Garmin Vivoactive 3?

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livpoksoc

Guru
Location
Basingstoke
I have a vivosmart HR+ and have had so for several years now, absolutely love it - esoecially that it sumyncs pretty seamlessly with my edge 520.

Of late the battery has started to go and only lasting a few days without charge.

I have just seen the Vivoactive 3 is on amazon for £129. Is it a good watch, and will it still sync with ant+ for use indoor and on the road?
 

numbnuts

Legendary Member
I have one find it very good for cycling and walking
 

nickAKA

Über Member
Location
Manchester
I have a vivosmart HR+ and have had so for several years now, absolutely love it - esoecially that it sumyncs pretty seamlessly with my edge 520.

Of late the battery has started to go and only lasting a few days without charge.

I have just seen the Vivoactive 3 is on amazon for £129. Is it a good watch, and will it still sync with ant+ for use indoor and on the road?

Yes & yes.
Recommended to my BiL this morning. It's about £30 off, the 54% claim is BS as nobody sells it at £230 but still a good price for a great bit of kit.
 

John_S

Über Member
Hi All,

First of all my apologies to livpoksoc and I hope that this is not hijacking your post.

Your message caught my eye because I don't own a heart rate strap and I've never had a fitness watch.

But I have a Garmin Edge Explore 1000 and recently I've been wanting to have some way of monitoring my heart rate. I don't really want to wear a heart rate strap and so a wrist based heart monitor seems like a fairly good way to go. And because I already have a Garmin bike computer getting a Garmin fitness watch also seems like a fairly good plan.

I'd been looking at the Vivosport ( https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/p/574602 ) but now that you've mentioned the Vivoactive 3 I could also look at that as well.

My question is having never had one of these Garmin fitness watches will any of them connect to my Garmin Edge Explore 1000 bike computer and record heart rate or will only certain models attach to my Garmin Edge?

Thanks to anyone who has more experience with these things than me and for any advice.

John
 

nickAKA

Über Member
Location
Manchester
Hi All,

First of all my apologies to livpoksoc and I hope that this is not hijacking your post.

Your message caught my eye because I don't own a heart rate strap and I've never had a fitness watch.

But I have a Garmin Edge Explore 1000 and recently I've been wanting to have some way of monitoring my heart rate. I don't really want to wear a heart rate strap and so a wrist based heart monitor seems like a fairly good way to go. And because I already have a Garmin bike computer getting a Garmin fitness watch also seems like a fairly good plan.

I'd been looking at the Vivosport ( https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/p/574602 ) but now that you've mentioned the Vivoactive 3 I could also look at that as well.

My question is having never had one of these Garmin fitness watches will any of them connect to my Garmin Edge Explore 1000 bike computer and record heart rate or will only certain models attach to my Garmin Edge?

Thanks to anyone who has more experience with these things than me and for any advice.

John
https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/web...UID-8EC8B7FE-2AC2-46E9-94FC-06416FF1E2ED.html

Yes, the vivoactive will broadcast HR to the head unit - dunno about the vivosport, also not sure if the vivosport will connect to other sensors. At the current price it would be crazy to go for the vivosport anyway, the wife has one for running but my ancient vivoactive is superior in every way tbh...
 

Milkfloat

An Peanut
Location
Midlands
Be careful with wrist based heart rate measuring when cycling - the results are always poor. My watch allows it, but I always use a chest strap because of dodgy figures and cut outs. The arm bands are much better.
 

The Rover

Guru
Location
Blackburn
I use a vivoactive 3 for cycling, running outdoors and on a treadmill, swimming, Pilates, dog walking and more recently badminton!

It’s very easy to use, weighs next to nothing and looks good.

I use a Garmin rubber mount when I’m using it for cycling.

Well recommended.
 

John_S

Über Member
Hi All, many thanks for all of the replies and advice above which is much appreciated!

Hi nickAKA, thanks for the advice that the Vivoactive 3 will broadcast heart rate data to my Garmin Edge head unit because that's exactly what I want it for but I wasn't sure that's how they work so cheers for the info.

Hi Milkfloat, thanks for your message and yes I do understand that in terms of accuracy wrist based heart rate monitors are inferior to chest or arm based specific heart rate straps. It's well worth knowing and taking into account but for me I'm not a performance or racing cyclist by any stretch of the imagination. I'm just a commuter who also does the odd long ride & audax and I'm a bit curious to know about what my heart rate does during rides. I understand that it won't be 100% accurate but even just as a rough guide it'll be interesting to me. Also if I go for this wrist type device as opposed to a dedicated chest or arm strap I also get a device which is a watch, step counter etc. so it has uses beyond cycling as well rather than being just workout specific.

Hi The Rover, thanks for your endorsement of the Vivoactive 3 which is good to know.

Cheers,

John
 

Red17

Veteran
Location
South London
I have a vivisport and compared to my chest strap its readings are not even close when cycling ie it can be reading 100 BPM when my chest strap is showing 160 bpm.

I've found its more accurate when walking about or jogging, but miles out when on the bike.
 

John_S

Über Member
Having not looked at the Vivoactive 3 prior to seeing this post I hadn't actually appreciated how good a deal the £129 posted by livpoksoc was.

I've had a really busy week at work and hadn't been thinking about buying anything until the weekend but now the Vivoactive 3 has gone from £129 to being just about £200 everywhere.

D'oh because I should have acted faster but at the time I hadn't realised just how good a deal that was.
 
OP
OP
livpoksoc

livpoksoc

Guru
Location
Basingstoke
Having not looked at the Vivoactive 3 prior to seeing this post I hadn't actually appreciated how good a deal the £129 posted by livpoksoc was.

I've had a really busy week at work and hadn't been thinking about buying anything until the weekend but now the Vivoactive 3 has gone from £129 to being just about £200 everywhere.

D'oh because I should have acted faster but at the time I hadn't realised just how good a deal that was.

It'll come down again, black Friday in November.

Back to your OP - I am just an avid rider, and just intrigued by HR, and if that means you get a whole smart watch for the price, rather than £50 for just a chest strap with ant+ then Garmin can take thy riches.
 

si_c

Guru
Location
Wirral
Worth taking a look at the Forerunner 35 as well, I've got one it's great.

Transmits HR via ANT+ so compatible with all head units, plus it has built in GPS so you can simply record using that.

Mostly though it's a good watch, and I get about 5 days mixed use of recording, broadcasting HR and just general watch-ing.
 
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