GPS on a bike

Chris Malcolm said the following on 18/07/2007 12:55:

Quoted message said:

Was this chap an oddball, or are there plenty of car drivers out there
who don't know that plenty of the cyclists on the road are using the
road for the same purposes as they are, for getting about?

I don't think it's just car drivers - it's anyone who doesn't ride a
bike. I used to get it all the time at work (after five years of
cycling in they're used to me now). They couldn't understand that I
actually cycle because I *want* to, regardless of the weather. It was
beyond their comprehension that anyone could possibly prefer fresh air
and freedom to being cooped up in a stuffy car stuck in a traffic jam
breathing in someone else's exhaust fumes. The daftest question when I
arrive in the pouring rain and get out of my waterproofs is "Don't you
get wet?" Well, no - that's why I'm wearing waterproofs.

Quoted message said:

This chap was a nice friendly intelligent person, who was simply
baffled and curious. He seemed genuinely both astonished and
interested to find someone who could afford a car actually cycling to
get around.

It sounds like you've educated at least one person!

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

"Chris Malcolm" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

When going somewhere I've never been before, on streets I don't know,
I'll often find out its GPS cor-ords and put the GPS on the bike
handlebars. Having a pointer telling how far and in what direction my
destination is usually all I need.

When setting off the other day a well heeled chap who'd just got out
of a large expensive new SUV stopped and goggled.

"GPS on a bike?!?" he asked.

"Haven't you got a GPS in your car?" I responded.

A somewhat baffled conversation ensuded in which we were often talking
at cross purposes. I couldn't understand why he couldn't understand
that it was just as useful on a bike as in a car at getting you places
you hadn't been to before and so on. It turned out that it simply
hadn't occurred to him that some people who ride bikes do so to get
from one place to another, i.e. they use bikes for general purpose
utility transport, just like others use cars. He thought that people
rode bicycles for exercise, in the same sort of way as others jog
along the pavements. He did know that there were a few people so
terribly poor that they couldn't afford a car and were forced into
cycling, but as he saw it if you could afford a GPS you could
obviously afford a car so what on earth was I doing on a bicycle with
a GPS?

Was this chap an oddball, or are there plenty of car drivers out there
who don't know that plenty of the cyclists on the road are using the
road for the same purposes as they are, for getting about? It occurs
to me that if some of them think we're all using the roads as an
exercise track, that might explain why they're so annoyed at cyclists
slowing down those who are using the roads for their proper purpose.

This chap was a nice friendly intelligent person, who was simply
baffled and curious. He seemed genuinely both astonished and
interested to find someone who could afford a car actually cycling to
get around.

He ovbiously doesn't realise the cost of bikes either ... 🙂

In article said:

Was this chap an oddball, or are there plenty of car drivers out there
who don't know that plenty of the cyclists on the road are using the
road for the same purposes as they are, for getting about? It occurs
to me that if some of them think we're all using the roads as an
exercise track, that might explain why they're so annoyed at cyclists
slowing down those who are using the roads for their proper purpose.

This chap was a nice friendly intelligent person, who was simply
baffled and curious. He seemed genuinely both astonished and
interested to find someone who could afford a car actually cycling to
get around.

I have no idea, but GPS units marketed specifically for cyclists seem
to be aimed more at "collect more data from your training" than
"find your way to new places". And many people use cycles extensively
to get around but only in a relatively small area they are familiar
enough, and others find a GPS useful on purely recreational rides,
so I suspect "surprised to see a GPS on a bike" and "surpised to see
a bike being used for transport" are largely independent reactions.

Chris Malcolm said:

This chap was a nice friendly intelligent person,

(meatloaf) two outta three ain't bad (/meatloaf)

T

elyob said:

"Chris Malcolm" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

When going somewhere I've never been before, on streets I don't know,
I'll often find out its GPS cor-ords and put the GPS on the bike
handlebars. Having a pointer telling how far and in what direction my
destination is usually all I need.

When setting off the other day a well heeled chap who'd just got out
of a large expensive new SUV stopped and goggled.

"GPS on a bike?!?" he asked.

"Haven't you got a GPS in your car?" I responded.

A somewhat baffled conversation ensuded in which we were often talking
at cross purposes. I couldn't understand why he couldn't understand
that it was just as useful on a bike as in a car at getting you places
you hadn't been to before and so on. It turned out that it simply
hadn't occurred to him that some people who ride bikes do so to get
from one place to another, i.e. they use bikes for general purpose
utility transport, just like others use cars. He thought that people
rode bicycles for exercise, in the same sort of way as others jog
along the pavements. He did know that there were a few people so
terribly poor that they couldn't afford a car and were forced into
cycling, but as he saw it if you could afford a GPS you could
obviously afford a car so what on earth was I doing on a bicycle with
a GPS?

Was this chap an oddball, or are there plenty of car drivers out there
who don't know that plenty of the cyclists on the road are using the
road for the same purposes as they are, for getting about? It occurs
to me that if some of them think we're all using the roads as an
exercise track, that might explain why they're so annoyed at cyclists
slowing down those who are using the roads for their proper purpose.

This chap was a nice friendly intelligent person, who was simply
baffled and curious. He seemed genuinely both astonished and
interested to find someone who could afford a car actually cycling to
get around.

He ovbiously doesn't realise the cost of bikes either ... 🙂

true though, you can get ultra fast, wow bikes for less than a car, and
a cheap get around bike can get you going for very little and doesn't
require much running costs.

but yes as a hobby it can be a as wallet draining as any other, i'm
limited by space, one bike for shopping etc, one for road fun, one for
mud fun.

this leaves me no more room heh!

which is a good thing for my wallet!

roger
--
www.rogermerriman.com

"Chris Malcolm" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

When going somewhere I've never been before, on streets I don't know,
I'll often find out its GPS cor-ords and put the GPS on the bike
handlebars. Having a pointer telling how far and in what direction my
destination is usually all I need.

Well, whatever rocks your boat and all that, but I have managed perfectly
well with a map for the last 55 years, and being the old luddite I am, I
guess my trusty OS maps will see me through to the end of my cycling days.

Bill

Bill said:

Well, whatever rocks your boat and all that, but I have managed perfectly
well with a map for the last 55 years,

That's exactly the sort of comments I got when I started using GPS on a
motorbike, around nine or ten years ago. People would laugh and ask me
if I needed it to get to work. Nowadays of course every reptile and his
gran have satnav (which is subtly different to GPS)and I use a map as
often as not these days; retro is cool! But GPS is still one of the
wonders of the world. Over the years, my various Garmin units have got
me into and out of some really fabulous places, places I would never
have found with paper maps alone.

I understand that there are even GPS enabled digital cameras on the
market now, that record where pictures were taken. This data is then
used in photo cataloguing software to aid filing and recovery - how cool
is that? Sort your thousands of digital photos by location...

I tried GPS on a few audax rides but to be honest the route sheets were
more than good enough for navigation and it can be a little depressing
being told just how far it is to the next check - sometimes it's best to
think it's much nearer :-)

T

"Chris Malcolm" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

When going somewhere I've never been before, on streets I don't know,
I'll often find out its GPS cor-ords and put the GPS on the bike
handlebars. Having a pointer telling how far and in what direction my
destination is usually all I need.

Why not just use a map?

"Tony B" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Bill said:

Well, whatever rocks your boat and all that, but I have managed perfectly
well with a map for the last 55 years,

That's exactly the sort of comments I got when I started using GPS on a
motorbike, around nine or ten years ago. People would laugh and ask me if
I needed it to get to work. Nowadays of course every reptile and his gran
have satnav (which is subtly different to GPS)

I owe half an apology, I confused the OP's original GPS post with SatNav. I
may be old fashioned, but I use GPS on my boat to accurately position over
wrecks when sea fishing so I am not totally in the 19th century.

Bill

"Tony B" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Bill said:

Well, whatever rocks your boat and all that, but I have managed perfectly
well with a map for the last 55 years,

That's exactly the sort of comments I got when I started using GPS on a
motorbike, around nine or ten years ago. People would laugh and ask me if
I needed it to get to work. Nowadays of course every reptile and his gran
have satnav (which is subtly different to GPS)and I use a map as often as
not these days; retro is cool! But GPS is still one of the wonders of the
world. Over the years, my various Garmin units have got me into and out of
some really fabulous places, places I would never have found with paper
maps alone.

I understand that there are even GPS enabled digital cameras on the market
now, that record where pictures were taken. This data is then used in
photo cataloguing software to aid filing and recovery - how cool is that?
Sort your thousands of digital photos by location...

That to me is a great reason .. I love geotagging ...

in message <[email hidden]>, Alan Holmes

(') said:

"Chris Malcolm" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

When going somewhere I've never been before, on streets I don't know,
I'll often find out its GPS cor-ords and put the GPS on the bike
handlebars. Having a pointer telling how far and in what direction my
destination is usually all I need.

Why not just use a map?

Because a little electronic box weighing 150 grammes can contain the entire
Ordnance Survey of Great Britain (to 1:50,000 scale) /and/ compute your
exact position /and/ fit in your jersey pocket /and/ survive a shower of
rain; whereas a single 1:50,000 sheet weighs more and does none of those
things.

Next?

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

Morning had broken, and we had run out of gas for the welding torch.

Simon Brooke said the following on 19/07/2007 08:01:

Quoted message said:

Because a little electronic box weighing 150 grammes can contain the entire
Ordnance Survey of Great Britain (to 1:50,000 scale) /and/ compute your
exact position /and/ fit in your jersey pocket /and/ survive a shower of
rain; whereas a single 1:50,000 sheet weighs more and does none of those
things.

....and you don't have to keep stopping to dig a map out to look at it
then find your route is exactly on a fold. Must get GPS one day...

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

The other sad thing you can do is spend too much time producing graphs
and maps of rides.

This sort of thing

http://tracking.axismilton.ltd.uk/Sunday%20intermediate%20ride.html

Much as maps are fun, sometimes I want to get excercise and meet a
friend at a pub for lunch without working out why the map doesn't
correspond to the road layout.

That's why I created http://gpsplanner.net though there are a few
other sites which do a similar job.

Jon

Paul Boyd said:

Simon Brooke said the following on 19/07/2007 08:01:

Quoted message said:

Because a little electronic box weighing 150 grammes can contain the
entire
Ordnance Survey of Great Britain (to 1:50,000 scale) /and/ compute your
exact position /and/ fit in your jersey pocket /and/ survive a shower of
rain; whereas a single 1:50,000 sheet weighs more and does none of those
things.

...and you don't have to keep stopping to dig a map out to look at it
then find your route is exactly on a fold. Must get GPS one day...

Can't remember the source but there is a lovely line from some book I've
read.

Disgruntled officer: "the trouble with the British army is it fights all
its battles on the side of a hill, in the pouring rain, at a place where
two maps join".

Peter

--
www.amey.org.uk

Alan Holmes said:

"Chris Malcolm" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

When going somewhere I've never been before, on streets I don't know,
I'll often find out its GPS cor-ords and put the GPS on the bike
handlebars. Having a pointer telling how far and in what direction my
destination is usually all I need.

Quoted message said:

Why not just use a map?

Having used both the answer is that it's not "just" using a map. It's
a hell of a lot more work and hassle using a map, especially if it's
raining, and unless you're only a going a short distance, you'll
certainly have to stop to turn pages or refold the map, even if you
have some kind of waterproof display case on your handlebars that
you're capable of reading while riding.

The questions I most often want answered when I look at a map on a
bicycle is "which way is it to my destination?" and "How far is it
away?" Answering those questions by looking at a map often involves
enough detailed scrutiny that it's wiser to stop cycling to do it,
even if I've got a good waterproof map display on the handlebars. A
GPS answers those two questions in an instant in a brief glance easily
managed while riding.

The question which ought to be asked of cycling map users is "Why not
just use a GPS?"

--
Chris Malcolm [email hidden] DoD #205
IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK
[http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]

In article said:

Quoted message said:

Why not just use a map?

Because a little electronic box weighing 150 grammes can contain the entire
Ordnance Survey of Great Britain (to 1:50,000 scale) /and/ compute your
exact position /and/ fit in your jersey pocket /and/ survive a shower of
rain; whereas a single 1:50,000 sheet weighs more and does none of those
things.

You can buy OS maps printed on waterproof paper. I believe the modern
ones have solved the problem the 1970's version I tried had which was
that it was so waterproof the ink didn't stick to it very well, and
by the end of a Mountain Marathon with it stuck in my belt, there were
large white patches with no contours or other features (in the Lake
District). (Or use a map case or lamination, at a further weight penalty.)

If you want a map as well, as a backup which is immune to electrical
failures (and lets you see more at once, and has a wider viewing
angle for a group looking at it), the GPS is additional weight even
if it is lighter. They are nice though.
(How much does an OS map weigh (with the card cover cut off if you are
worried about saving weight)?)

Alan Braggins said the following on 19/07/2007 11:47:

Quoted message said:

If you want a map as well, as a backup which is immune to electrical
failures

I had assumed that if people were going to places where they relied on
GPS that they would have a map as backup anyway. Wouldn't they???

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

On Thu, 19 Jul 2007 12:35:33 +0100 someone who may be Paul Boyd
<usenet.dont.work@plusnet> wrote this:-

Quoted message said:

I had assumed that if people were going to places where they relied on
GPS that they would have a map as backup anyway. Wouldn't they???

Sensible people don't rely on GPS, because like all radio based
gadgets it can go wrong at the most inconvenient time. Rather they
would see it is a useful addition to their range of equipment.

--
David Hansen, Edinburgh
I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00023--e.htm#54

Bill said:

"Chris Malcolm" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

When going somewhere I've never been before, on streets I don't know,
I'll often find out its GPS cor-ords and put the GPS on the bike
handlebars. Having a pointer telling how far and in what direction my
destination is usually all I need.

Well, whatever rocks your boat and all that, but I have managed perfectly
well with a map for the last 55 years, and being the old luddite I am, I
guess my trusty OS maps will see me through to the end of my cycling days.

I'm sure we've all managed perfectly with paper maps. But just because you can
manage with maps doesn't mean you should shun new technology which can make
life easier.

I've used TomTom and Memory Map on my PDA when riding my bike. Both have their
uses, but I wouldn't travel unknown territory on my bike, or in the car,
without paper maps. Batteries run flat, and hardware breaks or malfunctions.

--
Nigel Wade