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7/13/2007
Location
Breaux Bridge, LA
US
Edited Date/Time
2/15/2018 8:16pm
Been thinking about picking up some kind of fitness tracker for track days. I'd like to see what my heart rate is like, how many calories I've burned, etc... Went to Best Buy earlier and looked at a few offerings from Fitbit, Garmin, and TomTom, but they kind of seem more like fashion statements than tools. Anyone have any experience or reccomendations? Obviously it's got to be water and shock proof. Not worried about GPS or text messaging.
garmin does very good products as well and is probably the most used brand out there, which will give you a bigger community/ social media aspect if that is important to you.
i'd recommend to buy with gps tho. not important on the dirt scooter but very useful for running and cycling.
The Shop
I like the big display of the Tom-Tom. I'd like to find one that had good software and could plug it in after moto's to analyze the heart rates and so forth.
I have been checking into the Garmin 910XT since it's gone down in price.
I don't really care about pace , distance , calories burned ect.....I just need something that will give me an accurate Heart rate so I can compare progress. Something simple really.
I am pretty interested in the LITpro , as I think I can do all my monitoring , plus have additional bonuses of actually looking at where I'm going on the track and so for. But I have no idea if that thing comes with a chest strap or what? I think it does because guys like Marvin and Dungey are both wearing them with straps.
Not a wrist watch. But tracks everything like a Polar would. Heart rate, calories etc.
Also could use it for speed and distance. Not sure he would really need that though.
Skiing today, washougal moto with sattelite and info , and a half marathon (with some hr data) are shown.
Pit Row
Make sure you get the heart rate strap as well with it so you can track your HR while riding and cross reference it with your race, training.
Otherwise, we use a polar M400 and use the chest strap with the watch around the bar pad. and set it on the mountain bike setting. Using the chest strap is much preferable as having a watch on your wrist is terrible when riding. It has to be tight to stop it from sliding down and restricting your wrists and when it is tight you just pump up and get sore.
We have also used the RacerOne app before and paired it to the apple watch to get HR tracking as well. This is a great alternative to the LITpro and gives very similar information from your rides.
Mitch Walker
mbw479@hotmail.com
The Garmin automatically detects laps (there is a "lap" button you press on when you pass a point, after that it will count a lap everytime you pass that point based on gps). The gps tracker has settings to set refresh rate and can be set to update every second so it is ultra-precise.
The Garmin has a chest strap HR monitor which is super precise. Somehow the fitbit doesn't work for me, it's always way of, about 40-50 bpm slower than the Garmin. It might be that I have hairy forearms? Or just because I'm small boned so there isn't always a proper contact with the watch when riding MX.
To summarize, nowadays all the apps are interconnected so they all link to strava/fitbit/garmin/... so it's a mater of what fits you better and what options are best. For me a chest strap HR monitor + auto-lap counter + ultra precise gps are must have for MX.
Works really well and is great as it has the community aspect so you can compete with others in your area doing the same tracks.
Only down side of it and Strava is that you must have your phone on you while riding. So cable ties to handle bars or something similar. Not ideal for looking after your phone haha. But you can use the Apple watch instead if you have one. They are also in the process of adding HR recordings with the watch app which will be awesome!
If you are after a cheaper alternative to a Garmin, the polar M400 is a great alternative and has a chest strap for HR so you don't have to wear the watch which can be restricting on the wrists. We wrap the watch around the bars when using it on the bikes.
I think it would be interesting to see what you guys want in a hr monitor/ fitness tracker.
I don't currently have one and atm can't justify spending the $$$ to see my output, if I were able to ride more often then sure. I have been shopping though and features I would want would be
1 chest strap sync to view HR from handlebar.
(Maxxximmmme I'm interested in this auto lap marker you said the garmin has)
I wouldn't be checking hr while putting laps in, but being able to check easily after pulling off, and also viewing lap times would be great.
I think it would be really great to see spikes in heart rate while riding single track too.
But also optical sensor, I would only wear heat strap while riding Moto, not running/hiking/biking or other activities
2 HR for swimming as not many have this available.
I only want to have one hr/activity monitor, and love swimming
3 altitude and distance traveled would be awesome for trail rides,
4 decent battery life, not having to plug in every night
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