Wahoo Blue SC With Strava on an Andriod

I recently had someone tell me my cadence was too slow.  I never really thought about it, and since I track my cycling on Strava I thought I'd start the search for bio metric sensors that I could use with my Andriod and Strava.  After some exhaustive searching I gave Wahoo a shot.

The first thing I bought was the cadence and speed sensor.  I liked it out of the box.  It's compact and easy to install.  I installed mine in less than 10 minutes.

Installation
The SC is attached to the chain stays in a position that will allow it to see the magnet on the cranks as well as the sensor on the wheel.  It comes with a rubber device to attach it to the chain stays, but I preferred to zip tie mine to my bike.

The magnet for the crank is not adjustable and consists of a rubber strap and a magnet.  You have to take the pedal off to install the magnet on the crank.

 There is another magnet that attaches to a spoke for the speed sensor.

 So pretty much at this point you're ready to go.  The trick is getting the SC to talk to your phone.  I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 and a Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini.  The cadence sensor seems to work well with both of them.  You have to go in to the settings and turn on the Bluetooth 4.0.  After that you should see something like this.  If you have a bluetooth sensor, such as the Wahoo Blue HR, it will sync at this point.

When you start up to start recording a ride there should be a little pop up noting that Strava found the SC.  You should see the speed indication pop up at this point too, this should show you that the SC is talking to the Strava app.  

Performance
I took a quick ride down the street just to make sure that the sensor was dialed in.  It seemed to work well.

At this point I have no complaints with the performance.  I will add more to this review after I go on some longer rides.

The Good

The price point for this was great.  At $59.99 from Amazon  it easily beat out the more expensive bike computers.  I don't like seeing my speed in real time, I prefer to do my data analysis on my rides after I get home.  So this works well for me.  

The Bad

While the SC works okay with both my Galaxy S3 and Galaxy S4, it won't work with some phones.  Android platforms vary so much that designing a single device that works across the spectrum is impossible.  The other issue is that since the SC works on a Bluetooth 4.0, which is low energy, trying to tie in a Bluetooth 2.0 device at the same time is impossible.  Initially I had planned to use the SC with my current heart monitor, the Zephyr HXM BT won't read in to Strava at the same time as the SC.  This prompted me to have to purchase another heart rate monitor that worked on Bluetooth 4.0.  

Conclusion

In the end if you have a newer Android phone, and you have all Bluetooth 4.0 bio metric sensors this might be a good choice for you.