Sigma PC-15 - BikeRadar

I've just got my new PC-15 HRM. Never used one before so was interested to see what, if any, difference this would make. I've used it mostly on my commute, but have also used it on longer, more hilly rides. I have been shocked by how much improvment I have made in the last few weeks, now I know where and how hard I am pushing myself. This has helped me drop about 5 minutes off my commute in about a week! I now know where I can push and where to pull back. Can't wait to try this on a club ride.

Problems? On a ride last week, I achieved a max HR of 290 (My max is 191) and it kept flipping between 170 and 0. This was while going downhill and only lasted about a minute. I haven't a problem otherwise, and it's only been that one time it's done that, and that could be to do with the batteries, so I'm happy to give it the benefit of the doubt.

Had one of these for 2 months.

It's okay to be honest.

You have to wet your contact points when putting on the chest transmitter or it won't send a signal to the 'watch'.

two small criticisms:

1)The display occasionally freezes for 30 seconds or so for no apparent reason- maybe does this once on every other ride.

2) the girth of the handlebar mount is small and won't go round even a normal 26mm handlebar ,let alone an oversize one, so it has stayed in the box.I wear the unit on my wrist instead.

Actually that is quite a big criticism as I would llike to mount it on the bike but can't, unless I lash up something Heath Robinson style to fix it to the bars.

None of the above problems. Fits fine on the bike; yes always wet the sensor but not used to anything else. Other than taking half an hour to figure out how to change it from German, has since done what its says on the tin.

Well chuffed, particularly at the Amazon price. 5*

Thanks for the great review guys! Just want to point out a few things to better answer readers' questions:

1) The PC 15 does have an audible alarm to assist with training. It will beep once when you enter zone 1, twice when entering into zone 2, and three times in zone 3.

2) Having to hold any button for 3 seconds to wake the monitor is simply to allow you to use the PC15 as a watch, always showing you the time and date.

3) The handlebar mount included is a semi-circle with an o-ring. Therefore it will fit 22.0-32mm bars!

4) Regarding Sturmey's comment about wetting the transmitter, that is common with all heart rate monitors, the moisture enhances the conductivity between the skin and the chest strap - just like an ultrasound technician uses jelly!

Again, thanks for the great reviews.

Oh yes, for anyone else that might get a PC15 that is in German...while it is in sleep mode, press and hold the bottom two buttons and the top right button for 3 seconds and it switches to English without having to go through the set up mode!

Sigmasport- you are indeed correct and I apologise- it will go round an oversize handlebar. I was just being overly sympathetic to what is, in reality, a very bendy piece of plastic and a very stretchy o-ring.

Give yourself an extra point.

ausgezeichneter Apparat!

Had mine for a couple of years now as it was purchased to replace a regular wrist watch for daily wear and to use as a HRM when needed. Does both jobs really well.

Only one thing to observe. It is only "water resistant" and not waterproof.

Took mine swimming one day and it went silly. Pulled apart all i could and let it dry out. Back to normal now.

Hard to beat for the money and the shop I'm at has sold a ton of these. Had one for a couple of years and it never missed a beat, pardon the pun!

Individuals with higher body fat percentages my need to wet the strap to get it to pick up but being skinny I never have this problem with any hrm.

Gotta love the percentage of max read out!

I've upgraded now but still use the Sigma as a wrist watch at work.

UPDATE: I have found the biggest annoyance. The bar mount doesn't fit to my Specialized Barmac bars. I can strap it on as I would to my wrist, but find it easier not to bother. It really gets in the way when on the bars and difficult to see sometimes when on my wrist.

Is there a mount for 1 piece handle bars, or do I need to bodge something?

Never had a problem mounting the PC15 on my ritchey oversized lowrizer bar. I just moved the mount next to the shifters. Great product overall. It really helped me to stay fit on winter hikes&running.

Some of the other problems I faced:

- the strap is not really designed for skinny guys. I had some problems while running fast. Never had the strap on its place during 100m sprints.

- the device can interfere with others: eg I personnaly had problems with monitoring my heart on speeds over 30km/h. Probably because of the Cateye Micro Wireless cycle computer. The monitor just freezed, showed zero BPM, no signal, or sometimes - peaked BPM over 200 beats.

Now I switched to POLAR while on a bike, but still use this one as a simple watch and as a reserve HR monitor.

I bought a PC15 (from PBK) and in that time I have changed both batterys once. It is straight forward to set up (once you figure how to change from German to English).

Occasionally high tension power lines will cause a black out, takes a while to recover but the display comes back.

Only odd little quirk is spitting up extremely high maximum heart rate figures e.g. 298!

Deserves all the good press it gets and is worth the money spent. Unless you like slicing and dicing your ride data in fine detail this HRM will serve you more than adequately and well.

Think my current transmitter belt has just given up the ghost and, if this is the case, I will be replacing it with another PC15.