Cycle computer thingy. Do I want one?

[simonali]

mate uses his mobile sometimes and his accuracy is abysmal . same route 2 up riding together and hes 20 mins faster .....

How do you know it's not your gadget that is wrong? Also, I don't understand how it can be wrong with regards to time. Surely, despite being an abstract concept, time is the one thing that all gadgets should agree on. I could understand if the phone showed that he'd gone further or gone up a higher hill...

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Depends what time they are referring to, there is overall time & moving time, so if you stop at junctions fir more then x seconds it stops accounting then it senders you have moved & starts again

 

[simonali]

So what you're saying is that the phone is better?

 

[Deleted member 26715]

So what you're saying is that the phone is better?

Yes if you want to make a phone call, I find my Garmin is rubbish at that

 

[Alan O]

Surely, despite being an abstract concept, time is the one thing that all gadgets should agree on.

Depends how fast you're going and whether they use relativistic algorithms But seriously...

I use two GPS devices - an iPhone 5 with the Strava app, and a Fitbit Surge. They both account for pauses, and they're both usually pretty close at the end of a ride. Sometimes one records a slightly longer distance and sometimes it's the other, and there can be minor differences in moving and lapsed time and overall speed between the two.

On my longest ride so far this year, the Strava phone recorded 105 miles and the Fitbit 103, and close inspection showed the Fitbit hadn't coped with a tunnel I'd ridden through - so quite impressively consistent really.

 

[youngoldbloke]

What 'appened was... I downloaded a GPX file of a route from t'internet, but I had to stop at every junction to get my phone out and see which way to go. This quickly became very tiring in both senses. It would've been good to have summat shouting out "turn left here, goldfish brain"!

OS map?

 

[User16625]

I don't have a compooter on my bike and haven't had since a company called Avocet (I think?) made them. I expect they've moved on leaps and bounds since that 3 or 4 mode jobbie I had all those years back.

Anyhow, I luuuv a gadget and consequently have drawers and shelves of seldom used electronic crapola, but figure that maybe just getting a bracket to fix my phone to my handlebars will do just a good a job as a newfangled computer. Or will it? Also, I don't want to know how slow I'm going!

Might aswell get one. I use one that tells me how far I have gone and measures my speed. A clock on it is also handy. Don't waste your time with cadence sensors and god knows what other tripe that you would likely get on phones these days. You want to ride a bike, not analyse Jovian storms, intercept police communications or monitor brain activity or lack thereof.

 

[Alan O]

I downloaded a GPX file of a route from t'internet, but I had to stop at every junction to get my phone out and see which way to go.

I've had that problem, and for unfamiliar routes I do use a GPX - either downloaded, or created using the Strava route planner.

But what I do is "ride" the route several times in advance on Google Streetview, and make some very brief notes (on actual paper) on the key junctions and directions. With that in my jersey pocket I find it a lot easier - in fact, I used to use similar notes back when OS maps and no GPS was what we had. And I don't have to get the phone out very often to check.

 

[Racing roadkill]

I had a Garmin Touring. It wasn’t good. I’ve now got a Garmin 1030. It’s very good. It tells me all sorts of things I never knew I needed to know. To be fair it does tell me stuff that’s very useful. Training effect and recovery time are very useful functions. The Cadence and heart rate sensors have proven to be very useful. It also tells me where to go, on navigation mode.

 

[cyberknight]

How do you know it's not your gadget that is wrong? Also, I don't understand how it can be wrong with regards to time. Surely, despite being an abstract concept, time is the one thing that all gadgets should agree on. I could understand if the phone showed that he'd gone further or gone up a higher hill...

uhm when we did a group ride of 4 of us he also used his phone , rest of us used a garmin 500,garmin 1000 and a bryton .
On that ride we all clocked similar figures except him who was 1 mph faster average and rode it in a quicker time even though we all rode as a group .

 

[simonali]

OS map?

Qué? Using the OS map method I look at a route online, transpose it onto a ruddy great foldout map using a crayon and then whenever I reach a junction, instead of getting a phone out, which can almost instantaneously tell me where I am, I have to unfold said ruddy great map again, get out my compass and theodolite to work out my position on it, then put everything away again and carry on until the next crossroads. Result: 20 mile ride - 7 hours!

 

[Lonestar]

Nah, get a computer.
Nobody can 'phone or text a computer and disturb your cycling enjoyment.

What about Strava?

 

[midliferider]

What about Strava?

I don't use Strava.
But I think you can upload Garmin data to Strava

 

[classic33]

OS map?

You ever tried folding/unfolding one on a windy day?

 

[Alan O]

You ever tried folding/unfolding one on a windy day?

I always used to have them pre-folded in a transparent map case.