Originally Posted by
KickinA
What are people using for tracking bike speed, gps and fitness tracking on their bikes? I've using my smartphone GPS app (Runtastic) to track my bike rides and also have my Garmin Forerunner 225 watch that also has GPS and a built-in heart rate monitor, which I also use for tracking heart rate.
I also use my smartphone to stream music to my wireless Bluetooth headphones while the runtastic app is running, so the smartphone has a number of uses, not to mention the capability to make phone calls and while out riding if needed. I mount the phone on my handle bars with a mount I got on Amazon.
Does anyone feel that using a dedicated bike computer on their bike is better than using a smartphone? I'm trying to decide if I really need a bike computer or if my smartphone is good enough.
any feedback welcome.
thanks
It depends what metrics you like to view while you're riding and what data you want to look at after the ride. Certain phones can monitor speed and heart rate, and some can even do cadence. I've never used the phone for any of it.
I'd be concerned about the phone coming off the mount, getting saturated with sweat during the ride, hammered by rain during wet rides, sun exposure issues, etc. The bike computers are made to take this abuse, most phones are not. There are some waterproof, ruggedized phones, but they can be sort of bulky.
I've been using a Garmin 500 for years and phone in a ziplock in the jersey pocket if needed.