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Nike speed distance moniter
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[Deleted User]
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Ok, i'd really like to know how far i'm running and i really can't carry on driving my routes for very much longer. I have managed to locate one of the Nike speed thingies for £100 [although Niketown.com do them for $99 but don't ship to england 
( Don't suppose anyone knows of anywhere in the US that does ship them to england?]
The thing is are they worth it or should i just get a cheaper podometer, but i hear normal podometers are really inacurate.
Please Help
Thank you
( Don't suppose anyone knows of anywhere in the US that does ship them to england?]The thing is are they worth it or should i just get a cheaper podometer, but i hear normal podometers are really inacurate.
Please Help
Thank you
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Comments
Seriously though, the Forerunner is £150, and is far far better than the Nike SDM. It has far better features for a start, and should be a lot more accurate. The Nikes are also notorious for breaking down - they frequently have to be sent back to the manufacturer to be fixed
It's nice to know, and without a doubt the speed feature is great for pacing yourself for a half marathon... but then again you can easily estimate how long your usual route is from experience or in the car, and you can quickly learn to run at a pace by repetition.
Really, if you can do without speed + distance, go for a Polar HRM like the 410 (or a 610i for a little bit more) - they're definitely the #1 HRM.
Honestly my Polar HRM is the best training aid I ever got, it completely revolutionises your training program and it's brilliant for tracking progress - I know it's not such a cute gadget as the SDM but I reckon you'd get a lot more from it in the long run.
You can get one from the US off ebay for around £60-£70 including postage.
Mines been extremely reliable, including MANY off-road muddy and huge puddly paths.
Only gripe is that you dont have an indication of when the battery in the foot unit is about to run out.
Was extremely tempted by the GF - I am a gadget freak, but I'm just not happy with it measuring short when it loses signal. Will wait for the bugs to be ironed out.
It has performed OK. However, I don't believe that it is 97% accurate, as Nike claim, and I alwauys allow for some discrepancy. If you change its location from one foot to the other or from one pair of shows to another it seems to measure differently. I echo what Phil says about the battery life, you set off on along run and 2 miles in it just stops because the batteries died.
If I was buying today I would buy the forerunner, it has more features, more accurate and can be used for cycling. I'm going to wait to see how the forerunner performs and it can be only a matter of time before there is an HRM attachment (I know Timex do it but they still have the annoying box)Then you would have the perfect tool.
It is just an expensive way to make a best guess. The SDM doesn't actually measure any quantity that is related to distance. You have to enter an estimate of your stride length (something Nike calls erroneously "calibration") and it just uses this estimate to calculate your distance taking into account the measured inclination and impact (ie. when you run up a hill or run a bit faster)
It's only accurate if you run at an even pace on the flat. The Nike propoganda that says it is 97% accurate is not backed-up by any evidence whatsoever.
At best the SDM is a complement to a GPS for use when the GPS can't receive a signal.
Yes you do tend to calibrate it, but once done its accuracy is within 97%.
This weekend I did a 10k cross country - definately different stride lengths than the roads I calibrated it on and the SDM measured 10.21. Bear in mind that a 10k race by British Athletics rules must be at least 10.1k (to allow for people shorting corners) it was only 1.1% out.
Yes its a training tool as is a GF, but the Nike gives you consistent measuring and pacing with does appear to be a problem with the GF.
Believe me, nobodys more gutted than me that the GF is not quite perfection, but dont dismiss the SDM as a pedometer.
I have had my Nike measure 13.26 miles for a Half Marathon. Unfortunately on a different pair of shoes I have had it measure 14.5 !?
I run under trees all the time, and have never had a GPS problem. Main trouble I've heard people have is in central London. The Nike has had a lot of reliability problems. It all depends whether you want calibration or GPS. I'm a GPS-er without doubt, and find it very accurate for my needs. Mind you, I wouldn't use it to measure short distances or to measure a course. (Wouldn't use the Nike for that either though...)
Garmin Forerunner - £160ish - anywhere in UK
Its a big difference, two decent pair of shoes infact.
I will see how the GF firmware develops over time, seems a few people are having niggles
If you're pleased with the Nike, that's great, but if you've been following the threads on these gadgets over the last year or so, you'll know that the Nike has had severe reliability problems. At one time it was withdrawn from sale in the UK because the units were lasting only a couple of months on average.
That said, I've just been back to the shop today to replace my Garmin, as it just stopped working yesterday! I've not heard anyone else having this trouble though, so I'm assuming it was just a one-off problem.
Ultimately, the choice is between the technologies. I've not had any GPS signal problems at all in my 14 months of using them, even under trees. I don't like the idea of calibrating a watch, because I feel it wouldn't be a reliable measure. It's just my view.
The SDM IS a pedometer, a refined one I'll admit, but only a pedometer. It uses the same methodology as a pedometer to estimate the basic stride length and then corrects this with inclination measurements to take hills into account.
The 97% accuracy claim is completely false, there is no data to back this claim up. Given the measurment methodology it is in fact impossible to prove this claim as it depends on too many uncontrollable factors.
It may have given a distance close to the true distance on a few occasions but on how many occasions has it been way out?
An SDM estimates, a GPS measures. The difference is that simple.
SDM ="Speed and Distance Monitor". Says nothing about the technolgy being used.
On the GPS thread somebody measured 2.5miles when it was infact 3.5miles.
You say there is no data to back up the accuracy of the Nike unit? Why not ask the owners. I'm sure some will hate it and some will love it.
Phil, I think that must have been user error, or some confusion about how GPS works. If you ran through a tunnel for a mile, then turned and ran back again, the GPS would think you hadn't moved. If you ran through a tunnel for a mile then emerged from the other end, the GPS would work out from the before and after position that you had run a mile.
It's a question of fitting the technology to your needs. For me, the GPS works very well. For people who run through mazy tunnels or (perhaps) alongside very tall buildings, it may not be reliable.
But in normal use in open sky, you would never get a discrepancy of a mile like that. My basic round-the-block run is ALWAYS 3.51 or 3.52 miles. There's no more variance than that, and I must have run it 80 times since I had my GPS. That amounts to 15 metres or so in 3.5 miles, which can probably be explained by minor differences between each run in any case.
I've no doubt whatsoever that the circumstances of some runners will cause GPS problems, but let's not dismiss the entire technology on that basis, especially when the gerat majority of us are happy with it.
Andy
I spent the whole of Saturday afternoon sulking because I'd just spent £168.50 on clothes instead of a GF... (Admittedly it was through years of under-investment in my wardrobe that forced me into the sitation)
I'm desperate to own a GF - but I find the Nike's just good to bin. People are slagging off the Nike, probably with no ownership experience and its not fair.
This thread was originally started by a guy looking to spend £100 or less, and for £60-70ish, the Nike is a brilliant tool.
Trust me, if the Nike goes pop or the GF comes down a tad, or even if my will just capitulates, I'll be a GF owner in the future.
The magnitudes that the Nike SDM is measuring have no direct mathematical relation with a particular persons stride distance, it is a pure estimation based on the "calibration". Therefore, from a metrology point of view, it is impossible to state any sort of relative or absolute accuracy for such a device.
The owners of a measurement device should not have to back up a manufacturers claims. It should be the manufacturer.
What I have stated is a matter of fact, not a subjective argument.
I'm not saying that the Nike SDM isn't an adequate device for some, but everybody should be aware of exactly what it is before they buy one. Nike aren't at all keen to publicise (admit?) exactly how their SDM works.
Do you understand the technology? I see zero relation to a 'glorified pedometer'.
Have you experience with using accelerometers for measuring velocity? If so you'll see that there is a very clear mathmatical relation, and the technology does not rely on a persons stride length. The calibration is that of the transducer - not of the stride length.
Outsider - you say "The 97% accuracy claim is completely false, there is no data to back this claim up. Given the measurment methodology it is in fact impossible to prove this claim as it depends on too many uncontrollable factors." so I gave you data to back this up; why are these not acceptable??? Do you need to see someone from Nike running in one?
Erm, isnt that 5% error then ? So outside the 97% accuracy - in fact almost double it ?
Once I worked out how to calibrate it the distance measurement seems accurate. Of course I cannot measure how accuate as I have nothing to compare it to. I also use gmap pedometer to measure routes, the widely held view is this slightly ups the distance and my SDM is slightly under the gmap distance.
I wouldn't get a Nike SDM if you don't live near a track, I have had to calibrate it three times since Jan (fortunately I live 1 mile from a 400m track). Once when I bought a new pair of shoes the calibration was obviously way out and once when it seem to just clear everything for no reason (and the battery hadn't gone flat). Note: keep a note of your offset value in case this happens.
Nike do say it isn't accurate if you aren't an evenly pace runner, which presumable most aren't. At the moment the Nike is good enough for me. I am training for the FLM and don't want to shell out another £100+ for a GPS that may or may not be better.
Hope this helps.