If I use mission control to record the ride, I don't collect heart rate data and I don't have navigation available. So, I use RWGPS to record the ride which gives me heart rate, apple watch stats and controls as well as all the standard navigation and GPS capabilities and data. But it lacks bike data like cadence and power because specialized isn't sharing that data to anything that isn't ant+ or their own app (no current android phone supports it either. so I can't even "Switch to android" and get the data anymore. but a few years ago, that might have worked. samsung used to support ant+). So, if I want navigation, and heart rate data combined with the bike data recorded for every ride...... the only option available today is a bike computer + a new heart rate monitor since no bike computer integrates with phones well enough to provide that. NPE Cable *is* potentially the answer, allowing iPhone apps to pickup ant+ data while still pulling heart rate from apple watch (as well as making the watch functionally useful on ride from a stats and other perspectives, which I use on every ride). This is assuming some app does a decent job recording the data provided by npe cable.
You have used npe cable. It does this, does it not? It takes the ant+ signal and broadcasts it over BTLE and it works well for the five or six supported data profiles. What apps did you use to record the signal on your phone? Do you think that the npe cable device is beyond the capabilities of specialized engineers to replicate from the bike?
The better question is, why is there so much resistance to letting the phone have the data (this seems to be prevalent across much of the industry)? Why are people so against using a phone as your bike computer? Where is this coming from? Do they do more than what Bluetooth Smart currently supports? Maybe. But that doesn't mean they couldn't put the compatible data into Bluetooth and say "sorry it doesn't support our crazy fancy X Y Z thing but here is the rest of it". At least power,cadence and the other standard profiles would be available.
Ant+ *is* a walled garden. It may not be intended to be one, but it is one. Why? because there are so few options for getting data out of it. Lots of accessories that *add* to the data, sure. But not pull it out. And since the manufacturers that adopt it appear to be actively blocking other paths for the data to flow, they turned it into a walled garden.
And, again, for a bike at this price, given a refrigerator or washer and dryer comes with data sharing bluetooth these days, a bike that actually *has* useful data to share, should be sharing it.
Why is it the one device I actually want to have bluetooth implemented well, doesn't have it?
yes, the bike could undoubtedly also broadcast the standard power/cadence/speed data over Bluetooth - but it would have to be in addition to the more robust control connection that the bike makes with the phone. additional work, additional complication, and it’s actually not that common for a single device to make multiple outbound Bluetooth connections at once. most sensor type devices I’ve used actually can only be paired to one receiver, so what you’re talking about is undoubtedly possible but not common and possibly not simple. I would definitely like it if the bike did it, but it’s an edge case.
ANT+ is the farthest thing from a walled garden. there are hundreds of incredibly cheap devices which broadcast and receive (and repurpose) the data. it is far better suited to bikes than Bluetooth is in some ways, including having always been “one to many” :
One fundamental way ANT+ and Bluetooth differ is that ANT+ can be used to connect one thing to multiple other things, while Bluetooth is a one-to-one connection for each type of thing. For instance, you can connect your ANT+ heart rate monitor to four different computers at once, or four heart rate monitors to one computer (although you’ll have to pick which one’s data you see). With Bluetooth, you can pair one heart rate monitor to one computer. If you want to use another computer, you’ll have to disconnect the first one.
there are also long established profiles for things like speed, cadence, power, power balance, etc via ANT+.
if all you want is heart rate data and navigation, quit pushing rocks uphill. get a Bluetooth heart rate strap (cheap,) pair it with mission control, and use whatever app you feel like for navigation. post-ride mission control will automatically upload to Strava, including the heart rate and power data, and from there you can do anything you want with your data. download the GPX, parse it with a zillion add-ons, etc. use any app you like for navigation… I prefer RwGPS. your phone can run them simultaneously, no problem, and a quick swipe on the screen will switch.
the Apple Watch is not a good HRM for cycling. Trust me. I spent a long time, over probably 30 rides and a thousand miles trying variations of heart rate monitors while cycling. if you insist on using it, it will (unreliably) pair with RwGPS and you’ll have heart rate data in the RwGPS file. it’s the work of 10 seconds on a free web app to merge the HR track into the mission control file. you’ll pretty quickly discover that the vagaries of the Apple Watch HR measurement frequency and the inherent inaccuracy of a wrist based device while cycling make it a poor choice.
if you really, really want to use only one app, wait until the cable is back in stock… or kill two birds with one stone and get the viiiva version. I have both, found the cable easier to set up, but they’re similar. literally the ONLY re I got them is because I wanted to see average power over various intervals during a ride, which mission control stupidly doesn’t do. most of the time I don’t bother though, because mission control and my heart rate strap work really well.
finally, I do sympathize with your disinterest in a bike computer. i don’t really like them either, and have no interest in carrying around an extra device when my phone clearly has all the capability needed. I do disagree with Stefan’s concerns with using a phone as bike computer, but my use case is different. I don’t use a bike computer since specialized gives me everything I need (on both my bikes!) to use my phone instead. closing in on 10,000 miles in several states on the west coast over two years, and i have excellent data of every single ride, including speed, power, heart rate, and position, and I’ve never touched a bike computer.
