A lot of misinformation on this thread.

Someone posted a link to an article which says to use max heart rate to set up zones. This is incorrect for cycling. Heart rate zones for cycling should be set up as a percentage of lactic threshold. Lactic threshold is highly trainable. A higher LT is what allows a cyclist to go harder for longer periods of time. Max heart rate however, does not change as one gets more fit and so there is no way to know if one has improved fitness with zones based off a metric that never changes.

Also, optical heart rate sensors currently available are far from "junk". Every link posted or article cited here was based on a clinical health care setting. The level of accuracy required in a clinical setting is not required for sports training. Even so, the current optical sensors put out by MIO and others are comparable to chest straps. Those who dismiss optical sensors as "Junk" are dismissing a whole class of devices that are used by some of the world's top athletes with excellent results.

DC Rainmaker actually tested optical and chest straps side by side on the same exercise as far back as 2014 and the graphs speak for themselves. http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2014/05/s...h-optical.html


-Tim-