For Triathletes out there the much anticipated Timex Ironman Global Trainer GPS could well be on your birthday list, assuming you know someone that loves you enough to cough up £300.00. Yes, the Timex Ironman is ‘reassuringly expensive’ to pinch Stella Artois’ ad-line, but how well does it measure up? The short answer Cyclo is disappointed to report is: Not well. Read on…
On paper this looks impressive. There are five workout screens (run, bike, swim, plus 2 customizable) and the Timex has the ability to handle transition times between disciplines. Each screen can be customised to display up to four separate sets of data – for example pace, heart rate, elapsed time, etc. The device is also water resistant up to a depth of 50m and although this seems impressive, here’s the rub: it loses all satellite connection and heart rate monitoring once submerged and if that’s not enough Timex also suggest you don’t dare hit any buttons once in the water as it will compromise resistance. Huh?
Acquiring a satellite connection is a tedious affair (assuming you can pick one up in the first place). In our tests against two Garmin sat-navs, the Timex took on average four times longer to make contact and dropped signal almost constantly in both built up and heavily wooded areas – which rather rules out both urban and country rides. Distance accuracy appeared to be good – certainly inline with the Garmin – but when we tested the Timex at this year’s London Marathon (yes, we know this isn’t a bike event, but the principle’s the same) it recorded our elevation gain and loss at just over 7500foot, that’s more than a ten-fold error. On the upside the Timex heart rate monitor is both accurate and comfortable, but when you consider that you could buy a stand alone HRM for well under £50.00 this may not be a huge plus point either.
If you’re really determined to turn wasting money into an Olympic event you could even get an optional Speed and Cadence Sensor for the bike (£50, thank you very much) or you could save yourself a lot of grief and buy the similarly priced Garmin Forerunner 310XT for greater reliability, battery life, memory and substantially superior online training centre integration. Up to you of course…
