Seeking more help from the board. I am intrigued by the GPS based Timex Bodylink system. Simple question: Does it work? The idea of real ime speed, distance and heart rate evaluation while I run is very intriguing to me.
Any input is greatly appreciated.
I have been using the new Timex Performance Monitor for about two weeks of pretty havy training. It interfaces the heart rate monitor with the GPS unit. There is also a download module I don;t have yet, but ordered. Yesterday I wore the unit during the Flagstar Detroit Free Press International Marathon. I was the leader for the elite women’s field, providing security and navigational assistance escorting the elite women’s leader of the race. The system worked flawlessly even in an urban environment where maintaining a GPS lock with three satelites was tricky. The system is highly accurate, reliable, easy to use and a great resource. I love mine. It is super cool. I wrote a review of the first system but never published it on our website since this new system was coming out. I’m impressed.
I’m curious, a lot of people have said that it’s very accurate, but what do changes in elevation do to it. I’ve used GPS stuff in the past, but they can only accuratly monitor speed and distance when things are totally flat. When you go up hill or down a hill it can only see displacement. Has Timex worked around this?
-Gopher = Bad sense of direction
That is an issue. I’ve worked extensively with GPS in all climates, terrains and areas of the world, from Africa to Vietnam to Antarctica, from the desert and ice cap to the mountains in South America and Jungles in Southeast Asia.
In general, a “2D” or “3D” GPS fix does not allow for elevation changes in its computation of horizontal distance. If you go from the base camp at Mt. Everest to the summit I believe it is around 7 miles (South Col Route) as the crow flies, but a net elevation gain of approximately 2 miles- in an environment like that GPS depiction of distance covered will not be accurate, but your positional fix (latitude/longitude) will be.
So, for you and I, the system is super accurate over flat, rolling and even hilly terrain. As the distance increases and the terrain becomes mountainous there is some “drift” in accuracy owing to the distance covered going up and down as opposed to just horizontally.
My expereince is that this is nominal. It is still amazingily accurate for my purposes.
I use the Timex system and love it. But what I really want from the system is my altitude and the net elevation gain/loss for my run. I live in San Francisco and this number can be significant. I believe handheld GPS units can provide this info, no? I imagine it would just be a little more product development for the Timex folks to add this feature. And then the product could compete with the altimeter watches on the market.
Tom, I was wondering: can the Timex tell you your absolute position (i.e. lat. and long.) or does it just keep track of the distance traveled? If it can give the absolute position, I would use it with a map while backpacking, for example. Thanks, Nate
It is worth mentioning that most watches that compute altitude do so using barometric pressure, and are highly susceptible to changes in the weather/barometric pressure. That affects their accuracy as far as elevation gain/loss, especially if a weather front is moving through.
No, the Timex unit does not provide a positional fix. When I need that information I use a Garmin hand held unit.
Is the HRM of the TIMEX Bodylink system any good?
On previous “discussions” on HRM’s it was stated that TIMEX’s HRM’s were second-rate compared to POLAR. Maybe they have improved with this latest Bodylink release.
Fascinating to have time/speed/distance and HR in a system - provided the HR is reliable. Lot of money to spend if the HRM is not.
Hairy Legs
My expereince with the HRM on the Timex system has been entirely positive, and I have used the Polar units, a number of models. Perhaps my only criticism is the monitor belt itself is rather small, and you need to be certain it is precisely positioned on your chest and the pickups are very wet and stay wet when they are in contact with your skin. The first time I used the HRM in connection with the GPS I momentlarily lost HRM signal because it was branze-ball cold out and I wasn;t sweating yet. There wasn;t enough moisture for the HRM signal to conduct. Once I got good and funky with my own juices the signal was fine. I lost about 9 minutes of HRM function. Since then I have licked the HRM pick-ups before putting the belt on. It has worked perfectly ever since. The accuracy and responsiveness to changes in heart rate are identical to Polar based on my experience with each.
Tom, thanks for the reply.
I have held buying a HRM until I get some feedback on the Bodylink. Seems that it is indeed good on all counts.
I guess you only have one choice in HRM model/type with the Bodylink system - so does it have all/most of the functions of the various POLAR HRM’s? Zones, Own Code, etc etc.
TIA
Hairy Legs
I’m curious, a lot of people have said that it’s very accurate, but what do changes in elevation do to it. I’ve used GPS stuff in the past, but they can only accuratly monitor speed and distance when things are totally flat. When you go up hill or down a hill it can only see displacement. Has Timex worked around this?
-Gopher = Bad sense of direction
Uh…let’s consult with Pythagorus on this one.
One mile flat = 5,280 feet. One mile at 6% grade = 5,289.5 feet. So, yes, the unit might not account for that extra 9.5 feet. That is 0.18%. Meaning that if you actually climbed that hill on your bike at 10.00 mph, the unit might say you only went 9.98 mph. Or, if you ran the hill in 9:00:00 minutes, the unit might only credit you for a pace of 9:01:62.
Now … do we *really *worry that it’s so far off in the hills?
Quick review…
The thing flat-out works. HR monitor is spot-on and the speed-distance unit seems almost absurdly accurate. The pace-smoothing is nice, since it takes an average of the last 10 seconds or so – the pace it reads to you doesn’t jump around so much that way. I set the automatic splits for 1 mile and can do a quick review of how my pacing went after the run. I don’t have the data upload device (couldn’t see a need for it).
I set the watch to show pace, HR and total distance. There are many other choices available (mph, time, avg. speed, avg. pace, etc…)
I’ve used it to certify all my favorite loops and routes. I also use it to slow down in the first third of a long run, where it’s easy to go too fast if I’m feeling good; I also use it to hold pace in the final few miles of a long run, where it’s easy to slow way down. I’m only really using it these days for long runs on trails. I’m trying to do a different – and new – long run route each week. Since each trail is so different, I take the unit along to check distances and pace. For everyday runs, I find no need to wear the GPS unit.
The only inaccuracy I find is if the trail is very, very winding (like switchbacks). It will tend to round off the corners in your total distance covered. No big deal.
I’m going to do running races with the GPS unit on this fall and winter to try and learn pacing a little better.
I have had no problems with the HRM feature on the Bodylink. I think it works just as well as the Polar. And I find the strap is a better fit for me than the Polar. The only caveat is if you have other devices (like a PowerTap) that work with your Polar strap. I have not been able to get the PT to work with the Timex strap.
I was disappointed in the HR zones, though. I assumed it would let you program in your own zones, but it does HR zones as a percentage of max HR. That would be great if they corresponded to the zones I use, but my HR zones are a percentage of LTHR, and in general are a smaller HR range than what the Bodylink uses. I had to fool around with the number I input for my max HR until I got one zone that pretty much corresponded to one of my HR zones. I think the Timex “Zone 3” is the same as my “Zone 2” now. None of the other zones are meaningful, though. It seems like it would have been pretty straightforward to allow you to manually input your own HR zones.
I am hoping that when the data recorder arrives (whenever that is!), uploading the data into my trainingbible.com account will break it down into my HR zones. Then I won’t care so much about the HR zones programmed into the watch.
I’ve had one for a few weeks now - got it at Trisports.com - and it is pretty good. I used it on the run - gave me excellent feedback, but my running was held up by an IT band injury. The results on the bike were not as great. It did a fantastic job on the hills - I climbed a pretty steep course a few times with it, and I have to say the mileage was pretty spot-on. Descending was a different story - the ride down has lots of switchbacks. The first time I used it, it worked very well, but the second time it lost the signal and must have had trouble re-acquiring the satellites because it said my ascent was 6.5 miles, and the descent was less than 2.
Another problem with using it on the bike is the battery life of the unit. I took it out for a 5 hour ride, and the batteries were pretty much toast at the end of it - though the distance was very accurate throughout the ride. I figure the batteries lasted 11-12 hours or so.
As for the HRM functions, it is far superior to the older Timex units, but still lacks the ability to enter more than one custom zone and does not provide you with a % of max HR reading. The strap is very comfortable and is much smaller than the earlier units.
I am really looking forward to the data collection device - this will help address the custom zones problem, and can give you some really useful data, especially when you are testing yourself on a known course - bike or run. It also uploads easily in to TrainingBible.com, which is nice.
In short, it is a great tool to use on the run, but costs too much to use on the bike with mixed results on accuracy. While it is not recommended for water, I am going to use it to measure my open water swimming distances - with the help of a canoe, of course.
John
Another problem with using it on the bike is the battery life of the unit. I took it out for a 5 hour ride, and the batteries were pretty much toast at the end of it - though the distance was very accurate throughout the ride. I figure the batteries lasted 11-12 hours or so.
Why not get a rechargeable battery unit? These days you can get a lot of juice out of Ni-MH batteries. I use rechargeables for my Timex GPS, my cordless mouse, and my mp3 player.
I feel sort of taken on my GPS unit. I got the watch and the GPS, and now if I want to “upgrade” to the Bodylink system I need to get everything except the GPS receiver, which I’m sure will be replaced soon by a smaller piece. Then it won’t be long until the separate GPS and watch units are integrated. So for now I wear my Polar HRM strap and watch on one hand and my Timex GPS unit and watch on my other arm and hand. It’s a total geek setup, but it’s really an item for geeks in the first place.
I suppose it’s like computers. You have to jump in somewhere and make your purchase and make due with it, rather than waiting for the latest advance in CPU speed. I bought the Timex GPS when it was a basic Pentium, and now they’ve introduced many GB more of product.
On your watch, go to configure mode, then HRM Settings. Then hit the set/format button. Then choose the manual mode (instead of Zone1, 2, etc.), and change the HR zones to whatever you want. Hope this helps - E
Why not get a rechargeable battery unit? These days you can get a lot of juice out of Ni-MH batteries. I use rechargeables for my Timex GPS, my cordless mouse, and my mp3 player.
The PITA principle. Without the data recorder, the GPS adds no value over my current bike computer, so why bother? Even with the data recorder I don’t see a big reason for using this unless it is to measure your progress over a regular course. Using it on long rides means lots of charging or changing batteries, which can be a PITA.
This is a post from Gear Fisher on the Trainingbible.com message board. Gear helped develop the software for the data recorder unit.
**Original Message Title: **Re: Anyone tried the new Timex Bodylink System?
Message Text:
Hi Thomas, first of all, you should know that TB was fortunate to work with Timex over the last 1.5 yrs on the development of the bodylink system. TB wrote the software that comes with the Data Recorder, which happens to upload nicely to the TB site. So, that said, I still can be pretty objective. First off, the actual Bodylink is really their 2nd generation of hardware, the “Speed + Distance” system was the first. The Bodylink is truly awesome. THe watch itself is stylish, pretty thin and easy to wear round the clock. It has a TON of functionality too, coolest of all, it can show Speed, Heart Rate and Pace all on the same screen. They made some updates to how the pace is calculated over the first watch and pace is considerable smoother now (it used to bounce around a bit). The watch really is a great instrument.
The other key piece is the Data Recorder. This little triangular unit intercepts the data signal from either the heart rate monitor, the gps unit or both to record your efforts as you go. NOTE: the DR only records your Speed, Distance and HR. It does not capture split times, time in zones etc, the software computes time in zone for you, but the splits are not recorded. This is a pretty big downside, but at the same time is overcome-able by recording your splits manually from the watch summary display. One really handy thing about the DR is that it will hold a TON of data. You can workout all week with it, then download on fridays to get all your data captured. It will store around 24 hours of continuous data.
The heart rate strap is also improved (actually 3rd generation) and is top notch, it’s digital signal won’t get mixed up by a group of people close to you using the same thing, I’ve had good luck not having it lose signal either. Some of the earlier models tended to “lock up” or lose signal in regular intervals.
The software that comes with it works ok for general logging and graphing, but is not really that fully featured to really analyze each workout. You can send your data easily to your TB.com account though 
Of all this said, this device brings “cyclometer” like functions to running, rollerblading, kayaking, hiking and any other “human” powered activity. It does so accurately too. Since it is GPS based, you will need a relatively clear view of the sky during your workouts. When I jog, I go through tunnels here and there, and that’s no problem, but if you workout in thick trees, on heavily wooded trails etc, it may have some problems. Overall, I think you will be pretty happy with this hardware.