Dulwich Hill Bicycle Club

I plan to upgrade over the next few months or so.
One of the areas I am looking at working on is the bike cockpit. I was given one of those new Samsung Gear 2 wrist watch for Christmas. This pairs off with my standard Samsung Smartphone. Quite nifty and even has a inbuilt HRM on the watch itself - picks up from my wrist.
My question is this.
How can I incorporate all this tech into a coherent 'system' for the bike? If I have an Ant+ pick up on my bike, would I be able to use it with my Android based phone? Would a Garmin (500 or 510) be needed?
What do people have on their bikes at the moment?

If I have an Ant+ pick up on my bike, would I be able to use it with my Android based phone?

Yes[1]. Depending on the phone, it may pick up ANT+ natively[2], or through a third party accessory/adapter. But you will most likely need an app to drive the ANT+[3].

Would a Garmin (500 or 510) be needed?

No. But if you want to track positioning with any accuracy, I would check if your phone has a GPS[4]. The Garmin uses GPS for positioning, whereas an iPhone using the Strava app uses triangulation and WIFI locations, which is a lot less accurate in low coverage areas (like RNP).

What do people have on their bikes at the moment?

I have an iPhone and use a Garmin. One area that you need to consider if you are recording your rides, is what your chosen platform supports. An example: I use Strava to track rides. It has Garmin support, ie. I can upload straight from the Garmin into Strava. Strava also offers an iPhone app that records straight to Strava. I don't have to export from one platform to import to another.


1. ANT+ in phones - http://www.thisisant.com/consumer/ant-101/ant-in-phones
2. Samsung Android devices supporting ANT+ - http://www.thisisant.com/directory/filter/~/60/~/
3. ANT+ supporting Android apps - http://www.thisisant.com/directory/filter/~/115/~/~/
4. Samsung Android phones with GPS support - http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung-phones-f-9-11.php

I use ipBike with Galaxy S5 which can pick up any Garmin or bluetooth LE sensor. Uploads to whatever including strava. Highly customizable and therefore complex

I now have a Garmin 920XT. It's a watch so just stays on my wrist. Counts my steps too. At the end of my ride/run/swim I can Bluetooth it straight to my phone. No ANT+ required and the battery lasts me about a week. Satellites are found within about 10s.

Check out DC Rainmaker. He has tons of information on all of this, all very easy to find.