SUUNTO/Garmin Edge 705/QUARQ

Triathlon Forum
1

OK,
Still looking for the perfect electronic data capture of performance for racing and training. The following are my criteria as far as required and nice to have.

Required

  1. Waterproof watch that I can start a chronograph at the start of a swim.
  2. Accurate PM, HR, speed, distance displayed on a separate bike computer. (Hate turning my wrist)
  3. Run with HR/time.
  4. One HRM strap

Nice to have
HR works on swim for post race swim analysis
Pace on run without separate GPS POD
All MAC Compatible (Heck, just forget that idea)

Options:

Let’s start with Power, as that is the most limiting…

Polar-have a CS600 with power for bike and a RS 800 for Run. Love it, but power is not functioning accurately on my felt DA in the large chain ring. Think it is the distance of the device from the chain and the angled chain stay as it used to work well on a LOOK KG 486 with much straighter/closer chain stay. Have read all the solutions and have determined Polar is not the solution. Wish they were ANT+, not WIND.

PT-Have race wheels and training wheels. Want to race with Zipps, realize I can put on a cover to race, but don’t want to ride zipps on trainer which is where I spend my winter. Also don’t want box wheels with cover for race. PT Out.

SRM-I’ve already spent too much…

Quarq-looks promising. Quarq with a Garmin 705. ANT+ sport technology. Bike check. Run, Garmin 405, oops, not waterproof. Uncheck.

Quarq, Garmin 705, Suunto T6C??? The strap is ANT+, is the strap compatible with the Garmin 705??? Must add a GPS or footpod for run pace, but this just might do it.

Am I insane???

All comments appreciated including, “your so slow none of this will help, but go stimulate the economy anyway.”

2

OK,
Still looking for the perfect electronic data capture of performance for racing and training. The following are my criteria as far as required and nice to have.

Required

  1. Waterproof watch that I can start a chronograph at the start of a swim.
  2. Accurate PM, HR, speed, distance displayed on a separate bike computer. (Hate turning my wrist)
  3. Run with HR/time.
  4. One HRM strap

Nice to have
HR works on swim for post race swim analysis
Pace on run without separate GPS POD
All MAC Compatible (Heck, just forget that idea)

Options:

Let’s start with Power, as that is the most limiting…

Polar-have a CS600 with power for bike and a RS 800 for Run. Love it, but power is not functioning accurately on my felt DA in the large chain ring. Think it is the distance of the device from the chain and the angled chain stay as it used to work well on a LOOK KG 486 with much straighter/closer chain stay. Have read all the solutions and have determined Polar is not the solution. Wish they were ANT+, not WIND.

PT-Have race wheels and training wheels. Want to race with Zipps, realize I can put on a cover to race, but don’t want to ride zipps on trainer which is where I spend my winter. Also don’t want box wheels with cover for race. PT Out.

SRM-I’ve already spent too much…

Quarq-looks promising. Quarq with a Garmin 705. ANT+ sport technology. Bike check. Run, Garmin 405, oops, not waterproof. Uncheck.

Quarq, Garmin 705, Suunto T6C??? The strap is ANT+, is the strap compatible with the Garmin 705??? Must add a GPS or footpod for run pace, but this just might do it.

Am I insane???

All comments appreciated including, “your so slow none of this will help, but go stimulate the economy anyway.”

How about just shimming your Polar power module up so that the chain is never further than 25-30mm from the top of the module and always passes over an ~1.5" square centered over the “middle” mark on the module?

3

Thanks, but by my measurement that would be about a 3 cm shim to get to within 2.5-3cm and keep everything in alignment. That’s a lot of rubber making for one beefy Chain Stay…

4

Thanks, but by my measurement that would be about a 3 cm shim to get to within 2.5-3cm and keep everything in alignment. That’s a lot of rubber making for one beefy Chain Stay…

Just in case you don’t know this, but the module itself doesn’t need to be “level”…the only portion of the module that needs to be within 25-30mm minimum is that ~1.5" square area I mentioned above. Even with a steeply angled chainstay (as it appears the DA has) there’s no need to shim up the front part of the module any more than the rear.

“Alignment”, in reference to a Polar power module is just taking care of the dimension we’ve been talking about and also making sure that the crank magnet/cadence mark are close enough. Making the thing “level” or even parallel with the bike centerline is really not necessary.

5

Tom,
Thanks for the help and advise. Wasn’t thinking of leveling, but it probably does decrease the size of the shim to 1.5-2cm. Still a significant shim. Worth a try, but not sure I will like the solution. Again, though, thanks.

6

Hello Floatcoastwalk and All,

I have been thinking about the same thing and have arrived at using what is available now - and there will no doubt be better choices in the near future.

I chated with Polar and they are not planning any ANT units at present.

Reminds me of the 8 track vs 4 track and DVD vs Blu Ray wars.

Maybe a way to marginalize Polar.

Anyway …

Polar sd800 for swim with WIND chest strap. (I don’t know if it will record accurately in the water but I am not too interested in this data.)

Polar T31 strap for SRM V bike computer.

Polar sd800 for run with WIND chest strap.

To avoid two different chest straps put both T31 and WIND transmitters on one strap.

Later if I go to SRM VI it uses ANT and I can use same set up with both an ANT and WIND transmitter on same strap.

And later still if I go with SRM VI and Garmin 705 and some Garmin run computer then one ANT heartrate strap will do the job.

Cheers,

Neal

7

G’day,

Gone through the same thought process and a little research. And what I’ve come up with is the Suunto T6c/SRM VI setup, With the suunto memory belt you can record the swim heartrate data on the belt itself as it both records and transmits if you wish. Since the SRM VI can come with the suunto hrt belt it is compatible with the Suunto T6c and memory belt, so you’ll get all the cycling data needed. Then if you are wearing the T6c for the whole event it will pick up a foot pod or GPS pod for the run. So in the end you’ll have swim/bike/run-hrt data on the memory belt, bike-power,speed,cadence,altitude,hrtdata on the SRM VI computer, and bike-speed,cadence,altitude,hrt data, run-speed,altitude,hrt data all recorded on the T6c. Sounds complicated but the T6c/memory belt/SRM VI is very simple but VERY EXPENSIVE.

Even though the T6c is ANT+ it is a propriety communication and I’ve been told by QuarQ that it won’t work with their system (my preferred setup) but I’ve been told by both Suunto and SRM that it will work with Wireless SRMVI power meter.

Hope this helps

Peace
PeterP

8

What about the new Timex ANT+ watch, with the Cinqo Powermeter + Garmin 705 for the ride - does anyone know for sure if the Timex HRM strap will be picked up by the Garmin 705 on the ride? You dont get the speed, but at least you tick 2 out of 3 boxes?

I’m looking at this option, keeping the Timex on one wrist for the run and adding the Garmin 405 for the IM run. Just trying to get confirmation the Timex ANT+ will be compat with everything above?

9

If you want a HRM that you can swim with, you can use Suunto with a memory belt or a Polar unit with a non-WIND belt. If you don’t care about heart rate during the swim you can use Polar WIND which is also waterproof. The Polar WIND strap will not work with any Power meter except the Polar one, but it really souldn’t be an issue to have HR on one device and power on another. For cycling, if you have power you don’t need heart rate, so forget about HR during the bike and use it again on the run.

I don’t know anything about SRM, but a Powertap or Cinqo/Edge 705 both use the same ANT+ strap which is not compatible with Suunto or Polar. So only a Garmin running device would have a heart rate strap compatible with these devices, and the only Garmin that you can swim with is the Forerunner 50. While you can swim with the Forerunner 50 it won’t work during a race because it loses the HR signal during the swim (2.4gHz doesn’t travel through water well) and then won’t pick it up out of the water without stopping the watch and restarting it. I think Suunto will automatically pick up the signal out of the water and with Polar WIND you press a few buttons for the find feature. You would use the find feature for picking up the run sensor when you head out on the run as well.

I think you should choose a Polar or Suunto for the Swim/Run and a seperate device for the bike and don’t worry about the fact that the heart rate strap is incompatible.