News STRYD Insider

Suunto SPARTAN Improved STRYD Support But Needs More

It’s taken a while but Suunto’s SPARTANs now appear to properly support the STRYD footpod.

The word “TaDa !”, springs to mind.

Prior to firmware v1.11.56, STRYD could be paired as either a footpod (pace, etc) OR as a POWER pod (only power). So if you wanted ACCURATE PACE and POWER then you would have to use STRYD plus another footpod OR just use STRYD for one or the other.

Furthermore, it meant that STRYD could not be properly used in a triathlon by many people. I would suggest that many triathletes who use STRYD would probably already have a bike power meter. So in that triathlon race scenario or in a BRICK training scenario, the athlete would have to manually change which single device was the POWER device….bike power meter changed to STRYD in T2.

#Messy.

Now STRYD is paired as a FOOTPOD and all is good. The power flows through the FOOTPOD profile along with the stride length, cadence, pace metrics. Just how it should be. A bike power meter is also simultaneously paired as a power POD. Just how it should be.

Suunto Spartan Baro Review

 

 

NB: Superficial Testing: shows that all the correct STRYD-related data fields DO come through when paired this way

Note: When paired as a footpod SPARTAN still shows “Footpod. SERVICES Running speed & cadence“. This appears to be a bug with the wording…ignore it if you have STRYD.

Good

So now Suunto have fixed STRYD support I can go back to moaning about multi-sports support

New Sport Profiles

Err there aren’t any new ones. I thought there were going to be some. But instead there are a few new datafields for skiing. Probably a good time to include those as the ski season approaches.

I was somewhat ‘disappointed’ that a ‘professional’ multisports watch like the SPARTAN series still does not properly address multi-sports needs.

The SPARTAN does support CHEERLEADING and ROLLERSKATING sports profiles but does not support the following:

  1. Duathlon
  2. Aquathlon (swim-run)
  3. Otillo (swim-run..repeated)
  4. Brick sessions (bike-run…repeated)
  5. Pool triathlon (pool-bike-run)
  6. Any multisport profile other than triathlon=OWS-bike-run (with transitions)

C’mon people. Get with the program.

In Suunto’s partial defence it might be technically hard for them to allow the CUSTOMISATION of multi-sports by us. Maybe the multi-sports with more than 3 legs are hard for them too…fair enough. I can understand that.

However I would have thought  it would NOT be at all hard for Suunto to EASILY include a DUATHLON (R-B-R), CROSS DUATHON (XC-MTB-XC), POOL TRI and AQUATHLON profiles in the same way they have already included the TRIATHLON profile.

More  suunto.com.

 

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17 thoughts on “Suunto SPARTAN Improved STRYD Support But Needs More”

  2. Does the Spartan still insist on auto calibrate STRYD via GPS or did Suunto add options (manual calibration, calibration factor) to the menu ?

  3. Does the Spartan line collect and display Stryd’s additional metrics beyond power, such as ground contact time, leg stiffness, form power, etc?

    1. no. even if it did it would n’t be able to display them in movescount. even if it could then auto exports use TCX format and they wouldn’t be in that. so you’d have to manually export a FIT.You can currently manually export a FIT from POWERCENTER…so you might as well do that!! I’m about to post something about APPLE on this subject

      1. Interesting … With my Ambit 3 Peak, whether the Stryd is configured as a power pod or a foot pod, I can get the Power reading, but my activities in Stryd Power Center don’t include the additional metrics.

        Are you saying that it would be the same behavior with a Spartan series device in the Stryd Power Center?

        Thanks.

      2. maybe we are talking slightly at cross purposes.
        if you cache your run on the pod (as well as using ‘whatver deivce’) then let the pod sync to powercenter you get all the metrics

      3. Oh I get it now! I was frustrated that my Ambit3 Peak with it’s “native” support for power didn’t allow me to collect all of the additional Stryd metrics that I can collect via a Fenix 3’s Connect IQ data field.

        Based upon your comment, I sync’d the Stryd for the first time and it adds the missing metrics to the existing activity that only showed the Power value.

        Movescount still only shows the power of course, but in Stryd Power Center, I can now see all of the additional metrics.

        Yay! Thanks so much, that was the missing piece of the puzzle for me.

  4. Two things are unclear to me regarding using the Stryd with my Suunto Trainer.
    1) Suunto themselves advise turning auto sync off if you are interested in the additional Stryd metrics due to some “problem” without specifying what they are.
    2) It appears that the Suunto Trainer will only use the Stryd for displaying pace and distance if GPS is turned off altogether on the watch, which of course also leads to no track being recorded. I find this bad for going through past race events and analysing what I did and what to change.
    3) I hope this is not the Spanish inquisition, so here comes #3…
    Whilst I can set power zones on the watch since upgrading to firmware v2, for the life of me I cannot see how to make use of those. As targets I can only ever set pace or heart rate, but not power. Should that be possible?

    Thanks for any advice.

    1. 1. that’s news to me
      2. so is that!! if true then not great.
      3. so now i feel obliged to answer this one. IIRC the intensity target should work. Try double checking if a power unit paired up AND ACTIVE ON THE CURRENT PROFILE. (which i appreciate then comes back to the issue of how you pair stryd to the trainer) try that first and i cna have a look at mine later when i get home if you feedback what you get (or don’t get)

      2. ok on the suunto 9 with stryd paired as a footpod (not powermeter) then power zone targets are not possible. power and a pretty gps track went thru to movescount. i checked stryd settings and “running speed and cadence” were shown as a service provided by stryd. i don’t know if they were actually taken as the source for display

      3. PPS get your data out of movescount and into dropbox, probably you can do that with tapiriik or fitnesssyncer for a dollar a year. once in dropbox you can upload to free golden cheetah. do all your power stuff in there.
        movescount and garmin conenct are fine for an overview but not for any analysis IMO

      4. yep. so i was right (for once). if you then go and pair stryd as a powermeter then a running profile still picks it up as a PM. AND THEN the power targets can be set but only by zone (tho that’s ok)
        i’d imagine that is all exactly same for the trainer.

      5. I unpaired and re-paired the Stryd to the Trainer. If I do so as a Power Pod, it shows up its services as “cycling power”.
        Calling the running power profile (that normally connects to the Stryd when paired as a footpod as per instructions), it looks for satellites and heart rate, but not for a bluetooth pod of whatever denomination.
        Blimey.

        On a possibly related note I did notice for the first time that the automatic calibration of the Stryd can be disabled now in the settings on the watch. I am pretty sure that this used to be impossible (at least during pre v2 firmware times?).

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