My basic garmin chest strap has died so I need a replacement to pair with a garmin 510.

The garmin strap was a bit rubbish really and never stayed tight enough. I have a polar bluetooth one for running and its good so something similar, but ant+, would be ideal.

Thanks

Was it one of the premium ones? You can swap elastic between them, so a Garmin ‘unit’ will fit on a Polar strap.

No, not a premium one. The garmin one I have is the old one with the long plastic centre section, its not got a centre section to pop off.

But its not working anyway.

I’ve had a look and think wahoo and garmin are the only decent options really.

I might have one that still works, though i can only check it with a 310xt. Drop me an email to remind me to hunt for it tonight.

I found the Garmin premium strap to be really uncomfortable – it used to rub just on the bottom next to the sensor, to the point of drawing blood on one particularly long run. I’m not the only person, googling the problem revealed quite a few people had suffered from the same problem, along with some homemade fixes. Never came loose, though 🙂

It’s a pity the Suunto Ant+ strap isn’t compatible with Garmin (it uses some kind of special Finnish sauce when communicating), as that’s a lot more comfortable.

So I’d try Wahoo.

Might not have the rubbing issue if its for cycling though. But the wahoo is looking a good option. I’m impressed with the recent wahoo crank mounted cadence sensor I got so may well give that a go.

Might not have the rubbing issue if its for cycling though.

Oh, definitely a possibility – I’m sure Garmin tested the band before marketing it, and for the vast majority of people it’s not an issue. But if you’re happy with other Wahoo products I’d say go with there stuff. FWIW I think Decathlon sells one, too.

The Decathlon one is more comfy than my old Garmin one (though the Garmin one was never particularly uncomfortable to me), it’s also cheap and fully Ant+ compatible.

It’s also in the sale at a tenner!
http://www.decathlon.co.uk/ant-coded-digital-belt-id_8189560.html

cheers for the bargain alert tenacious_doug… I’ve just order one!

Both (1) of the recent Garmin HR pods fit (and work fine with) the Polar Wearlink+ strap – you’ll find the strap for <£15.00 online.

In my experience 🙄 this strap has been *far* more comfortable than any of the recent Garmin straps, plus when I switched over, I also suddenly lost all of the crazy random HR spikes I was seeing in my data too.

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(1) Including the HRM-Run pod from their current multi-sport watches.

The premium garmin strap doesn’t like crashing, mine supplied working after a little tumble, the standard one just keeps on working.

I have the garmin soft one and it’s great, don’t get the random spikes some people report and the strap is confortable. I don’t run it it though.

If I was buying again I’d be tempted by the Wahoo simply because it has bluetooth and Ant+ so would work with my 510 and my phone.