Giant Neostrack GPS Computer
I like iPhones. I tried switching to a Samsung last year and it lasted about 3 weeks before I went back to an iPhone. Some things you just get used to and there is no getting away from it.
Bike computers are like mobile phones and since I got my first Garmin 500 I have never moved from them. I have had the 800 and currently the 1000. It would take a lot for me to change, but Giant might just have managed to do what Samsung failed to do.
Out of the box the Giant Neostrack was very easy to set up. Easy to sync with wifi and bluetooth and the Giant app that accompanies the unit is easy to use on the iPhone. There’s an app for Android too.
It is smaller then the 1000, more like the size of the 520 but has a screen not far off the size of the 1000.
The out front mount works as it should but the quarter turn lock had me concerned. Would it stay secure on the Roubaix-esque roads of north County Waterford where I spend much of my training time. The perfect way to test was to use it on the Nire Valley drop off road adventure where it passed with flying colours.
The Neostrack gives you all of the information that you could ever want. Anything to do with speed, distance, time, cadence, gradient, heart rate, power, it’s all there. It even tells you what gear you are in on your Di2 and what your battery level is, so you will never find yourself stuck in a single gear ever again. It also gives you navigational directions. There isn’t the sat nav type of mapping that you find on the Garmin 1000, but for the amount of times I have used that feature it’s not anything that I will miss.
What I do like is the always on battery icon up top much like your mobile phone and what is even better is how little that has moved since I began using the Neostrack. Battery life seems phenomenal compared to what I have been used to. I would never do any more than 2 spins without charging my Garmin. I am now on spin number 11 with the Neostrack and it still shows more than half a battery full. Twice in recent years the hassle of keeping a garmin charged on really long spins like climbing Tickincor 22 times or Mizen to Malin in 21 hours has been a real bugbear. I would have given anything to have had a computer like the neostrack on both of those events.
Overall, it seemlessly does everything that my Garmin does. The Garmin is ever so slightly more solid and slick but the Giant Neostrack is lighter and works all the time. If Giant ever make mobile phones and they do as good a job as they have with this bike computer, my days with Apple might be numbered.
I liked it so much that I asked if there might be a way to reward readers of this blog with a special discount. Sure enough Will in the Cork Giant Store stepped up to the plate and we were able to offer readers a nice discount. The uptake was huge and beyond expectations so unfortunately that offer is now closed but keep en eye out for more upcoming exciting offers on The Cycling blog.
Barry
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