Smart Watch for biking?

Why not just track your biking on your phone? I like my original Pebble watch for superior podcast control w/ it's physical buttons. Can FF through ads.

thrashertm wrote: ↑ Why not just track your biking on your phone? I like my original Pebble watch for superior podcast control w/ it's physical buttons. Can FF through ads.

The great thing about the watch is quick glances to see progress and other data....when it's not crashing. When it works, it works awesome and love Google Fit. I thought of mounting my phone on my handle bars but I will probably yeet myself. I literally restarted biking after 20 years of not.

One thing I find when cycling is that heart rate is an important metric and watches with wrist-based heart rate are often not accurate enough because of the way wrists are placed on the handlebars. Also, it's somewhat inconvenient to look at your wrist while you're cycling at 25 KMs per hour. I personally use a refurb Garmin Forerunner 910XT on my handlebars for cycling but it isn't a smartwatch. Newer Forerunners have smartwatch capabilities. I use a Garmin Vivoactive 3 as a smartwatch and I'm very happy with it. One thing about Garmin is it doesn't integrate properly with Google Fit.

Why not consider a Garmin Edge bike computer instead? The cheapest one with GPS would probably be the Edge 130 for about $250 retail although it occasionally goes on sale for much less. Also use a chest strap for heart rate. Also, if you want to try another (Android) app, try the free Wahoo Fitness app from Google Play. There's also Strava.

Phils wrote: ↑ One thing I find when cycling is that heart rate is an important metric and watches with wrist-based heart rate are often not accurate enough because of the way wrists are placed on the handlebars. Also, it's somewhat inconvenient to look at your wrist while you're cycling at 25 KMs per hour. I personally use a refurb Garmin Forerunner 910XT on my handlebars for cycling but it isn't a smartwatch. Newer Forerunners have smartwatch capabilities. I use a Garmin Vivoactive 3 as a smartwatch and I'm very happy with it. One thing about Garmin is it doesn't integrate properly with Google Fit.

Why not consider a Garmin Edge bike computer instead? The cheapest one with GPS would probably be the Edge 130 for about $250 retail although it occasionally goes on sale for much less. Also use a chest strap for heart rate. Also, if you want to try another (Android) app, try the free Wahoo Fitness app from Google Play. There's also Strava.

I saw the Garmin however I'm not that level of a cyclist....yet. I'm the "Oh awesome I hit 10km today in less than an hour" cyclist.

restartRFD wrote: ↑ I think this is the best subforum for this question.

I currently have a Skagen Falster 2, when it was posted up on RFD last spring on sale. Its a really nice watch but not a nice smartwatch...It looks and feels great but....smart features sometimes work.

I just got back into biking and found it motivational to have my ride tracked, Google Fit does a great job but my watch loses GPS signal sometimes, the Google Fit app on the watch crashes out and battery life....basically I have to make sure it's fully charged before I ride as one ride eats 30-50%.

I'm looking at something $150 or less, but the Amazfit's look great for $65-85.

Looking for Google Fit compatibility, GPS and it's okay if it's a bit ugly, I'll keep my Skagen anyways.

Any other casual cyclists with suggestions?

Get Strava app to your phone, and a phone mount for your handlebar. Done.

cRaZyRaVr wrote: ↑ Get Strava app to your phone, and a phone mount for your handlebar. Done.

I use an old phone mounted on the bike with the Wahoo app for my rides and upload my stats to Strava at the end of the day. I went with Wahoo because it allows me to track cadence which I couldn't with the Strava app. The only issue I have with this setup is that the phone battery is drained on longer rides.

restartRFD wrote: ↑ I saw the Garmin however I'm not that level of a cyclist....yet. I'm the "Oh awesome I hit 10km today in less than an hour" cyclist.

You could get something cheaper like a Lezyne if you don't want to use your phone.

Update in case anyone else looking for something similar

I came across the Amazfit GTR 2e from B&H, including shipping/customs/currency taxes it came to $182. It's not sold officially in Canada and even the unofficial ones were $200+ plus tax.

Great smartwatch although it lacks the aethestics of WearOS and Skagen's watch faces.....it's a solid smartwatch, super slick and insane battery life. I have all the features turned on and getting at least 5-6 days battery life. I will turn off stress monitoring and sleep, which would give me two weeks. Strap is borderline crap, but a quick shopping trip to aliexpress and a few dollars later I have way better silicone and nylon watch bands to swap.

Fitness tracking is spot on, good enough for casual folks but definitely not the same as a Fitbit or Garmin that costs 3-4 times more. GPS accuracy was great and gets signal fast. For cycling, I really love the auto-pause feature so it doesn't count idle time or breaks. I wish there was more UI customization, or I haven't found it yet. App could be better, it's not horrible but definitely better than the other China smartwatch brands (xiaomi, Huawei) in this area.