Best Smart Watches For Enduro Dirt Bikes & Motocross
Not every smart watch has all the right features needed for dirt bike riding. I’ve picked out a few that will work well for both enduro trail riding and motocross laps.
A few years ago, riding your dirt bike with a fitness watch on your wrist was unheard of. Riding with a chest strap to measure your heart rate and exercise efforts would have seemed even stranger. Using a watch to navigate the backcountry trails on a 3- or 4-hour epic enduro ride with your friends was the stuff of Sci-Fi.
Now, watches have morphed into smartwatches and fitness trackers that enable us to monitor not only the trails we ride, but our physical exertion and condition.
Motocross and enduro dirt bike riding demands high fitness levels. An MX race of 20 minutes is as tough on the body and as energy-sapping as a half-marathon for runners. The right training is key to improving speed. Simply put, the best fitness watches will help you go faster on your dirt bike.
Searching for a motocross lap time watch or a motocross training watch used to be about finding stopwatches with the most functions. Those days are long gone now, my friends. There are more ways to test your fitness and speed than with the humble stopwatch.
Best Smart Watches for Motocross and Enduro Dirt Bike Riders
Here is our list of the best dirt bike fitness watches for motocross and enduro riders.
| Watch | Rated |
|---|---|
| 1. Garmin Enduro Smartwatch | Best Garmin Watch for Motocross |
| 2. Suunto 7 GPS Smartwatch | Best GPS Watch for Dirt Biking |
| 3. Polar Grit X Smartwatch | Best Fitness Tracking Watch for Dirt Biking |
| 4. Coros Apex Smartwatch | Best Rugged Smart Watch for Motocross and Enduro |
| 5. FitBit Versa 3 Smartwatch | Best Budget Smart Watch for Dirt Bikers |
Garmin Enduro Smartwatch
This is the leading smartwatch for those that want to track their rides and exercise in detail.
- Value For Money: ★★★★☆
- Ease of Use: ★★★★★
- Features: ★★★★★
- Style: ★★★★☆
Value for Money:
The most features. The toughest design. Clever technology. An enormous catalog of apps and accessories. While the price is near the $800, it is actually 3 watches in 1 – and that makes it value for money. The Garmin Enduro is a smartwatch that can be your go-to watch for fitness training, tracking your riding performance, and your daily beater. As a 3-in-1 watch, it serves as a GPS watch, a sports activity watch, and a safety device.
Ease of Use:
The Garmin Enduro is a smartwatch that’s as tough as you and your dirt bike, and it keeps the menu and operation rather simple with just a few buttons. It takes only a few clicks to access your most used features and displays.
Downloading and syncing the data to your mobile phone, laptop or to the Internet with Garmin Connect unleashes detailed info on just about everything you can think of. It offers in-depth fitness and activity metrics to keep you scrolling for ages to offer you insight into what your strengths and weaknesses are in terms of fitness.
With the Garmin, you can also see your lap times. You also get a comprehensive map of your routes and trails. The screen’s display can be customized so that you can see your vital stats in vivid color with an always-on display. Garmin’s ecosystem of apps and widgets is intuitively simple to use, too.
Features:
This GPS watch features what Garmin calls Power Glass for solar charging to extend the watch’s battery life. The watch’s design is rugged, it is weather-resistant, has a stainless-steel bezel, and a sport loop band that’s elastic.
For training, the Garmin Enduro is equipped with a wrist-based optical heart rate sensor, a Pulse Ox sensor, can measure your VO2 Max level to estimate your overall fitness to help you optimize your training, a recovery advisor and a training guide to help you with daily exercises to enhance and maintain your fitness levels. You should also check out our guide on the best heart rate monitor for motocross and enduro dirt bike riding.
For motocross and enduro riders, the navigation sensors are next level thanks to altimeter, barometer, and compass sensors, multiple global navigation satellite systems (GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo). It also features a built-in safety system: if you were to fall, crash or experience an injury, it will detect those through its sensors and if you don’t deactivate the triggered alarm, it will send your location to your emergency contact.
Style:
A design that is rugged for the trails and MX track, yet it is also handsome enough to wear to the office come Monday morning. The Garmin Enduro sits at 51 mm on the wrist and weighs 71g.
Suunto 7 GPS Smartwatch
The Suunto 7 brings turn-by-turn navigation to your wrist. This is a high-performance athlete’s watch.
- Value For Money: ★★★★★
- Ease of Use: ★★★★☆
- Features: ★★★★☆
- Style: ★★★★☆
Value for Money:
They price the Suunto 7 at about half the price of the Garmin Enduro and has just about as many features. It makes for excellent value for money for a premium fitness watch for motocross and enduro dirt bike riders.
Ease of Use:
Using Google’s ever-improving Wear OS technology, the Suunto 7 is operated by a few buttons, pairs with your smartphone easily and the companion app is a joy to use. The menus are easy to navigate and the sports modes are customizable to display only the data you want.
Features:
This watch even has a “Motorsports” mode in its sports modes available. It can track your speed, distance, and route, and display it right on the main display. The turn-by-turn navigation makes it a real-time map on your wrist. The fitness and activity tracking are covered by motion sensors and a wrist-based optical heart rate sensor. It also offers 70 sports tracking modes, recovery modes, training guides, and it can sync with apps such as Strava and TrainingPeaks to make it ideal for cyclists and runners.
Style:
It measures 50 mm on the wrist and weighs 70 g. Suunto’s been in the watch game for 3 decades and its shows with the rugged design, comfortable straps, and case back design.
Polar Grit X Smartwatch
The Polar Grit X offers highly-accurate fitness tracking with detailed data breakdowns available.
- Value For Money: ★★★★☆
- Ease of Use: ★★★★☆
- Features: ★★★★☆
- Style: ★★★★☆
Value for Money:
One of the most recognizable names in fitness and sports, Polar was the original company that carved out the smart watch segment for fitness and activity tracking with their heart rate monitoring devices more than 4 decades ago. The Polar Grit X is also priced at about half that of the Garmin Enduro to offer a highly accurate and fuss-free fitness tracker.
Ease of Use:
It provides straightforward tracking and monitoring of your fitness and activities. The user experience is top-notch with excellent sports modes, a built-in wrist-based optical heart rate sensor, and provides intuitive recovery modes and training guides too. To record a session, simply click the watch’s main red button and it will track your heart rate, record your efforts, and help guide your body for peak performance output.
Features:
It uses Polar’s own operating system that offers route guidance, advanced wrist-based heart rate monitoring, and a raft of fitness training guides to help you recover, prepare, and train smarter to be faster on the dirt bike. One of he most useful features is Energy Sources, in which the watch’s sensors display how your body uses different energy sources during a training session. This enables you to also prepare and plan better nutrition to help you achieve greater fitness and performance.
Style:
It measures 47 mm on the wrist and weighs just 64 g. It comes in a variety of styles and finishes, all at the same price, for you to mix and match a watch to your heart’s content or your bike’s colors. It has a military-grade rugged design for a handsome look no matter on the trails or at work. Designed for adventure sports lovers and outdoor enthusiasts, the Grit X is a tough piece of kit that will even stand up to the rigors of dirt bike riding.
Coros Apex Smartwatch
The Coros Apex is a direct rival for the Garmin Enduro to offer excellent fitness tracking.
- Value For Money: ★★★★★
- Ease of Use: ★★★★★
- Features: ★★★★★
- Style: ★★★★☆
Value for Money:
The Coros Apex is available for nearly a quarter of the price of the Garmin Enduro, making it one of the most affordable smart watches in our line-up. It boasts a superb 25-hour full-GPS mode battery life, a rugged design featuring a stainless-steel bezel and sapphire glass screen, as many fitness features and most of the functions of the most expensive Garmin Enduro at a third of the price. This makes it a seriously strong value for money smartwatch for off and extreme road sports.
Ease of Use:
It features an in-house operating system that uses a two-button design to navigate their menu. Pairing it your smartphone is straightforward and the data it syncs is like the depth of info provided by the Garmin Enduro.
Features:
The Coros Apex features several fitness functions and guides, as well as navigation. As with other smart watches here, it is also ANT+ and Bluetooth compatible for connecting with devices and training apps. The optical wrist-based heart rate sensor offers detailed information and you can customize your own work.
Style:
It is available in 42 mm and 46 mm size versions. It looks like a premium device and it will withstand the abuse you can throw at it on your dirt bike. It isn’t chunk nor bulky, and that makes it a bit more comfortable to wear than its rivals in this line-up.
Fitbit Versa 3 Health & Fitness Smartwatch with GPS
The FitBit Versa 3 is a no-fuss watch that packs more features than an activity tracker.
- Value For Money: ★★★★★
- Ease of Use: ★★★★★
- Features: ★★★☆☆
- Style: ★★★☆☆
Value for Money:
The FitBit Versa 3 is our most affordable smart watch for dirt bike riders. It’s build quality is solid as it’s made from premium materials. It packs in GPS and wrist-based optical heart rate sensor. It makes a lot of sense for those users who’ll predominantly use it only for workouts and riding.
Ease of Use:
It offers more than 20 exercise modes, a built-in mic and speaker for you to take Bluetooth calls hands-free, a built-in GPS maps and more in a slick and intuitive menu system. With Google’s OS know-how, the FitBit is simple and straightforward to use with a one-button and touchscreen interface.
Features:
The FitBit Versa 3’s PurePulse 2.0 heart rate monitor is one of the best in the industry. It accurately tracks and monitors your heart rate – and is even 50 m water-resistant. This watch also sports an always-on display and has more than 20 fitness tracking modes to help you better zone in on your progress and fitness.
Style:
This watch is the smallest in this line-up, with a 40 mm size and weighs just 28 g. You’d forget it was on your wrist – and that is a good thing. It comfortably hides under your riding shirt to be protected from the elements and dust, and yet the screen’s display size is perfectly readable even while on the move.
Key Features & Considerations
1) Heart Rate Tracking
For the most accurate in heart rate tracking, you’d be best served with a chest strap. Garmin and Polar both offer those for their ranges. Wrist-based optical heart rate sensors are improving, but in the rough-and-tumble environment of dirt biking it might not be able to accurately read your heart rate. Having said that, it can still track and monitor it for later analysis on your smartphone or computer. The other activity functions and sensors offer excellent feedback and insight into your performance and recovery.
2) Sports Modes
Sports-specific modes and trackers make it easier to track and analyse your activities. The Garmin, Polar, Suunto, and Coros models enable you to customize the sports modes to display and measure only the aspects that are relevant to your progress.
3) Display
Shopping for the best fitness watch for dirt biking means finding a watch that tracks and displays your data in the easiest and most simple way possible. Some displays are touchscreen-sensitive, color, come in different sizes, and in brightness, too. While on the move on your dirt bike or in the gym, having one with a permanently-on display makes it easier to glance at your wrist to read your vitals signs. Customizable displays offer you an enhanced user experience – and that will keep it on your wrist instead of lying in a drawer.
4) Battery Life
Battery life is important. Some features on a fitness watch drain the battery in less than 6 hours on some watches. While most of us won’t be able to lap an MX track for 6 hours, having that extended battery life means the watch is more versatile and practical for other areas of your life. Read about their batteries carefully.
5) Smartphone App
All fitness watches come with a smartphone companion app. Make sure that your fitness watch’s app is compatible with your phone. There are several features and customization functions for the watch that can only be synced and set via the app. Most of the data the watch collects is transferred to your smartphone. It’s often easier to rely on your watch while riding than your phone. Riding with your phone means you’ll probably need a phone mount for motorcycles.
Top Brands
Garmin
Garmin is the best-known name for GPS technology. This American company was founded in 1989 in Lenexa, Kansas by Gary Burrell and Min Kao. Their products range from fitness trackers, to smartwatches, to navigation devices, and more.
Polar
Polar was founded in Finland in 1977 and made its name producing the world’s first sports training computers and wireless heart rate monitors. Their products are most popular with runners for their recovery and sports-specific training tools.
Suunto
Suunto is another Finnish company like Polar. It was founded in 1936 and are highly regarded for their dive computers, compasses, and precision instruments. They’ve been producing fitness watches for nearly 3 decades.
Coros
Coros was founded in 2016 and is already one of China’s biggest fitness technology companies. It is backed by YF Tech, makers of GPS technology and products for automotive manufacturers such as Volkswagen. Since their establishment, they’ve won over millions of customers thanks to their adventure-designed products.
FitBit
FitBit was recently purchased by Google. They were founded in 2007 with their products focusing on wearable fitness trackers and smartwatches.
Last Checkpoint
A fitness watch helps you better train and optimize your energy on your dirt bike for motocross and enduro riding. There are dozens more brands and models we could have reviewed, but we found these to be the best of the best from the leading fitness and sports watch makers. With heart rate training and recovery modes, you’ll be able to push your body harder to achieve maximum benefits for your next enduro adventure or MX race day. The more you can track and analyze, the more of your training you can control and optimize.
