My old Polar HRM died and there is no way of replacing the battery in the strap so I am looking at replacement options. I was thinking about getting the Garmin Vivoactive HR and adding a chest strap and speed and cadence sensors.

Due to having to watch my kids during the week, I do a lot of trainer miles during the week and then during the weekend, I hit the longer rides. For a bike computer, I have a Cateye double wireless with cadence and I also turn strava on on my phone when I go out for rides but that doesn't work well on the trainer. It would be nice if this new device would track GPS data on longer rides like century rides and such without having to kill the phone battery and then be able to upload/synch with strava after the ride and still do a good job of tracking the trainer sessions indoors.

I like the idea of using a fitness watch for the cycling stuff too as I like the idea of 24hr HRM, sleep data, and steps tracking and stuff so that is why I am thinking about going this route.

So my question is to anyone who is using this fitness watch or similar ones, what little nuances did you run into that might not have been brought up in the typical product reviews you find on CNET and other youtube type reviews especially ones related to cycling?

It looks pretty well featured for the price.

If the software is like the Fenix 3 HR, it can only show you text from one message at a time. If you have 3 unread texts on your phone, it will just tell you that you have 3 and who they're from, but you won't be able to read them. It's frustrating; I didn't expect to have much use for the smart notifications but they're incredibly useful and mean you don't need your phone nearby much of the time.

I don't think that model will work with a power meter.

Thanks, Actually I was thinking about just turning off the whole notification thing off since I pretty much always have my phone near me, but maybe I would like the feature then. I never feel my phone going off in my jersey pocket so it might be helpful to see it on the Garmin. I was thinking about getting a bike mount to not wear it on the wrist during the rides and use the more accurate HRM on the chest to pair with it. That way I could see the HR without having to reposition my wrist constantly during the ride.


Not having a power meter is fine for me. I'm too old to care about that level of training and not interesting in ponying up for a Fenix option for $600 plus the cost of the pedal power meters or something like that.

I thought the notification feature was a gimmick when I bought my F3, they put it in there so they can put another bullet point on the feature list. I want an exercise watch! But it's worth having. I get home, I set my phone down, and when somebody calls or messages me I don't have to go find it to know why. Sometimes when I car pool it's very valuable to get messages in the shower.

On that note, the watch will also vibrate on your wrist and chime if you want it to for anything you put in your calendar. My memory isn't getting better as I age, so this is very good for me.

You should definitely use a chest strap, it'll be more accurate and Garmins tend to to give you more accurate calorie info from a chest strap. Mine has the wrist sensor but I use a chest strap on the bike (except when I forget, then I'm glad to have the wrist one as a backup).

My strap broke after about a year and a half. Right where I clasp it. It started to crack, and over a couple days the crack grew across most of the strap, I replaced it before it failed and I lost the watch. I would guess that taking it on and off every time you ride would put a lot more stress on the strap and cause it to fail more quickly. If you decide to do that, please check your strap regularly because if it falls off the bike during a ride you might not be able to retrieve it.

Final note, I also hike, and occasionally I swim in lakes in the summer, sometimes I run. I really like having a good fitness watch with me at all times. Very much.

Well I ordered the vivoactive hr with a chest strap. Its going to be the Santa gift so it will be a month before I break into it. I didn't see the speed and cadence sensor on sale at the same place, but I am going to keep on the look out for a sale there and get that too.

Well the watch and the cadence and speed sensors seem to be doing fine. However the premium HRM strap is a POS. It would not pair to the watch so I read on the forums that plenty of people were having to reverse the battery and it would then pair. So I started trying that and 2 of the 4 small jewelers screws stripped like melted butter. And I have worked in the electrical and instrument tech rhelm for a good amount of time and I was using a propery jewelers screwdriver. I ended up having to drill out the screws and of course I slightly damaged the plastic when I finally made it through. You swapped the battery polarity and still nothing.

Not sure what I want to do there. I might just return it to amazaon and try a better ant+ hrm and the other option is to try getting a replacement from garmin. Any suggestions?

Well the watch and the cadence and speed sensors seem to be doing fine. However the premium HRM strap is a POS. It would not pair to the watch so I read on the forums that plenty of people were having to reverse the battery polarity and it would then pair. So I started trying that and 2 of the 4 small jewelers screws stripped like melted butter. And I have worked in the electrical and instrument tech rhelm for a good amount of time and I was using a prober jewelers screwdriver. I ended up having to drill out the screws and of course I slightly damaged the plastic when I finally made it through. You swapped the battery polarity and still nothing.

Not sure what I want to do there. I might just return it to amazaon and try a better ant+ hrm and the other option is to try getting a replacement from garmin. Any suggestions?

Garmin has excellent customer service, I'd definitely call them. My wife has had some issues with her past devices from Garmin, but they have stepped up and did what was necessary to make my wife happy, without her needing to yell or anything. Good Luck.

Your strap should have arrived in working order. I'd return it if it was me.

I'm using Garmin's HRM-RUN and HRM-SWIM and they're both flawless but for just cycling, I'd go with a less expensive one. Wahoo's gear is well respected, and their chest straps will work with your Garmin.

Not sure what I did differently but the HRM just started working the next time I tried it. Although the screw threads are now damaged and I haven't had a chance to call Garmin about options yet with all the holiday business and multiple ski trips. I did notice that the speed and cadence sensors don't like to just work without either forcing them to connect once I start a work out or having to wait a long time. The cadence sensor took 15 min to connect yesterday and the speed has taken up to two minutes. Kind of annoying. I am still using my cateye strada wireless so I wonder if the signals are interfering with the Garmin signals.

Get the HR+ then you dont need the HRM chest strap.

That's the one I have and it works great.

I think you are mixing the Vivoactive and vivosmart up. There is no Vivoactive HR+ but there is a vivosmart HR+. I have the vivoactive HR and it does already do built in heart rate, but it is not easy to read from the drops or hoods with both hands on the bars when you are wearing it as a watch and the chest strap is more accurate.

Yes, sorry. It is a mix up.

The manual say to put it snug on your wrist to do the HRM measurement.

I been thinking of buying the wrist type thing for my HRM instead of the chest strap as I have to wash it everytime. No?

I've got a Vivoactive HR and a Garmin 1000. I paired a Wahoo HRM to the 1000 and did several rides to compare the HR stats between the 2. I found that while the Vivoactive had some large spikes in HR the average HR between the two was spot on.

FYI - I use the Vivoactive HR to track all of my activities but, I still use the 1000 on my bike because I just want to look down for my ride status, I don't want to be distracted by looking away from the road.

Also, I have not had any problem pairing my ant + sensors with the Vivoactive. I do have the new cadence sensor and need to make sure and pedal my bike to wake up the sensor before I start a ride.

The wrist based ones don't have to be washed but it's not like you need to wash the strap every use. I can't smell any stink on mine after two weeks but I should probably wash it now.