And an iPhone instead of a smart watch?
Do they work well – my Forerunner is doing my head in!

Any issues ?

Thanks

A colleague has the Soschi and prefers it to a chest band.

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2019/04/optical-heart-rate-sensor-armband-shootout-schosche24-polaroh1-wahoo-tickr-fit.html

What’s bothering you about the forerunner – the dodgy HR data? I wear mine upside down now and HR seems much more reliable.

I’m about to buy one. Don’t find HRM chest straps work for me on bikes outside.

My issues with the Forerunner – it so “only” a 235 . It has most of the function I want but:
A) it switches its self off regularly _ so you lose big bits of you ride. I am guessing it is wrist on handlebar pressing the off switch. So interested in how exactly you wear it upside down!
B) the optical HRM is all over the place -it under reads often – so returning odd data re effort to, she. You know it has been much hard than that!
C) with an external HRM chest band it is still all over place …. I did a mega ride (for me) the other day, and it returned 800 calories used and my HR never got above 90!

Other than that it does most things I want and I don’t want to spend 400 GBP on another fitness watch. I always carry my iPhone with me – so hence the question. Would an iPhone with a wahoo band be a better tool?

I’ve got a Tickr for using it with Zwift; seems reasonably accurate; definitely better than the optical HRM on my Garmin; which seems less accurate on the treadmill/zwift than outdoors for no obvious reason !

Assuming the Forerunner is the same as my Fenix I have to wear it on my right wrist in order to avoid hitting the Stop button mid activity/ride when my wrist flexes back.
The Fenix optical HRM is woeful for anything involving your hands or arms..so pretty much everything.

Could you run the watch on the ‘wrong’ wrist to avoid the button press issue? You could then pair the Wahoo HRM to it in place of the wrist HR.

Edit: Just the the post above with the same suggestion :/

My Garmin instinct has an option to auto lock buttons during an activity. A long press unlocks the buttons, they then relock after no presses in a while. I had it occasionally stop before i set this, never since.

For a wrist HRM to work you need it strapped on really tight, i use a chest HRM for the road and my watch on mtb and I would guess they are reading broadly the same. When I first got it it was relatively loose and it’d only ever get up to 140ish, on tight it’ll read 180 max (and the max i have on chest strap is 183)

I have to wear it on my right wrist in order to avoid hitting the Stop button mid activity/ride when my wrist flexes back.

I’ve set a hotkey shortcut for a button lock to stop any chance of this happening. In my case pressing the bottom left and top right button together locks / unlocks the screen. Two button press so it’s hard to accidentally toggle it but the position of the buttons make it a “squeeze the watch” motion so easy to use.

BTW, I also find the option HR to be no use for exercise. At low HR’s its fine but at higher HR’s its nowhere near so I wear a chest strap for “proper” exercise.

Am curious about the arm straps and will likely take a look when the current chest strap eventually dies or one appears in a significant sale etc.

Okay – i will try by putting it on the wrong wrist – that makes sense re the “stop” button. I will also look at ways of how to “lock” the buttons.
Glad to know the same thing happens on a Fenix ( and I guess the Venu) – as that is what I was looking at as a replacement.

As someone says above the HRM is fine for normal HRs – but when it gets above about 125, with mine its starts jumping around – unit can be 146 on second, then 113 etc. Hence using the external band.

I just wonder of the optical wahoo will be as flaky

I just wonder of the optical wahoo will be as flaky

Me too! I can see 180+ Via a chest HRM whereas the watch sensor is reporting around 120ish.

I’ve got a ticker fit (the optical one) that I wear on my upper arm to capture heat rate data (on my phone) when riding. I can’t say I’ve ever had any real problems with it, though at one point I though I had killed it. In the end I got a warranty replacement unit sent out to “fix” the issue but once that arrived I worked out that it was just be the charging cable that had given up.

Can’t say I’ve ever compared the output to another sensor, as I don’t have a smart watch and never got on with the chest strap sensors, but looking back over it after a ride or a session on the turbo it always seems to be doing what you would expect without any odd jumps or drop outs in the data. I’ve also fairly regularly seen readings of 190 bpm + when riding so I doubt it suffers in the same way as some of the watch sensors.

Edit:

Here is a capture from a ride I did not too long ago, the section that looks like a dropout in the middle is where I’ve stopped for a rest between laps and strava has auto-paused the data.

As someone says above the HRM is fine for normal HRs – but when it gets above about 125, with mine its starts jumping around – unit can be 146 on second, then 113 etc. Hence using the external band.

it depends on moles, hair etc, but I had those problems and they were pretty much solved by tightening the strap super tight.

I’m using one for when using trainer road with the iPad and I’ve also used it out mtb a few times.

To answer the OP’s question, yes they do work well, more comfortable than a chest strap and consistent. Can’t really comment on the accuracy, but it’s readings do tend to reflect the effort I’m putting in.

I had a polar optical armband. It was ok, but often took frustratingly long to “lock in” to a good reading when my HR changed rapidly, better than a wrist HR but the same basic issue. It was fine on long, consistent rides but disappointing when i was doing any interval type exercise.

I’ve found the best solution is a chest HR, backed up with generous quantities of ECG gel.