Polar Bike Computers Deliver Solid Data and Heart Rate From An Industry Leader

Polar bike computers have long been a leader for heart rate based training and data. Units like the Polar CS500 are even used by professionals and Tour de France riders, as are many of the Polar heart rate monitor watch units. Polar RCX5 and Polar CS500 were both used in the 2012 Tour de France.

POLAR LOOK/KEO POWER PEDALS

Polar in conjunction with Look/Keo has come first to the market with power pedals that display left/right power balance. The pedals work with the Polar CS500 and Polar CS600X but do not contain ANT+ technology and will likely have to be retrofitted in the future with Bluetooth Smart to maximize their potential.

Polar's insistence on not adopting an inter-device communication technology like ANT+ or Bluetooth Smart may be their greatest drawback for now but the folks at Polar are looking hard at Bluetooth Smart so we'll see what the future holds.

THE POLAR BIKE COMPUTERS LINE UP

Polar has a variety of entry level cycling computers, like the Polar CS100B, Polar CS100 and Polar CS200cad. These units get speed, distance, even cadence and Polar heart rate data. The devices do not use Polar's WIND technology for anti-magnetic interference and the 3 models mentioned above are over 5 years old, so they need to be updated and replaced at some point by Polar to be sure.

POLAR CYCLING WATCH

Polar has the Polar CS300 cycling watch in its line up, however the newer Polar RCX3 and Polar RCX5 have far nicer cycling technology and we prefer them by far. However, on a budget the Polar CS300 does the trick at only $129.

Polar needs to go to a single speed and cadence sensory unit in the future, like nearly everyone else has (Garmin, Wahoo, etc) and one that has user replaceable batteries. In our opinion this would be a big improvement as the current speed and cadence sensors do not contain user replaceable batteries so they essentially become disposable after one battery.

OUR FAVORITES

Without question our favorite Polar bike computers are the Polar CS500 along with the Polar RCX5 for a watch unit with GPS and cadence. The heart rate monitor data offered by Polar bike computers is second to none.

If you would like some real expert help with Polar bike computers than just call the experts at the Heart Rate Watch Company at 866-586-7129. We use this stuff, test it, sponsor a bike team that uses our gear and we know the drill.

copyright 2013, Rusty Squire, author, support@heartratewatchcompany.com