Rick53

All I need to a basic unit : I'd be fine if all it did was Miles and Speed : But I want to be able to download, sync or whatever you call it . So I can upload the Data to My Insurance Carriers site for reduced Premiums. As part of a Fitness agreement :

Brand New to Bikes > Last time I owned a Bike I was 20. Now 63 .

Trek Dual Sport

What's the way to go? And how do you mount the Thing :?

Sadly the Bike Shop in My Area only seems to Carry Trek Product for everything : They seemed a Bit Overpriced for what you get :

What Online stores are the Best ? Moose jaw?

THANKS

sdmc530

what's your budget?

Iride01 

No matter what you get, I'd recommend that it have a physical cable to connect to your PC or Mac. Some seem to be going the way of a wireless connection to an app on your smartphone as the only method to transfer data. To me that just complicates getting the data to where I want it, which is not their app or sites able to use data from their app.

If it has both methods, that's a plus, I just don't want my data to be held hostage by their app which at some point won't be compatible with my phone. Even if it's only temporary till a fix or new version comes out.

It also makes me feel more secure that I can archive and take care of all my data on my own computer instead of hoping that whatever website I've sent it to doesn't lose it or decide to go out of business.

Rick53

My Budget is whatever it takes : I don't want to spend $400 But will if I need to : Lezyne or Garmin or Someone else : I would prefer staying $100-$150 But am Open : I just don't need to go Over board is all.

UniChris

What data do they actually need? Total miles per month? Per ride? Profile of miles vs time? GPS logs (gpx or otherwise)?

sdmc530

I would point you to the Garmin 130 or maybe a 20-25. 20 and 25 are no longer made so ebay is your bet on these. I have never read a great review of the bolt mini or I would throw that in the mix.

These are really the only players for smartphone compatibility that are reliable. You should be able to get in under $200 really.

You can do more than you are looking for with these units but are super easy to use and track and they have their own apps for tracking. No wires just charge every weekish or so and go.
Will give you loads of data. If you stick to the major brands you will have a good unit.

RGMN

Check out Lezyne's GPS computers. They are significantly less expensive then the equivalent Garmin or Wahoo Fitness unit but have the same features, and allow uploading data to websites like Strava or MapYourRide. If your insurance company is like mine they can pull the data from one of these sites (mine pulls from Strava.)

If your local bike shop has a Quality Bike Products account they can order Lezyne (and Garmin, but they are cheaper elsewhere) GPS computers. Otherwise check out Clever Training and if you look in the right places you can find a discount codes to get 10% off.

jadocs

https://www.wahoofitness.com/devices...rs/elemnt-mini

philbob57

For $100, I'd go for a Lezyne Macro, if your eyesight is poor, or a Mini, if it's great. In fact, now that I think of it: the Macro - much longer battery life. They're usually available from ebay sellers for less. The Super is $150, which has some nice features that the Macro doesn't have, or a Lezyne $200 model for mapping. If you buy from a LBS, you'll have someone to yell at if you need service. You need to sync to your phone to transfer data to the web - if that fails, you can connect with a cable to a PC/Mac and upload to the web from there.

Macro - 22 hours/battery charge. Mini - 10 hours/charge. Garmin 20/25 8 hours/charge?

I'm happy with my Macro, but I haven't had it for long. If I had $275 ($250+sales tax), I expect I'd have gone for Wahoo Element Bolt or Garmin, but my budget was $100. The Macro is a real computer that gathers data independent of my phone; the Element Mini doesn't record much without a phone, per DCRainmaker.

noglider 

If you have a smartphone already, you can ride with the phone in your pocket. You can use an app such as RideWithGPS which will record your rides. It uploads your rides to the cloud, and you can see them on the website. For example, you can see my rides here. The app is free. The service has two or three price levels, and one level is free. Most people are happy with the free level.

tyrion

+1 for something like RideWithGPS on your phone.

Caveats: you have to remember to have a charged phone and remember to start and stop the app to record.

gauvins

Stumbled across this thread. Interesting scenario (sync and share)

Personally I use three types of devices.

1. A non-GPS wireless computer head. Battery life is several months. Purpose is to serve as an odometer. New Garmin sensors that store 300hrs of data might make it obsolete.

2. A smartphone. Useful when navigation is tricky (e.g. crossing Tokyo). Infinitely better IMHO than dedicated GPS computers, in particular when it comes to building a route.

3. A smart watch (Forerunner 910 which I'd like to be able to upgrade to a more recent model). Breadcrumb mapping is good enough in many cases, battery life is quite good. And it can be used as an all around activity watch.

---

I'd seriously consider a smart watch. An inexpensive Vivoactive will track rides quite well and sync wirelessly to the Garmin ecosystem. If money is no object, recent Forerunners are nothing short of amazing.

Both can be mounted on your handlebars. Forerunners have a swap mount (used by triathletes), Vivoactive goes on a contraption "looking like a wrist".

Smart watches are functional out of the box. If you want/need more accuracy or data, you can invest in a variety of sensors. Speed/cadence, power meters, chest HRM, temperature, etc.

Rick53

Sorry for delay : The forum seems to be limiting me to 5 comments a day : The Insurence says they are more interested in Me establishing a Mileage between 3 miles and 10 miles : As a base over all time : And then showing Progress on the Time.

fietsbob

Basic: there is a magnet fitted on the spoke .. coil of wire in sensor-pickup makes a blip of electricity.

the input to the computer is wheel size.

The computation is speed and distance, another input is time .. then it offers averages..










...

gnappi

Absolutely +1 on all points. I've had "apps" go incompatible with a new phone with a newer O/S. Due to that I now limit apps to something very generic that can be replaced easily like a metronome, guitar tuner, basic speedometer, flashlight, etc.

xyz

Are there any apps that dont require personal info? I download an app, open it, first thing it wants is birthday, delete app. Repeat repeat repeat.

Im fine with paying for an app, but not a monthly fee.

philbob57

Rather than waste energy looking for a non-intrusive app, why not lie? You're not under oath, after all.

xyz

They still track and collect info on you and sell it. The lie might not even matter as they can figure the real info later, with GPS they are going to know where you live so it's not hard to get everything else based on that.

I can buy a mileage tracker and install it on my bike without big brother watching, shouldn't be that hard to make an app that does the same with GPS.