jollyGreenGiant

When I was researching this I didn't find much so I just wanted to say that I got one along with the HR-11 heart rate monitor and have about 200 miles now on it and thought I would offer up a few impressions of it. I'm on the fence about getting the cadence pickup, had that with the Flightdeck and never payed much attention to it.

It works really well, mounting is super easy, although I like the in front of the stem area from the Flightdeck days but this is OK, when Barfly releases their mount all will be well. Nice that you can switch bikes so easily.

If you turn it on and immediately start riding it doesn't like to grab the GPS signal, if you turn it on and sit for a few seconds before going it will catch it right away and be good. If you want to be exact with start stops, let it get GPS, long press the button to establish a new ride then go, then long press again when you want the ride to end.

GPS resolution seems great, as good or better than my LG Optimus G phone's GPS as it should be.

The Cateye website is pretty useless, I upload to it because it's easy but it sucks for US users, it's really just for Japanese users at the moment IMO.

If you log all your stuff with Strava, this thing is gold, just connect it to the cradle, hit the Strava button, done.

On my 2 hour rides so far I've lost one bar of battery, I'm guessing it's good for most one or two day rides without a problem, riding across the country? Bring the cradle and charge it when needed, it won't make it all the way, duh.

I started with Endomondo before going to Strava and now log both and I like to listen to music on solo rides so I still use my phone for logging Endomondo but it would be nice to have an Endomondo button too just like the Strava one. Endomondo has fallen out of my favor though, the keep removing stuff, Pro is now second tier to premium and that's a monthly thing. Thinking about just letting that die and using just Strava for everything. Endo used to be better at tracking performance history metrics but they keep taking away stuff, seems sorta dishonest.

I had the heart rate monitor go up and stick at like 199 bpm yesterday for a few minutes, I know I was there, more like the low 170's but it corrected itself after a few minutes, no big deal.

The instructions aren't the best but they made it pretty simple and pairing was easy too so again no big deal.

I'm happy with it and it seems to do exactly what it claims to, I'm so happy to not have a sensor on the bike anywhere and I wasn't about to spend Garmin money.

I don't want to race with a phone in my pocket so this is perfect for GPS logging races with one unit that you can see real time.

I'm very happy with it, if I wasn't a Strava user, I would be a little bit dissapointed having to export the files into whatever because their site does in fact stink. I'm guessing it will get better over time but it's not mature yet, for example they give you the option of MPH/KPH but when selecting MPH it still displays metric...

I do ride year round and at night so the backlight is awesome, haven't had a good test of that yet but think it will do just fine based on dark room testing.

That is all, hope this helps.

Shinjukan

Very nice review, jollyGreenGiant. Quite comprehensive and almost everything a future buyer wants/needs to know is in your review. My question however (and it doesn't necessarily apply just to this CatEye Stealth 50 only) is that how do you find the GPS signal so far? Have you been on a route that goes through thick tree cover or perhaps a long tunnel? In my experience with my Garmin, it momentarily cuts on and off its signal acquisition whenever I'm in these kinds of overhead covers so there are times wherein my ride mileage is off anywhere from 0.1 miles to as high as 0.75 miles (that is, according to the CatEye Enduro wired that's also on my bike). On the flipside, I have seen on quite a number of occasions wherein I'm not moving, but the speed display on my Garmin blips to about 0.5mph-1.0mph. Obviously if this happens with or without my knowledge then that will alter the mileage as well. How is the Stealth 50 handling these situations in your experience?

That's why I still let my wired CatEye cyclocomputer have a space on my bike hood even at this time.

wapiti

X-posted, but anyway ...

I have a Stealth 50 and am impressed with it. Clearly there are features that the Garmin has, that the Stealth does not, but you would expect that.



the unit performs well, the display is very good. I do not understand people talking about the "clunkieness" of holding down the mode button to save a trip, this is exactly the same as resetting the Garmin in order to save a ride track, just a different button.



my only complaint with theStealth actually is the proprietary cable/sled for downloading and charging. Of course this means you can't use any of your other cables, but the sled is what makes the whole unit water proof.



pluses and minuses.

jollyGreenGiant

Thought I would update after a season with this device...

Lost it once cause I forgot to take it off the bike for transport, it was on the bars on my MTB, first time trying it out MTB'ing. The detent on the mount isn't strong enough to keep it attached at highway-speed bumps I guess. Weak if you ask me. The first time I forgot to take it off the mount and keep it inside the car... Gone.

I replaced it cause I had the heart rate monitor and I'm on a budget and figured other than that it was OK.... Amount spent on both units plus a HRM > a Garmin at this point... Ugh.

Went on the 180K D2R2 ( The Deerfield Dirt Road Randonnée) which was absolutely incredible BTW. The battery was fully charged at the beginning and with the HRM in use ( don't know what difference that made ), the unit ran out of batteries about 10 miles before the end. Yes, it was a very long ride, about 8 and a quarter hours pedal time with about 11 hours or so powered up but to me that's just unacceptable, it needs to be able to complete a ride like that, all the guys Garmins that I rode with lasted the whole ride, and they all were able to load cue sheets and know all the turns too, jealous.

I've lost a few rides when it comes time to upload, the sync software is pretty weak and routinely has errors and hangups.

Yes, I've lost signal a whole bunch of times, it doesn't like to get a signal again when moving too. It's better at receiving a signal while stopped. Yeah, I'm not going to drop my pack of friends cause my signal dropped...

It seems to take longer than it should to get a GPS signal after being powered up also, it's really annoying... Waiting for several minutes at times. My phone grabs a GPS signal WAY faster than this thing everytime.

All in all, this doesn't seem like a polished final product. It's probably a 3 out of 5 stars for me, value I'll give it a 4 out of 5. I shoulda saved up for a Garmin, I'm really hoping more competitive products show up on the market cause GPS is the best and I love Strava.

Incidentally, I use this device for hiking and running as well, it does as good a job with those tasks as it does with cycling.