On Feb 27, 5:08 am, markm75 <
[email protected]> wrote:
> Can anyone recommend a HR monitor (wristwatch and strap) for under $40
> that does all this and gets good, consistent readings.. Preferably one
> that doesnt need wet or gels etc..
>
> Any thoughts out there?
>
> Thanks
I had a Ciclosport HAC4 that did all that and a vast amount more; it
is a heart rate monitor, an Alpine computer and a bike computer all in
one. It cost 300 Euro and lasted less than three years before it
broke. I didn't use all its functions and found its lack of sturdiness
unacceptable even now they're down to under a hundred Euro at the
discounters.
I replaced it the HAC4 with a Sigma PC9 which cost around 42 Euro from
my local convenient bike part pusher, Chainreaction (their USP is
the very valuable zero delivery charge on top of good prices and fast
response). The Sigma PC seems sturdy and works very conveniently once
you have worked out the logic of the five buttons. It has everything
you want, except that you will have to catch the max and min heartrate
on the screen as it happens, because its report is aimed at telling
you how long you were in each of three bands which you can set
manually or permit it to set for you once you tell it your age and
your weight. It does report the average heart rate, time, calories
burned, and has cumlative stores for time exercising and calories
burned. The stop watch can be paused. It reports in either metric or
imperial measures.
I'll tell you what I miss on the PC9 from the multitudinous features
of the HAC4, and you can judge from that how good the PC9 is: I miss
the altimeter and the temperature and I used the countdown function a
couple of times when I first got the HAC4 but later would just watch
the clock to see if three minutes elapsed to see how my heart rate
settled down when I stopped. All those facilities are trival. To a
more serious exerciser or rider, the computer link of the HAC4 might
be useful but I merely used it as a gimmick to send my physician,
who's a chum and a biker, snapshots of rides. The HAC4 has a semi-
useless backlight that stays on for about a second at a time. The PC4
has no light but I taped a cheap booklight to the handlebars to light
it permanently; much more convenient if you regulate your pedalling by
your heartrate rather than by cadence.
In short, the PC9 has more than enough features for a heart rate
monitor, it works well, it seems sturdy enough, the buttons are
suitable for pressing with gloves, the display is good to read with
alphanumerical as well as bar graph reports, I do not see that the
breast belt is any more cheaply-made than the one that comes with the
elite HAC4 (for which a replacement belt costs more than the entire
Sigma PC9...). I don't understand your remark about consistency; I
would expect consistency because the relevant electronics are cheap;
and in fact the PC9 reports the same heartrate at the same speed on
known hills.
HTH.
Andre Jute
http://members.lycos.co.uk/fiultra/BICYCLE & CYCLING.html
