Garmin heart monitors FR60 and Edge 500

[Alan]

My Polar died and I need a new heart monitor plus I am thinking that I would like to go to a Garmin Edge 500 computer for the bike. It looks like I would be best to buy the FR60 heart monitor w ANT stick for $130 so I can download indoor sessions on a spinning bike and then buy an Edge 500 for $250 w/o the heart monitor as I don't care much for cadence and I would already have a strap for the heart monitor. I would not be spending much more than the $350 for the Edge 500 bundle w heart monitor and cadence and I get a heart monitor that I can use if I can't use the Edge or don't want to.

This should work ok but can anyone shoot holes in this?

Thanks,

Alan

[KeithS]

I really like it. I don't care for multiple devices. I like the completeness of information captured/presented on the Edge. I can't see the upside of buying the Polar and the Garmin, except for somtimes a guy just needs more stuff. I have the candence, speed, distance, heart rate from my indoor sessions on the trainer. Sounds reasonable either way.

[steampunk]

i got the Edge 500 and use it both on my bike and as a HRM only for indoor sessions. it really can do both. just seems odd to bring a cyclocomputer looking thing to indoor workouts.

what I realy found useful for indoor sessions is the HR graph, it gives you a great visual cue for intervals. and of course you have a graphical record of your session afterwards. like:
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b386/rayovolks/TrainingPlots/100120_T_HR.jpg

i also recommend this review of the Edge 500.
dc rainmaker garmin edge 500 in depth review (http://dcrainmaker.blogspot.com/2009/11/garmin-edge-500-in-depth-review.html)

[EddieBirdsell]

I picked up the FR60 from Runner's World for about $80 online, and also the handlebar mount ($15 I think), and I absolutely freaking love it. I run with it, ride with it, and XC ski with it. The FR60 has three different modes, General, Running, and Bicycling, and you can sync it with the Garmin GSC 10 bike sensor and run it as a pretty full-featured cyclocomputer, or with their foot pod in order to track distance while running. I picked up the GSC10 from Geoman for about $45, so all said and done I guess I've sunk $140 in. Didn't get the ANT+ stick.

The FR60 is super-customizable. You can set it to have as many as five different display "pages" of workout info to scroll through for each one of the three modes, with one to three different "fields" displaying different functions for page (i.e. heart rate, speed, av. speed, etc). You mix and match to show the info that you want, where you want it. I had been using a Polar RS100, and this thing is leagues better.

The biggest drawback is that the handlebar mount is pretty chunky and unsightly, but you don't have to zip-tie it in place if you don't want to, so it's easily removable for vanity's sake, and you could always work on an alternative mounting method.