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What make/model of altimeter do you use? I know very little about them and am looking for one that will give me the total amount I have climbed. Do they "subtract" from your total as you go down? :confused: What features do you like? Don't use? Thanks!
Veronica uses one and I think Jobob does, too. Maybe you could try PMing them.
Let us know which one you end up getting!
I've got a HAC4 (Ciclosport) and just got a Garmin Edge 305. They give you a cumulative total of feet climbed regardless of whether you are going up or down.
From what I understand, the Polar ones do this also, but apparently you cannot view the polar stats during the ride, but only at the end. (Anyone out there with a Polar correct me if I am wrong, but my ride partner who does have a Polar cannot look at her stats during the ride.) With the HAC4 you can see during the ride how many feet you have climbed so far, which is nice - if you know there's 10,000 feet of climbing on a ride and you have climbed 6,000 feet then you know what's ahead. I'm not sure yet about the Garmin because it just arrived last night!
I have a VDO computer with altimeter its called the MC1.0+.
It does what I need. Here are a few of the Alt functions:
Trip Alti - indication of altitude climbed during the current/actual trip.
Max Alti - indication of the highest altitude reached during the current/actual trip.
Avg Climb - Indication of the average grade (in %) for the current/actual trip.
Max Climb - indication of the maximum grade (in %) for the current/actual trip.
While Im riding I get current altitude in meters or feet, current incline or grade and current temperature in degrees C or F.
I have the Cateye Altimeter. It does not subtract for downhills either. It also keeps a running total of your climbing (until you reset the computer). I like it a lot, but will be replacing it with the Blackburn Delphi 6.0, only because it also includes an HRM and current incline.
One problem with all pressure based (as opposed to GPS based) alitmeters is it's effected by barometric pressure. I need to reset it to my "home" altitude nearly every time I take it out of the garage.
I have a Ciclosport CM436M but I'm not sure if they're being made anymore - or if they are still being made, they're different than the one I have now.
It took a while to get the hang of how to use mine, in part because the instructions are in Genglish (English translated from German) and take a bit of effort to comprehend. Otherwise, I like it.
I have the garmin edge 305. I do not believe it subtracts from the total as you descend. It gives a different total for ascents and descents. I like the garmin edge because it collects all my data (heartrate, cadance, speed, elevation, grade and more) while I'm riding. At the end of the ride I can download it to my computer. It has a program (training center) that gives you a map and a graph of your ride. You can also upload it to a site (motionbased) on the web that will let you look at your ride through satellite...which is very cool.