I grew up bicycling, and returned to it semi seriously many times. Gear is important, and the changes in gear have been stunning. I remember my first good road bike, splurging for clipless shoes and pedals. My first cycling computer. A tiny Cateye thing. Worked great, put several thousand miles on it.
Fast forward to today. Cycling computers are so 1990's. There are still dedicated cycling computers, with Garmin making some strong contenders.
However, the competition from a good smartphone is fierce. Built in GPS, accelerometers, mapping, and an always on internet connection combine to make it formidable. However, the smartphone's achilles heel is not having sensors for wheel speed, cadence, and heart rate.
No more is that an issue. Wahoo Fitness makes a line of cadence, speed sensors, heart rate sensors, and even a really cool device that mounts on the handlebars and mirrors what their app is displaying, so you don't have to keep the phone on your handlebars.
I currently have the Heart Rate sensor and the Speed and Cadence sensor. They both connect via Bluetooth, and are compatible with several tracker applications on your phone.
Connecting the sensors is easy, they pair painlessly, and are recognized in both the Wahoo Fitness tracker application, as well as in the Strava application. Several others are listed, but these are the two I use.
It is a huge advantage to track these signals. As a heart attack survivor, it is doubly helpful to track my heart rate. It is good to monitor ramp rates, peak effort, and other statistics that are important to track.
There is a downside though. The heart rate monitor sensor is a battery hog. I have yet to get more than 2 months out of a fresh CR2032 battery. My old Polar heart rate monitor went at least 9 months of nearly daily jogging.
Still, it is a good time to be a cyclist.
