Polar V650 Review – Made for all Cyclists?

How many times, especially in September and October, have you been caught out without any lights? I have especially on our MTB loop rides that end at the local pub. The V650 has a handy emergency front light. OK, it’s not going to scare the locals in to thinking a UFO has landed on Ringstead Downs but it’s enough to let YOU BE SEEN and just enough to let you see where you are going. It’s not something I would have added to my WISHLIST of GPS bike computer features, however, now that I’ve used it a couple of times, it’s a handy feature to have.

This is very useful feature found in several Polar HRM products like the M400 and V800. Polar’s Training Benefit will provide motivating feedback immediately after your training session. When you need to know the overall effect of a training session, Training Benefit tells you exactly what you need to know. e.g. How hard the session was and what you achieved performing it.

Since September the V650 has been able to support OpenSteetMaps. Open Steet maps are high resolution – FREE – street and topographic maps. The V650 is NOT an auto-routing GPS like the Edge 810/1000, however, it has the ability to give live route tracking map data as you ride. You can see precisely where you’ve ridden and, if need be, how to navigate back home. In other words, it’s like carrying your own OS maps and having a magic pencil draw a line showing exactly where you have been… and where you are now. If you can understand an OS map, the world is your Oyster.

The images above show the steps involved in selecting a mapping area. Once you have pinpointed your map zone (the second image), simply plug the V650 in to your PC or Mac and download the data via Polar FlowSync. Next time you reboot the unit you will have access to street by street mapping. The final image in this sequence shows my short 12 mile MTB loop around Hunstanton and Ringstead with the route overlaid for reference.

Sport Profiles x 4 – up to 8 items per View

The V650 has 4 x Sports Profiles. MTB, Road Cycling, Indoor and Other. For each profile the user has the option of setting precisely what they want to see. With dozens of options including averages and maximums, altitude and HR graphs you are assured of seeing exactly what you want. Setting the Training Views up is easy and can be changed without the need to connect to a PC/Mac.

The images above illustrate the post ride training data you can expect to see on the V650. All this data can be uploaded to Polar Flow via the USB link. Hopefully, in the near future, the V650 will have the ability to wirelessly upload directly to an Android or iPhone

You’re doing your favourite weekend 60 miler and you get a puncture… it’s raining, you’ve lost the rest of your training buddies and you just want to get home… ride another day. The Polar V650’s GET HOME mode shows you where your starting point is with a compass rose showing you HOW FAR and in WHICH DIRECTION. The image below shows my V650 display at the end of a road ride. This is my 2nd Training View of 4 showing HR graphs (time in the 5 x Polar Sports Zones) and distance and direction back home.

Polar are continually updating all their products. The V650 can now follow a pre-ridden ROUTE (one of yours or something you’ve downloaded from another website) in either GPX or TCX format. Just save the file to your FAVOURITES in Polar Flow.

Next time you ride you can select one of these files and the V650 will provide basic navigation prompts to keep you on track. At present you cannot BUILD a route on the website (like you can on Garmin Connect) but I am quite confident this level of functionality will follow.

And remember.. if you go to Spain, France or Italy, just download the FREE 450km/450km map block and a few pre-ridden GPX routes and you are ready to go…. there’s a great video from Polar here.