Originally Posted by
mstraus
I have the Wahoo RFLKT+ and have had no issues with it except some minor hiccups on initial setup. I have never had it loose connection with my phone. I keep my phone either in a pocket on the front strap of my backpack or in my rear side jersey pocket.
I started out with the Wahoo RPM, which IS magnet-less, as it uses an accelerometer. It actually seems to work great.
My only complaint was with no speed sensor, I was relying only on GPS for speed. Usually this was OK, but sometimes poor signal would mean slow speed updates, and when you stop (such as at a light) it seemed to keep at the last measured speed for a bit (with the Wahoo app at least) which annoyed me.
For this reason I decided to get the Wahoo speed and cadence sensor, which requires magnets. I put this on one bike, and moved the RPM to a second bike.
I haven't tried the ANT+ bridge yet, however I do have one bike with ANT speed/cadence sensor so I will try it soon enough.
Re: magnetless sensors - is there a magnet less speed sensor? how would that work? Seems like mounting an accelerometer on the wheel would be a bit strange as they are larger than magnets. Also if they are ANT+ you can STILL use them with the RFLK+ or similar ANT+ bridge (I have also seen HR monitors with ANT+ bridges).
They are larger on the wheel than the magnet, they typically wrap around the hub. The cadence sensor is only on the crank and is also larger than the magnet. In terms of rotating mass, I'd have to believe that both are detrimental - the rotating mass is much larger than that of the magnet.
I doubt they are accelerometers in most cases but just a simple BB that falls and completes a circuit to indicate when the rotation is complete and then is dumped the other way when it is in the other half of the rotation "re-arming" the sensor. There would be no reason to have an accelerometer - be nice for sure, but not necessary to count revolutions.
The upside the no-magnet type of sensors is that you don't need to worry about the realignment of the sensor to the magnet. Any of the sensors I have are perpetually getting knocked around and often they have to be re-aligned. It's been like that since they first came up with them back in the '80s. I think Trek has a set up where it can integrated into one of the chain stays, and that would have some serious advantages but I'm not sure how it works.
So, I'd be disinclined to use one of the non magnet version until I understood more about the weight. Having a big thing tied to my hub or crank is not ideal either.
J.