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Poor man?s performance improvement measurement

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View Poll Results: Best bang for the buck Cadence and heart rate cycling measurement
Iphone/ android connected sensors
12
36.36%
Dedicated cycling computer with sensors
21
63.64%
Voters: 33. You may not vote on this poll

Poor man’s performance improvement measurement

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Old 04-10-18 | 10:15 AM
  #26  
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Originally Posted by noglider
Do you have a link for the bundle you bought? Thanks.
I bought this with my 20% off full price item coupon an hour before it expired: https://www.rei.com/product/111061/wahoo-fitness-rpm-speed-and-cadence-sensor-bundle

IIRC, the bundle goes for $70 on other sites too, including directly from Wahoo, and slightly cheaper at Amazon.
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Old 04-13-18 | 10:32 AM
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simple bike computer ;you can lie about how big your wheel is and get more impressive data ..



..Stopwatch?





....

Last edited by fietsbob; 06-06-18 at 11:16 AM.
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Old 04-13-18 | 11:55 AM
  #28  
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That's a good point if you don't also use GPS. I'm not too concerned about the exact speed so I just did a search for 700x23 wheel circumference and put the first hit into the Wahoo Fitness app settings.

I'll probably pair the sensors with an old phone and mount it just to see what the app displays during a ride. I haven't quite figured out the strange UI of the Wahoo Android app. This morning I pulled my main phone out at one stop light to see what it was doing, but the screen was on a ride details page rather than any sensors page. Didn't get a chance to see how to switch pages before the light turned.
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Old 04-19-18 | 03:56 PM
  #29  
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Update on sensors- I've been lazy and haven't mounted my spare phone yet, so just keeping my main Android phone running the Wahoo Fitness app with the RPM cadence sensor on my shoe and speed sensor on the front hub. I've only ridden on commutes since I've had the sensors, so it hasn't been a priority to get instantaneous readings.

Quick observations:
  • The sensors are really easy to attach. I chose to use the shoe attachment because I switch between bikes, while I left the speed sensor strapped to my road bike because I can't go very fast on my other bike anyway. DC Rainmaker has an old post from 2014 where he noticed you can just slip the cadence sensor into your shoe or sock, and I confirmed that works fine on a stationary bike.
  • While the sensors are easy to attach, Wahoo packs the bare minimum of instructions and their website is also not as informative as looking on YouTube for someone to actually explain how to attach their stuff.
  • The app auto-syncs to Strava and the latest version has auto-pause. I also use the audio announcements feature to get a summary every mile of avg speed and cadence. It can do 1/2, 1, or 5 mile intervals, and also supports time-based announcements at 1, 5, or 10 minute intervals.
  • The app UI is a bit strange since it seems to eschew the traditional app design. Having no experience with bike computers, I wonder if it's more similar to them? The primary buttons have no text so I had to figure out which menu/edit/dropdown to hit to get to what functionality. And the first time I used it, I didn't realize I could swipe through the display pages to see different information.
  • Since the speed sensor data is useless when I keep my phone in my pocket, I've only really got any use out of the cadence readings so far. I've learned a lot about my preferred cadence, which is difficult to do low-tech because my commute has a lot of short sections with different grades, turns, and traffic conditions. Since the cadence readings show up on the Strava ride analysis, I've learned that I spin up faster for hills unless I'm out of the saddle (explaining my wife's dislike of hills as a stoker on our tandem), but am otherwise going at a steady respectable clip. Maybe once I get a phone mounted, I'll do some lower cadence training for fun.
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Old 04-19-18 | 04:12 PM
  #30  
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From: Leominster, MA

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Have been using Wahoo fitness app on an old Android phone with Bontranger sensor. Have had a few glitches which were easily fixed and am very happy with the performance of everything and also the low cost.
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Old 04-20-18 | 12:24 PM
  #31  
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OK, I mounted my spare phone (LG G4) and paired it with my RPM sensors for my morning commute. Everything worked great, the Wahoo fitness sensor card was clear and readable with my screen on max auto-brightness, GPS on, and WiFi tethered to my main phone. After about 75 minutes the spare was down to 75% battery life, which is how much it used to drain with me Web browsing or streaming video over the same amount of time.

My first use for the phone readout was to do some low cadence training to get a wheelsucker off my tail. I was successful.
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Old 04-22-18 | 08:00 PM
  #32  
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I just ordered a Bryton Rider 10c. I can give some impressions once it arrives if anyone is interested. I was going to just get a wahoo cadence sensor and use my phone, but did not want to have to keep the screen on all the time to monitor it.
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Old 04-30-18 | 05:29 PM
  #33  
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Performance (and maybe others, haven't checked) has the Wahoo Fitness Blue SC Speed and Cadence sensor bundle on sale for $39.97.
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Old 05-02-18 | 07:38 AM
  #34  
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I use an app called endur8, it calculates your nutrition plan based on your body metrics and then gives you real-time alerts for when you need to fuel. Team GB cyclist Elinor Barker has recently endorsed them
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Old 06-06-18 | 11:03 AM
  #35  
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Originally Posted by StirFry
I just ordered a Bryton Rider 10c. I can give some impressions once it arrives if anyone is interested. I was going to just get a wahoo cadence sensor and use my phone, but did not want to have to keep the screen on all the time to monitor it.
Hi StirFry, I'm interested in your experience with the Bryton. Any updates?
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Old 06-25-18 | 08:02 PM
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Originally Posted by surak
Hi StirFry, I'm interested in your experience with the Bryton. Any updates?
It's a great little unit. Very compact and uploads ride info to strava through the bryton app very easily.
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Old 06-27-18 | 01:50 PM
  #37  
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Originally Posted by StirFry
It's a great little unit. Very compact and uploads ride info to strava through the bryton app very easily.
Awesome to hear, thanks for the update. I splurged on a Garmin Edge 520 but it's good to know of lower-cost alternatives that work, especially since I've not been very impressed with the 520.
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