How useful is a cycling computer? And why buy something specific when today's phones offer multiple apps to do the same job? If there's a reason to have a discreet device how much should you spend, and on which product?
That's the journey I've been traveling for the last 18 months. Here's the story.
My rediscovery of cycling at the age of 61 is chronicled elsewhere. It wasn't a smooth process, and it wasn't inexpensive. But one thing I didn't spend money on was a cycling computer.
To start with, all of that data about dates, distances, speeds, elevations, routes, calories etc. wasn't relevant. Trying to stay on the bike and out from under the wheels of lunatic car, van and lorry drivers was challenging enough. That old saying about never forgetting how to ride a bike turned out the be true, but only just. It was intimidating, embarrassing, and quite frightening, to start with.
Of course that didn't last long. How far and how fast soon became important dimensions in each ride. But as for buying a computer? That wasn't going to happen.
My first computer was the Map My Ride app running on my Nexus phone. It worked well enough and posted data to home site for analysis and sharing. So far, so good, apart from the battery consumption. Using the phone for all this clever stuff feels really smart, until the battery runs out and that emergency phone call is impossible.
The transition to Google Tracks seemed the perfect answer. It does most of what Map My Ride does, but more on the server and less on the phone itself. But that GPS monitoring still eats battery. Even Google admits there's a maximum of 5 hours on a full charge, and that drops awfully quickly when anything else is going on.
But the biggest drawback with both apps is there's no ride information while in progress. Of course you could do that with a combination of mounts and cases, if you trusted them. But not me.
Next up was the Strada. I didn't buy it. The computer was already fitted to the Ghost.
The Strada must be simultaneously the most simple and also the most complicated cycle computer. The set up instructions are difficult to follow. The control buttons a long way from intuitive. Installing the correctly sensors is dependent on millimeters in positioning. They easily move out of synch and the whole thing stops working. There's no app for collecting, storing, analysing the ride data.
But it does a brilliant job communicating real time ride data to the rider. As long as it works that is. Mine stopped, and replacement batteries didn't fix the problem.
It turned out, for me, that the real time ride data added a lot of interest and fun to my cycling. Having an app to store and analyse the data was also something I wanted. And I wanted something which would work whichever steed was my choice of the day. Neither MapMyRide nor Tracks nor the Strada met the requirement.
Time to buy a proper cycling computer. It had to be a Garmin (not sure why) but which one? And how much?
The user reviews at Amazon were helpful, and concerning. A couple of guys reported their Garmins had given up the ghost after rides in the rain. Other than that they liked the functionality. And later it turned out Garmin had addressed the problem with a new feature.
So it would be a Garmin - but the 500 or the 800 or wait for the new 510 or 810. The price range was all the way from £160 to £550.
The difference between the 500 and 800 was downloadable (and expensive) maps and turn by turn navigation. Other than that the two collected the same data, and both worked with the Garmin Connect on-line app. The 510 and 810 were pretty much the same, except both will transmit data to a smart phone and beyond. The company's promotion video is enticing, but not enough to persuade me to spend £400 unnecessarily, so the new models didn't make the cut.
On reflection the turn by turn navigation wasn't important. It might well be for riding in cities, which I don't do, but not a lot of use on preplanned country routes, which I do. As for the maps? Well I'd always have Google Maps with GPS location in my pocket in the unlikely event I got lost.
That left me with a simple decision. The Garmin 500 would do everything I wanted, at the lowest cost.
So I bought it, and it does.
That's the journey I've been traveling for the last 18 months. Here's the story.
My rediscovery of cycling at the age of 61 is chronicled elsewhere. It wasn't a smooth process, and it wasn't inexpensive. But one thing I didn't spend money on was a cycling computer.
To start with, all of that data about dates, distances, speeds, elevations, routes, calories etc. wasn't relevant. Trying to stay on the bike and out from under the wheels of lunatic car, van and lorry drivers was challenging enough. That old saying about never forgetting how to ride a bike turned out the be true, but only just. It was intimidating, embarrassing, and quite frightening, to start with.
Of course that didn't last long. How far and how fast soon became important dimensions in each ride. But as for buying a computer? That wasn't going to happen.
My first computer was the Map My Ride app running on my Nexus phone. It worked well enough and posted data to home site for analysis and sharing. So far, so good, apart from the battery consumption. Using the phone for all this clever stuff feels really smart, until the battery runs out and that emergency phone call is impossible.
The transition to Google Tracks seemed the perfect answer. It does most of what Map My Ride does, but more on the server and less on the phone itself. But that GPS monitoring still eats battery. Even Google admits there's a maximum of 5 hours on a full charge, and that drops awfully quickly when anything else is going on.
But the biggest drawback with both apps is there's no ride information while in progress. Of course you could do that with a combination of mounts and cases, if you trusted them. But not me.
Next up was the Strada. I didn't buy it. The computer was already fitted to the Ghost.
The Strada must be simultaneously the most simple and also the most complicated cycle computer. The set up instructions are difficult to follow. The control buttons a long way from intuitive. Installing the correctly sensors is dependent on millimeters in positioning. They easily move out of synch and the whole thing stops working. There's no app for collecting, storing, analysing the ride data.
But it does a brilliant job communicating real time ride data to the rider. As long as it works that is. Mine stopped, and replacement batteries didn't fix the problem.
It turned out, for me, that the real time ride data added a lot of interest and fun to my cycling. Having an app to store and analyse the data was also something I wanted. And I wanted something which would work whichever steed was my choice of the day. Neither MapMyRide nor Tracks nor the Strada met the requirement.
Time to buy a proper cycling computer. It had to be a Garmin (not sure why) but which one? And how much?
The user reviews at Amazon were helpful, and concerning. A couple of guys reported their Garmins had given up the ghost after rides in the rain. Other than that they liked the functionality. And later it turned out Garmin had addressed the problem with a new feature.
So it would be a Garmin - but the 500 or the 800 or wait for the new 510 or 810. The price range was all the way from £160 to £550.
The difference between the 500 and 800 was downloadable (and expensive) maps and turn by turn navigation. Other than that the two collected the same data, and both worked with the Garmin Connect on-line app. The 510 and 810 were pretty much the same, except both will transmit data to a smart phone and beyond. The company's promotion video is enticing, but not enough to persuade me to spend £400 unnecessarily, so the new models didn't make the cut.
On reflection the turn by turn navigation wasn't important. It might well be for riding in cities, which I don't do, but not a lot of use on preplanned country routes, which I do. As for the maps? Well I'd always have Google Maps with GPS location in my pocket in the unlikely event I got lost.
That left me with a simple decision. The Garmin 500 would do everything I wanted, at the lowest cost.
So I bought it, and it does.
