Standing exercise Bicycle data / sensors & the Race
-
Hey, I was thinking to buy an indoor / training bicycle. Any idea how/what do I need to do to get data like distance, effort, calories in the watch? (since there’s no GPS / location data involved… )
I know there are sensors that transmit data but I guess you need one of those expensive smart bikes like TACX , Peloton etc etc? -
@George-Katsanos, even if the indoor bicycle does not transmit any data, you still record the heart rate data on the watch, either with the watch optical sensor or an HR belt sensor, from which effort(TSS etc), calories etc are getting calculated.
Indoors speed and distance is a metric which gets impacted by the resistance you chose on the indoor bicycle so most of the time you cannot use these metrics to compare your efforts/trainings.
So, do not get frustrated if you buy an indoor bicycle unit that doesn’t transmit data. Focus on other qualities of the unit you will buy.
-
@George-Katsanos
You can track HR with the watch or better with an HR belt, and after you finish the activity, in the watch itself, you’ll have the option to edit the distance. Most indoor bikes have at least the distance shown on their computer so you just enter that manually. -
@mlakis I would like to know if Suunto race can be connected and show data from other sensors, for example a power sensor (a pedal with an integrated sensor that measures your power output). As well as if this data is visible in the suunto app.
-
@mlakis said in Standing exercise Bicycle data / sensors & the Race:
efforts
Will the watch and / or the app connect with an external sensor like a pedal with a power meter and show this data or use it to calculate the effort? (aside from the heart rate monitored)
-
Yes, Suunto Vertical and Race can connect to various power meters (pedal type, crank type etc), as long as these power meters use Bluetooth for connection. The data are then shown on the app on graphs, average values, used to calculate effort etc.
Mind that most of the power meters can connect to one device at a time when are being used (like HR belt sensors, bike trainers), but some are capable of connecting to two devices simultaneously.
Why am I mentioning this? Because the scenario of using a power meter or a bike trainer with internal power meter along with an app like Swift, Rouvy etc, and having the power and HR data also on the watch and then on the Suunto app is only viable when having HR sensors and power meters that can broadcast to more than one devices simultaneously (one device is the watch, the other is let’s say the laptop that runs Swift).
A viable scenario with simple power and HR sensors (single connection I mean) is connecting them to your watch and use a “dumb” trainer or rollers. Or having two sensors of power (one is power meter, the other is the smart trainer with internal power meter) and HR (let’s say the one is a belt sensor, the other is the optical sensor of the watch). This way you will have the data both on virtual training software and the watch and then on the Suunto app.
I hope I was clear enough, this is a bit difficult to understand when first getting to use sensors, trainers etc.
-
@mlakis thank you for taking the time to answer!
let me add some details on the setup I want to have as it’s getting a bit more specific and I’d like to see if I understood the limitations 
- Suunto Race
- a ‘dumb’ indoor bicycle
- bluetooth sensors for speed and cadence (or the more expensive ones for power)
- I will fit these sensors on the standing bike
I use Suunto + Strava for tracking. I may use a biking app like Rouvy (although not sure I want pay for a monthly subscription so this part is TBD)
Things that aren’t clear to me…
- I read that SR can only connect to 1 sensor at a time… so if I have a speed and a cadence sensor… well I won’t get all the data.
- then to your point: If I want to connect the sensors to my laptop (for Rouvy/Zwift) then I guess I won’t be able to connect them simultaneously to my watch, unless they support “broadcasting to more than 1 devices simultaneously” as you said so I’ll need to pick them carefully… unless I can afford to double all the sensors (that may-be a little too involved I guess)
-
Suunto Race (and Vertical) can be configured to connect only to one sensor per type. Meaning that if you have two bikes with different power meters, you need to reconfigure the power meter connection when you change the bike you will ride. Or if you use a couple of different HR belts, you need to reconfigure every time you want to use another belt than the currently configured.
You can connect an HR belt and a speed/cadence or power meter concurrently, for sure.
As for the usage with another platform like Rouvy, you got it right. For every data you need to be on the other platform (Rouvy on this example) and the Suunto watch and app, you need either a multi broadcast sensor, or another sensor of the same type.
Or you can make a small compromise, for example broadcast to Rouvy only the power data from a power meter because it’s the way Rouvy works, and you will get the HR data on Suunto from the watch (or from a belt connected to the watch) that’s needed to calculate all the training impact etc, but you won’t have info on the Suunto watch and app about the power, and of course you won’t have the distance and speed from Rouvy to the Suunto.
-
@George-Katsanos, as for the specific example you gave about speed and cadence, maybe someone else can answer, I have a combined cadence/speed sensor on one bike, but I see only “Pair bike POD” on my Vertical so maybe you are right for this specific configuration.
-
@mlakis I’m considering https://www.tradeinn.com/bikeinn/en/wahoo-speed-and-cadence-sensor-combo-pack-rpm-bt-ant-/138462950/p?id_producte=14584966&country=gr or https://www.suunto.com/de-de/Produkte/PODs/Suunto-Bike-Sensor/
any clue if they’ll work with multi-broadcast? -
@George-Katsanos, I think that a multi-broadcast speed and cadence sensor does not exist. And why you need one?
- If you’ll just use a “dumb” trainer then the speed/cadence connects only to watch
- If you’ll use Rouvy, then Rouvy needs either a smart trainer or a power meter
I have a Lezyne speed/cadence sensor, like the Suunto one on the 2nd link. The sensors on 1st link won’t do as they are separate sensors, combo refers to the combo-pack, meaning you buy them together.
-
-
-
-
@mlakis is that replacing a pedal of any bike?
-
@George-Katsanos, it’s not a pedal.
It’s a sensor tha you attach on the left chainstay of your bicycle, and then put one of the the two magnets supplied on the left crank arm, and the other one on one spoke of the rear wheel.
-
@mlakis if you can share a photo I’d appreciate it!
