Mr M's computer

Being a little on the anal side when it comes to facts and figures when I started training in earnest I wanted a cycling computer that would measure just about everything it could, including heart rate monitor, (HRM) and also allow me to save on a PC so that I could pore over my rides to my hearts content reliving every sweaty moment.

One must have was an altimeter with the climbing I was planning to do. Given this there is not too much choice about. I ended up getting a Ciclosport HAC4, one clincher for me choosing this being the fact that the US Postal team use it and if it is good enough for them....

Having used it for some 6 months now I would say that it was a good choice though with a few problems. It certainly has all the functions I would want and has proved to be remarkably robust. I use it on my MTB as well as road bike and here it gets a lot of abuse in terms of dirt/water + the occasional fall. The altimeter in particular is remarkable. I have used GPS (Garmin) navigators and these can give very sketchy and variable height readings. By contrast the HAC4 claims it can accurately measure 25cm altitude differences and having used it I believe this. Part of the "fun", at least for me, in cycling is tackling really hard hills and with a HAC4 you can get good precise measure ascents so that you can compare one with another.

HAC4 used a standard chest strap to record heart rate and its HRM functions are fine. Its data storage is also good, 64 hours of statistics can be saved which is not bad (though not as much as I would like as I will need to be selective in France).

The problems with the HAC4 are:
> set-up of the sensors can be a bit of a fiddle. Both the wheel sensor (for speed, distance etc) and the crank sensor (for cadence) have quite a fine tolerance in terms of positioning. I have duck taped the crank sensor to make sure it stays in place but the wheel sensors sometimes move, especially on the MTB but also on some fast road descents. If you spot this it means an unscheduled stop. If you don't then you get very HACed off at the end of the ride when you know you have gone 50 miles but the computer only says 10). (this is easier than it sounds, the HAC can display 2 readings at a time, I like to look at HR and cadence, so it is easy to miss the fact that speed/distance are missing).


> Starting/stopping data recording means you have to press 2 buttons simultaneously. This sounds easy but can be hard when on the move and wearing gloves. Even dafter you can record "milestones"/checkpoints during a ride (to help when looking at the info on the PC later) but this means having to press the same 2 buttons for just a little bit less time. One extra button would make life a whole lot easier.


> Worst of all is the PC interface. This is supposedly USB but is a throwback in terms of technology. Worst it is very unreliable, almost always needing fiddling about with the device manager settings for the interface (every time, not just once) and then seemingly at random to work. Included in this is one feature almost guaranteed to send you mad. The transfer rate is very slow, taking around 3-5 minutes for 100K (yes K) of data. So you sit and watch the transfer almost literally byte by byte. A little meter tells you how far through you are. This gets to 100%. So you think it has finished. Wrong. Then and only then it says it has failed. So you have to start all over again. And again. And again. Honestly my old ZX81 was quicker and better. I am prepared to offer a bounty to anyone who finds the people responsible for this.....
(I am not alone >> http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-88336.html )


> Having got the data onto your PC you can analyse it. There are two applications that you can use.

>> Ciclotour is cycling specific and is not bad, though it does seem to be a bit of a dogs breakfast in terms of functions it offers (including a bizarre option to "animate" your tour which simply means watching little bike sprite move over your route. Anyone who wants to see this happening more than once really should get out more.)

>> Ciclotrainer is more general and intended to help manage training routines, including cross training in other sports. It is pretty useless. You can use it to build up a database of every training session you have had but having done so the analysis included is very basic. If only some of the time spent on animating the Ciclotour data had been spent on Ciclotrainer both products may have been a lot better.

If you do have a HAC4 (or even if you do not) then the site http://www.hac4.com/downloads.htm is worth a visit, as it includes some real data from someone who has ridden some of the TDF climbs. You need an application "Hactronic" to be able to view this but this can be downloaded from the site as well. Assuming I survive I will publish some info on my tour in a similar format here so watch this space.