Gears & Gadgets: GPS Watches
By David Cohen
Maryland National Capital Park Police Reserve Unit
Growing up, I used to follow the Dick Tracy cartoons in the newspaper and found myself mesmerized by the wristwatch two-way radio, and the TV which came later. I’m old enough to remember a world before digital watches, let alone ones with multiple functions. It didn’t seem possible that a watch could be capable of so much.
Fast-forward more than 40 years and not only have watches evolved, but also watches like the Apple watch and FitBit have changed the perception of what exactly a watch is and what it can do. The capabilities of the watches made today would even make Dick Tracy jealous.
Personally, I have been a bit skeptical about these modern watches. As many regular readers of this column can attest, I have one foot firmly planted in old-school thinking: if it wasn’t broken, why are we trying to fix it? But there comes a time when one has to bite the bullet. For me, that time came when my trusty Garmin Edge 205 finally gave up the ghost and I needed a different way to track my rides, other than using my cell phone. I decided I’d give one of these GPS watches a try.
Having used Garmin products for almost 20 years, I am familiar with their build quality and reliability, so naturally, I checked out Garmin first. Garmin sells a wide range of GPS watches with prices from $79 to $1950, depending on the number and type of bells and whistles you want. I chose to purchase a reconditioned Garmin Vivoactive 3. The Vivoactive 3 typically retails around $150, but the reconditioned model was only about $100.
The Vivoactive 3 is loaded with features and is capable of tracking 16 different activities, such as running, swimming, cycling, indoor cycling, and weightlifting. If you can’t find the activity you want on the watch, you can download more. It tracks your heart rate and your stress level. There’s no clumsy band to wrap around your chest like the older heart rate monitors. Just put the watch on and it starts measuring your heart rate. It’s that simple. When you input your fitness data (age, height, weight, etc.), it sets up your heart rate zones as Easy, Aerobic, Threshold, and Maximum. It also sounds an alarm if you exceed your maximum heart rate.
The cycling feature works well. Pick the cycling activity, wait for the GPS to lock, and then press start. While you are riding, the display shows the elapsed time, and, more importantly, your heart rate. The heart rate monitor was a game-changer for me. Being able to track my heart rate in real time allows me to know when my body is starting to go anerobic and when I should back off. It totally changed my approach to cycling. I now use the heart rate monitor instead of the speedometer. This had a good effect during this past summer when I participated in the “Bike to the Beach” charity ride across the Delmarva Peninsula from Centreville, Maryland, to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, a distance of about 75 miles (120 km). By keeping my heart rate in my “Aerobic zone” of about 130 – 135 bpm, I avoided “blowing up” like I did the previous year, and still had some gas in the tank by the end of the ride.
While the Vivoactive 3 doesn’t display a map on its watch face, it will give you your GPS coordinates. This is a useful function when riding on hiker/biker trails where landmarks may not be readily available. It enables you to save locations and navigate back to them via the use of a compass, something which has been standard with Garmin products since they were first made available.
Like any other smart watch with a fitness bent, it has the usual share of widgets such as tracking the number of steps you take in each day and the number of flights of stairs you climb in a given day. I found the pedometer could get spoofed fairly easily by various arm motions. For instance, even when I’m playing piano, the pedometer records some of my motions as steps. That works for me!
It also measures your current stress and average stress for the day. If you’ve been sitting idle, it will remind you to “Move” every so often. If you are over-stressed, it will encourage you to relax.
The Vivoactive 3 has the typical smart watch features, being able to sync just about any notification imaginable from your phone: calls, texts, social media notifications, etc. It also has a touchless pay feature called “Garmin Pay”, which is Garmin’s equivalent of Apple Pay or Google Pay. It’s a feature I don’t use, so I can’t comment on its effectiveness. Through Garmin Connect, there is access to a dizzying array of apps such as Strava, various fitness apps, workout dashboards, mapping apps, weather apps, calculators, etc., etc., and it seems like the number of apps available increases with each passing week. I haven’t really delved into the apps as I am pretty satisfied with the options that come standard with the watch.
Garmin claims a run time of seven days in regular mode and 13 hours in GPS mode before the watch needs recharging. Recharging is accomplished via a USB cable and is very quick. In my experience, it takes less than an hour to get to 100% when using a computer’s USB port.
The Vivoactive 3 is definitely a nifty little gadget. Should a GPS watch be part of the public safety cyclist’s toolbox? I’m going to say yes. Some features, such as the heart rate monitor, would undoubtedly make a difference from Day 1. My opinion is the usefulness of smart watch technology to the public safety rider is still in its infancy, but its potential is tremendous. Perhaps even Dick Tracy’s 2-way radio will eventually find its way into smart watch technology!
Gears & Gadgets is a blog written by David Cohen #1116. It features various repair tips and tricks that David has picked up in more than 25 years of cycling, including 15 years of public safety cycling. Gears & Gadgets will also periodically review some of the latest “gadget” items of potential interest to public safety cyclists. The advice and opinions in this column are solely the author’s and should not be interpreted as IPMBA mandates or recommendations unless explicitly stated.
About the author: David Cohen is a 15-year volunteer with the Maryland-National Capital Park Police. When he isn’t riding or tinkering with bicycles, David can be found tinkering with vintage cars or his collection of 19th and early 20th century musical instruments. An avid historian, David enjoys researching and writing as well. He can be reached at onyxsax@aol.com.
(c) 2022 IPMBA. This also appeared in Volume 32, No. 1, of IPMBA News.