Five smart cycling tech pieces: The 'lightest GPS watch on the market' from Coros, 'Open Wearable' headphones from Oladance + more from Mobvai, Polar + JLab

This week the five cool things in the spotlight are all about tech and smart training. We've got our hands on the super-lightweight Coros Pace 2 GPS Sports Watch and Mobvoi Ticwatch Pro 5 with Android OS, as well as headphones from Oladance and JLab. The full in-depth reviews on these gadgets are going to drop on road.cc very soon, and while waiting, you can check out all of the reviews we've already published. You can also find the top-scoring reviews on our road.cc Recommends page!

Coros Pace 2 GPS Sports Watch - £179

The Coros Pace 2 is a GPS sports watch designed for multi-sport athletes, and its unique selling point is not only its array of features, but also how light it is. With a sub-30g weight, Coros claim it is the lightest on the market, and it looks like the Pace 2 certainly packs a punch in a small package. 

> Coros Apex Pro Multisport watch review

Coros promises the Pace 2 gives you up to 30 hours of GPS operation and 14 days of regular use, and you get 24/7 heart rate monitoring, and full training plans for running, biking, swimming, cardio, strength, and a lot of data about every activity you do. 

Is this finally a watch that hill climbers can wear? Perhaps that's a step too far, but Stu Kerton will be telling us whether size matters or not in his full review later this month. 

Find out more here

Mobvoi Ticwatch Pro 5 - £329.99

Continuing on the watch theme, we've also got the Mobvoi Ticwatch Pro 5 in to test, and although at 44.3g this is heavier than the Pace 2, the Ticwatch Pro 5 is targeted for more rugged use with its military standard build and a blend of fitness and smartwatch features. 

The Ticwatch uses Wear OS by Google, allowing you to add Google Wallet onto the watch, download playlists from the likes of Spotify, and essentially not even take your phone out with you if you so wish. However, here's the caveat – the Wear operating system is Android only, so if you're an Apple user you likely won't get to use some of the features.

In terms of the screen, you have a dual display with a vibrant main screen and an ultra-low-power display, which extends the battery life. The battery life is said to be 80 hours for this, and the other features packed in include health metrics such as heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, and VO2 max.

Find out more here

Oladance OWS Sports headphones - £189.99

Training is not much fun without good tunes blasting in (or on) your ears, and in the last few years bone-conduction headphones and open-ear headphones have become one of the most appealing options for listening to music while cycling. One of the issues especially with bone-conducting sets is the lack of bass, though, and that's what Oladance promises its OWS Sports headphones offer.

Though they look alike, this set is actually not using bone-conducting tech. Instead, this set utilises Oladance's OWS (Open Wearable Stereo) tech which should give you richer bass sound, and they also come with a snug fit, an IPX8 waterproof rating, and a 15-hour playback time. 

Ace of bass? Josh Price's review of these headphones is due in early March, and we'll suggest not listening to the Swedish band of the same name out of them, which could lead to unconscious negative bias... 

Find out more here

Polar H10 Heart Rate Sensor - £76.50

There are a whole host of heart rate monitors out there, but Polar claims that its H10 model is the "Gold Standard of heart rate measurement". You get up to 400h of battery life, waterproofness down to 30m, and provides you with an ECG (Electrocardiogram) measurement of your heart rate. 

The soft textile strap should fit snugly around your chest and there are silicone spots dotted around it so that the sensor stays gripped to your skin at all times for optimal measurements, which can be transferred to your screen via Bluetooth or ANT+. 

A worthy upgrade over the already very good Polar H9? The review should be landing next week. 

Find out more here

JLab Epic Air Sport ANC True Wireless Earbuds - £99.99

If you'd rather have a little more traditional headphones for cycling, we've also got our hands on these JLab Epic Air Sport ANC True Wireless Earbuds which boast more than 70 hours of playtime and customisable sound via the JLab Air ANC app.

Although it's not to every cyclist's taste, they also feature smart active noise cancellation with three control modes, including an option for pass-through outside noises. The wear-detect sensors automatically pause music when the earbuds are removed and resume when placed back in. 

The buds have an IP66 sweat and water resistance rating, which means they should be safe to use even during those rainy and sweaty training sessions. 

Find out more here