What kind of computer?

[Michielveedeebee]

So i bought a new bike and i need a computer for it, it should have a heart and cadence meter...
Which one should i buy ?

 

[steelciocc]

Vetta

Vetta V100HR w/wireless speed & cadence. ~$90 on eBay...

 

[Michielveedeebee]

Vetta V100HR w/wireless speed & cadence. ~$90 on eBay...

and in shops?

 

[ravens]

cateye astrale 8. wired/cadence they sometimes are as low as $25, usually 30-34. The head unit will go bad. You can go the official route and get warranty repair or the quick route and buy a replacement and then return it with the bad head and keep the new one, they die about once a year.

 

[steelciocc]

and in shops?

Hmmmmmm, not sure. Probably ~$130-150 or so. Vetta isn't widely available (not sure why) but I've been using their computers since the 80's and they've never let me down.

My wife and I have 7 V100s on various bikes. Nice compact head and sensor units with pretty good display. My normal setting shows current speed, cadence, and HR on one screen.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vetta-V100HR-WL...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item335aad9df4

[
Note: This isn't the HR model but it is the same physical size...

 

[usedtobefast]

Polar hrm are the best. but i use a Shimano Flight Deck for the rest. if you can detach the hrm you can use it for other things.

 

[Michielveedeebee]

Hmmmmmm, not sure. Probably ~$130-150 or so. Vetta isn't widely available (not sure why) but I've been using their computers since the 80's and they've never let me down.

My wife and I have 7 V100s on various bikes. Nice compact head and sensor units with pretty good display. My normal setting shows current speed, cadence, and HR on one screen.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vetta-V100HR-WL...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item335aad9df4

[
Note: This isn't the HR model but it is the same physical size...

Thanks it looks quite good

 

[Black Dog]

Cateye Strada Wireless. Small computer with a big screen. Easy to mount on bars or stem. Very reliable.

 

[cawright1375]

My wife got the Garmin Edge 705 as my wedding gift last year and I absolutely love it. It has a lot of training features that you can utilize, one of those being able to literally race against yourself to test yourself on a known route. The maps are handy as you really can't get lost. It has a ton of features you can select to view on the monitor. For instance mine shows time, speed, cadence, calories, elevation, distance & one other feature that I can't recall right now. It will calculate average cadence and show that. It has an interval function as well. Yes it is costly, but for all you get it is more than worth it.

 

[steelciocc]

Heart Rate Monitor?

I think HR was a requirement of the OP...

 

[Nevermind]

CS 200 Cadence from Polar. Completly wireless and works really well.

 

[St. Elia]

-1000

Polar sucks, I have to give +100 to garmin been using garmin for a while and they are solid and have a tone of feature. If you can't afford 750 you could go for the new one 500?

 

[ravens]

hrm is on wrist, computer is on the bike.

I think HR was a requirement of the OP...

Sorry, Forgot to mention....
I wear a polar watch (m32, no longer made) and just use the cateye on the bars. Cheaper that way and if I crash or it gets wet (or more likely the head dies) then it's cheap/free to replace.

I won't buy polar again. Goes through batteries quickly (1 per year) requiring shipping to I think Minnesota and about $17 a battery plus shipping.

Combined cost of the watch and computer is about $110. Tough to beat. I think cadence is essential. Other say they know their cadence, I think they are either very experienced or kidding themselves. But I can live without the hrm at this point.

 

[ravens]

-1000

Polar sucks, I have to give +100 to garmin been using garmin for a while and they are solid and have a tone of feature. If you can't afford 750 you could go for the new one 500?

I agree on both counts. Polar is not the way to go if I had it all to do over and those new 500's look very sweet.

 

[elapid]

I have had three Polar HRMs and two Garmin HRM/GPS. My Polar 510 was good at the time I bought it (early 2000s) but downloading was a pain. My Polar 625 was a complete pain in the a$$ from start to finish. There were so many things that did not work on that damn HRM that I was completely frustrated before I started any exercise. The frustration grew afterwards because you couldn't download the file in a single attempt. Then Polar added to the frustration and grief by providing no customer support for their stupid product. I cut my losses and bought a Garmin 305. Great unit, easy transitions, easy downloads, Mac compatible. There is nothing not to like. I now have a Garmin 705 which has even better GPS capabilities and is ANT+ compatible, meaning that it reads data from my PowerTap as well. On the few occasions I have dealt with Garmin customer support, they have been very good and expedient. I am an unabashed Garmin fan after my great experiences with Garmin and bad experiences with Polar products and customer support.

 

[philcrisp]

Lighting

I can only get out dark most of the year? Do any of the above have lit displays?

 

[Michielveedeebee]

I can only get out dark most of the year? Do any of the above have lit displays?

The Garmins have

 

[Michielveedeebee]

Well i'm seriously thinking about buying a garmin, but the only problem is the price... My dad uses one and it's really good, but being only 18 it's quite an expensive thing to buy even if it's 'just' the 500

But thanks for the feedback ;-)

 

[rroguee]

Having recently purchased the Garmin Edge 500, I have to say it's worth the money.

If you're in Australia you can look online at the big UK websites and should be able to pick it up for around the $300 mark.

I was previously using the Polar CS200Cad which wasn't a bad PC at all, but the Garmin blows it away in terms of functionality and generally being 'nice' to use. All your data can be easilly loaded to a PC whenever you want to charge the computer, plus you get the bonus of being able to throw in a PowerTap some time in the future and not having to change your setup.

If you're limited in terms of funds, the Polar CS200Cad is online for around $150, and does Heartrate, Cadence and Speed, and covers most of the functions you 'need'. The Garmin if you can wait a bit longer and save a bit more covers everything you need as well as everything you don't need. The 705 with the mapping is 'nice' but i'm not sure how often you'd really need the on-screen maps unless you're the kind of cyclist who likes to explore on your rides, and has a terrible sense of direction

 

[St. Elia]

My question is how did polar blow it so badly!!!! For me anyway I don't really use the GPS (although I did in Europe last summer) it just works so much better then the polar and they had the market for years. They really screwed up if you ask me.

To the OP, if your dad has one you should steel his or at least ask him for one for your BD. In my opinion, and it seems others as well, it's the best one you can get. By the way you can find a edge 305 for about $200 so not that expensive really

 

[usedtobefast]

i have been using Polar for 20 plus years. great quality. i change batteries myself, which is infrequent. no issues, ever.

 

[pjoien]

I work at small shop in the midwest. I cannot recommend against getting a Polar enough. Over the past 2 years we have had approximately 40% of our Polars returned with faulty cadence sensors. In addition, set up is incredibly finicky compared to other computers that we carry i.e. Garmin, Cateye, Blackburn... etc.

 

[Michielveedeebee]

My question is how did polar blow it so badly!!!! For me anyway I don't really use the GPS (although I did in Europe last summer) it just works so much better then the polar and they had the market for years. They really screwed up if you ask me.

To the OP, if your dad has one you should steel his or at least ask him for one for your BD. In my opinion, and it seems others as well, it's the best one you can get. By the way you can find a edge 305 for about $200 so not that expensive really

Well that's just it i got the bike for my BD i've got to buy the rest myself

 

[Michielveedeebee]

My question is how did polar blow it so badly!!!! For me anyway I don't really use the GPS (although I did in Europe last summer) it just works so much better then the polar and they had the market for years. They really screwed up if you ask me.

To the OP, if your dad has one you should steel his or at least ask him for one for your BD. In my opinion, and it seems others as well, it's the best one you can get. By the way you can find a edge 305 for about $200 so not that expensive really

And 200€ ( i'm european) still is quite a lot of money

 

[Anonymous]

Anything but Polar