GPS Consideration
I'm not a big gadget person. I recognize that spending time with gadgets may not be furthering my other goals, and avoid the temptation.
My Treo is an example of something that walks the line. I needed a phone and I'd been carrying a Palm Pilot for contact and calendar, so it was nice to combine the two devices into a single hand-held. I'm also aware that it could make a pretty good GPS device with the addition of a Bluetooth GPS receiver.
Now, my odometer on the bike gives me most of what I need: distance and time. Routes I plan out using bikely.com. If I get lost, that just makes it more fun. So, having the maps in the device is not a big deal for me. Being able to track elevation would be nice. I can get a fairly good estimate from bikely.com routes, but I've also seen some inaccuracies. The GPS could give me a better picture of my climb and also would tie it to my speed on the various hills.
There's also the ability to track and then download to bikely.com so I wouldn't have to hand enter my routes.
So, the solution I was considering was the Visiontac VGPS-500 Bluetooth GPS for about $40, and a freeware app for the Treo called CotoGPS that captures tracks. There's also some analysis software that is available for the desktop.
I could substantially improve my data gathering capability for about the price of a bike computer.
Commute Summary
Round Trip Distance: 17.4
Number of Cyclists seen: 28
In-bound Route: Lullwater/PATH trail
Out-bound Route: Emory via Clifton
Weather: The best; cool in the morning and pleasantly warm in the afternoon.
Labels: gps
posted by Jett @ 9:39 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
I take a GPS with me when I ride and it's great to see it all in Google Earth. (Elevation profiles are fun too, but I'm still using the software that came with my GPS when I want to do that)
My entire process is turn on GPS when starting ride and hit reset, save track and turn off at the end of the ride, and plug into computer, click import, and drag the track to an appropriate folder. Not too much overhead, but the map is cool to see where I've been (and haven't been)
I'd recommend getting something a few $ more. The occasional use in the car or mtbing in the rain when the phone is safely indoors somewhere is handy, and it's easier to look at quickly when riding. You can get a Garmin eTrex something or other for less than $100. (Though the 60CSx comes highly recommend from me and can be had for 2.5x that if you shop around)
I have a GPS, but it doesn't really work anymore. It pretty much always had a problem where if I went over a bump, it'd turn itself off. Then I'd have to turn it back on. I ended up fiddling with it a lot during my rides, and I don't miss that.
That said, if it had worked properly, I wouldn't have had to do that. It was always cool to see elevation profiles and whatnot -- and for mountain biking, it's great, because some trails don't have maps and you can make one.
This is some good feedback. I do enjoy watching the average speed on my odometer, so being able to see a display would be nice. I usually carry the phone inside a plastic bag in my seatpack so having it around isn't a big deal.
I am concerned about the VisionTac's 4G limit on acceleration. It seems like a good stiff bump would generate in excess of 4Gs and it might not survive long. I'll need to compare the ratings of other units.
What I did like is the 10-14 hour battery life and the 33g weight -- and of course the $40 price.
I did consider the eTrex, but thought I could do better by taking advantage of the screen, memory and bluetooth on my Treo.
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