I was looking at the Specialized bikes for a while for that very reason (I was envious of
@Stefan Mikes Strava stats from his bikes) but they didn't have a bike I really wanted, so I'm making do with the extra step...
Yeah, gotta choose the appropriate bike first, then the other stuff.
For my purposes, it seems either a Vado or an Allant+ 7S would suit my needs and from just the bike side of things I've not seen anything compelling in one direction or the other. With the Allant+ though, I'd need to upgrade to a Nyon or Kiox from the Purion, which isn't that big of a deal, but frankly I'd be very reticent at buying into a deprecated system now that the new Bosch Smart System is out. With the Vado it already has a good display/controller and appears to easily integrate with my existing Garmin bike computer/workflow - plus the 2022 models are the new generation TCD-w and such, so it's at the leading edge of the system lifecycle (a potential double edged sword)
it's funny how people are different. my wife always wants to dock her iphone to the Cobi Smart Hub. maybe it's just so much brighter and easy to read. i, on the other hand, get annoyed by the docking and strapping and connecting and disconnecting since we stop often and take pictures. so i put up with the tiny display on the smart hub. i guess i don't really care about data. i like to ride, snack, take pictures, and talk with my wife. i think at my age (54) i've definitely lost patience with things like these fancy rider apps. but i'm happy for others to enjoy them. i'm just old and grumpy. haha. tim
I'm with you on not fussing with phone apps. On my conventional bikes I use a Garmin Edge 830 and it takes care of automatically uploading the ride info into Garmin Connect over wifi when I get home. My goal would be to do the same with any ebike. My phone stays in my pocket except for photos and such.
My dear wife is completely not a techie. She puts her phone in a handlebar case on the Verve+ 2 just to see if someone calls, but otherwise is quite content with whatever the Purion controller provides on her Verve+.
