Tick Tock?

I’m not sure but I may give up on the Wahoo TickrX heart belt I have.  I got it on sale during the xmas rush back in December for about the same cost as a standard Garmin/Polar and it’s just been a bit of a PITA to use.

I prefer having some sexy robotic english woman telling me how I’m doing”

First complaint, the brain of the unit is what holds the strap on.  Unlike say a Garmin or Polar the brain doesn’t snap onto the belt and the belt straps onto you, with the Tickr the brain is the buckle basically that holds the strap on you.

Trying to adjust it after it’s on it pops undone on me all the time.  Granted once it’s on and set I’ve never had it come off during a run but I’m not sure why they went the way they did with it.  Unless they wanted to force you to unsnap the brain so you don’t accidentally leave it connected and drain the battery.

Second complaint with my preferred running phone of choice, a Galaxy Note 4, the LE BT is iffy at best.   With the wahoo utility it connects every time, all the time.  But with any running app, MapMyRun, EndoMondo, Sporttractive blah blah blah sometimes I get readings with BT, sometimes not.   It could be the BT on the Note 4 but I have no problem pairing up and using any other device, my car radio, my Bose Sports, my X3’s they all pair instantly and stay connected without any issue.

The ANT+ always works, my Fenix 3HR always picks it up and EndoMondo when it’s set to listen as an ANT+ always works.   Problem is EndoMondo in a recent update took away the ability to modify the voice prompts which is all I was using it for.   I don’t care to pay a monthly fee for voice prompts.

Sportractive, my running app of preference doesn’t do ANT+.

I tried MapMyRun today with my garmin and it worked out okay using ANT+ but not BT LE.   It has the basic voice prompts and I can live with that.   I prefer having some sexy robotic english woman telling me how I’m doing than be constantly flipping through the data fields on my watch.   I do use the DF’s on my Fenix to confirm pace but things like elapsed time, elapsed distance, heart rate I prefer whispered into my ear as I run.   In large part because if the light is dim my old eyes have trouble reading tiny text on my watch face during a run.

Bottom line if I’m stuck with ANT+ being reliable and useful then I might as well just use my Garmin brain stuck on a Polar sensor belt (the garmin belt started giving bad readings after about 3 months of use) and not have to deal with the weird design on using the brain to connect the strap together.

Yes I do end up giving up the metrics the TickrX provided but honestly they’re mostly a curiosity for me, not something driving my notrunning.  I did like the double tap the chest to change to the next song ala some kind of Star Trek communicator-esque action.