LGHT

Not sure I follow as I don't currently have any "sensors". Only thing I have now is a garmin 605 and an old HRM that pairs to my watch so I don't think that's an ANT+ device.

JohnJ80

I understood you to already have some ANT+ sensors (speed, cadence maybe HRM). If so, you should be able to use all of those with the RFKLT+.

I'd recommend the RFLKT+ anyhow because of it's barometric and temp sensor. The barometric sensor will greatly improve the vertical accuracy for ascent/descent data. GPS is not all that accurate in the vertical dimension and the barometric sensor really helps.

j.

John_V 

LGHT,

If you don't have any sensors, you will need them in order to capture heart rate and cadence. If that is not important, you can use either RFLKT model to view the data from a supported cycling app on your iPhone. As JohnJ80 said, the difference between the two models is the plus has a built-in thermometer and barometric altimeter and it has an Ant+ bridge. The Ant+ bridge converts the sensor's Ant+ signals to BlueTooth and sends them to your phone.

I have the plus model and I am using it with Garmin Ant+ HRM and speed/cadence sensors with Cyclemeter on an iPhone 5c. The sensors connect in the same manner as BlueTooth sensors providing you have paired the RFLKT+ first and the RFLKT+ is turned on and connected. I opted to use Ant+ over BlueTooth because BlueTooth sensors each need a separate connection to the phone. With the Ant+ sensors, they connect through the RFLKT+ and use only one BlueTooth connection, although your app will show them as separate connections. This should use a little less battery power than BlueTooth connections but I haven't tested that theory yet. Plus, I already had the sensors because my wife used them with her Forerunner CX 405 watch. If you have to purchase the sensors, both the Ant+ and BlueTooth sensors cost about the same.

Customization of the RFLKT screen depends on the phone app you are using. Not all cycling apps allow for custom screens on the RFLKT. Cyclemeter has, in my opinion, the most available fields to customize the RFLKT's screen. It has a control field to turn on/off the music app on your phone and will allow you to customize the RFLKT's buttons to play forward/back of your playlist.

I hope I've explained this to where you understand how the RFLKT+ works. My only issue with the RFLKT is it's battery life when used with low cost batteries. I ride daily, for about three hours, and a battery is lasting me around one month. I have some Dura Cell batteries that I purchased and will try them after my Radio Shack batteries all die.

LGHT

@John_V thanks for the tips. I guess I'm going to have to pass since the costs of the device AND all the sensors which are sold separately as I really don't want to speed $300 plus just for the convenience factor of having everything on 1 screen. I just thought the phone was capable of doing it all, but looking at their site the software isn't even setup for iphone 6 yet.

John_V 

The RFLKT+ costs $129.00 MSRP ($99.00 for the RFLKT) and you can find it a bit cheaper if you search around the internet. My wife just purchased a Wahoo Tickr HRM with dual technology (Ant+ and BlueTooth) for $55.00. If you don't really need the cadence at this point, the cycling app will give you your speed without the need of a sensor. I've seen Garmin speed/cadence sensors on Amazon go for around $40.00 and something that you can add later. That's a nice feature of the RFLKT is that you don't have to get the sensors all at once and you can still get data from your iPhone app and display it.

If you use MapMyRide's web site to upload your ride data, every once in a while they will have a special on an UnderArmour BT HRM for $29.00, with a year subscription to the Pro version. MapMyRide's iPhone app also allows complete customization of RFLKT screen pages and uploads the data to their web site after each ride.

I was using my iPhone with Cyclemeter to get my routes mapped so I can upload my rides to Endomondo and MapMyRide. I was also using a Sigma PC15 HRM watch style monitor to monitor my heart rate and a Cateye Double Wireless so I could see my speed, distance and cadence. That really got to be a pain after a few years so when my Cateye died, I decided to put everything in one place. Since I carried my phone with me on every ride, it seemed that the phone would be a more logical place to store my rides than buying a Garmin and duplicating the process at a higher cost.

LGHT

Yeahs it's not a huge costs, but I just logged my 25th ever ride so it's an additional costs after getting bike, shoes, helmet etc etc and after I just got the garmin computer to boot. If I could sell my 605 for around $100 I can move forward, but if not I'll just have to make do.

Anyone need an almost new garmin 605 pre-loaded with 3d maps?

northerntier

Three questions:

1) does this need GPS at all?
2) does it require ant speed sensor?

Or one or the other?

3) At this point, does the customizable screen work w/ any app, or still just Wahoo's?

JohnJ80

It is just a display only although the plus version has an ANT+ <> Bluetooth bridge in it. The display uses a lot less battery than your cell phone display.

It doesn't have any speed or cadence sensors. But if they are ANT+, it can bridge that to your bluetooth equipped smartphone running an application that understands it. The RFLKT won't talk to ANT+ but the RKLKT+ will.

Depends on the app. For example, Cyclometer from Abvio for the iPhone has full support for the RFLKT/RFLKT+ where you can create, edit, add, delete pages as you desire.

J.

ray.garza

Be aware that from my experience the RFLKT+ system is unstable. When I had the iPhone 5 it was stable until either a new iOS version or a new Wahoo Fitness came along and threw it into chaos of not pairing up or locking up in the middle of a ride. The pairing up issues has always been with the ANT+ sensors. I gave up and went with a Magellan Cyclo 505.

Now that I have an iPhone 6 I decided to try the my old RFLT+ unit again. New battery installed and tried to pair it up with phone. Bluetooth heartstrap, no problem. ANT+ sensors? Didn't even find them. I contacted tech support again and after a few tries they sent me a new unit (That was cool). I tried to pair up to my iPhone 6 and again didn't even detect any ANT+ sensors (speed/cad and a power meter). I tried it on my iPad and bingo it worked!

To me, it seems that there are too many variables to keep it going. A change in the iOS and it breaks. A change in the firmware and it breaks. If all of your sensors are bluetooth then get the RFLKT version.

I do hear that on the iPhone 5c it has been working. If you do get one that works, then don't update either the firmware or the iOS!!

JohnJ80

OTOH, I've had zero problems over thousands of mlies on both an iPhone 5 and 6 and multiple iOS versions with no problems. I think you see a similar phenomena when you read Bluetooth headset user reviews. - people with the same phone and headset have different experiences. There has to be something about the RF environment that causes problems. Other electronics can interfere and that's true regardless of Bluetooth or ANT+.

ray.garza

JohnJ80, I wish I had your experience with it. It sort of bugs me not knowing for sure what the problems lol

I can understand the RF interference but I don't think that is the issue here. I use the same iPhone (and same local) and this time I use the Wahoo ANT+ Dongle and the Fitness app sees my Power Meter instantly.

JohnJ80

Really odd. The black magic of RF.

J.

Tango6

I just started using the Blue SC speed/cadence sensor, 0 issues with connecting to an iPhone 5s and battery life seems OK. I can't recall the percentage used but will pay more attention. I haven't bought the Rflkt yet because I wanted to try and not have anything on the bars.

I am using the Wahoo app and exporting to Strava. My only complaint is that there is a Wahoo odometer app that captures lifetime mileage from the sensor but for some reason the app is not available in the US app store. I dent an email to Wahoo and received a prompt reply that they would work with their developers to add that to the Wahoo ap. I'm not holding my breath.

John_V 

@ray.garza - I have had zero issues with my RFLKT+ hooking up to my iPhone since I bought it in October of last year. I believe I had iOS 7.x on the phone when I got the RFLKT+ and now have 8.2. I had an issue with the original unit that I purchased in that the batteries were only lasting me about a month or so. I went through several batteries and then notified Wahoo and they sent me a new unit. It immediately saw the iPhone and paired my Garmin Heart Rate and Speed/Cadence sensors without a hitch. Since Wahoo told me to discard the old unit, I gave it to my wife so she could use her recumbent trike indoors on her rollers (her trike has a Sigma BC12.16 CAD for normal riding). The old unit paired right up to her 5c and saw her Garmin Speed/Cadence senor and paired it.

I upgrade the iOS every time a new one comes out and have not had it drop connection to my RFLKT+. You may try using something other than the Wahoo app when using your RFLKT+. My wife and I use Cyclemeter and it works flawlessly with the RFLKT+, even through iOS and app version updates. While the Wahoo app is free, Cyclemeter is $4.99/yr for the Elite version which is needed in order to use the RFLKT+. Cyclemeter also sends your data to Strava or any of the popular social media sites at the end of each ride, if set up to do so. You can also try MapMyRide, also compatible with the RFLKT+, but it also requires a paid version to connect.

ray.garza

@John_V

I have Strava and Cyclemeter. I'll give them a try and see what happens.

I'm glad it working for you guys cause It's a great concept that's affordable. This has been the only product of Wahoo that I've had issues with.

JohnJ80

Used to be there, I have it. Works great.

J.

Tango6

Using the RFLKT now and battery life today went from 100% to 60% over a 5.5 hour ride. Only glitch was at mile 57 I looked down and RFLKT was blank. Wahoo app had completely shut down. I checked the settings tab but didn't find a "shut down after so many minutes" option. Any ideas?

I got a response about the odometer app, no longer supported. Oh well.

Willbird

I have been using the RFLCT+ with Cyclemeter for a couple weeks, loving it totally :-).

Nice to be able to configure the display for 50 year old eyes with no bifocal in my scrip inserts for Wileyx.

you can run multiple aps with little extra battery drain as far as I can see, so I'd suggest giving Cyclemeter a try instead of wahoo. I found Cyclemeter much more versatile as far as creating a custom RFLCT screen goes.

metalheart44

My wife uses an iPhone 4s and cyclometer, but she is going to upgrade to an iphone6 soon. I suggested she try the RFLCT and she commented that she likes to see who is calling her and the "likes" and comments about her ride that her friends make while she is riding . She also enjoys hearing the cyclometer/phone reports of her average speed, distance, etc.... She might be able to live without that, but using cyclometer, can the RFLCT pages be configured to show the incoming calls and the facebook comments? I guess not, so maybe it is time to look for a case for the iphone6?

JohnJ80

I believe Cyclometer can speak tweets in response to the twitter posts it makes. You can ask Siri to read the last text message.

I keep the iPhone in my back pocket. If you put the volume all the way up and the bottom of the phone to the top of the pocket where the speakers are, you can hear Cyclometer's announcements. Same story if you mount it to your stem but leave the display off.



J.

Willbird

I had had a quick look in Cyclemeter and did not see any possible data fields for stuff like your talking about :-).

I have a Walgreens fitness band that can recieve stuff that is flashed on the phones notification screen. It is their branded version of the striiv band. the biggest benefit of the RFLCT+ from my point of view so far is being able to access Ap data while using very little battery reserve.

John_V 

That sounds about right on the battery life remaining. If you have optimized your phone to increase battery life, you could tweak it some more to get a little more life out of the battery. I think the problem with the RFLKT turning off is most likely due to an error within the Wahoo app. If the app errors out, it can disconnect the active connection to the RFLKT, which turns the RFKLT off.

dr_lha

Simple answer is no. Not sure why they haven't thought of adding this functionality though.

Apparently with RideWithGPS app the RFLKT will soon display turn-by-turn directions though. If it can do stuff like this, I'm not sure why it can't do notifications.

JohnJ80

SMOP - Simply a Matter Of Programming.

I'm sure that as more and more apps come out, it will happen. The guys are Abvio (Cyclemeter) built in pretty complete support for the Wahoo products. Write them, odds are they already have it on their list of things to do.

J.

John_V 

Agree! It's not the RFLKT that will do the turn by turn directions but the cycling app in your phone. If I remember correctly from an FAQ on their website, Abvio is currently working on this. It would really be nice to have that addition for charity rides where you can download the route and not have to worry about getting lost. Since RWGPS is one of Abvio's top competitors, I don't think they will let them be first to market with something like that; or at least be too far behind them.