S7 HR terrible whilst cycling!
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@BinoWorld-UK I think in the end a lot of the results are mostly a case of in/adequation between your specific watch HW and your own body.
Watches like the AW use a lot of IA for things like detecting you’re riding a bike, and I suspect that allows them to correct the HR it displays accordingly.
Optical HR on the wrist is less than optimal, but we all came to expect that because it works for someone we know with some piece of gear, it should for us with some other gear… sometimes it just doesn’t… -
@herlas said in S7 HR terrible whilst cycling!:
@freeheeler a brother of mine made the OHR on the S9B work like a charm by wearing it on the inside of the wrist, he has wide wrists and normal position wasn’t working at all.I wear it in the same way for speed skating. I get better results also for HR and GPS because looks that the S7 is not covered by my arm and be cleared exposed to the sky (skating with the arms on back).
@freeheeler said in [S7 HR terrible whilst cycling!]
not sure if you have tried different locations on the wrist while cycling, e.g. higher up on the arm or tighter etc… maybe playing with this could help to make the sensor see into the skin a bit better?Yes, this change a lot the results. On cycling, gravel and MTB I normally wear with the at least 2 figers of space from the writst like the user guide recomends in sports. Also I put tightened (not to strangle, but neither loose. Slightly squeeze it but don’t strangle).
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@flypg said in S7 HR terrible whilst cycling!:
@herlas said in S7 HR terrible whilst cycling!:
@freeheeler a brother of mine made the OHR on the S9B work like a charm by wearing it on the inside of the wrist, he has wide wrists and normal position wasn’t working at all.I wear it in the same way for speed skating. I get better results also for HR and GPS because looks that the S7 is not covered by my arm and be cleared exposed to the sky (skating with the arms on back).
@freeheeler said in [S7 HR terrible whilst cycling!]
not sure if you have tried different locations on the wrist while cycling, e.g. higher up on the arm or tighter etc… maybe playing with this could help to make the sensor see into the skin a bit better?Yes, this change a lot the results. On cycling, gravel and MTB I normally wear with the at least 2 figers of space from the writst like the user guide recomends in sports. Also I put tightened (not to strangle, but neither loose. Slightly squeeze it but don’t strangle).
Don’t know if it matters for the case but while I am riding bike with Garmin’s 945 lte , once you start pushing (like intervals) it struggles with reading HR.
And I believe it is a more up to date sensor than suunto’s 7.
While riding “soft” it matches an hr strap.
So my conclusion is that for accurate measurements better take an hr strap. -
@BinoWorld-UK HR and altimeter work very well, a little less the gps. S7 use for bike, gym, bodyweight exercises, running and walking. the gps track is bad only for energy saving walking.
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@freeheeler Hi
I have come to a huge realisation!!! I normally wear my S7 on my left wrist and it can never keep up with the AW even when climbing stairs where HR can increase very quickly. The AW would say 130bpm and S7 88bpm.
So today I switched my S7 to my right wrist and climbed the same staircase and WOW the HR was following the AW to the beat!!! What on earth is going on here?! Can anyone explain why my left reading were so behind all the time?
Next I will be riding with the same set up and see what happens. So far it’s promising….
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@BinoWorld-UK
I can not think of a reason why the watch should work better on one or the other side, from “the watch point of view”. I can imagine that the wrist might be stronger and you picked the same hole on the strap and hence it sits tighter? or arm movement is different?
it is difficult to explain, like almost all phenomenons where several different parameters can have an impact on a behavior.
it would be interesting to see if you can reproduce your observation and maybe you can double check about the wearing style, position, tightness etc between left and right?living sideways
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@freeheeler I shall replicate the same on both sides and revert back back. Cheers
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@BinoWorld-UK
Maybe just vascular system different (just enough) on the other wrist. -
@freeheeler ok I ran another test and it seems like the left wrist can also keep up, but oh boy the strap needs to be tight and I mean tight and quite high on my wrist. Look either way, I am now at least convinced that the S7 sensor isn’t crap at all, it just need a precise placement on the wrist……
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@BinoWorld-UK S7 measures HR good only when walking and running, everything else is mixed at best… try to do some weightlifting or some circular training with weights… you’ll be dying with HR of ~80-100
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@Metalmi I did a bit of HIT workout and seem to hold the elevated HR.
For Weight lifting isn’t not my thing really.
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@BinoWorld-UK I am just about ready to give up on the Suunto OHR. It is easily the worst device I have had in this respect. DCR said the same thing. I have had two Garmins, one Polar and a few wrist trackers which have worked well without any problems. My Suunto takes ages to get a proper fix however it is worn. The readings are insanely high for the first 10 minutes. The tips on the Suunto support pages don’t really help. If the Suunto app could use an external heart rate monitor it would be a different story. I’ve given up using it for any fitness activities. Such a shame because in every other way I love this watch. It’s the best Wear OS watch I’ve had.
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@Graham-Nind so true, it’s like the S7 OHR needs to time realise that the body is warm enough or the blood is flowing enough to start accurately tracking…… This could be fixed with an algorithm change with a firmware update.
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@BinoWorld-UK So I took the S7 for a spin today to compare its OHR against what’s known to be a very accurate OHR the Polar Grit X and the results are surprisingly very similar.
https://share.icloud.com/photos/085HhBWYs2dtImDY0WtoZ6UmA
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0a04olOLofsdPfY9dRpSNKZGg
The difference between low / high and average were below 1% remarkable.
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On the last days I could did various test using my Suunto 7 and on the same time the Garmin HRM Dual on the Tacx indoor trainer. I’m pleasantly surprised because I always I believe that chest straps are better, and on these test I could see that exist a minimal difference, when exist. Almost 90% of the time the Suunto 7 displays exactly the same BPMs than the Garmin HRM Dual, and only few times that have these differeces was 142 vs 145, 150 vs 148, etc, minimals differences that, for me, not have sense to wear a strap when I already use the watch.
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@flypg indeed, very impressive tracking from the S7!
It remains a very capable watch at tracking walking, hiking, running. I think cross fit or MTB are the areas where it might struggle to follow the accuracy of a dedicated HR strap. A part for that, it measures the RHR very accurately and provide fantastically accurate body resources. The only shame is that Suunto totally buried this watch and never thought about even adding a virtual pacer or Vo2 Max, or even try to improve its battery life. I guess it’s the lack of partnership with Google Wearos hence why it’s a dead duck!
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This is what happens when I run! After about 10 minutes it matches my Polar OH1 fairly closely.
Even if i go for a walk it spikes for the first few minutes. It hit 140 during a gentle stroll today.
