I finally got my Garmin 705, and it is almost awesome. I also signed up over at map my ride, and it, too, is almost awesome. I'll start with the Garmin.
BAD
-Map sucks. Only shows major roads.
-"User friendly" was not in the design philosophy.
-Saving rides is not nearly as easy as advertised. I'm still not sure how to do it or where to find the saves.
-Makes unnecessary "laps" saved if you start it and then stop it, without going anywhere.
-"Go to" feature is fucking useless. I can go on the highway or a direct route to the location. and by direct, I mean a straight line from I.E. Bridgeport to Wayne.
GOOD
-Gives me grade and elevation, real time. Fucking awesome.
-Screen is bright, even in direct sunlight.
-Even though there are no roads or bike paths, the recorded map of my ride today was spot on to the turn.
-Once I figure out how to save my maps, I'll be able to download them onto my computer for analysis, and upload them to map my ride.
Now for Map My Ride
BAD
-Can only do roads from what I can tell. I can't map routes on the bike path, even though it shows up on the map.
-The part that drives me crazy about this site is that the Step by step directions are wrong, every single time. For the way I go to work by myself, it was spot on until it got half way through my 7 mile ride and then it just skipped to the last 2 turns I have to make. If I just printed out the step by step directions for someone (like for cue sheets) they would be completely fucked.
GOOD
-You can share rides with other people.
-You can map your own routes to anywhere... as long as it follows a road.
I know I have a lot of playing to do with both of these things, and the fact that they can kind of work together is awesome, but given their short comings, it would be fantastic if they worked together in the opposite way. My going on a ride with a device that doesn't have an accurate map, and can then load it to the site that has the accurate map is okay, but I would like to be able to go to the site with the accurate map, and save a file that I can put on my inaccurate device. From what I can tell, I can't do that, but if any of you know how to make it happen, please let me know.
15 June, 2009
08 June, 2009
Hopefully A Sign Of Things To Come
This weekend Philadelphia hosted the 25th running of the Liberty Classic. It's usually nice because it's the one weekend of the year that everyone in the area actually tries to avoid you while in their car. This year was different for a few reasons.
First, Ted was in town for his High School reunion. He flew in Friday and brought wonderful Northwestern weather with him. It was absolutely pissing. We kept our plans and went riding despite the rain, and I'm really glad we did. He had been making all of these claims about how he hasn't had time to ride, and how out of shape he is. If you hear him saying this, don't believe him, he beat me like I owed him money on the way to Valley Forge. Once we got to the park, it was easier to keep up with him for the most part. I'm not comfortable riding in the rain at all, so on every single downhill, he would just go for it and I would ride the brakes like your grandmother. So much so that the next day my hands and forearms hurt from the death grip on had on my brakes.
We also rode into parts of the park I had never been to before, and that was awesome. I always think of the loop I do as being all there is, but there is a lot more to the park that I need to explore. I could get lost in there.
The second awesome thing about this weekend was how many people were out on bikes. Not even just the numbers, but how many people I would never think would be out on bikes... out on bikes! Everywhere I went there were people out and about and everyone was friendly and excited. The thing that shocked me the most was how natural it all felt. When people were riding around cars, the cars respected the cyclists rights, without any air of negativity. It was like it should be every day. Just goes to show you that people on bikes and people in cars can coexist on the same road, without incident.
First, Ted was in town for his High School reunion. He flew in Friday and brought wonderful Northwestern weather with him. It was absolutely pissing. We kept our plans and went riding despite the rain, and I'm really glad we did. He had been making all of these claims about how he hasn't had time to ride, and how out of shape he is. If you hear him saying this, don't believe him, he beat me like I owed him money on the way to Valley Forge. Once we got to the park, it was easier to keep up with him for the most part. I'm not comfortable riding in the rain at all, so on every single downhill, he would just go for it and I would ride the brakes like your grandmother. So much so that the next day my hands and forearms hurt from the death grip on had on my brakes.
We also rode into parts of the park I had never been to before, and that was awesome. I always think of the loop I do as being all there is, but there is a lot more to the park that I need to explore. I could get lost in there.
The second awesome thing about this weekend was how many people were out on bikes. Not even just the numbers, but how many people I would never think would be out on bikes... out on bikes! Everywhere I went there were people out and about and everyone was friendly and excited. The thing that shocked me the most was how natural it all felt. When people were riding around cars, the cars respected the cyclists rights, without any air of negativity. It was like it should be every day. Just goes to show you that people on bikes and people in cars can coexist on the same road, without incident.
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