Originally Posted by
cyber.snow
While I can use my Iphone to track a lot of statistics, I am looking for a simple way to monitor the speed/distance info as well as heart rate and cadence. I have heard a lot about the RFLK+ (I think that is what it is) but the closest I have been to one is on Amazon.com. I did go into my LBS and they had a Bontrager 2.1 Node that came with a heart strap and for about $60 more you could buy the cadence/speed sensor and it would display them on your bike in near real time. Not sure if the IPhone will talk to them though, but the basic bike programs would still give me my ride info in terms of a map and route. I have owned a Garmin 500 (I think it was...was about 6 years ago) but not sure I want to go there again....the 810 is up around $600 with sensors right now. Is there a system that I can start putting together and build up over time? I prolly will not ever be doing a lot of statistical analysis on my rides...just want to ride and know the basics and keep in my HR zone to continue to lose weight.
Pretty easy. There are a number of apps that will do this for you. One of the most complete, that I use, is Cyclometer from Abvio. I use Cyclometer for all my athletic logging - cycling, walking, skiing, snowshoeing etc... It's a great app. Not only does it keep the data and have a nice display, it also has pretty nice logging and summary screens plus it's easily customizable.
If you have an iPhone that Bluetooth LE (i.e. iPhone 4S onwards), you are good to go with using bluetooth sensors for speed, cadence, heart rate. A great source for these is Wahoo Fitness. I have their sensors on all my bikes and they have worked flawlessly.
You can speed/distance straight from the GPS on the phone. Start the app, and let it go and you have speed/distance from the GPS in the iPhone. If you add the heart rate strap (bluetooth compatible version) from Wahoo Fitness (there are other sources too), then you have heart rate. You can also use most if not all of the BT wrist band sensors too. So that would be your minimum system to get your information.
If you wanted to add cadence, then Wahoo Fitness has a speed/cadence or just a cadence sensor. You can add them individually as you go.
The RFLKT and RFKLT+ are simply displays that repeat the information that Cyclometer (or another capable app) have already collected and display them. They also communicate with the iPhone using BT LE. The RFLKT+ is also an ANT+ network bridge so that you can have ANT+ sensors on your bike (i.e. power meters, Garmin stuff, other ANT+ speed/cadence sensors etc..) on get that data into the iPhone app since the iPhone does not directly have native ANT+ support.
The other advantage to the RFKT units is that they allow you to turn off the iPhone display and therefore reduce battery consumption on the iPhone. The iPhone will use about 10% of the battery per hour with the RFLKT units running and about double that using the iPhone display. You can do a lot with USB batteries and short cables to alleviate this if need be.
Hope that helps. I find the iPhone to be the best bike computer I have used. I use mine with the RFLKT+ which I really like. I also have a wahoo speed/cadence sensor. For two years, I used the iPhone with just the speed/cadence sensor by itself with no issues.
J.