Suunto t6 experience?

They claim their product measures EPOC, VO2, EE, RespR, VE with a wristop device and a belt. Has anyone tried it?

www.suuntot6.com

 

Well, better late than never, I guess.

I finally decided to try this watch and I am VERY impressed! It is a great watch -- very user friendly to use, and the PC software is great. The whole system worked flawlessly right out of the box.

I am still learning and doing some research about EPOC, its usefulness and validity, but from what I have seen, I am sure glad I took the plunge and bought it.

 

How much was it?

Their marketing site is funny: www.hildegaardklinik.biz

see the video!

 

I bought it from www.backcountry.com for $449 US.

I am still learning the software, but so far it has worked exactly as described.

 

Out of stock... like in most places. Damn, I want one!

 

This web site says they are in stock:

http://www.hdosport.com/hdosport/suunto/t6.shtml

 

For anyone interested in the Suunto t6, it may also be useful to know that Suunto will have both bike and foot PODs available this fall which will make it possible to track distance and speed (both running and cycling) on the t6 along with the other data already available.

Currently you add mileage into the PC software manually for each workout, but the PODs will make that data automatically recorded.

I'm not exactly sure at this point how the POD will connect to the bike, but knowing Suunto, it will be a pretty neat gadget.

 

I've just looked at the HDO website and now I want one too!

 

Got this of a site called joereger.com and he puts the question much better than I could!

"Where they go off the deepend is with their claims of VO2 analysis. They claim to be able to tell me how much oxygen I'm using. And hor much respiration I'm doing. The pic of the Suunto T6 has a little gizmo coming out of it that looks like a pulse oximeter, but I doubt it is. Pulse oximeters have become critical to what anestesiologists do. Around the year 2000 I read reports of them putting one on Everest climbers. I can't help believe that this sort of data would be helpful to training. That said, I think that Suunto is not measuring directly... they're calculating off of heart rate. I come to this conclusion in two ways. First, they never say that they have a sensor to measure it directly. If they did I have to believe they'd mention it... it'd be new and novel. Second, they put up some scientific references that point to heart-rate-based inferrence of VO2 data. Their marketing materials are slick... almost too slick. And they oversimplify the training process into nice little "overtrained" and "undertrained" columns. While the data sounds nice, I'm skeptical on this thing. It looks like they're taking some base heart rate data and wrapping it with a lot of mathematical equations and fancy user interface."

It would be easy for Suunto to verify the accuracy of their VO2 and respiration figures by doing a lab test, do you know if this has been done? I am sure there are a number of people like me who would consider buying one if they were certain of the accuracy of the data

Sean

 

I was told they will publish the results in the internet too.

Thus far I've found out that all parameters calculated are 96 to 99% accurate.

 

When they do though, the standard deviation will tell you if it's worth while or not. e.g. when comparing HR to power at a high level (i.e. thousands of sample points) HR tracks power very well. However it can be way off (20%) for any single comparison. This is what makes training by power so much superior to training by HR.

 

I am not debating the benefits of training with power but wouldn't you like to have an accurate method of measuring your VO2 max? After all it's that which basically tells you what you will be capable of after all the power training!

Sean

 

I agree. It doesn't have to be an either/or decision. I love training with power when on the trainer, but I'm not interested in putting a power meter on the bike I use on the road.

More tools, more options, more information, more versatility.

 

BTW, it's not VO2 max they're talking about, it's VO2. If they could truly measure VO2 with 99% accuracy 99% of the time, this would be a very useful tool. However, because it's based on inferring VO2 by measuring HR and HR is so variable day to day, I'm betting that it's closer to being 95% accurate 80% of the time making it no more useful than HR.

 

Do you understand these researches?

www.firstbeattechnologies.com
--> Research background

Suunto says the product is based on these.

Please let me know.

Tom

 

Looks very impressive. However, I don't understand a word.

Can anyone confirm does the product do what Suunto claims it does?

Scientists?

 

Here's an interesting thread:

http://www.scienceforums.net/forums/showthread.php?p=95976

 

I've only read that one person has bought this. Has anyone else purchased it? Can someone post some screenshots of the software graphs? I am extremely tempted but can't quite justify the $450 price right now.