Urbane 2 is not a cycling fitness device

[nigelhealy]

I'm now 3 days into having a refurbished UB2 and learning what it can and cannot do, its limits, before I rely on it.

I have a usual bike loop of about 70 miles with 6000ft of ascent and I do it in about 5hr30m typically. I thought I'd try the UB2 "standalone" off from BT, left the mobile at home, to see what happened.

The UB2 was losing 25% of its battery an hour meaning it cannot do more than 4 hours. It kept connecting / disconnecting. It had no clue about my actual calories, I was using Google Fit and it was giving the same dumb 500Cals/hour even when going up a steep hill, it seemed to only know about speed even though GPS obviously knows you are going up or down hill, so it was showing me burning calories quickly on a downhill and slowly on an uphill when the truth is the opposite. If all it is going to do use is elapsed time, I can do that math easily.

As I had no mobile with me, the problem was the UB2 was my emergency phone so I took it off my wrist, when I got to 44% of power left at around 2 hours in to ensure it was not flat, connected it to power (I have a USB power socket on my bike via front dynohub) to top it up, and then Google Fit determined the act of connecting to power must equal I was no longer biking when not true so it stopped the timer.

I have previously tried Google Fit on a mobile and it drained the mobile battery pretty fast too.

The heartrate was unreliable, I was getting between 56 and 133. It seems reliable when stationary but not when moving, so meaning its not going to accurately tell you much of value.

The GPS got stuck and it stopped recording distance. I was not sure if this was me trying LG's fitness app (which I cannot uninstall) vs Google Fit, I was wondering these competed for GPS and the watch got confused?

The radio frequencies, across 2g 3g 4g were in general worse coverage than a mobile, I was getting no signal on UB2 in places I'd get a signal with a mobile.

Probably this is a better device for walker/runners who go out for less time, more in urban situations near stronger radio signals.

I have now flashed to AW2 and will try it again, see if its less dumb than AW1.5. I think I'm going to totally give up Google Fit, its laughably less than useless given its wildly wrong and a battery drain, and just go away from mobile and see how long it lasts.

I'm not sure what is the point of LTE and a stiff band for antennae, if it holds a weak signal, nor of it being a fitness device if using it more than a 4 hours makes it go flat, nor what is the point of the heartrate monitor which is so wildly inaccurate.

Still, could have been worse, I could have paid double with the LG Sport. :laugh:

 

[mward1995]

I'm not a cyclist but I've been recording my runs since the original release of the watch in November 2015. It doesn't compare to fitness focused devices like Garmin for battery life, HRM, etc., but with some trial and error I've setup mine to be perfect for my needs. I use ghostracer to record activities. It is very customisable and has many metrics to choose from. The developer is a cyclist as are many that use it, and responds quickly to questions/issues over in Google+.

I've noticed with mine the GPS is spotty if the watch contacts sweat/moisture, similar to the same issue with the SW3. I started wearing a 2" wristband under the watch for runs about a year ago and the GPS has been nearly perfect since then, in rain/snow/heat. The built in HRM isn't the best during activities but ghostracer also allows you to connect a BT chest strap for much more accuracy, since I'm wearing a wristband this is handy if I choose to use one. I also use Wear GPS (same developer) to get a lock before I switch over to ghostracer and I'm always paired through LTE to my phone that I leave in the car. I think this improves GPS as well with assisted data from the phone. I don't think they meant for the battery to last like other trackers, but I can get a few hours or more out of it and for my running that's plenty. If I ever run another marathon, I may have to find an alternative, but a half should be no problem. I've had pretty good cell signal and that probably helps but I'm sure it doesn't receive as well as a phone. For me the watch was a big improvement. Streaming bluetooth music from audio on the watch while tracking GPS and having a phone available has been great. It's nice leaving the phone behind. I just forward calls to the watch during runs.

 

[nigelhealy]

...ghostracer ...

I'll look up ghostracer, thanks.

Today I was all alone with no mobile and just the UB2 running AW2 developer preview.

The battery life was about the same problem, and often, more often than with a mobile, I lost cellular connectivity. Now on reading up on AW2 that loss of connectivity may be deliberate as it turns LTE on/off as an app needs it, i.e. if the app collects data every 5 mins but waits til say 30 mins to upload, then that would mean one brief LTE enablement per 30 mins, so the fewer apps running wanting to talk to the mobile/cloud the better. I still however got about 25% battery loss per hour so in effect a 4 hour maximum usage. That is fine for runner and the shorter bike rides. I'm not clear if the cloud with an arrow through it on the display = "I can connect but I'm choosing not to" or "I can't connect".

I used Strava, and it was losing GPS and saying "paused" even when I was moving, but on getting home and looking at the ride, it seem to have fairly accurately guessed I must have been moving between getting GPS signals and estimated what I'd done in between, fairly accurately.

So you reckon a damp wrist worsens GPS? Surely your wrist is down and GPS is up so they should not interfere? It would interfere with pulse checking?

To turn 4 hours battery life into 5-6 hours of my actual ride, on long downhills I took the watch off and connected to power, I could see the green flashing of the heartrate monitor flashing, and due the weak magnetic connection to the USB cable, I was forced to ride one-handed to pinch the UB2 to its cable, but doing that I managed to top-up battery and got home without a flat battery. The Strava ride shows the periods of no pulse but otherwise looks reasonably accurate of route, moving times, mileage.

So now I know its standalone battery limits of about 4 hours, I will try it next with it BT connected to a mobile in a pocket, as then it only has to do BT not LTE, and possibly it doesn't have to do GPS as the phone does, see if that helps. I keep the mobile connected to power so its reasonably able to withstand its tasks, and hopefully the asks of the UB2 are reduced to last longer.

 

[nigelhealy]

FYI today I had the UB2 on AW1.5 current stock and had cellular off, and it was BT tethered to my phone. I told the UB2 I was about to road cycle. It went into battery saving after about 5 hours and stopped doing anything fitness related. It did say it was using the phone for GPS and obviously it was only doing BT, not Wifi or LTE.

On Google Fit it got the time about right but the distance completely wrong. Calories quite a bit wrong too.

Basically, its rubbish as a cycling fitness device whether its standalone or tethered.

 

[dbpaddler]

Not to come off improperly, but your review doesn't mean a whole lot since you're not using a proper app. The guy above mentioned ghost racer yet you go back out and use Google fit again and expect different results. It's like eating soup with a fork. GR is a great app. Install it, use it, then post a review.

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