AlanW
Guru
- Location
- Not to sure?
So for many years I had used a varying design of route card holders, ranging from homemade bits of plastic and plywood to proper manufactured ones such as the Polaris Maptrap and the Rixen and Kaul map holder. But as old age started to take effect and my eyesight started to worsen, reading route cards without my glasses was near enough impossible.
So a few years ago now, I entered the world of Garmin GPS devices, and turn by turn notifications, what a God send and IMHO it makes a day’s riding so much more enjoyable. And slowly more and more I have become 100% solely reliant on the GPS to navigate me around audax routes. Although, its usual that I will have a copy of the route card in my back pocket just in case, but if I have forgotten to pack my reading glasses then I cannot see it anyway!!
Over time the battery on the Garmin has started to deteriorate and now it isn’t capable of lasting more than about 6 hours now. So with this in mind, I have a small external battery pack that I use to recharge the Garmin when at the controls/cafe stops etc, so all bases covered you would think.
However, I rode a 214km audax on Saturday and 6 hours in the low battery warning message popped up on the Garmin. Safe in the knowledge that I had my external battery pack, I carried on to the next control. It was then that I discovered to my utter horror and disbelief that while I had the external battery pack, Mr Numpty here had forgotten to put the connecting lead in with it…..doh!!
So plan B then, revert back to the trusty old route card option, the good news glasses packed, the bad news……..no route card….double doh!! But in a vain effort to extend the remaining duration of the battery, I turned off any notifications, turned the screen resolution to minimum and anything else that may give me a bit more life. But sadly at around 100 miles it finally gave in and died a death living me in no man’s land as I was on my own at the time. Consequently I had no choice but to wait for other riders at the next control and ride with them till the end.
Which has made me think about how best I can avoid the same happening again, and if I were a PC then I could just buy some more memory but sadly this isn’t an option…. yet? The easy answer of course is to pack it all the night before, which is what I did believe it or not!!
But unless I follow a route card as I travel along, I find it extremely difficult to figure out where I am on the sheet if I have to retrieve it from my pocket, which it why I like the option of having it visible all of the time. Plus, it makes it easier to read the further it is from my eyes, so out in front of the bars is good. But the same rule also applies to the Garmin, the further way its mounted the better it is to see. Which if its mounted onto the top of the stem is less than ideal, but I cannot mount everything forward of the bars so that I can see it as the bike will probably tip over!
I also need to look at ways to mount the external battery pack, so that it’s just a simple case of just plugging it into the Garmin as and when its required. As opposed to carrying it and the lead around in my back pocket till its required.
So a few years ago now, I entered the world of Garmin GPS devices, and turn by turn notifications, what a God send and IMHO it makes a day’s riding so much more enjoyable. And slowly more and more I have become 100% solely reliant on the GPS to navigate me around audax routes. Although, its usual that I will have a copy of the route card in my back pocket just in case, but if I have forgotten to pack my reading glasses then I cannot see it anyway!!
Over time the battery on the Garmin has started to deteriorate and now it isn’t capable of lasting more than about 6 hours now. So with this in mind, I have a small external battery pack that I use to recharge the Garmin when at the controls/cafe stops etc, so all bases covered you would think.
However, I rode a 214km audax on Saturday and 6 hours in the low battery warning message popped up on the Garmin. Safe in the knowledge that I had my external battery pack, I carried on to the next control. It was then that I discovered to my utter horror and disbelief that while I had the external battery pack, Mr Numpty here had forgotten to put the connecting lead in with it…..doh!!
So plan B then, revert back to the trusty old route card option, the good news glasses packed, the bad news……..no route card….double doh!! But in a vain effort to extend the remaining duration of the battery, I turned off any notifications, turned the screen resolution to minimum and anything else that may give me a bit more life. But sadly at around 100 miles it finally gave in and died a death living me in no man’s land as I was on my own at the time. Consequently I had no choice but to wait for other riders at the next control and ride with them till the end.
Which has made me think about how best I can avoid the same happening again, and if I were a PC then I could just buy some more memory but sadly this isn’t an option…. yet? The easy answer of course is to pack it all the night before, which is what I did believe it or not!!
But unless I follow a route card as I travel along, I find it extremely difficult to figure out where I am on the sheet if I have to retrieve it from my pocket, which it why I like the option of having it visible all of the time. Plus, it makes it easier to read the further it is from my eyes, so out in front of the bars is good. But the same rule also applies to the Garmin, the further way its mounted the better it is to see. Which if its mounted onto the top of the stem is less than ideal, but I cannot mount everything forward of the bars so that I can see it as the bike will probably tip over!
I also need to look at ways to mount the external battery pack, so that it’s just a simple case of just plugging it into the Garmin as and when its required. As opposed to carrying it and the lead around in my back pocket till its required.
