matt_theforce

I too did the 17" S3 alloy change on my Octavia, they didn't stay on long before I went back to the standard 16" Elegance alloys My Octavia was sat on KW Springs & Dampers, the mk1 Octavia's make fantastic looking sleepers I can't comment on the 1.8t maintenance/tuning as I only had my mk1 vrs for 18months before buying the above PD130, that said, my PD130 had 185bhp & 343ftlb and handled the power fine with the standard 205/55/16 tyre size & allows the 312mm brake upgrade to fit nicely

I should be able to get an extra couple of days out of the battery with some GPS tweaks as I haven't looked at them yet, GPS is used for around 1-2hours everyday just with dog walking. Just changing the auto start for walking from 10min to 15min has increased the battery life by a day, I pop down to feed the horses twice a day and that is a 10min walk each way so got picked up as an activity too. I've still lots of features to look at and no doubt some to disable, I turned everything on when I set it up and slowly turning off things that aren't of use to me.

My sister has a Forerunner and has said the same about her activities. The only tweak I sometimes need to do is if I use a different bike (known as Gear, possibly on the Forerunner as you can have multiple running shoes) The VivoActive allows you to manually start a walk or have it start automatically, it is very slow to finish the activity though so best done manually. Analogue watch faces are free on the VivoActive 4 The VivoActive 4 does seem quite adaptable to multiple sports

Update. I made the decision to buy a Garmin and bought the VivoActive 4 Black/Slate, after a little shopping around I managed to get it for just over £200 which I'm happy with. I've been using it now for just under a month and thought I'd share a few things about it. I've compared the GPS & Heartrate monitor against my MIO Cyclo 315 & chest strap at the same time while out on a number of hikes & bike rides & the Garmin is very impressive, no missed data/no high or low data & almost identical to my MIO Likes * It's a nice lightweight watch (compared to my old Samsung Gear 3 Frontier) * Application integration to & from Strava/Zwift (more Garmin Connect that the watch) * Sleep Tracking and Body Battery seem quite accurate & often mirror my mood that day * Easy to customise the menu's/data displayed during activities & access the app you want * When manually starting an activity the GPS picks up really quickly (tried from several different places) * Battery - charging time is very quick & lasts very well (approx 4 days for me). I walk 3-4miles every morning(with GPS due to a very active dog), I also do a similar length walk in the evening too & sleep with the watch on (only take it off for showering). I have disabled PulseOx. I only turn bluetooth on once a day to sync my activities & its on for approx 10min (not that it needs that long). When on being used for an activity the battery life with just GPS will certainly outlast what I'm capable of, I've done a few 3-4 hour rides/hikes & I've been very impressed at how little the battery is used. Dislikes * It is advertised as supporting Turbo Trainers but I found out after I bought it that it doesn't support smart turbo trainers (never mind), I can still use my chest strap and my rides auto sync with Garmin Connect & incorporated into the watch * The screen is a little sensitive and often lights up when moving around in bed Overall I'm very happy with my choice & for the odd 1hr ride I now don't take my MIO bike computer and just use my watch.

I've never heard or seen them so will do some investigating I have a friend who has been using Polar devices for years, he is currently using the Polar M430 and he really likes it, I have to say I much prefer the look of the Vantage M though. I've a couple of customers who use various Suunto sensor's & they seem to be extremely reliable. I do like the look of the 5 all black My wife went to work and forgot to put her Garmin Vivoactive 3 on yesterday so I went out for a ride to try it out, I was really pleased with the data I could see from it, the heart rate and GPS tracking was pretty much identical to my MIO315 cycling computer & chest heart rate monitor. The Vivoactive 3 is lacking in some features that I would like but that has got me researching the Vivoactive 4. At the moment I have the following Comparisons to be done on : Polar Vantage M / Garmin Vivoactive 4 / Suunto 5 all black Investigation to carry out on the Microwear H series so many choices out there!!

For the last 2 years I've had a Samsung Gear S3 Frontier and I've had nothing but trouble with the sports side of things. I'm looking to replace it, I'm not looking for a Smart Watch as I don't use half the features. Requirements * Built in GPS * Budget £250 * Cycling/hiking stats * Good battery life when used for activity tracking It would be nice if I could link it to a Saris h3 turbo trainer or Zwift but not essential. What are your experiences/recommendations? Matthew

I like this idea, it opens up a whole new area for people interested in health/wellbeing/sports