AeroPod, PowerPod and Newton

Hello -

I have an iBike iAero Pro Gen-III. Normally on any given ride, I have a max HR of 170 - I've used this for years as my theoretic max. It never goes above this - I know because I know where I put a max effort in on a ride. Again, it's been this for I-don't-know-how-long. Except for this past Monday...

I did a 28 mile ride with a few friends. From 1:40 through 6:30, I'm at 190 (one hundred ninety) bpm!!! This is on a good sized hill followed by 2-3 rollers at the beginning of the route. Well, I'm in shock. There are periods of 10-20 seconds in that span where I'm at or over 200. This can't be - iBike's gotta be giving me false data. Yet, when I look at the pattern just before and just after, the HR gently ramps up/down. After 6:30, (the hill and rollers are behind me) it tails off and I'm at my normal 120-140 for the rest of this ride through normal exertion.

I'm thinking this is definitely some sort of abberation. I came back from Fla after 3 months of riding but then I did go in the tank for about 5 weeks just before this to clear my head and get my mind around cycling again. I call this the "deep blue funk" and it's probably burn-out. Anyway, I'm interested in people's/expert's reaction to this off-the-chart HR reading. I'm 65 years old and 215 lbs at 6'1".

H

Hi,

Sounds like you're experiencing interference with your heart rate monitor. This can be caused by static electricity generated by your jersey. Make sure your heart rate strap is really wet when you put it on. Or you could use an electrode gel like Ba-Bump to help reduce the effect.

Cheers!

Static electricity can be the cause but that's usually into nasty headwinds or on fliers down a hill. You were climbing a hill or so it seems. I suspect something else. At 200BPM and 65yo you need to confirm it's not a quirk and take this seriously. Individual Hr can fluctuate quite a bit and that could account for some of it, but better safe than sorry.

On occasion, I have seen high rates due to electrical power lines or a battery that is getting ready to crap out.

Added later - yep, I have a couple of jerseys that are a lot more likely to create distorted HRs.

Tom

OK - static electricity - hmmm. It was a chilly day - temps in the mid-50s. So that's plausible, I guess if static charge can cause the HR sensor(s) to jump. If it was for 10-20 seconds maybe I'd think just something goofy. But, geez - it's about 5 minutes long! Guess I'll go ground myself!

Tonight's ride looks perfectly normal at 29 miles: HR = Min 41 / Avg 138.5 / Max 160.

I will get another battery installed in there too just to be sure. I usually don't apply any ointments or creams - I have had my Polar get damaged by using that stuff.

So, if I get another ride like tonight - I'll just put in the back - again it's only one instance out of 200-250 rides - so I'm just going to store this one.

H

First time it happened to me, it freaked me out too.
I get high readings very often too especially if it's a dry (ie non humid) day and the strap against your skin is rather dry. It helps as stated above if you wet the electrodes before putting it on or use some gel. If you can get the medical gel that is used for ultrasound scans - it's excellent.
Sometimes I find certain fabrics especially synthetics can cause problems too especially coasting downhill. Merino wool (or probably even wool itself) works well though. On some trips, I can get high readings coasting downhill, one second the reading could be 130+ then jumps up to 180+ and then even 200+. After a while it goes back to normal, then it may happen again later on the ride. Really annoying. If you're really concerned about getting a proper avg heartrate for your ride, you could always open the csv file in Excel, find the high readings and replace them with something more realistic then save the csv file later. Alternatively, if you use Golden Cheetah, you could edit the file itself without opening it in Excel.
Another thing you could try is to tighten the strap more as it may have slightly loosened over time.

Alright - thanks for the info.

In fact, I remember now, I had just tighened up the strap just before that particular ride.
It really caught my attention too because that has never happened to me before and I've owned iBike since day 1 just about.

H