Heart Rate monitor choices

[doc]

I have the poalr 510 which I notice no-one mentioned. It's quite a bit cheaper than the 710 which has altimeter and watts as the only difference that I can tell. It has cadence also and can be uploaded to the computer. BUT the watch is HUGE. Of course you can always mount it to the bike. I am sure the 710 and 720 are the same. The difference between 10's and 20's is the watch case. 10's are rubber or plastic or whatever. 20's are stainless.
Anyone considering a polar should go to:
polarusa.com
Select cycling (or tri) and then choose comparison. I believe the 625 is the most expensive and I can't see that it adds much.
Finally, I got mine on ebay. Brand new in box. Waaaaaay cheaper than retail. Ebay always has tons of heart monitors for sale.
Happy hunting.

[SadieKate]

Thanks for all the info, doc, on the different models. One thing of note, Polar clearly states on their web site that they will not honor the warranty for purchased from eBay or non-authorized dealers.

[Melody]

So, I was able to open up the speed sensor and swap the pins and now it works great. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to open up the cadence sensor. I even went out and picked up a new one to see if maybe I screwed up the first one. Still couldn't get it opened. I could unscrew one side, but not the other.

So, I tried putting the sensor on the downtube and the magnet all the way at the end of the crank, near the peddle. In initial tests it seems to be working, but I won't know truly until I take it out tomorrow during the morning commute.

In other news, on my commute home, something happened. I heard a massive "PING" which startled me. Everything seemed to be fine afterwards, but as I got near home, I started hearing scraping coming from the back wheel. I noticed that the wheel was no longer true and was scraping against the side of one of the brake pads. No spoke was broken so I'm not sure what happened.

I did have to straighten the wheel by tightening and loosening various spokes. I guess it's time to take the wheel into the LBS and have them check things out. I've only put a little less than 300 miles in the last month. (which is good for me since I used to live a _very_ seditary life)

Mel