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Bike computers are worthless. Change my mind.

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Bike computers are worthless. Change my mind.

Old 06-16-20, 01:47 PM
  #51  
livedarklions
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I'm old school--I ride with one of these strapped to my handlebars:

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Old 06-16-20, 02:02 PM
  #52  
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I like my wired computer. As folks have said, its nice to know how far I've gone and how far I have to go. If I want more detailed data, I generally have my Strava running on my phone in my back pocket. Pretty much only use it for YTD type totals, though.

Originally Posted by Marcus_Ti
Tell me again, which phone not only allows 14 hours of screen-on-time...but will not suffer image permanence, AKA burn-in, from doing so?
Which phone will survive a bike crash on the handlebars, and not have a shattered digitizer?
My phone in my see-thru top handlebar bag connected to a battery pack? Lasts long enough on tours, and I've crashed a few times without breaking it.
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Old 06-16-20, 03:08 PM
  #53  
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I use a very small cateye strada triple wireless computer with speed, heart rate and cadence. It will run run for a year with a 2032 battery in each of the three parts - the heart rate monitor, the speed/cadence sensor and computer. It does everything I need, including a second distance that I use keep track of the mileage on the chain I have in use. I rotate to a different chain about every 500 miles, with 3 or 4 chains I use with each bike.

I can usually find one for around $100.
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Old 06-16-20, 04:05 PM
  #54  
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What held me back from going out & grabbing the widgets & gadgets that I now have is purely cost & availability.
It often incurred more indirect costs from needing other things to complete the "starter" kit, required a subscription that I just could not commit to for my own reasons, or the main tiem was affordable & available yet the additional things needed were on backorder/expensive or did not look to my taste with the main item.

After a while, it eventually worked out that I am now rockin what I want.... Just now fiddling with the mounting system. I'm a less is more person, & the amount of hassle it has been to mount the computer while also using the same area to mount my light has been trial with a lot of error.
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Old 06-16-20, 04:22 PM
  #55  
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I am not even going to attempt to change your mind. I live in Canada and a cheap computer is 300$ and I have seen them upwards of 1,000$.
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Old 06-16-20, 04:32 PM
  #56  
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I couldn't care less what the OP thinks about computers.....

Change my mind.
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Old 06-16-20, 04:46 PM
  #57  
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OP has my sympathy, but phones suck too, just in a different way.

I used my Android mounted on handlebars but on roads with rougher surface (never mind gravel and off roads) I was worried the vibrations will break it before long, also the vibrations made it almost impossible to read off anything on the display. I wonder if dedicated bike computers alleviate that or at least somewhat.

Also have an app on the phone to track biking route and provide all kinds of readouts, but its numerals are not big enough to see them at a glance and that makes it dangerous (there is a space to make the numerals bigger but for some reason, the app developer didn't make use of that space.... can get better app I suppose, so discount this one fault.

Battery sucks when you have GPS on. Granted my phone is not the newest anymore but still I hear it is not much better with newer phones. And speed readout from GPS is laggy, which makes it only useful for after ride examination, if even that.

These days, I switch on ride tracking app on the phone and carry it in the leg pocket of my shorts (I don't ride in lycra). Of course, the plus having the phone with you is obvious - it is a PHONE too, which bike computers are NOT! Once I had snake bites on both wheels at the same time and was able to phone to get picked up. That was four punctures on the tubes plus one clincher damaged too.

As to why no memory card slot on (most or all?) on bike computers, that probably has many reasons, starting with water proofing, user demand or profitability calculation companies make, etc. But if one would be successful adding those, some others would follow and it would be standard.

And why not add music for BT headphones too? But that's the same like with the expansion card. I believe there are glasses that provide HUD, probably connected to the bike computer, but I think it didn't take off. Still that might be the future.

Last edited by vane171; 06-16-20 at 05:06 PM.
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Old 06-16-20, 05:03 PM
  #58  
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Originally Posted by vane171
Battery sucks when you have GPS on. Granted my phone is not the newest anymore but still I hear it is not much better with newer phones. And speed readout from GPS is laggy, which makes it only useful for after ride examination, if even that.
Are there Android phones that allow you to turn off the GPS ?. iPhone doesn't do that. I think this might be a requirement to allow a 911 call to establish location.

As well, speed readouts on dedicated GPS cycling units lags as well, it's the nature of the signal and processing. Is why many roadies hho do paceline group rides use a speed sensor, needing a more instantaneous speed readout.
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Old 06-16-20, 05:05 PM
  #59  
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Originally Posted by GlennR
I just replaced my Garmin 510 with a 530 and found the 530 lets me know how many times I shifted each derailleur.

I can't imagine how I lived without that.

But I do like the basic functions of HR, speed, cadence, distance, calories and others. I also like that it uploads all this info and routes to the internet.
I like that my Garmin shows me what gear I'm in via the Di2 system. That's more useful then you think, not having to glance back at the rear cogs.
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Old 06-16-20, 05:10 PM
  #60  
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Originally Posted by roskobosko
I like riding with my Apple Watch, change my mind
you have to start it manually. for some reason apple cant manage auto detect for bike rides like my fitbit can. but then there is battery life my watch would be around 40% before I started riding every day. Now if I use it for my 20+ mile commute when I get home it would be at 10%
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Old 06-16-20, 05:24 PM
  #61  
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Originally Posted by Steve B.
Are there Android phones that allow you to turn off the GPS ?. iPhone doesn't do that.
Pretty sure you can turn off GPS on an iPhone.
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Old 06-16-20, 05:30 PM
  #62  
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Originally Posted by livedarklions
I'm old school--I ride with one of these strapped to my handlebars:

Lady Lovelace would be proud of you.
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Old 06-16-20, 05:55 PM
  #63  
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Originally Posted by Steve B.
Are there Android phones that allow you to turn off the GPS ?.
Yes, my Samsung S10 will do this via settings. I would expect all cell phones provide this option, otherwise big brother is in you pocket.. wherever you go.

Last edited by bobwysiwyg; 06-16-20 at 06:02 PM.
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Old 06-16-20, 06:03 PM
  #64  
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Originally Posted by tomato coupe
Pretty sure you can turn off GPS on an iPhone.
You don't turn off the GPS receiver, you only disable Location Services. That still allows the device to be receiving GPS satellite data and can be used to track you for 911 purposes.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT20...ed%20services.
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Old 06-16-20, 06:08 PM
  #65  
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Originally Posted by Steve B.
I like that my Garmin shows me what gear I'm in via the Di2 system. That's more useful then you think, not having to glance back at the rear cogs.
I found on the 530 when you have 5 or more objects on screen the font gets small and it gets hard to quickly read the screen. And having to change the screen, it's easier to take a quick glance. Maybe i'll get used to it... like the backup camera on my car.
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Old 06-16-20, 07:39 PM
  #66  
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Well my phone can't monitor my HRM, Cadence sensor, DI2 stats and battery and mode selection, nor control my light and my light modes and its battery status. It also can't feed into Garmin connect and Strava directly, nor send a livetrack of where I am to my wife or notify her automatically if an accident occurs (although these latter two item require a phone as a relay). So I'd say that is a lot of functionality that a computer provides that a phone can't. So if you do not need any of that, that's fine, but your rant is pointless.

Last edited by GeneO; 06-16-20 at 07:43 PM.
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Old 06-16-20, 07:57 PM
  #67  
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it cant do selfies. or snapchat & tiktoks
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Old 06-17-20, 02:03 AM
  #68  
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XOSS G+. Costs $50. I got a second for half price back in January.
  • GPS, and compatible with Glonass, Galileo and BeiDou.
  • Bluetooth and ANT+ compatible. No problems with any of my sensors, old and new, including sharing my Wahoo Tickr with my smartphone via Bluetooth.
  • Much smaller and lighter than even my little iPhone 4s. And my iPhone 4s needs a separate case/ANT+ adapter for my older Wahoo sensors.
  • Much longer runtime per charge, up to 25 hours with light disabled.
  • My phone stays in my jersey pocket and has plenty of charge all day because it's not recording my rides, or doing so only in the background (sometimes I run Wahoo Fitness as a backup, which is low resource demand compared with Strava).

It's very bare bones, nothing fancy. No navigation aids -- not even a breadcrumb trail or audible beeps. It only records rides and uploads to Strava afterward. I mostly wanted something to monitor my heart rate, distance and time. I set the heart rate monitor to alarm when I exceed 160 bpm, to stay within my training goals. Very handy.

I've had maybe three minor glitches since January. On one ride GPS wouldn't sync for the first five miles. That happens occasionally with most computers and phones. Twice there was a one day delay before ride data finished transferring to Strava - that appeared to be a XOSS server issue. Most days it syncs GPS quickly and uploads to Strava within 5 minutes.

XOSS customer support has been hit or miss since January when the pandemic hit China hard. But I've been able to resolve issues myself. It's no worse than devices from Lezyne, Garmin or Wahoo, judging from complaints from friends and reviews of those devices. All of 'em have some problems but most folks seem satisfied with most bike computers.

There are other GPS computers that cost less than $100, from Bryton and Lezyne, but those aren't compatible with both Bluetooth and ANT+, and may be compatible only with GPS, not with Glonass, Galileo, BeiDou, etc. If your sensors are Bluetooth, check out the Bryton Rider models, or Lezyne Mini or Macro Easy.
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Old 06-17-20, 04:35 AM
  #69  
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before my Garmin 500, before I evolved from a flip phone to a smart phone.

I used RidewithGPS to record my rides post ride. Bonus was the mental memory exercise of remembering which roads I road on.

the account was free, It took me maybe 5 minutes to sit down and to mouse click, my route that I just rode. I could enter a start time, a finish time., Save Route as a ride, Boom, ride recorded and I had my average speed.

Actually to this day RidewithGPS is my goto for viewing my data. Obviously my 520 will upload to garmin then garmin syncs to my ridewithgps. I never view Garmin website.

However for 2020 I have not used my 520 once. nor uploaded or recorded anything. Not uploading and recording rides is about as refreshing as riding my singlespeed. Absolute freedom, just riding to ride.
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Old 06-17-20, 06:19 AM
  #70  
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Has anyone figured why OP wanted to change his mind? He seemed pretty content with his viewpoint
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Old 06-17-20, 07:08 AM
  #71  
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Originally Posted by Troul
it cant do selfies. or snapchat & tiktoks

"My cat routed the most adorable century yesterday."
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Old 06-17-20, 07:09 AM
  #72  
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Originally Posted by shelbyfv
Has anyone figured why OP wanted to change his mind? He seemed pretty content with his viewpoint

Probably all the mercury in that foul Chicken of the Sea.

STARKIST RULES!
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Old 06-17-20, 07:20 AM
  #73  
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Originally Posted by shelbyfv
Has anyone figured why OP wanted to change his mind? He seemed pretty content with his viewpoint
he has 31 post, he hasn't been bikeforums hardheaded converted yet
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Old 06-17-20, 07:24 AM
  #74  
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Originally Posted by ddeand
<snipped>, but “Change my mind”? Go away.
This.
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Old 06-17-20, 03:25 PM
  #75  
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Originally Posted by Toespeas
the only use for a garmin or wahoo would be a hard ride or race , as far as functions go , a 30 dollar android phone can do everything you need while cycling , and if strava brought back heart rate i might be tempted to pay and use my phone to record races .
i guess dedicated computers can be a bit more accurate with gps , maybe cyclocross or MTB races would be best recorded with a watch ( a few cx racers in the pros had those watches ) , some are kind of more compact than a phone , BUT compare a 30 to 200 phone to a 100 to 400 dollar cycling computer and over all the phone wins every time . reply with any reason to choose a gps computer over a phone .


RANT : i mean does the 400 dollar wahoo roam even have a sd card slot to store and load maps and routes , i personally bought a garmin 520 because ti was in my price range, i thought it would be great for nav and routes but this thing sucks the battery only lasts 8 hours and it cant even hold 100 MBs of map data , doesn't have official functionality for map loading , i have to make separate folders and swap out my map sections just to get a map on screen and there is still no real time navigation , it cant play music or do turn by turn as well as my phone can but on my 30 dollar phone i have a full gps for free , why do these gps computers even exist , it would be beyond easy to add an SD card slot and expand storage , ok rant over , i still feel i should have spent the 150 on a new phone dedicated to my bikes
You bought the cheaper, outdated model, the 530 is far better in every category. And I can promise that you the GPS chip in that $30 phone isn't even close to as accurate as the Garmin's. I have never lost a signal with my Garmin, which happened sometimes when I used my phone (premium phone too, not a throw-away).

It's also won't withstand cold/heat/water/shock very well, won't read clearly in direct sunlight, and won't connect with ANT+devices. Another benefit is that you won't destroy in a crash, and it's lighter and more aerodynamic than a bulky phone as well. Sure I'm leaving some things out too.

All the bad reviews on the 520 is what lead to purchase the 30, it's a vastly better device than its predecessor.
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