It was a bit pricey but it ticked all the boxes for me and it works as advertised.

I've had a garmin 305 for almost 9 years now. I ride with it on my bars all the time. I use a peice of old tube and some electrical tape to make a mounting point. So far no issues.

I've been shopping for my first monitor and decided to go with the Scosche Rhythm+, had really good reviews on DC Rainmaker. I was about to order the Mio but apparently there's a 10-15 second delay so opted against it and the Rhythm+ seemed like the best non-chest strap model for the money.

Conveniently, the Rhythm+ is 40% off (comes to $48 US) once you add it to your cart right now . I shipped it to the US as I'm heading down to the parents this week, but they appear to ship to Canada too.

I went out and bought the mio alpha and fuse at mec to compare them against each other, expecting to keep one. Basically they were kinda shitty at least on my wrist. Both would get big spikes and drops in my heart rate. My friend with thicker wrists had more consistency, but ended up not being great. I returned both.

I'm now using a wahoo RFLKT and TCKR which have been quite good. They both depend on your smart phone. The RFLKT is basically a screen only. Your phone runs their app, which sends the data to the RFLKT via blue tooth. You can display things like heart rate, speed, cals an hour, distance, time etc. All of this you can customize. It all worked quite well.

After you're finished your work out you can send the data to strava.

The only issue I've had so far is a new years bug. The app would force close on Jan 1. They've updated the app and all is well again. But this highlights the issue, if your phone is dead or the app isnt working, your RFLKT is useless. In the case of the new years bug, I ended up using the HRM with strava instead.

Pretty decent idea since I'm riding with my phone all the time any how. Much better than a garmin that you have to plug into get the data out.

I run a garmin edge 510 , with a garmin HR soft strap set up. works well . ant+ setup and talks to my iphone for garmin connect, and or strava flawlessly . speed , and a cadence sensors are also mounted on the bike. So a total of three separate sensors running . no problems.
Yes you do have to plug the garmin into your computer to transfer data to strava. But if you are only running garmin connect . it works through blue tooth if you ride with your phone in your pack/pocket

So resurrecting thread as the old 305 is on its death bed. The faceplate is coming off the back plate and every time it does that it powers down. (may have been the downside to strapping it to the handle bars)

Soo -there are a crap ton of options out there. Anyone recommend a good GPS/Heart rate monitor that I can use for running, biking, skiing, goofing off?