Slightly off-topic but can anyone recommend a cheap viewer for the Garmin Varia Radars? It’s ANT+ but I can bring myself to pay hundreds for a bike computer when all I need is an LED and a beeping noise to indicate a car behind me. Cheapest I can find is a Bryton Rider 420.
I bought a mount for my phone but then discovered that vibrations can kill the autofocus/stabilisation, even with a damper.
It's about $100 direct from them or on AliExpress.
Ant+ and BLE, dual band GPS, comes with a Garmin compatible mount for your handlebar as part of the package too. Does turn by turn (but on the 630 doesn't reroute if you go off course, the 630S does though).
I've got it paired up with a Wahoo HRM, a Magene P505 power meter and the Magene Radar and it works flawlessly.
Edit: almost forgot, also integrates well with my Kickr Core. Exports in standard file formats so you can analyse your rides, bring them into other apps etc. as well as auto upload to Strava and Apple Health.
I've been considering getting the Magene power meter cranks as well but was a bit hesitant on account of the relatively larger price tag, and it being the first item I would be buying that is subject to tariffs in the EU (it's hard to figure out whether there are anti-dumping tariffs in place).
How are you enjoying them? Also, do you have any other nice Chinese cycling gear to recommend?
Yay! Fellow iGS630 user, there are literally DOZENS of us!
I'm really liking them, I started being more serious about training rather than just winging it (in my 40's, want to stay fit for as long as possible).
Their accuracy seems good, I've got the bike on the Kickr now and the numbers from that and the pedals agree with each other. Fitting them is super quick if you have some knowledge of bike maintenance and the required tools (a torque wrench is a must). I didn't get the chainrings, just the power meter and cranks as if felt silly not to just reuse my 105 R7100 rings. I use the DC Rainmaker analyser to view the data, which is easy with the iGS630 as I export the file via airdrop and then upload it.
As for other Chinese cycling brands, Magene and iGSPort are the only two I've used products from, and both have been solid, especially for the price - but there are some great YouTubers who cover the market, such as China Cycling (who also runs the Panda Podium store) and Luke from Trace Velo who's done deep dives on the electronic groupsets from LTwoo and the like.
Chinese bike parts manufacturers are really knocking it out of the park at the moment quality wise - it wasn't long ago that "Cheap Chinese Carbon Fibre" was a pejorative term.
So a phone app does everything, but you're just worried about your expensive phone? Get another. Search "android prepaid phone" they're mostly around $30.
Not to mention, phones overheat in direct sun and stop working. Phones' capacitive touchscreens are also completely unusable in rain, contrast to the physical controls on a cycle computer.
Cycle computers are much lighter than phones generally. Their mounts are more robust and aerodynamic. If you crash, you're very likely to destroy your phone, whereas cycle computers are generally fine unless you directly bash them into a rock. Cycle computers have configurable high brightness LEDs for navigation cues and other training specific data display like HR or power.
Ok rant over. Mumble mumble Chesterson's gadget. If one doesn't know why it exists, maybe ask why...
To save me some buck I strapped an old sport watch to the bike, it can connect to everything, last days on a single charge and it has physical buttons. Just as good.
Varia alerts don't utilize the screen, they are just buzzes and beeps. A phone will last for days with screen off, especially with no sim card. They asked for the cheapest option.
It's tempting to think that phones can do everything, and they sort of can, but not well. There's a time and place for dedicated hardware, and cycle computers are very firmly in that category, aside from very casual usage.
I think they meant that the vibrations mean the app doesn’t work because with the vibrations of the camera the picture is useless, not that it damages the phone.
I bought a mount for my phone but then discovered that vibrations can kill the autofocus/stabilisation, even with a damper.