Show us your.......newbie progress! [4 Sep 2012 - 4 Oct 2014]

[MaxInc]

I use CycleMeter (https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/cyclemeter-gps-track-cycling/id330595774?mt=8) on the iPhone which has been incredibly reliable and accurate for both cycling and running, never crashed, can export to anything, including TCX files for Strava. I have it connected to bluetooth HR & SC sensors as well a RFLKT display on the bars for ride / interval / lap statistics as well as controlling music etc. Very easy to use and plenty of options for customisation for the geeky ones (setting speed, candence or heart rate intervals, compete with yourself etc.) All data is on the cloud so no need to remove cards, copy files, or backup your data. Downside I think is that is only available for iOS and they don't have plans for other platforms.

@Nigelnaturist Sorry to hear you're going through a rough patch. Sometimes rest is all you need to let the body do its thing. Hope you get better soon.

 

[BrianEvesham]

Take it easy @Nigelnaturist

 

[Hill Wimp]

I do find it drains the battery quickly though so I stopped using it for long rides

It only drains my battery if I leave the screen on otherwise I just press start, have auto stop on and put it in my back pouch.

 

[Mo1959]

Thank you everyone for your kind thoughts.
Not sure when I will get out again though. even though I got 2 p.b's yesterday I really shouldn't have ridden, thats probably why the bike felt a little weird.
I just read the side effects of the drug a bit scary really.

Not so good Hopefully the long list of side effects that they have to tell you about won't apply to you, or only the very minor ones!

Take care.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Not so good Hopefully the long list of side effects that they have to tell you about won't apply to you, or only the very minor ones!

Take care.

I will be fine I am sure, I am off for a wee spin later whatever people say.

 

[araapatlio]

Well, I have my road bike It is great to ride - but the road is so much bumpier than on a mountain bike - and who knew there were so many pot holes?! Still, it improved my average speed 2-3mph despite I'm still learning how to use the gears and I was not pushing it as my knees are sore from yesterday, riding a MTB that is too small. I only went out for a quick spin due to my knees and I don't have a spare inner-tube for punctures yet.

I have to have a look at Endomondo, as Strava now missed out a whole mile of my ride for some reason. http://app.strava.com/activities/69686401 This ride actually finished at the end of Fen Lane, where the return journery started http://app.strava.com/activities/69691209

 

[araapatlio]

Thank you everyone for your kind thoughts.
Not sure when I will get out again though. even though I got 2 p.b's yesterday I really shouldn't have ridden, thats probably why the bike felt a little weird.
I just read the side effects of the drug a bit scary really.

Easier said than done, but take it easy - you don't want to have a few weeks off the bike for the sake of a couple of days Hope you feel better soon.

 

[Mo1959]

I will be fine I am sure, I am off for a wee spin later whatever people say.

Just take it very gently then. That's what I did this morning and really enjoyed it.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

Well, I have my road bike It is great to ride - but the road is so much bumpier than on a mountain bike - and who knew there were so many pot holes?! Still, it improved my average speed 2-3mph despite I'm still learning how to use the gears and I was not pushing it as my knees are sore from yesterday, riding a MTB that is too small. I only went out for a quick spin due to my knees and I don't have a spare inner-tube for punctures yet.

I have to have a look at Endomondo, as Strava now missed out a whole mile of my ride for some reason. http://app.strava.com/activities/69686401 This ride actually finished at the end of Fen Lane, where the return journery started http://app.strava.com/activities/69691209

Give it a quick try when you can, its a bit of a faff downloading and then uploading if your not used to it, but I do all sorts of daft stuff so its quite easy for me.
Speed is the answer to a lot of roughness on the roads, and choice of tyre I run Continental Ultra Sport on offer (or were) for a bout £13 from halfords (but check it first), I know there are better tyres but its a good entry tyre. The rear has done over 4,500 miles on the front and rear.

Easier said than done, but take it easy - you don't want to have a few weeks off the bike for the sake of a couple of days Hope you feel better soon.

This wouldn't happen, even with colds ect I still usually ride.

 

[SWSteve]

@Nigelnaturist gws

All this talk of different ways to log/analyse rides has me thinking back to a while ago when I suddenly switched from MapMyRide to STRAVA on my phone. I think the main reason was competition/challenges which I am doing my best with. One thing I can say about battery life is if running strava or something it can be quite battery heavy, I find if I start with a 100% battery and quit everything else I e managed to get 7hr of cycling time on a normal iPhone battery

 

[Ciar]

in regards to apps, i actually like cyclemeter above all the others, i have endomondo and strava but I find cyclemeter gives me all the info breaks it down, can be exported in all sorts of formats, can be posted to FB or the likes if that's what you want.

I use it all the time, then just upload a txc into Strava.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

in regards to apps, i actually like cyclemeter above all the others, i have endomondo and strava but I find cyclemeter gives me all the info breaks it down, can be exported in all sorts of formats, can be posted to FB or the likes if that's what you want.

I use it all the time, then just upload a txc into Strava.

I have never used.
But the abiltiy to export in tcx is all you need from a gps recorder, you can upload this to garmin so you have a complete history on garmin should you ever get a garmin unit, thats just an example by the not a plug. Are you listening Bryton, if you let me load my tcx files I might get one of your units next time round, i did like what I had (the Rider 35) for the time I had it.

 

[Ciar]

I have never used.
But the abiltiy to export in tcx is all you need from a gps recorder, you can upload this to garmin so you have a complete history on garmin should you ever get a garmin unit, thats just an example by yhe not a plug. Are you listening Bryton, if you let me load my tcx files I might get one of your units next time round, i did like what I for the time I had it.

I nearly bought a garmin because i wanted a turn by turn satnav with the voice for when i began to commute, but i found co pilot car app, its the only tom tom esque sat nav where you can drag drop and adjust thus making your own route, it's also on £20, as for cyclemeter each time I do a ride it compares it to my previous rides, for instance my to home ride, it's 4 or 5 times i have done it, each time it marks the ride with a colour market to indicate better/worse or close to best worst, same for all rides as it compares the date by the name of the ride.

so now all mtb rides on the regular route I do with friends going under the same name for comparison purposes.

strava is purely there for the friends i follow/follow me and also to compare segments for myself rather than others riding the same route, i rarely looking at the 35-44 bracket or fatties section to see how i compare to others haha

 

[Nigelnaturist]

I nearly bought a garmin because i wanted a turn by turn satnav with the voice for when i began to commute, but i found co pilot car app, its the only tom tom esque sat nav where you can drag drop and adjust thus making your own route, it's also on £20, as for cyclemeter each time I do a ride it compares it to my previous rides, for instance my to home ride, it's 4 or 5 times i have done it, each time it marks the ride with a colour market to indicate better/worse or close to best worst, same for all rides as it compares the date by the name of the ride.

so now all mtb rides on the regular route I do with friends going under the same name for comparison purposes.

strava is purely there for the friends i follow/follow me and also to compare segments for myself rather than others riding the same route, i rarely looking at the 35-44 bracket or fatties section to see how i compare to others haha

If I wanted purely a turn by turn sat nav I would have got the bryton Rider 50 at the time I think it was about £170 also capable of hr and cad, but I know enough of the roads around here now not to really need sat-nav. The reason a decided to go with garmin was purely the fact you plug it into your computer and it acts as a flash card/drive would do, you see it as an external device, making it very easy to backup your original data on your machine as well as garmin and other sites, should anything ever happen (mind if its that catastrophic I think we will all be worried about cooking food not what data is stored on garmin strava ect...).
The other reason is you can create routes to follow and once saved as a tcx route file (did I mention how important the tcx file format is, the two are slightly different by the way), you just drop it in the folder new files and it creates the course for you when you turn it on, and its pretty bombproof, (mind you again if that happened ect....), waterproof, drop down the stairs proof the odd drop on the flags proof, well pretty much Nigel proof really

 

[Nigelnaturist]

I just remembered why I haven't tried cyclemeter I cant upload to it as you need to have an account which I think you need to have an iphone for, and not being a fan of mobiles or Apple is very unlikely to happen.