Cycling Watches

A dedicated cyclist is always working to improve speed, increase fitness levels, and maximize distance. And of course have some fun, with new routes, cross-training in other sports, or even expanding into triathlon or run-bike races.

A cycling watch can help you track all of that and more. As smartwatches add to their fitness-tracking capacity, they can replace systems like a handlebar-mounted computer.

The best fitness watch for cycling will let you use different bikes, or do indoor training in a spin class. It will also let you expand as a multisport athlete, by also tracking hiking, running, swimming, and more.

A cycling GPS watch lets you try different routes, and store the ones you’d like to ride again, as well as tell you distance and pace, and provide information on your fitness level.

The best smartwatch for biking will also allow you to have all your data in one place, from every sport, and track activity as simple as daily steps taken.

So what should you be looking for when shopping for the best watch for biking? Let’s look at the most important considerations.

Best Golf GPS Watches

Garmin – fēnix 5 Cycling Smartwatch

Garmin – Forerunner 235 Cycling Smartwatch

Polar – Vantage Advanced GPS Cycling Smartwatch

Suunto – 9 Baro Cycling Smartwatch

Letsfit – Smart Activity Tracker Cycling Smartwatch

LETSCOM – Smart Fitness Cycling Smartwatch

Garmin – fēnix 5 Cycling Smartwatch

Highlights

This multisport watch has GPS and wrist-based heart rate technology, with a multitude of data and metrics provided by the watch.

The outdoor sensors include GPS and GLONASS satellite reception, and a 3-axis compass with gyroscope and barometric altimeter.

Connect your watch to enable smart notifications, as well as automatic uploads to the Garmin Connect online fitness community. You can personalize the watch with free watch faces and apps from the Garmin Connect IQ store. And the QuickFit bands are interchangeable, so you can choose a dressy version for work and sport variety for training. They’re available in premium leather, metal or silicone.

The Garmin training features provide advanced running information that’s applicable for cycling as well. By tapping into your physiological metrics, these dynamics include your performance condition and your lactate threshold. For runners, there’s also cadence and stride length.

Get as detailed as readouts of aerobic and anaerobic benefits of your workout, to see your improvement. A VO2 max estimator will tell you heartbeats per minute and heart rate variability, or the maximum volume of oxygen you can consume per minute. Other information includes a recovery advisor and a race predictor that estimates your finish time.

You can also use it to track performance in other sports, including swimming, skiing, golfing and paddle sports, with different metrics for each sport.

The Elevate wrist heart rate technology allows you to monitor your heart rate without wearing a chest strap, or you can pair it with a compatible heart rate chest strap to get even more metrics.

The display provides easy readability, visible even in intense sunlight, with transflective technology that reflects and transmits light at the same time. The bright, high-resolution, full-color Garmin Chroma Display has LED backlighting. Read your watch in all ambient conditions. Runs on a CR2 battery, which is included.

The Sapphire edition includes an extra silicone QuickFit band and has Wi-Fi capability for automatic activity uploading.

Specifications

Material:Fiber Reinforced Polymer With Stainless Steel Rear Cover
Size:1.8 x 1.8 x 0.6 inches. The display itself is 1.2 inches
Weight:2.4 ounces

Specifications

Pros

  • This watch provides a huge amount of data for fitness enthusiasts who want to track everything.
  • You can customise if you want, with watch bands that are easy to swap out and customizable watch faces.
  • Easy to read in all kinds of conditions, with transflective technology that reflects and transmits light at the same time and a high-resolution display.

Cons

  • All the data may be confusing to some, not worth having for others.

Why We Chose This

While this is sold as a running watch that tracks running metrics, it’s also perfectly suited for cycling. With Garmin’s GPS technology, a heart tracking technology that doesn’t require an extra chest strap, easy readability in all conditions, and physiological metrics that help you track and improve performance.

Cycling Smartwatch Buying Guide

Cycling Mode

Most GPS watches and fitness trackers are geared to runners as their main customers, with the capacity to track other sports. While we can assume that most will also have a cycling mode, it’s worth making sure the one you’re thinking of getting actually does have it. A dedicated cycling mode is key especially if you want to sync it to a training program you use, such as Strava. Even used on its own, you want to make sure the GPS watch that catches your eye will do what you need as a cyclist.

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