Looking for a good HRM / Computer WITHOUT NAV
 

I hate reading reviews for all the "best" cyclecomputers right now that tout navigation. Jebus, do they think we are all idiots who get lost all the time? When did GPS navigation become the benchmark for a good cyclecomputer?

I had an incident with AFIB last year, and have been a bit paranoid about keeping tabs on my heart rate. I have an 8 year old Sigma on one bike, and a brand new Cateye on the other, and BOTH are giving me intermittent problems. The Cateye is showing wildly different heart rates (70-95-110-68 BPM inside of a minute) and is always reading 20--30 BPM LOW vs manual count. The sigma is just old, I think--BOTH the heart rate and the speed sensor stop at the same time, almost like it is not getting any signals to the computer, and it will do this at random through the ride. I thought there might be EM interference but it would happen at different places at different times over the same course.

I got a Polar HRM strap, thinking that it would resolve the issue and found out it works with NEITHER bike computer. Sigh.

So. Fellow Forumers! What computer would you recommend that provides a GOOD SOLID HRM experience and does NOT cost 300 bucks? Thanks, I do know how to get back home-no need for GPS!!

I think all recent Polar chest straps use Bluetooth. You can probably use it with your phone for free.

PS navigation is useful for people who ride in areas they aren't familiar with.

There are many free/cheap cycling apps you can download to your phone that will connect with BLE HRMs, cadence, and speed sensors that have and then you can use your phone as a cycling computer as long as your rides are not several hours long.

For my commute, which pre-Covid was the same route every day, I did not make use of the navigation capabilities of my current Garmin 1030. Before this I used a Garmin 1000 or 520 (and a Polar v650, but won’t even get into the pos that it is) for several years. The Garmin models have yet to lose sensor signals (speed, cadence, and Garmin/Polar/Wahoo HRM straps), save for when batteries need replacement. Now that I have the chance for less commuting (the MUP I relied on is now dangerously crowded in the afternoon), I am using the GPS for recreational rides.

All of this is a long winded way of saying to consider a good GPS capable head unit, be it Garmin, Wahoo or other (save for Polar...) and ignore the GPS functions. They make solid units that function great without use of the GPS. And if your needs change, the GPS is there.

Problem is, I do not mount my phone on the bike, it is in the bag or my back pocket. I want to be able to see the HR every time I glance down But thanks.

A good phone case to mount on your handlebars might cost $50 (you can get cheaper, but you'd want waterproof in case you get caught by changing weather), lets you see the number whenever you look down.

Garmin's 130 is on sale for $150. It's waterproof, the battery is good for a century ride, it has GPS but not navigation, which means you can look at a map of where you rode, and see things like whether a high HR reading was during an uphill effort. I don't know whether it works with your strap though. Some of their watches will do what you want and do work with your strap. You put the watch on your handlebars. These are in the $300 range.

Someone else can comment on other options.

If you have a functioning bike computer, is there a reason that you do not want to use a free standing HRM in addition to it?

I am quite happy with a Sigma HRM, wrist watch style. I use it with an handlebar mount from a previous HRM that I had, but you could certainly wear it like a wrist watch. I bike tour and leave it on my bike out in the weather, have not had any problem with it getting wet. All it gives me is HRM (plus stopwatch, time of day, stuff I do not use), no calories or averages, or anything like that, just gives me the data that I want which is current rate in big numbers that are easy to read.
https://www.sigmasport.com/en/produk...d-series/id-go

Amazon has it
https://www.amazon.com/Sigma-Sport/dp/B07M8VTFD2

Uses the older style chest strap that you do not have to pair after a battery change. I had several older chest straps from other HRMs which you might not care about but I saw as a plus.

There are all sorts of devices out there that will give you hr. However don't think that because a cyclometer has GPS that they are insulting your intelligence. I use a cyclometer with a gps because I like to look at my ride afterwards and compare my stats on certain segments of that ride. The times I ever followed a course on it in the ten years I've had it I probably could count on one hand. Like you, I know where I'm going.

Phones work too to record HR and other stuff, but I'd rather make sure mine is safely tucked away and not doing stuff that might drain it's battery fast. There are a few around here that have had their phones fall out of their mount and clatter to the pavement. I want my phone to be usable if I need it for the original purpose..... making a phone call.

I was also going to suggest a Sigma watch style for the OP. I had one for many years before I went to a GPS unit. Never had an issue with it and the only reason I went to a GPS unit was because I was getting lost on some of the unfamiliar routes on the many charity rides I do throughout my state.

Sometimes I do not bother with my HRM, sometimes leave my GPS at home. But I have bike computers attached to most bikes. But the computers are basic ones that only show distance, speed, moving time, and some offer cadence.

Went out on an exercise ride yesterday, 64 miles, HRM told me on one hill to get off the bike and walk up the hill to drop the BPM.

I prefer a stand alone GPS instead of a cycling computer with GPS built in, I also do backpacking, canoeing, kayaking, etc. Thus I want a GPS designed for general recreation that uses AA batteries.

I did a thousand mile bike tour last summer in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick. I can't imagine going back to the map and compass days of trying to stand on the side of a road a dozen times a day trying to figure where you are and how to get on some of those unlabeled back country roads. Maybe the OP has no need for GPS, but it certainly is a huge advantage to those of us that do bike touring and an occasional brevet.

Garmin Edge 130 for $150 (sale price, used to be $200 when I got it).

(It technically has navigation, but it is so user-unfriendly that I never bother with it.) The price is right, and it will allow connection and display of a HRM

For basic features in a GPS computer, you can find the Garmin Edge 25 for around 100 bucks now-- the aforementioned Edge 130 is also a good basic option, but a bit more expensive.

Personally, if I was having heart issues, I would have opted for an HRM watch, so I would have heart rate data being provided all the time. Most even have programmable alarms for HR ranges.

A Bryton, Lezyne, XOSS or other GPS computer costing under $100 will do what you want.

Just ignore the GPS navigation features. GPS is useful even without navigation aids.

There's one particular sub-$100 Lezyne that needs a USB cable to download data for Strava or whatever the user prefers for privately logging data or publicly sharing rides with friends.

And the XOSS uses GPS only to record routes, but offers no navigation aids whatsoever. However, due to the pandemic, XOSS customer support has been non-existent since February. I bought mine in January. They work fine, although the Android app isn't intuitive and I needed a couple of days to figure out how to sync to Strava. But it's a risky purchase now. Bryton and Lezyne are better bets under $100.

This is $25. You use it in conjunction with the Wahoo app on your phone, and you can connect HRM, speed and cadence sensors.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have one but I have to confess I haven't really ever used it.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....AC_SL1500_.jpg

Do they still make the RFLKT? I had one and have to say the connection to an older Android phone was less than impressive (and that’s being kind). Continually dropped the phone connection and sensors, including the HRM. Going over some rough pavement, it popped out of its mount down a culvert one day, and I did not bother to look for it. That’s how bad it was.

I don't know. I bought mine in 2016 and barely ever used it. Amazon has it at the above link.

It sounds like it would completely solve @Kokiafan 's problem.

This. I discussed this with my cardiologist last year and he said the only device they recommended was an Apple watch. They have now expanded the recommendation to include some of the Samsung watches as well. Standard HRM systems like a chest strap record heart rate very accurately but lack the analysis software that can detect abnormal conditions. He also liked that I could show him my cycling and skiing workouts on my phone. Said it provided more than enough evidence that a stress test wasn't warranted.


I used a RFLKT+ for years, never really saw any reason to get a GPS bike computer because it worked so well. That was until last year when Wahoo pushed an updated phone app. Then the RFLKT+ became very unstable, often locking up or shutting off mid ride. In the past when I had those issues the phone app continued to work, but in this case the phone app WAS the problem. After a few of weeks of dropped rides, lost data, corrupted data, and no updates from Wahoo Fitness I finally had enough and bought a Garmin 130. I really wish I had done is sooner. It's about the same size as the RFLKT+ but does SO MUCH more, and has yet to drop a ride on me (at least it hasn't. I've managed to cause it to drop a couple of rides doing things I probably shouldn't be doing while recording a ride. And now that I have a Varia taillight it is even more useful.) I can honestly say the Garmin 130 was money well spent.

I've been very happy with the Edge 130. I had an Edge 25 before that, but the battery life wasn't great to begin with (especially paired to my radar), and eventually didn't hold much of a charge. I got the 130 and gave the 25 to my kid, who put it through the laundry. Now he has a 530. Not sure how that happened.

I don’t believe it’s made anymore, it’s not even listed on Wahoo’s website. There’s a good reason for that, the thing sucked. I had one and it was iffy at best. Mine is in a landfill someplace.

I haven't tried every bike computer on earth but I had nothing but problems with various wireless Cateye models. Sigma's work pretty good, they lasted a bit longer than Cateye computers but even the wired one failed after about 6 years. However my now 6 year old VDO seems to be bulletproof which is why I guess they called the ruggedized. Anyway the M6.1 is a very nice unit that is completely wireless including the cadence feature. It also has some other stuff like attitude related information, backlight, and a vast stuff on the HRM. The M6.1 is the newer version of mine, but it appears to have been simplified a bit more vs mine.

VDO : Products

https://www.amazon.com/VDO-Digital-W.../dp/B072BPS32K

Just a thought that's all. VDO isn't real well known in America, but they are in Europe and they're made in Germany.

Hello all...what a trip.
First, I managed to fix the Sigma Rox 5 I have on the road bike! Unlike a lot of the later models, the handlebar mount of the Rox 5 has sensor nubs on all four corners. I was losing connection with the sensor nubs on the bottom, so I unscrewed the part of the mount that contained the nubs, turned it 180 degrees, and solved the problem.
Which left me with the commuter bike issues...
So, I went out and bought a Wahoo Element Bolt. Using a new REI account and getting the REI credit card, I managed to pick it up for 230 bucks, and I am getting REI points on top of that.
I figure at that cost it really cannot go wrong.
I might just suppress the GPS functionality of it and use some of the other features more, like the Cadence sensor.

We shall see, I guess. If I don't like it, I will return it and get something like the ROX 10 from Amazon. It costs about the same as the discounted Wahoo.
I have an 1100$ phone that I really don't want to be the first at the scene of the accident, so the phone apps just would not work for me, when it comes to bikey wikey stuff.

Just as a side note, I have a mish mash of cadence sensors and speed sensors and HRMs on some of my bikes. Using the Wahoo app on an i-Phone almost always find that one of the inexpensive sensors will either not pair or will give intermittent data to the phone. I don't have this problem with my Wahoo sensors. The sensors that are giving my problems are the XBOSS and CooSpoo.

Pairing those sensors with my Garmin Edge 530 is easy and always works. I conclude that the app is the problem not the sensors.