I’m looking to fix an issue with my trainer not connecting to trainerroad properly and trainerroad support suggested I purchase an ant+ dongle for my macbook.
I’m in Canada and I see Ant+ sticks vary in price $15-$60
Anyone knowledgeable about this topic know if there is a significant difference between these? It seems bike shops are selling Ant+ sticks for about $50-$70 and walmart for $17. I prefer supporting local bike shops but that is quite the price difference and hard to justify if the quality is similar.
for some things, I think it’s better to buy a reliable brand. Given how much life you should get out of this device, spending more for something you can get support for is worth it to me.
Thanks for the response. My trainer (elite rampa) is unfortunately not connecting properly through bluetooth to trainerroad so the support team have suggested trying the Ant+ route, which is why i’m asking this question. I will try to find an affordable but still decent quality ant+ stick
I recently picked up a Garmin Ant+ stick at my LBS. Pricey by comparison to Amazon, etc., but many of the product reviews on Amazon are not encouraging. As a 25-year LBS customer, I don’t have to think about a faulty product, operational problems, etc. Those will be non-issues. I’d rather pay a little more (or even more than a little more) and be able to have that service available if needed, which it rarely is.
I use one of the Garmin units for pairing with HRM. It was bought at a larger bike retailer that has shops nationwide. IME it’s often easier dealing with a bricks and mortar shop for an exchange on this sort of item (if faulty).
A few months back I left it sitting overnight in a puddle of condensation on my bike laptop stand. It was malfunctioning, but after two days of drying it out it’s working flawlessly again.
I’d buy another if I lost the current one. That’s my 2c on the Garmin dongle.
Generic ANT+ stick from Amazon for me. I think I paid $14.00. Bought it 2 years ago, plugged it into my Macbook Pro (at the end of a 6 foot USB extension cord, so it is on the floor under my bottom bracket), and haven’t thought about it since. Worked flawlessly out of the box with my 4iiii left crank and Wahoo Tickr HRM.
If something happens to it, I’ll buy the same thing again.
I’ve bought two of these Onlyesh USB + ANT Stick Adapters from Amazon.ca, they work like a charm and at half the price of the Garmin ANT+ USB. 4.5 out of 5 stars, with 443 ratings, convinced me to take a shot and the first one worked as expected, so I got a second one to use as well (long story).
I have a generic sub 5$ Ant+ stick from some chinese online retailer. Use it for about 2 years now. It used to have a lot of dropouts, but I was told that this happens if you stick it directly into the computer from all the electronic ‘noise’ around there.
So bought a cheap USB extension cord and after that it has been working flawlessly.
Not sure if the expensive branded ones work better closer to other electronics.
The total price tag for me was still less than 10$
I have used several different ant+ dongles and they work equally well IF you use an extension cord (unless it has one already as my tacx dongle) to get it away from the computer and closer to the bike.
Thanks for the suggestions folks, super helpful. I’m thinking the key here is to have an extension cord, which is something I hadn’t thought of so will make sure to do that.
I have two, one came with my trainer and looks just like a Garmin and the other is from Amazon for ~$15. Both work and haven’t noticed any difference between the two.
I’m using the $17 one from Amazon. Aself. No problems at all. I’m also not using an extension. Just plugged straight into the laptop. I wonder if it’s computer dependent…
I have 2 of the Amazon generic ones; I run zwift and TR at the same time both over Ant+ so they each need their own port. At first, I was having a lot of dropouts with TR and thought it was the cheap dongle. Then I followed TR’s troubleshooting and turns out is was some USB port power setting that was causing the dropouts. Since I followed the TR advice (it was on the blog or forum here, search for Ant+) I have had zero issues. I don’t even use an USB extension cable, I just have them plugged directly into the Laptop ports and the laptop sits near my handlebars while I ride.
Only complaint about the cheat Ant+ dongles is that they have sharp edges on the plastic bit instead a nice rounded smooth finish.
