Suunto Smart Heart Rate Belt 2

Inge Nallsson

@matram said:

Here is a link to dcrainmaker comparison

Yeah, that is a good comparison between different (old) devices, though mostly foot-based. I also have memories of comparisons between wrist and other body placements of the sensors but perhaps I’ve muddled the memory into one single study…

What I distinctly remember from my own experiments is that terrain variation plays a big part when comparing wrist vs torso measurement (less between torso vs foot). Meaning better alignment the flatter and smoother the path. But your 45% higher GCT seems a bit excessive.

Jugger

I tried my new belt today for first time for commuting to work with bike. Just 10 mins one way and everything was working perfect.

Only one question popped to my mind. Why can I see cadence on biking exercise? Does new sensor pick up some data from biking too? It’s not mentioned anywhere. I saw it afterwards In SA. I was wearing only belt and watch.

SergioB

@Stefano-M64 nice question! IMO it would be really nice if Suunto implements something for swimming too 🤩

Egika

@Jugger said:
Only one question popped to my mind. Why can I see cadence on biking exercise? Does new sensor pick up some data from biking too? It’s not mentioned anywhere. I saw it afterwards In SA. I was wearing only belt and watch.

I just checked a cycling activity from last Saturday. In the iOS app I cannot see cadence anywhere…
Where does it show up for you?

Jugger

@Egika I had also S+ ZoneSense and Gustin activated. I try it again tomorrow.

I have iOS with latest public update 3.14.1.

Egika

@Jugger interesting. I have 3.15 beta.
Maybe there is a difference. Or in the watch / belt firmware.

Stavrogin

@Egika Cadence should only be for running if I understand correctly. It would be hard for a HRM to be able to track your RPMs on a bike. That needs a sensor.

VoiGAS

@SergioB And for XC Skiing - like Garmins XC Skiing Power

Inge Nallsson

@matram said:

Mybe time to dig out my Stryd pods for a comparison

I could not resist the temptation, even though my injuries forced a really short experimental run. So, Suunto Race S connected to the SHRM2, Stryd ‘Wind’ (model Nr 19) pod on the left shoe (Altra Torin 7; a Zero-Drop/flat model) connected to the Stryd App on the phone, and finally Garmin Forerunner 955 with native running dynamics capability on the left wrist.

Total running session 1 kilometre in 7 minutes on practically flat asphalt (4-5 metres asc/desc). Cadence ca 175 spm, Average Ground Contact Time and Average Vertical Oscillation below:

SHRM2 – StrydW – FR955
354 ms – 319 ms – 273 ms
5.7 cm – 4.78 cm – 7.6 cm

354 is 29.67% higher than 273 according to Google, and that is also the ca 30% difference I had in mind from old experiments. The Suunto info then says I’m either Fair: 270–300 ms or Poor: 300 ms. But I bounce around with the efficiency of an Elite: <6 cm or at least is Very good: 6–8 cm. I stopped looking at these numbers a long, long time ago…

The shockingly bad experience with the SHRM2 was the Heart Rate. Strap was firmly secured and wet before the run. This is either a serious pod firmware bug OR a Race S firmware bug:

Look at that HR of 32 bpm! Even lower than the lowest I’ve seen while sleeping and wearing a Holter monitor (39 bpm).

2b2bff

@Inge-Nallsson my first run with the SHRM2 had the same bad heart rate experience. But to be fair, I used the older strap and possibly headn’t wetten the belt enough. After a while the reading normalized. Runalyze showed r-r readings all over the place for the first part of my run.

The other times I used the SHRM2 with the new belt and HR reading has been like you would expect them to be.

I guess the new in sensor error correction code is not doing well under all circumstances.

snow*

@Inge-Nallsson said:

@matram said:

Mybe time to dig out my Stryd pods for a comparison

I could not resist the temptation, even though my injuries forced a really short experimental run. So, Suunto Race S connected to the SHRM2, Stryd ‘Wind’ (model Nr 19) pod on the left shoe (Altra Torin 7; a Zero-Drop/flat model) connected to the Stryd App on the phone, and finally Garmin Forerunner 955 with native running dynamics capability on the left wrist.

Total running session 1 kilometre in 7 minutes on practically flat asphalt (4-5 metres asc/desc). Cadence ca 175 spm, Average Ground Contact Time and Average Vertical Oscillation below:

SHRM2 – StrydW – FR955
354 ms – 319 ms – 273 ms
5.7 cm – 4.78 cm – 7.6 cm

354 is 29.67% higher than 273 according to Google, and that is also the ca 30% difference I had in mind from old experiments. The Suunto info then says I’m either Fair: 270–300 ms or Poor: 300 ms. But I bounce around with the efficiency of an Elite: <6 cm or at least is Very good: 6–8 cm. I stopped looking at these numbers a long, long time ago…

The shockingly bad experience with the SHRM2 was the Heart Rate. Strap was firmly secured and wet before the run. This is either a serious pod firmware bug OR a Race S firmware bug:

Look at that HR of 32 bpm! Even lower than the lowest I’ve seen while sleeping and wearing a Holter monitor (39 bpm).

I can’t comment on the running dynamics yet, and the only thing I have a complaint about (though I need to look into it further) is the noise in the R-R; that said, there is something strange about your unit, afaic my heart rate reading is fine.

e.g. no idea what happened to R-R after 15’

VoiGAS

Got my HRM2 today and did a short Test Run with the RaceS. Thoughts:

The belt is not really wider or more comfortable. Maybe a little bit more flexible
Real Time Dynamics are not easy to read during the run, but I had the possibility to react to the bad GCT with better technique and reduced it. So it makes sense
GCT Balance is somehow strange. I have a hurt right leg with metal in it - but still the balance tends to the left. Not sure if I trust it
Zonesense looks much better. Clean line in Runalyze and proper detected aerobic threshold

All in all a positive first experience, but I am not sure if its worth buying if you already have a (good) belt. For everyone not owning a HR belt its highly recommended.

Inge Nallsson

@snow said:

there is something strange about your unit, afaic my heart rate reading is fine

Quite possibly. Paired the SHRM2 with the Garmin FR955 as well as the Race S and redid the 1 km run a few minutes ago. They both mirrored a crappy first minutes. And the FR955 had a couple of late spikes not seen on the Race S graph (perhaps the FR955 tried optical HR there…) I will redo the run tomorrow morning with optical forcefully turned off in both watches. If crappy HR again, the SHRM2 goes back to the seller. Race S:

Garmin FR955:

snow*

@Inge-Nallsson before sending it back I would also try a factory reset…

2b2bff

@Inge-Nallsson said:

(perhaps the FR955 tried optical HR there…)

You can see this when using fitfileviewer… Garmin does record three heart rate streams. Wrist based, external and just “heart rate” what is represented by the graph in Garmin Connect…

Squirrel

@snow said:

would also try a factory reset

Of the belt?

snow*

@Squirrel yep. Press the button for 20 sec until you see red green blue sequence (not sure in that order). You also need to cancel every past pairing from devices…

atoponce

@VoiGAS Can you share a before/after of your RR data and ZS charts by chance?

HonzaS

Oh God . You want to buy best compatible accessories and got this . Also I can’t believe, that I’ll have somehow better Zone sense readings with SHRM2 compared to Polar H10. It’s only about R-R intervals and good signal IMHO. I’m glad for my H10. I only got strange R-R readings while I have extrasystoles during activity which I feel very well. I got ECG holter implanted. It’s a long story. But last months everything is fine and I feel it only time to time and also my R-R difference charts from cycling are perfectly clear.

Mitch9

@HonzaS It’s hard to interpret the date if the scales are not equal and we don’t know wich data belongs to which source.