People ride bike as a form of transportation or physical exercise. They can benefit from mobile devices to become better cyclists. On the other hand, smartwatches are getting more sophisticated and they can track many physical metrics related to this activity. With a smartwatch on your wrist, you can take advantage of the GPS support, heart rate monitors, blood oxygen level sensors and other features to make sure that you achieve goals. There’s also a navigation feature on your smartwatch that allows you to reach a destination quickly when you are commuting. After wearing them for quite some time, the smartwatch will gather a huge amount of data that you can use to evaluate physical progress. You will know things that you need to improve further and whether there are things that you could do better. As an example, a smartwatch may have oximeter to track how you perform physically after cycling for more than one month. It will track how your body absorbs oxygen. Further, this information can tell you about breathing pattern, estimated sweat loss, hydration level and overall sleep quality. If you are looking for the best smartwatch to enhance cycling performance, here are things to consider:
Fitness tracking
Almost all smartwatches have basic fitness tracking features, such as step counts and running distance. Many smartwatches also track cycling distance and it’s easy to see how many miles you have cycled in one month. You will also know the record peak heart rate. You will also know about the resting heart rate. After cycling regularly, you will find changes in these metrics. If you are an eager cyclist, you will know whether you are being overtrained and fatigued, which is not a good physical sign. As you are about to reach the peak fitness, you know when to maintain the training pace. While cycling, the smartwatch also offers many other things to keep you productive. Weather app, contactless payments, notifications and timers are features that can make your cycling experience more enjoyable.
Compatibility with peripheral sensor
Before choosing a smartwatch, make sure that it’s compatible with cadence sensors and power meter. Some smartwatches don’t have good compatibility when it comes to pairing with external sensors. It is much better if you choose a smartwatch model optimized for general fitness and even better, for cycling.
Heart rate monitoring
It’s a common feature in many smartwatches to have built in heart-rate sensor. We could argue whether these smartwatches are as accurate compared to chest strap, when it comes to reading our heart rate. Even so, smartwatches are getting more accurate. You should choose a smartwatch with optical heart sensor. This sensor lights up capillaries with LED. Density changes when blood pumps through your capillaries and the reflected light will analyse the raw data. As an example, the smartwatch can track the heart beat per minute with good accuracy.
GPS mapping
For any cyclist, GPS mapping can be quite helpful. Whether you are a commuter or an enthusiast in physical exercise, it is easy to track the best route to achieve your goals.
