smoke

i second the vote for the garmin forerunner 301. i've had both the timex and the polar combined hrm/computer (i have different bikes, different sizes, blah blah, so i wanted one computer that would work on everything). the timex would cut out for no reason, lose the signals on a clear sunny day, it's computing was erratic, the 'smoothing' was too slow, the distance from the receiver in my pocket to the watch was beyond the limits when in a time trial position, and a four hour ride would eat a set of batteries. i fought with it for six months and finally gave up. the polar simply wouldn't work on a cold day for some reason, and the watch itself froze up after about a year. i finally tried the garmin and haven't had a problem. it's rechargable, its reception is better than the timex, the entire unit is self-contained so there is no distance problems like the timex, it worked in a 36 degree time trial two weeks ago. calories is a bogus computation, in my opinion, but if you want 'em, the computer software figures it. two things about this unit - since the gps receiver is built into the watch, it's a big damn thing on your wrist. you could probably call scotty and have him beam you up. personally, i don't care. it's easily readable while i'm in the aerobars on my time trial bike, and i usually mount it directly onto the 'bars of my road bike. the other problem is that the heart rate readout is a really tiny number in the upper right corner. the fix? the display window has three panes of info; one window lets you customize all three panes. put the heart rate on one of them. it's pricey ($225-300), but it works well, which is better than i can say for either the timex or polar