GPS cycle computer for navigation - recommendations?

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Dogtrousers

Lefty tighty. Get it righty.
I checked my Roam V2 on yesterday's ride. I switched off the left side LEDs. I was on a long ride and wanted to conserve battery. I left the top bar on as the Varia is important to me.

Green LED flashes once when the side bar changes back to green

Side bar amber/orange, the LED is the same
Side bar red, the LED is the same but quite dull in colour

So it signals various things. to you by using red and green coloured LEDs? Hmmm. I wouldn't be able to use that.
 

PaulSB

Squire
So it signals various things. to you by using red and green coloured LEDs? Hmmm. I wouldn't be able to use that.

The user has a choice LEDs, a side bar or both. The LEDs for me are green, amber and orange as is the side bar. There are audible alerts but I've never used them.

By the sound of it your red/green colour blind?
 

Dogtrousers

Lefty tighty. Get it righty.
The user has a choice LEDs, a side bar or both. The LEDs for me are green, amber and orange as is the side bar. There are audible alerts but I've never used them.

By the sound of it your red/green colour blind?

Red green mainly (but others too). I'm OK ish with blocks of colour but LEDs are a no no. But if I had one I might learn to use the positions of the lights. It's a pretty big design failure when you consider that the majority of users will be male and roughly 8% of men have colour vision problems.
 

PaulSB

Squire
Red green mainly (but others too). I'm OK ish with blocks of colour but LEDs are a no no. But if I had one I might learn to use the positions of the lights. It's a pretty big design failure when you consider that the majority of users will be male and roughly 8% of men have colour vision problems.
Traffic lights are equally flawed?

I feel this is a very sweeping statement. What alternative would you suggest? I haven't thought about the Wahoo system in this respect before. The use of red, amber, green is widespread In many different situations. It's familiar to the majority of the population so I don't find it surprising Garmin chose this scheme.

Garmin seem to have considered the situation and offer an audible alternative. A beep for a detected vehicle with changes to tone and frequency depending on the closing speed of the vehicle and a different tone once the vehicle passes or is no longer present.

In some respects audible alerts are arguably safer than visible ones. I don't know, I've never tried as I don't want my Wahoo beeping at my ride buddies.
 

Mike_P

Legendary Member
Location
Harrogate
How effective audible noises is dependant on traffic and wind noise.. Maybe the solution would be on the on screen radar display instead of changing from green to red or orange started also flashing
 

Mike_P

Legendary Member
Location
Harrogate
After all I have said a Edge Explore 2 may get purchased. The issues I have with the 530 are partly mitigated by being able to tweak its settings on the pc. Remembering what each button does can be resolved by a permanent pen marking on the white case if necessary.
 
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Dogtrousers

Lefty tighty. Get it righty.
Traffic lights are equally flawed?

I feel this is a very sweeping statement. What alternative would you suggest? I haven't thought about the Wahoo system in this respect before. The use of red, amber, green is widespread In many different situations. It's familiar to the majority of the population so I don't find it surprising Garmin chose this scheme.

Garmin seem to have considered the situation and offer an audible alternative. A beep for a detected vehicle with changes to tone and frequency depending on the closing speed of the vehicle and a different tone once the vehicle passes or is no longer present.

In some respects audible alerts are arguably safer than visible ones. I don't know, I've never tried as I don't want my Wahoo beeping at my ride buddies.

Traffic lights can be a bit of a problem but they are big structures with large distinct light surfaces. For me at least, point sources like single LEDs are the worst. We have a gizmo at home that apparently changes its LED from red (charging) to green (full). For a long time I was completely unaware that it did this until my wife asked me if it had changed colour yet - to be met with incomprehension from me.

I use a Varia with an Edge 1040. I don't know if Garmin use colour in the screen display for this function. Maybe they do but I haven't noticed. It also beeps.

As to what alternative ... there's tons of information out there on the subject of accessible design.
 
OP
OP
B

Bass Culture

Regular
Received my Bryton Rider 650 today. It may be a few days before I can get to use it on a ride but it's been easy enough for even a numpty like me to update the firmware, download the app, sync the two devices and associate my Komoot account and upload an existing route to the device. Obviously has a huge amount amount of ride and performance data I'll likely make very little use of. Only thing now is to see how it measures up with navigation, which I'll test on one of my familiar routes first. But - so far, so good; no issues with any of the 'technical side' so far.
 

Airnimal

Regular
Bottom line is. After many poor Garmin devices I was ready to ditch their machines. I thought I should give them one more go with the Explore 2. It's the best decision I've ever made.
It does what it's suppose to do, its easy to set up, use and follow and the battery lasts for ever. It just works. It's like Garmin finally listened to the punters and put a machine together we wanted rather then using us as beta testers and hoping for the best.

I bought my first Garmin GPS device fifteen or more years ago and my second, a Edge Explore 2 perhaps four years ago. Both have been tremendous. But importantly so has been their help line which is accessible by old fashioned telephone, an instrument I am I am comfortable with. I have called them more than a few times over the years for help and it has always been patiently given. Incidently, my daughter has done a number of trans Atlantic single handed sailing races and she uses some Garmin equipment as well.
 

blackrat

Über Member
I beta tested my Edge Explore 2 today - 3 1/2 miles around the neighbourhood, and it did what it was supposed to do, so all good. No navigation yet, that'll be for my LEL tourist ride coming up. The Beeline has gone back in it's box as being uninspiring.
Single handed sailing across the pond? Wow!
 

blackrat

Über Member
I beta tested my Edge Explore 2 today - 3 1/2 miles around the neighbourhood, and it did what it was supposed to do, so all good. No navigation yet, that'll be for my LEL tourist ride coming up. The Beeline has gone back in it's box as being uninspiring.
Single handed sailing across the pond? Wow!

However, it did not work on yesterday's 60 mile ride. I couldn't get the thing to start recording. Fortunately I know the route well, so only wanted to test the device.
 
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