Mio has been one of the leading brands in pushing chest-strap-free heart rate monitoring for athletes, putting an optical sensor between your wrist and the device to measure pulse.
The Velo, above, is the first cycling specific model, pairing with your ANT+ and/or BTLE cadence and speed sensors and then sending that data to a bluetooth equipped smartphone, letting you capture all that data in any of your favorite cycling apps (heard of Strava?) without the need for a dedicated cycling computer. Of course, it’ll send the data via ANT+ to any such computer, too. That cycling sensor compatibility sets it apart from other fitness tracking wrist bands, but it’ll handle basic fitness tracking, too, through their Mio GO app.
We spotted this and the Fuse at Interbike, too, and got the full tech breakdown, but now they’re ready to ship on December 8th, just in time for the holidays…
The new Velo, above, has six small LED lights on the top to indicate your heart rate training zone.
The Fuse runs $20 more and gives you an LED readout of actual heart rate, time of day, etc., but doesn’t pair with your on-bike sensors. For the multisport athlete, there’s the Alpha watch with timer and add’l functionality, but still no bike sensor reading.
