Best all round bike computer/HR monitor

[Paul Ruinaard]

What a lot of this revolves around is the ecosystem of apps that you are going to be using. So power is cool but without a site to upload and compare files on and get recommendations on then its just data. You are using all these metrics to get intelligence and information. which is why there was such a lot of teeth gnashing when Garmin went down because everyone was using it to upload to Strava or Discovery.

 

Along the way there are some great analytics sites (Training Peaks etc) which gives you some really good input. 

 

If you have HR Data and want power by implication you need a power meter. That's starting to get in to science. Since lockdown i have been using Zwift power data and have bought power pedals for the bike. Now i can't live without it. Need a power meter for my MTB as well. It starts becoming costly.

 

But the simplified data that starts coming out of Garmin's new computers on training is really good. HRV and stress scores indicate which days you are up and down. Then you have all the power data which you can upload and inside of Garmin and Zwift they have gamified training cause you start to get a personal kick when your VO2 max starts to increase or your FTP goes up.

 

The point i am making is that the GPS unit is just a data collector and the vendor with the largest ecosystem is the one that will be the most useful - and its likely this trend will continue. The virtual training world with the coolest graphics and the most courses is likely to get tens of thousands of riders paying monthly subscriptions to ride in their worlds. And then when they bring out cool new worlds people flock to them.

 

So the back end software ecosystem integration will be the one that is the most useful.

 

You can look at local support etc, that is a given  but also look at software updates and the like. What the Garmin 820 i started with and ended with did was vastly different as they updated the platform and added features. 

 

My 2 cents - buy a Garmin 830 or 1030 Plus as they have the latest processors and code on them and will have the longest life. But you need to really understand what you want it for and where you se eyourself going - if its power based training (you mentioned power) then all of this matters.

 

And yes software and apps are inheriting the earth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DieselnDust]

Rox 12.0

 

 

Bingo! Probably the best GPS bike computer on the market that nobody talks about.