The XON RIDE-1 from the folks at Cerevo is a smart riding recorder that came across our desk over the summer. This review is long overdue, but you’ll forgive us as it’s been in the triple digits, so getting anyone to ride their bike all day has been a challenge. But now that things are cooling off we’ve put the XON RIDE-1 through it’s paces over the past few weeks and have a few thoughts on this little tubular device.
The RIDE-1 continues the excellent line that is the Cerevo XON series of smart devices. But unlike so many of the other devices in the rage, the RIDE-1 is more of a singular device dedicated to those that spend a majority of their time on their bicycles. In this respect this is probably one of the most niche products that we’ve looked at from Cerevo, but one that just might live up to all that it claims to be, as this little stick is full of all sorts of wonderful tech.
This small device attaches to the frame of your bike and is designed to gather all sorts of data from your riding experience and beam it directly to your smartphone. The RIDE-1 is packed with 7 different internal sensors (I’m amazed how they fit all this in such a tiny device) and it can also connect with existing sensors via the ANT+ technology that allows all sorts of monitoring devices to talk to each other, which really opens up the Ride-1.
The included sensors will pull in data regarding elevation, your speed, the grade you on on, your overall cadence, your power both for your left and right side, and a heart-rate monitor. It’s capturing a lot of things that are going on at once, and if you’re a data nerd you are going to really like this. You also get telemetry data, environment data, cycling dynamics, GPS distance information and the route data can displayed in real time on the companion smartphone app which is neat.
Like I said when I opened up this review, the RIDE-1 really is packed with tons of data collecting features. All this is designed for serious riders to improve their racing performance, but can also be good for casual riders looking to find out more about how they ride. Riding to and from work offered up a neat inside look at how I rode, and the more intense rider here in the office did enjoy seeing the specifics of their trail ride that would be impossible to grab otherwise, at least from a single device.
And because Cerveo is a company that is always pushing the smart capabilities of all their devices (they are huge data nerds, and that’s awesome), the RIDE-1 also features Bluetooth technology, so you can connect your bike to the Internet via your smartphone. The device is built around iOS, but an Android app just launched last week so everyone can get the most out of the device. We’ve only played with the Android app for a little bit, but it works as well as expected and opens up the RIDE-1 for more users.
But all this data you collect won’t matter much if you can’t do anything with it. In this regard the Ride-1 allows the user to monitor their data in real-time from all those neat built in sensors. You won’t need to go home and download a bunch of telemetry, instead, even when you are at some at a remote place like a mountain trail or in the pit lane of your BMX race, you’ll be able to check your ride stats. This enables not only you, but your riding partners and/or team to give their hot take on your run, or even control a rider’s pace and change up strategies for future runs based on the data being pulled in.
With this being the Cerevo XON series, the data you gather can be overlayed over any captured movies that you take while on your ride. I’m going to guess this is the best time to mention that Cerevo has their own action camera (we reviewed that too) that works incredibly well and helps keep consumers connected to the Cerevo brand. The XON series really does a great job at offering a lot more than most companies offer in terms of scale and expandability. And once you edit your footage you can upload it to YouTube or share it or study it to better improve your ride, or that new trick you want to land.
All that I talked about above would be enough for most devices and make the Ride-1 a solid enough device for competitive folks. But Cerevo is a company that likes to go above and beyond and we can see this with the ability of being able to use the RIDE-1 when riding in a group (no doubt training for the Tour de France). What cool is that If someone in the group gets into some sort of trouble during their ride, like a crash, the RIDE-1 will capture the event and alert the other riders thanks to the built-in sensors. I can really see a team outfitting their riders with the Ride-1 to have better control over everything that’s going on.
What’s better, and something for those really into safety which should be everyone, is that the RIDE-1 will allow you to create all sorts of alert areas (areas where bike accidents frequently happen, common areas with terrain issues, areas normally slippery) by using data from other people’s sensor logs. This isn’t something most will use, but if you ride with a group, and do so over the same area for practice or fun, this data can make the experience a better and safer one.
At the end of the day all this technology comes at a cost. At $299 the RIDE-1 is priced for the serious rider only, but if you really are looking to take your ride to the next level the RIDE-1 should be a smart device you take a serious look at. Likewise, if you are a data hound or love creating unique riding videos, it also might be for you. If you are interested in snagging a RIDE-1, you can visit the official website here. And for those tech-heads out there I’ll leave you with the full spec sheet for the device below:
Size – W145 x D32 x H23mm
Weight – approx. 75g
WiFi – IEEE 802.11b/g/n
Operating Time – 15 hours
Bluetooth – Version 4.1（BLE）ANT+
On-board Sensors – 9-axis sensor (acceleration, gyroscope, geomagnetism) / temperature / atmospheric pressure / Illuminance / GPS
App – iOS 9+, Android 4.3+
Charging Socket – micro USB
Accessories – Micro USB cable / Bike mount / M5 Screw x2
A unit was provided for this review
About Author
