I live in an area with a lot of steep, punchy hills that create the situation of going from Z2 to close to a sustained max HR. With both my Garmin Foreunner and Wahoo Tickr Fit (both optical sensors) I frequently run into the problem of my HR reading low when attacking these hills. Often, it’s in the 80 to 90 range, which makes me wonder if it’s reading 100bpm low, perhaps thinking that the quick jump to 190 is in error. Today, for example, while going all out up an 11 to 17% grade, the Wahoo read from the 80s to around 110 the entire time.
All the time. Even with a Z2 ride indoors my Forerunner 935 will read 30~60bpm but the strap is of course right. If you want heart rate data buy a strap.
I have never had as much as 100bpm difference but every ride my watch (optical HR sensor) is lower than my strap but not by a constant amount. FWIW today’s ride the watch recorded 153 bpm and the strap recorded 188bpm.
Optical sensors away from the wrist are supposed to be more accurate but I have no experience of them.
Yes, the Polar OH1 (new version now renamed “Verity Sense”) has none of these issues when worn on your upper arm. I find that way more comfortable and convenient than a chest strap and just as accurate.
I would agree entirely with this, but the Polar OH1 optical sensor is definitely an exception. But it’s not worn on the wrist. My max HR is around 190 and my OH1 never reads low. It’s always right on the money, while the optical sensor on my watch is massively inconsistent during HIIT sessions, often reading way too low.
I have not tried the polar OH1 specifically but have used another arm band option, the scosche rhythm+ Hoping the arm placement would be an improvement, but no luck for me.
Perhaps polar has a more reliable hardware and firmware combination, or the stars have aligned for one to work just right for you lol
OHR does tend to be less responsive than chest straps. Not a major issue for longer efforts, but can lag on short sharp efforts.
Also, vibration from handlebars can be an issue for wrist-based sensors when riding outside.
Are you recording a ride on the Forerunner, or just using 24/7 monitoring. You should record the ride, as the OHR sensor will poll more frequently during an activity than in 24/7 mode (you can discard rather than saving at the end to avoid duplicates).
Yes… They take a bit longer to register hr… but at the end is a wash… You will see higher hr a little later… Happens to me all the time on vO2 max efforts… The first 5 seconds on the rest the hr still climbing…
I think the Polar OH1 is just better than your average optical sensor. DC Rainmaker has always spoken highly of it. I have other optical wrist sensors that have the usual issues of reading low at high intensity.
My Garmin OHR (Instinct Solar) is excellent. HOWEVER, you must be recording an activity even if you discard it at the end or it will significantly under read.
When I originally got it I had a number of emails to support toing and froing about the issue, being fobbed off with every excuse under the sun until I did a bit of testing for myself. So even if you tell the watch to “broadcast HR” it will still give a severe under-read unless you put it into recording activity mode. Then discard the activity afterwards.
