Polar Cs600x
Marie Ota
The Polar Look Keo Power System is the first pedal based power meter to make it to market, meaning, you can actually go out and buy one. Announced nearly two years ago, the units finally started trickling out into the marketplace over the past few months.
I just wanted to briefly call out that the Polar power system uses two CR2354 batteries, one in each pod. They are easily accessible by just twisting the cap of the transmitter pod about 20*. The cap then pops off, and you can pry out the battery.
Further, with the ability to track left/right, you can see progress easily over time. Meaning that initially an injured leg first starting recovery may only contribute 15% left power, but a month later that could be 40% left power.
The Polar power system includes the ability to measure cycling cadence, via a magnet in the bottom pedal. This means that it is unnecessary to add a Polar WIND cadence sensor in order to gather cadence information.
However, there is some positive news coming down the pipe here. Polar has committed to supporting Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth Smart), which is a competitor to the ANT+ protocol that the rest of the industry uses. Bluetooth Smart is quickly gaining adoption on smartphones via any device that supports Bluetooth 4.0 and above (which is most new phones coming onto the market these days, like the iPhone 4s).
In addition to the graph page view, you can also pull up a listing view in a table format, which allows you to see per-second data for total power, as well as left/right power. Note that pedaling index is not a captured data field.
Hence you can see why virtually everyone that does detailed power meter comparison tests does so indoors and in a lab environment where the rider is typically given a set timeframe to ride and all devices can be monitored by a 3rd party concurrently.
I was careful in all of these rides to exercise the specific calibration procedure recommended by each of the manufacturers for the three products I used in the test (Quarq RED 2012, CompuTrainer Pro, Polar/Look Power Meter).
As a baseline, I recorded the streams in three separate areas. The Quarq data was recorded with a Garmin Edge 800 (standard 1-second recording, all zero-inclusion), the CompuTrainer was actually recorded using TrainerRoad, since it made data collection far easier, and the Polar Pedals were recorded using the Polar CS600x. All of these units were recording at 1-second intervals.
The first scenario is a simple trainer ride. This was about 70 minutes long, and inclusive of three higher wattage segments, with the second one being 20 minutes long and the 3rd being 10 minutes long. The second one was largely statically set after the first minute or so. Whereas the third one my wattage dropped a bit. All wattage was controlled via the CompuTrainer.
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Agree, definitely deserve credit for getting it to market and doing so in a seemingly bug-free method. On the SRM front, folks do at least have the option of going to other head units though, which is a big difference.
But, after reading your review i decided NOT to go for polar and switch to the ANT protocol (end prob up selling the cs500, keeping the rcx5 for running) because the price/value for money rate you get with this product is absolutely ridicilous (obviously).
Closed protocol (the bluetooth update is not something i am going to believe in, you probable end up paying an additional fee), outdated software , NO gps (like an edge800) and this all at a price; Way too high.
You seem to do the most thorough sports reviews on the internet Ray (thanks for that!), so I was wondering if you would be able to put this product through your normal rigorous testing and put up a review?
Hey I own a CS600x and the multi-sport RS800g3. I also own an iBike dash. I hated the chain system, the head unit is absolutely terrible (yes, the CS600x). I gad terrible trouble with the big clunky G3 gps transmitter and had to send it back numerous times.
Then management comes in and says switch from Speedplay to Look, so you have to redesign everything, but noone knows how. You bring in new people who have to start over from scratch because nothing was documented as well as it should have been, etc.
Take the Motoactv (the only BTLE watch on the market today). It works with the Wahoo BlueHR, but ONLY after nearly 2 months of incompatibilities. First it would pair, but not resolve HR, then eventually it worked. But it required both Wahoo and Motorola to work together.
I can sympathise with the guys in Freiburg, and they do great work there, but comparing the Polar vs. an SRM is not the same as static or dynamic calibration, as the SRM is not a piece of calibration equipment, which I think some people tend to miss.
I got it last week and was wondering about the following. i get readings on the L/R balance that seem very high with as much as 70/30. Although I had my hip replaced 6yrs ago on the right side (so being slightly weaker makes sense) that seems very high. Also when I intentionally work the right leg much harder and barely use the left i can only get it to about 45/55. Reading your review I noticed in the pictures that again there was a dominance (stronger) on the left. Have you heard or seen any feedback where this is reversed, i.e where the readings are 30/70. I will ask a few of y friends with Keos to hop on my bike and see their results but have not had a cahnce to do so yet.
Another small issue I have encountered is that the right unit will very slightly touch the upper chain as it passes but will pass freely on the lower. I have a DI2 gruppo which Id presume to be fully compatible. thanks and BTW a great review
one more. when transferring the data to the Polar software the max Power displayed is much less than the max power displayed for the data uploaded to the polarpersonaltrainer website. In my case it was around 700 vs 1200 respectively. Any ideas
I just purchased Power pedals two days ago. They worked great yesterday, then today my bike fell over on the right side. There is barely a scratch on the pedal. Now I am getting really low power readings on the left and really high on the right, anyone have any experience with this?
Biggest drawback for me is lack of power smoothing. I was wondering if this is the case only, when recording rate is set to 1s. Does setting recording rate to 3/5/15s automatically smooth power readings to 3/5/15s?
I hit my right Polar Look Power Meter pod unit on a rock and seems to be seriously damaged.
I was not able to find any authorized retailer here in my country. Can you recommend any place in US to solve this problem?
Typically speaking any shop that sells Polar gear in the US can order parts for any Polar product. The challenge will be getting one of them to sending you a part in Brazil (oddly enough, where I am this week). The extremely high cost of imports means many are fearful of doing so.
I have an irrational distaste for zip/cable ties for expensive equipment. I use them on a cheap-as-chips cycle computer for my old runabout and I can just about tolerate it. But when spending much more, and applying it to my Bianchi, my OCD just kicks in big time.
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Zestaw zawiera komputer rowerowy Polar CS600X, nadajnik Polar H3, sensor prędkości Polar CS W.I.N.D., uchwyt rowerowy Polar Twist Lock Bike Mount, urządzenie do przesyłania danych Polar IrDA USB Adapter i oprogramowanie Polar ProTrainer 5 na płycie CD.
Polar Target Zone - limity tętna wyznaczane na podstawie wieku
Komputer rowerowy Polar CS600X automatycznie określa limity tętna zależnie od maksymalnego tętna wyznaczonego na podstawie wieku (220 minus wiek), dzięki czemu trening jest bezpieczny i efektywny. Limity są podawane jako liczba uderzeń serca w ciągu minuty (bpm), jako procentowa wartość tętna maksymalnego (%) lub jako procentowa wartość rezerwy tętna (%HRR), ktra jest rżnicą pomiędzy tętnem spoczynkowym a maksymalnym (HRR = HRmax - HRrest).
Tętno
Pomiar tętna pozwala na określenie intensywności pracy serca. Tętno może być wyrażone jako liczba uderzeń na minutę (bpm), jako procentowa wartość tętna maksymalnego (%) lub jako procentowa wartość rezerwy tętna (%HRR), ktra jest rżnicą pomiędzy tętnem spoczynkowym a maksymalnym (HRR = HRmax - HRrest). Tętno może być także przedstawione na wyświetlaczu w formie wykresu.
Strefa tętna z sygnalizacją dźwiękową i wizualną
Możesz zdefiniować strefy dla sesji treningowych w oparciu o tętno, co pomoże określić właściwą intensywność treningu. Jeśli osiągniesz wartości spoza aktualnej strefy, komputer rowerowy Polar CS600X poinformuje Cię o tym alarmem dźwiękowym i wizualnym.
Strefa tętna ustawiana manualnie
Funkcja pozwala na manualne ustawienie limitw tętna, co umożliwia dopasowanie treningu do Twoich potrzeb. Możesz zdefiniować limit, ktry będzie wyrażony jako liczba uderzeń serca w ciągu minuty (bpm), procentowa wartość tętna maksymalnego (%) lub procentowa wartość rezerwy tętna (%HRR).
Polar Fitness Test - test wydolności
Funkcja Polar Fitness Test sprawdzi Twoją wydolność podczas prostego sprawdzianu. Wynik testu poinformuje Cię, jak dobrą masz aktualnie kondycję. Poprzez porwnanie wartości z przeszłości będziesz mgł zobaczyć, czy Twoja kondycja faktycznie się poprawia.
Polar OwnCal - wydatek energetyczny
Funkcja Polar OwnCal oblicza liczbę kalorii spalonych podczas treningu. Dzięki temu możesz sprawdzić liczbę kalorii spalonych podczas jednego lub kilku treningw. Podczas obliczania liczby spalonych kalorii uwzględniane jest ciśnienie atmosferyczne - im wyższa wysokość n.p.m., tym mniejsza jest zawartość tlenu w powietrzu. Powoduje to zmniejszenie intensywności ćwiczeń i liczby spalonych kalorii przy tej samej wartości tętna, porwnując z niższą wysokością n.p.m.