I got curious about how hard I work on my ebike so took my heart rate manually at a few different points when commuting last week. And then did some reading about all that zone stuff. That’s got me curious about if I can get on the fly readings from a watch so I can turn my commute into something that benefits my fitness in a more organised way. Do heart rate watches even work?

Pretty variable, a lot depends on your skin tone/amount of hair etc. I’ve got a Garmin and it’s ok up to about low zone 3 but it just doesn’t seem to spot when I am working hard.

You could use a watch with an optical HR sensor that gives you a constant read out, and can subsequently download. If you’re going to do that you might as well go for one th records your GPS trace.

Alternatively you can buy yourself a Bluetooth or ANT+ heart rate chest strap and hook that up with an app on your phone (polar beat or strava)

Great for geeking out once you get into it and can use for training and fitness monitoring.

“ Pretty variable, a lot depends on your skin tone/amount of hair etc”

I’m fairly pale and not very hairy and my wrist veins are pretty obvious, so I’d hope that helps?

“it just doesn’t seem to spot when I am working hard”

I found when trying to count manually I couldn’t count fast enough – plus heart rate drops so quickly whilst one finds the pulse and gets the watch in sight. But I need a proper max HR to do any of the zone stuff.

“ Alternatively you can buy yourself a Bluetooth or ANT+ heart rate chest strap and hook that up with an app on your phone (polar beat or strava)”

I’ll have a look into them too. Presumably they’re v reliable/accurate?

I guess I’d need either a watch or a watch+chest strap combo if I want to aim for certain heart rates – I commute on MTBs and I don’t think I’d want my iPhone out on the bars waiting to be smashed when something goes wrong on the more interesting moments on my extended commutes!

How about one of these Amazfits from Argos? at £19 worth a try?

The Xiaomi fitness bands are cheap & get good reviews. Might be worth a try?

Chest straps FTW still (IMO)…

Part of the reason I prefer having a bar mounted Garmin (with a chest strap) for riding is because I can keep the HR zone as a headline field and at a glance know if I’m doing ok or getting close to my ticker’s limit.

I’ve hung onto my edge 25 for the simple reason that it’s fine up to say four hours use, so dinky and simple and talks to ANT+ sensors. If you can find one going cheap 2nd hand it’s probably not a bad tool for commuting and shorter rides.

I also got myself an old forerunner 25 because it’s essentially the same thing repackaged for running (would also do for riding).

But yeah, if you’re looking for cheap options, go for “obsolete” Garmin models with ANT+ and a chest strap…

Chest strap to phone

Used suunto on ambit3 are cheap a chips

Ok they were looked like they covid taxed as well

Chest strap to phone

Yep, this is probably the best cheap option if you’re wanting to know what your heart is up to following a ride, combined with an app that records the GPS and HR data it’s the easiest way to see just how hard you’re working on a given climb, that flat section into the wind or just generally… What you do with that information is a different question of course.

In general wrist based HR watches aren’t as good for cycling as chest straps. My understanding is that the vibration upsets the optical sensors. Certainly for my Fenix 5 it’s terrible if I use it on it’s own when compared to a chest strap.

Sorry for the thread hijack, but what’s the go to, cheaper chest strap?

Decathlon chest strap is cheap. Has worked fine for 2+ years of heavy zwift use for me so far with just one battery change.

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/heart-rate-monitor-belt-encoded-non-encoded/_/R-p-X8316298

Optical on my watch when cycling is a joke.

Been using the Coospo H6 for a few years, ANT+ and Bluetooth, worked great besides when battery about to die.

~£24 Prime today, cheapest it’s been in the last month, apparently.

another vote for Decathlons own brand chest strap…seems to have very good compatability…mostly use mine with phone for indoor sessions to check perceived effort matches reality for outdoors use with a Lezyne GPS so can see what am doing don’t like having phone exposed to weather but i guess if got an old one in drawer or can pick up 2nd hand one maybe a cheap option – use for recovery more often than outdoor training though do have a local (traffic light/junction free) park hill loop… I’d look at 2nd hand garmin that shows HR or back to Decathlon see they have a Bryton for £55 probably cheaper double check works with Kalenji HRM but can’t think why not

If you use a watch and HR strap, and want to use zones to train, many of the polar watches have a Zone pointer display where a heart icon moves between zones 1 thro 5 to tell you what zone you are in at that moment. You can also choose your data fields to see the actual HR number alongside the zone display.

THis is a really nice way of training as a quick look tells you whether you are in your target zone or not. If you have set up a session to train in a specific zone, the watch will also beep if you are under or over your target zone.

Not sure if watches from other brands provide similar options.

This might not be your cheapest option, but it does work extremely well.

Wrist HR on my fenix 5 is fine when I’m sat still. As soon as I run/ride I’d be as well making the numbers up.

Chest strap ftw.

Upper arm strap is probably more accurate than wrist for cycling. There is a quite cheap one from Coospo, don’t know if any good?

I’m pretty pleased with the base model Garmin strap, but it’s ANT+ and phone support for ANT+ dropped off as Bluetooth improved.

or back to Decathlon see they have a Bryton for £55

I heartily recommend you don’t buy a Bryton. Great pricing, good battery life, but Abysmal interfacing app, non-existent support and (relative to Garmin) unintuitive user interface and setup of the device. They might have improved since I tried them but jeebus they made an art of ballsing up a potentially brilliant product IMO…