Forum Replies Created
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Replies
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5 years ago I’d have been the
5 years ago I’d have been the first person to agree that stand-alone GPS was the way to go – as a former mobile network operator and manufacturer technology strategist, I have drawers full of now-obsolete GPS receivers, old phones, etc. Testing this stuff used to be my day job.Now GPS has gone the way of bike lights. Used to be £200 was the entry point for lights good enough to do 50km/hr on unlit lanes for 2+ hrs. Now it’s £20 or less.
As Dave / SB76 alluded, the conversation now moves to waterproofness and battery life – although increasingly battery clearly isn’t an issue for the vast majority of rides, and the Quadlock silicone ponchos or case things like p0cpacs mean you can happily take a £500 non-IP-rated phone out on the bars or in a pocket in a thunderstorm and be happy.
I’d not be surprised if the next iPhone comes IP rated. It used to be IP rating a handset added $100 to the bill and quite a few mm to the dimensions. As with GPS, 8+ MP cameras etc, it’s now almost a hygiene factor.
giobox wrote:
Long storyLong story short – you want Garmin level of accuracy over time on an iPhone, the battery life is gonna drop, rapidly. Hence the compromises in the quality of data most iPhone GPS logging apps return.
But I just don’t see this supposed compromise – every ride since we went on Strava, my friend’s 810 turned in basically the same distances and altitudes as my iPhone, more or less. It seems there’s a natural ‘noise floor’ for both platforms, but over 50km they are usually within a few 100m or so of each other, with neither one showing strongly over a super-accurately-calibrated wheel-sensor speedo. Let’s face it – Strava’s own map info comes into play in a big way anyhow. I’ve compared Google Earth, MapMyRide, Google Maps, Strava, Viewranger and a few others – they *all* vary, be it in pre-planned estimates or post-ride track analysis. There is no golden reference, even on climbs in the alps which have been logged and mapped to death over decades.
Basically, pick a platform and stick with it for comparison with your efforts over time. Like comparing yourself on Strava against others who may be drafting/just starting, comparing GPS platforms for accuracy is a mug’s game 😉
giobox wrote:The raw GPS data
The raw GPS data that comes out of a phone is rarely a match for a dedicated device like a garmin in my experience.Hmmm….this PhD bloke in GPS/GIS systems has looked specifically at iPhones vs. dedicated GPS units, and begs to differ: http://blogs.esri.com/esri/gisedcom/2011/04/22/comparing-the-precision-and-accuracy-of-locations-recorded-by-gps-vs-smartphone-part-2-of-2/
“This photograph … turned out to be only 6.21 meters away (this time to the southwest) from my position as recorded by the GPS receiver. Interesting! This means that the SmartPhone was indeed recording an accurate position”
…and this was 3 years ago. Chipsets and antennae have come on in leaps and bounds since then.
Every comparison I’ve done between my iPhone 5 and Garmin 810 tracks has shown next to zero difference. In 7,000km of recording through Hampshire’s often deep and winding, tree-shadowed lanes, I have never seen a single gap in the GPS track. And this is with the phone vertical in a pocket under 2 or three layers – not horizontal out front.
Mobiles and mapping apps are optimised for on-foot navigation. Footpaths are only a meter wide, at best. Using maps to navigate around London, you are shown on the correct side of the street. I use this every day to find client offices or meeting places. Apple / Samsung et al MUST deliver a location experience that is accurate to within a few meters, within a few seconds. WiFi is good for 100m, Cell triangulation for maybe 300-500m. But GPS is good for a few m. Most of the time, it works in cities. All of the time it works in the countryside (IMHO, waves 7,000km a year as proof).
Road.CC reviewer in “Works
Road.CC reviewer in “Works well for your use case which should suit most people / budgets, other stuff is available” shocker 🙂
parksey wrote:
How do you get
How do you get on with the Finn, particularly for a handset of this size? Whilst it’s only a tenner, I do have niggling doubts as to quite how robustly it will hold a £600 handset in place!Having done probably 1000k on crap Hampshire roads using the Finn mount to hold an iPhone5, a large Android phone (both in and out of a pOcpac) and the stupid-large Phablet-size Quechera one Dave reviewed a while back, I can attest that the Finn is indeed Good Enough. Basically, if you’ve hit something so hard that the phone comes out of the Finn mount, you have a lot more important things to be fretting about than an insurance claim for a mobile. Like walking / breathing 😉
joemmo wrote:Easy Mike,
Easy Mike, steady and relax.http://www.ianker.com/support-c1-g95.html
.. google maps … all you need is GPS running, no data or mobile signal. It can’t give you any navigation instructions but you can at least see where you are.
Heh. Firmly 😛
Nice external bty. I have been eyeing the bike-perfected Topeak one for ages, but it’s about £50.
If you have offline maps in Viewranger (either OS or free OpenStreetMap), you can do proper nav in airplane mode. No data required.
Dave, how VERY DARE YOU do a
Dave, how VERY DARE YOU do a ride of more than 35 minutes without flattening your battery, despite it not being used for ANYTHING ELSE AT ALL.You clearly are in error – only individually-laminated 1-point font Post-It notes or £10,000 Garmins are capable of doing any sort of on-bike navigation to the standards required. A member of the Non-Smartphominati will be around Road.CC Towers to commence your Education, just as soon as they work out the route, print it in nano-particle-friendly font and convert it to a file format known only to the Oracle of Alexandria for upload.
Get a bike fit done. Can
Get a bike fit done. Can recommend the Specialized BG one, we paid £80 as an intro price, RRP at our LBS is £120. Spend it once, enjoy ever after. You might get lucky and never have an injury or strain, but I doubt it.Road brakes are indeed crap c/w MTB. This is why many are eagerly awaiting their descent into the budgets of mere mortals. They are already appearing on £1k bikes.
Pads make a difference. Keep them and your rims clean – Green Scotchbrite pads are good for removing crap. Different calipers might make a difference. As might new brake cables (less friction = more power to the rim).
Other opinions, possibly complete contradictions are available and will appear below 🙂
Bugger.
Bugger.
Dunluce wrote:I have a FSA
[quote=Dunluce]I have a FSA Gossamer chainset and a FSA External bottom bracket. Looking around the internet I see quite a few people complaining about the bottom brackets wearing out quite quickly. anyone know if this would work in its place?http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shimano-5700-105-bottom-bracket/rp-prod50450%5B/quote%5D
Evans Cycles tech line will tell you that you must Must MUST use the FSA tat. This is a crock. They simply want to sell you £50 worth of fast-wearing cheese instead of £15 Shimano goodness.
Clean up them threads, use Coppaslip, torque it right, take care putting the spindle through and you’ll be fine.
Recently swapped a friends
Recently swapped a friends FSA P.O.S for an Ultegra for about £15. Should be good for 5000k plus.
I would say this, but
I would say this, but Viewranger.com is an excellent free app and online route planning tool that works on Android and iOS. You can buy the premium OS maps or download the excellent and free OpenStreet or OpenCycle maps. And set up right, you can run a smartphone for 12hrs plus on one charge, navigating all the way. External battery packs are dirt cheap these days if more time is needed.
shuttvelorapide.com – sized
shuttvelorapide.com – sized for the ‘Typical UK Sportive Gent’, I am assured.
Colin Peyresourde wrote:So if
So if I’m using my phone app of Strava how does it detect where I am? I am confused because I thought that it did this on data roaming. I’ll use the app for a run, but not for a cycle.Your phone has a GPS chip that works independent of WiFi or mobile data. Having an internet connection might help your phone get a GPS fix quicker, especially if it’s been off for a while and/or you’ve flown somewhere far away. Once you have a fix you can turn everything else off. Note: some mobiles *might* turn off GPS when in ‘airplane mode’ – pays to try it first.
* Note for new-ish iPhone users: you might have to turn on background app refresh – Settings > General > Background App Refresh and check the switch for Strava is green. Turn off anything you don’t want using battery when it’s not being looked at.
Colin Peyresourde wrote:
TheThe data usage on using Strava (via a mobile) would be very expensive on battery life and you mobile bill. Using a conventional GPS like a Garmin is the way ahead, but I would advise the 800, 810 or 1,000…..they’re sort of future proofed in that once you upload the maps you all good to go.
Let’s kill us some Zombie Facts regarding mobile use shall we?…..
1. Using Strava does not require a mobile internet connection, at all. You sync the recorded file later on using WiFi. A Garmin needs to do the same thing, but via your laptop (which probably also needs WiFi). The smartphone I most use mobile mapping/routefinding on doesn’t even have a SIM card in it, and I’ve done several 12hr+ rides in unknown places with it no problems.
2. Recording using Strava only minimally impacts battery life – you can get 12hrs+ with a few minor settings – and as you’ve mentioned the fear of a mobile bill, you sure won’t have mobile data enabled – the biggest battery killer after a bright screen.
and: using an app like Viewranger over free WiFi, you can download massive swathes of foreign countries using OpenStreetMap or OpenCycleMap for nothing, and use them offline. If you change your route, you don’t need to go back to purchase more maps for Garmin et al and have a laptop with you to plan a route. Find some free WiFi and do it all from your phone.
See? all better now. Balance in The Force restored.