 "Three years and still running perfectly" | 2009-09-05 |
| - Reviewed By RCJ from Portland Oregon |
I'm a user of the CS-400 for several years. I swap the receiver between my road bike and my mountain bike. It has two wheel diameter set-ups but fortunately both my bikes have identical circumferences. I want to try to offset any complaint that the sensor does not work well. Actually, it might require some adjustment of the location so I have a few tips. I've used the CS-400 for years and had zero problems after setup. Setup can be somewhat frustrating sometimes though. That's why I decided to enter my two cents here.
1. Mount the sender/transmitter/pickup device and the monitor on the same side of the bike. These guys don't work very well if there's material between the two. Make sure the monitor is overhanging the handlebar or it can't "see" the transmitter. I can imagine that a fat road bike bar wrapped with rubber tape might cause the unit to be hidden from direct view of the fork-mounted transmitter.
2. Locate/position/install the transmitter very close to the magnet. As close as possible without clicking as it spins past the transmitter. A light will flash one time for each time there's a signal pick up when you're testing to see if there's a pick up between the magnet and the fork-mounted transmitter. Sweet! When the wheel rotates past the transmitter, a dim red light flashes one time. This tells you that the sensor/transmitter is picking up the signal from the magnet. Spint the wheel a few times and you'll hear a beep from the monitor as it automatically turns on. You have to set the program to AutoStart for this "beep-on" feature to work. After a few flashes, the light goes to sleep so if you're still testing after a few minutes you might not get the flash so don't think it's not working. Let it rest a few minutes and start again and you'll see the dim red light flash if the magnet is properly placed.
3. I like to use zip ties to install the hardware but beware, zip ties slip unless pulled very tight with a zip-tie puller which is basicaly a plier-type tool that grabs the tail of the zip and tugs it as tight as you dare to squeeze the handles. Buy or borrow one and the zips will hold forever. Fail to pull zips super tight is a guarantee that something will move after a while.
4. I don't know what kind of cadence magnet they are currently sending in this kit but mine was a tiny flat rectangular shaped magnet with sticky tape and a band of adhesive tape to wrap around the crank arm. Not good enough. A shop gave me a better crank arm magnet which is housed in plastic with a slot for a zip tie. See if you can find one of these for a better way to fasten it to your crank arm.
Final note: Did you ever wonder what we used to be doing with our time before we began to write and read dozens if not hundreds of reviews like these? |
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 "Not as good as I hoped" | 2009-06-30 |
| - Reviewed By perfuze |
| I purchased this a year ago and already need to replace the speed sensor. Polar does not offer battery changes for the sensors, only the receiver. You will need to purchase a new sensor (speed, cadence) each time a battery dies. This can be pretty expensive after a few years. I tried to find a system that offers both heart rate and replaceable batteries and most are very expensive to purchase. Polar has a lock on the pulse rate market and it would be good business sense for a company to design a good inexpensive heart-rate bicycling computer. |
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| "poor quality - not suitable for mountain biking" | 2009-02-10 |
| - Reviewed By Mike Ericsson |
I bought this product in may 2008 and since then it used up about 10 batteries (the computer, not the sensors), even if i always turned it off after rides. That's a lot of batteries - on an older bike i have an antique cateye that was very cheap when i bought it and i think i changed the battery once in 7 years or so.
Almost certainly my model must have an electronic problem of some sort. That's really annoying but that's not the main reason why i rate this product so low.
The main reason is that the design is unsuitable for rough mountainbiking. On a recent cross country ride I have lost the computer - it just came off the handlebars (due to vibration i assume) and i have just noticed it's not there anymore when i got home and washed the bike. I think that's just unacceptable - my old cateye never even once fell off the handlebars in many years of abuse.
These two problems combined make it a pretty bad investment in my opinion, and you should only buy it if you have access to as many batteries as you want AND if you mostly do spinning or roadriding. If you're into MTB and like to ride in places where they don't have shops selling CR2032 batteries around every corner, you may want to stick with more solid and most likely cheaper products. |
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 "Polar CS200cad cycle computer" | 2008-08-15 |
| - Reviewed By T. Clark from Idaho Falls, Id |
| This unit is a good all around unit for a road bike or short travel mountain bike. I was having an issue with the accuracy of the distance on my mountain bike, but it was working ok on the road bike. I was told by the Polar customer support that it was designed for ROAD only. But the installation instructions said that it could be used on mountain. Long story short, I moved the speed sensor as high on the fork as I could get it and all seems to be well. If I were to do it all over again I would not use it on my mountain bike. It works great for the road. |
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| "put your money elsewhere" | 2008-03-27 |
| - Reviewed By Ann Downey |
| I assumed this would be a great product based on the brand and price. As a spinning instructor, I have endorsed the Polar brand heart rate monitors for years because of their accuracy and durability. However, when I recently purchased a new road bike and bought this cs200cad as an accessory I was highly disappointed. I expected to be able to install the computer and magnets myself. After hours of unsuccessfully syncing the cadence/speed magnets with the computer, I finally took my bike to a shop to have everything professionally installed. I was then told that this particular brand was considered to be one of the most difficult to install because it was so "touchy." Next, I was told that even after professional installation, bikes were often returned to have things fine tuned because the whole system was so "delicate." At that point, I decided to abandon the whole Polar computer and ended up purchasing a Cat Eye double wireless which has been just awesome. I wear my regular Polar heart rate monitor so that I can keep an eye on all of the cardio stuff, but I leave it up to my Cat Eye to keep track of my biking info. Lesson learned..you can't be good at everything. Polar has heart rate monitoring down to a T and Cat Eye has cycling computers down to a T. No fusion necessary. Hope this helps. Ride on. Ann D |
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 "Great unit but delicate" | 2008-03-20 |
| - Reviewed By An Amazon User |
This is my first and only bike-mounted monitor, so I can't make product comparisons. Its does everything that its supposed to, and does it quite well. It took some adjusting to get it to 'settle' down - I don't know how else to explain this part. At first, it seemed to skip readings a lot (heart rate, speed, cadence). I can't say that I really changed much in the setup, but it now reads just fine on a consistent basis. I have logged 3000 miles with it, and bought one for my wife.
My biggest peeve right now is that the mounting bracket on the back broke. It only holds 7 exercise sessions, so you have to twist-to-unlock the unit every time you take it off. Somehow, one of the three locking flanges busted. These flanges are thin plastic extrusions. A component that gets used so much (on/off all the time to download) should be better built.
Polar sayss $39 to fix (plus shipping, and lost time)
If another product has this functionality, but seems to be better built, you might want to consider it. |
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