Litpro v. Smart Watches

I have a fit bit blaze that I wore once while riding. It really could only give me my max heart rate. It isn't smart enough for lap times.

I wear a Microsoft for riding. works well. hr calories gps etc. when you get back to phone or laptop it show your lines laps and speed. band 1 I think . good price. pretty surprised how hr and cals get going in a day of motos.

The Polar V800, which is not a "Smart Watch" has auto lap based on location, you just have to lock in your start/finish line. I am not sure if true smart watches will have location based autolap where a sport specific running or triathlon device might. You can see DC Rainmaker's website for comparisons on various wrist device.
Disclaimer... I work for Polar USA

Using a cellphone armband strap, i mount my cellphone on the barpad and use Strava. You can create custom segments in Strava and determine the lap times that way. I also have a chest mounted heart rate monitor that is connected to the Strava app so that it logs my heart rate accurately during my moto.

I recently purchased a Garmin Forerunner 235, it has wrist based HR but also the ability to connect to a Chest HR strap. Most watches these days have gone strictly to Wrist based. Ive worn my Apple watch while racing to get HR via the Motifit app but it would loose connection at times and my heart rate would show random drops. I wanted the Chest strap ability so i can strap my watch to the bar pad and see my overall time and HR at a glance rather than attempting to view my apple watch during a race. That being said, I just got the Garmin for fathers day and my bike is 4000 pieces at the moment so I have not had a chance to use it while riding. I know its been mentioned that Polar GPS watches wouldnt show true GPS while riding due to speed, but I have not used one so I cannot confirm that. I think the Baker Factory uses the M400 if I remember correctly from a previous post by Wayne@polarUSA. I had full intention on buying the M400 but wanted a bit more functionality and "class" so i could wear it to work and it not stand out like a sore thumb.

I gave my Apple Watch to the ol lady...

The problem with the polar watches is that the GPS receiver is not good enough to be accurate at the speeds and rapid direction changes you see on a dirt bike. The Lit Pro uses a more accurate GPS radio, I think they call it HD GPS.

I tried to use my Polar M400 to record laps , but it cannot keep up with speeds over 25 mph accurately, it is not made for tracking motor sports.

I have to fork out the dough for a Lit Pro if I want reliable data I think.

I have a Garmin Vivoactive HR that is awesome for any off the bike training as well as daily fitness tracking. I love the GPS watch feature because it means I don't have to carry my phone to sync up to Strava. I'd recommend using a heart rate strap when doing anything interval based because the optical wrist HR doesn't change quick enough.

I use a Lit Pro on the bike for lap times, line selection, and heart rate monitoring. It honestly gives me more data than I really need or know how to use at the moment. The HD GPS is badass.

I used to use a Garmin Forerunner 310XT that would record lap times that were accurate to maybe a half second. I also used it as a training watch. Did both pretty well but I decided to upgrade to 2 tools that do 2 different jobs better.

I was using the Garmin Forerunner 310XT too until I smashed it in a crash. One benefit I like with the smart watch vs LITPro is that you can see ride duration easily enough if you're doing timed motos. The Garmin has a setting on certain models to record GPS data more frequently (can't recall the feature name off the top of my head). The GPS location based lap times worked well too. The kart racing guys have some LITPro type devices too.

I have a. Vivoactive and like it a lot. Out of the other garmin devices for sale now I. Feel the screen is the biggest and easier to see. I have never used lit pro but I would imagine it would be better. That being said the one thing I have learned after riding the same track was at first it's awsome to see your lap times and get your fastest lap for that track. But my lap times would be very surprisingly consistent and all I found myself caring more about my fasterst time which after riding the same track recoding times I would already know by how I felt or the prep I would not beat my time.

So I guess what I am trying to say is if you just want something to have fun with go with a gps watch that you can also use for other activities also. If your more serious the lit pro sounds like a better option to me

In terms of the wrist heart rates on a watch form what I gather are not accurate at all depending on what your doing. The cheat strap is more accurate. Also the better watches have better gps but for the most part I have not had issues on my watch. I paid 150 for my watch I believe which is another reason I went with it . Way cheaper then a fenix 3

Oh one more thing. All the new garmin watches don't have the ability to create a lap by a random course. There is a name for it but I can't remember. Auto lap maybe? So you have to use strava to create a course or if you lucky the track is a perfect length that you can set s auto lap by distance on the watch. So far this has not been a issue for me but I just use strava which my watch syncs with You just have to figure out the lap length and set it into your watch by distance if you don't use strava

I use a garmin fenix 3 with hr strap and it works well gives average speed and heart rate, lap times and average speed

How do you set it for lap times? I can set it for track distance, but that varies depending on which line I take.