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Submitted by
Neal
a
from DC
Date Reviewed: September 13, 2007 | | Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month | | Price Paid: |
$60.00 | | Purchased At: | performance bike | | Strengths: | Cheap (especially at 50% off). Does the job. | | Weaknesses: | Bike mount requires that you crank it down | | Bike Setup: | Road bike with the computer on the end of aero bars | | Bottom Line: | I ignored the negative reviews and went for it due to the low price. I am not sorry.
Works great on the road, swimming (yep, even underwater), and running. My only gripe is that you have to tighten it a lot for the speed to register in bike mode- but once you do it works great. | Value Rating: Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Francesco Tognini
a Cross Country Rider
from Hollywood, Florida, USA
Date Reviewed: September 3, 2007 | | Duration Product Used: | 2 Years | | Purchased At: | Revolution Bike store Corral Gable Miami | | Strengths: | Big easy to view display. | | Weaknesses: | The transmitter from the heart monitor never really worked. I sent it to Polar when it was in warranty, they returned it, after 1 week of use it was the same. There are other things I do not like about it. Not practical. Yo cannot empty or discard the memory without a PC. | | Similar Products Used: | Cat eye is much better | | Bottom Line: | I would not buy this product again. When you have a problem its your problem. Cannot get a hold or e-mail anyone. Just no reply. I like equipment that works. I am prepared to compromise with simpler equipment as far as it is reliable. | Value Rating: Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Rick
a Racer
from Phoenixville, PA
Date Reviewed: July 29, 2007 | | Favorite Trail: | French Creek Red/White | | Duration Product Used: | 1 Year | | Price Paid: |
$80.00 | | Purchased At: | Online | | Strengths: | Not many. The watchband is comfortable. I guess that's a plus. | | Weaknesses: | Reliability is horrible. The stop button works about 1 out of 10 presses, only if pressed WAY in. No backlight. Horrible customer service. | | Similar Products Used: | Garmin Edge, other Polar HRMs | | Bottom Line: | There's a reason that the online retailers are dumping the S150 at 50% off. Because it is a piece of unreliable junk.
Stay way, way clear of this one.
| | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Dirt Rode
a Cross Country Rider
from Fort Collins
Date Reviewed: March 17, 2006 | | Duration Product Used: | 3 months | | Price Paid: |
$80.00 | | Purchased At: | Performance | | Strengths: | None. There are much better HRMs for the money that are more reliable. | | Weaknesses: | Its a Polar.
Customer Service at Polar is pathetic.
Hard to use.
Didn't work. | | Similar Products Used: | Sports Instrument | | Bottom Line: | On a three hour ride, I had the old Polar S150 freeze up and offer non-stop beeping for two hours straight. Couldn't get the ringing out of my head after the ride. Only way to stop it was to reset it and lose all my data (again). Happened more than once. Good luck getting a hold of Polar, and when you do don't expect any help. Lucky for me Performance took it back. I can deal with an occasional product failure, but when the company leaves you out to dry when you try to resolve it...forget it. This cat will never buy another Polar product again. If I could give less than 1 Flamin Chili I would. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Duane Leach
a Racer
from Columbia, TN
Date Reviewed: February 14, 2006 | | Favorite Trail: | Chickasaw Trace Park | | Duration Product Used: | 3 months | | Price Paid: |
$80.00 | | Purchased At: | Performance Bike | | Strengths: | Accurate heart rate monitoring and strong pickup | | Weaknesses: | It is very complicated and hard to memorize how to use it. It is a total failure as a bike speedometer. It worked for a total of three seconds. | | Similar Products Used: | Circuit 5 by Sports Instruments | | Bike Setup: | Bianchi | | Bottom Line: | It is not user friendly and does not work as a bike speedometer. Surely there are better and easier watches than this. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Randy
a Cross Country Rider
from Albuquerque
Date Reviewed: November 24, 2005 | | Favorite Trail: | any | | Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month | | Price Paid: |
$79.00 | | Purchased At: | Preformance Bike | | Strengths: | Easy to use and set up. Never had the speed connection problems others had. | | Weaknesses: | Have to reset the trip meter each ride. It has an odometer that will keep cumlative distance. The stop botton very hard to press and had to reset it once already. Really hate that. | | Similar Products Used: | First one | | Bike Setup: | 2005 stumpy pro | | Bottom Line: | Think I'll give to my GF and get me the C100. Its wireless and has own code. She always gets the hand me downs. I also think I'll use it for spin class and trun off the speed sen. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Ian Lomax
a Cross Country Rider
from Portland, Oregon
Date Reviewed: August 20, 2005 | | Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month | | Price Paid: |
$119.00 | | Purchased At: | River City Bikes | | Strengths: | The HRM is great, I've had zero problems with that and it seems to be pretty darm accurate. I ride alone to work and back everyday so I don't have to worry about the crosstalk.
I found the buttons and the whole setup easy to use after I messed with it a little bit. The reaction time of the buttons is a little slow but it works good for me. | | Weaknesses: | I was pretty upset with the way the mount on the handle bars. I have not yet been able to use the MPH feature because the watch will not make contact with the sensor unless I press down on it, so I will be taking that off since it doesn't work. Errrrrr....... | | Similar Products Used: | If you want to monitor your MPH then I would suggest getting the old school speed monitor, one that only reads speed, not HR and all the other fancy stuff. | | Bike Setup: | Specialized Hardrock 2005 | | Bottom Line: | It was a good price for a product that has quite a bit of features. I mainly purchased it for the HRM and that is the part that works great. I really like the wireless.
I would give this product a 6.5 -7 on a scale of 10. | Value Rating: Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Peter
a Cross Country Rider
from Brussels, Belgium
Date Reviewed: June 1, 2005 | | Favorite Trail: | La Roche #5 | | Duration Product Used: | 1 Year | | Price Paid: |
$150.00 | | Purchased At: | Decathlon | | Strengths: | Works well as a HR Monitor and the strap with it is compatible with other HR moniters, includding those on running machines | | Weaknesses: | As a cycle computer it is a poor choice. The connection between the monitor and the holder frequently breaks down and the display is very poor. | | Similar Products Used: | Cat Eye | | Bike Setup: | Specialized FSR COMP | | Bottom Line: | Choose a Cat Eye - bike computer makers know the wear and tear bikes go through. I'm getting the CC HR200DW | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Asaf
a Weekend Warrior
from Israel
Date Reviewed: July 28, 2004 | | Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month | | Price Paid: |
$100.00 | | Strengths: | Great value for money! Most of the features you can want with almost half the price of better models. | | Weaknesses: | No backlight. Crosstalk if VERY colse to another HRM. | | Bike Setup: | On Schwinn rocket 3 | | Bottom Line: | Great product. It had almost all the features I wanted, except for the backlight and OwnCode (prevents crosstalk). However, to add these features you have to buy the s520 - and that's quite a different price...
When I jogg with other people with HRM there is no crosstalk - only if I deliberatelly get close to check it... The bike mount and bike features are great. The display is clear and has all that I wanted and more.
The bottom line is that riding or jogging is more organized and more fun with it! You can check that you are not running too fast in your long-distance runs on the one hand, and on the other hand prepare excercise set for very difficult intervals and tempo runs. Great product. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
M Snow
a Cross Country Rider
from Mesa
Date Reviewed: May 6, 2004 | | Favorite Trail: | Many | | Duration Product Used: | 6 months | | Price Paid: |
$120.00 | | Purchased At: | Supergo | | Strengths: | Both Bike computer and HR monitor | | Weaknesses: | False HR upto 220 BPM, False speed 56 MPH, emailed Polar, Their fix wet chest first, still inaccurate. Check magnet distance, still intermiitent. magnet mount poor, swings and moves made for road only. | | Similar Products Used: | Specialized P Brain, It also failed after 3 months.
Supergo $30 HR monitor bike computer worked better. It also failed after 6 months, Supergo replaced it twice. | | Bike Setup: | Titus with all the yada yada | | Bottom Line: | This was the most frustrating one of all. For $120.00 it should last at least a year without problems.
I am awaiting Cateyes HR bike computer end of June 04.
The Supergo brand was by far the best performer and the cheapest. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Maarten
a Cross Country Rider
from WA
Date Reviewed: September 19, 2003 | | Duration Product Used: | 1 Year | | Price Paid: |
$120.00 | | Purchased At: | REI | | Strengths: | Integration of HRM with bike computer. | | Weaknesses: | 1- The buttons have very bad tactile feedback. It's hard to sense whether you've successfully pressed a button, which is irritating when operating the unit while riding. No other cyclocomputer I've used is so clunky in operation of basic features.
2- I get a lot of interference from overhead powerlines, especially in the city. The HRM will peg to 222bpm. Not a huge deal, but does make the average HR reading useless.
3- There are three readouts on the display: one for the heart rate, and two for bike functions. Changing one of the 2 bike displays occasionally affects the other--hard to explain concisely, but VERY irritating.
4- When using autostart (and who doesn't?), if you take a long break (>15min?) the computer will time out, which will reset the ride time and average speed. Not what I want.
5- The watch doesn't settle into the handlebar mount easily; I have to strap it down VERY tightly or else the contacts from occasionally lose touch and the computer will think I'm not moving.
| | Similar Products Used: | Several other cyclocomputers, but no other HRMs. | | Bottom Line: | With limited space on my handlebars, I wanted a two-in-one unit, and that's what this product delivers. However, compared to other cyclocomputers it's definitely a big step down in usability. Since the S150 doesn't really have any features that integrate the two sides, like data download for speed v. HR graphs, you might consider keeping your regular computer and getting a (cheaper) separate HRM. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
elmo
a Cross Country Rider
from bogota, colombia
Date Reviewed: August 15, 2003 | | Duration Product Used: | 3 months | | Price Paid: |
$107.00 | | Purchased At: | joshep french marketing | | Strengths: | very accurate, it's not big so you can wear it too. | | Weaknesses: | only records the last session | | Similar Products Used: | none | | Bike Setup: | specilized hardrock pro stock | | Bottom Line: | Now I have data of my training, of course there are better products than this one, but for that money including polar tech is a great buy.
I suppose I'm new on cycling but for an entry level rider its great. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Max
a Racer
from San Francisco
Date Reviewed: January 16, 2003 | | Duration Product Used: | 3 months | | Price Paid: |
$120.00 | | Purchased At: | REi | | Strengths: | Ergonomics, display spd +HR + lap time, 3zones, lots of feature | | Weaknesses: | Speed measurement not working reproducibly.
Crosstalk.
Not easy to use. | | Similar Products Used: | Polar Protrainer XT (same problem) | | Bike Setup: | A MTB | | Bottom Line: | I found it to be a big step up from the Protrainer XT.
However, the speed meter does not work anymore which makes the whole instrument useless.
I don't know what to get next. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Guy
a Cross Country Rider
from Israel
Date Reviewed: December 8, 2002 | | Duration Product Used: | 1 Year | | Price Paid: |
$110.00 | | Purchased At: | ebay | | Strengths: | very accurate, reliable. gives you the basic data needed for first time riders(average/current speed,distance,average/current heart rate and percent of max heart rate).you can use up to three different heart zone in a single session.
If you are a beginer- very good entry level heart rate monitor for triathletes, isn't expensive as the wireless versions.
Easy to use | | Weaknesses: | You can only review the last session. Once you recorded a new session the previous one is erased. | | Bottom Line: | Good buy. You get the important data needed to review your training. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
J Smythe
a Racer
from Austin, TX
Date Reviewed: July 1, 2002 | | Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month | | Price Paid: |
$108.00 | | Purchased At: | scalesgalore.com | | Strengths: | easy to set up/easy to read/ etc | | Weaknesses: | Cross Talk!!!
not wireless! | | Bike Setup: | Trek 5200 | | Bottom Line: | When compared on Polar's website this product does not appear to be that different from the s-510. However this is not the case! First, the cyclocomputer is not wireless, which was a surprise.
But the reason I have returned it was crosstalk! Everyone I ride with has a heart rate monitor and so on rides I would get ridiculous rates that would throw off my max and avg. If the whole reason you buy a HRM is to track your fitness then I would suggest another model, I am going to give the s-510 a shot.
I suppose it would be adequate if you rode alone or in groups without other heart rate monitors and it is cheap. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
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