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Permalink Reply by ambimb on March 25, 2011 at 2:32pm

I use my iPhone 4 with the Cyclemeter app and have been very pleased. FYI: You don't need cell service to use the GPS on the iPhone; its GPS "radio" is separate from its cellular radio and works regardless of your cell service. I've proven this in the wilderness of Montana where my iPhone happily tracked my treks (hiking) when I was miles and miles from anything close to a cell signal. 

 

I have seen Cyclemeter screw up on max speed for some reason (occasionally showing a max speed of 90mph or something, for example), but it seems to be pretty accurate on distance and speed at any given time. It also only screws up on the max speed once in a while. I'm not sure why. 

 

I commute every day so one of the things I like is that I can "race" against myself with Cyclemeter -- it tracks every time I do the same ride and allows me to compare all my times (and splits, if I want) for the same ride. It also uploads maps and routes to the internet or emails them or tweets them or whatever you want so people can follow your progress in pretty much real time (if you want). You do need cell service for those features. 

 

Also, battery life is hours and hours and hours. Someone said something about having to restart the tracking if your phone falls asleep but that's not the case anymore -- you can just start your ride, click the screen off and forget about the phone until the end of your ride. If you stop along the way and want to take pics or send emails or do whatever, no problem. Switch apps, do what you want to do, then return to your GPS tracker (e.g. Cyclemeter or iMapMyRide or Tracks or any of a dozen others) and it's still happily clicking along, tracking your progress if you've moved. 

 

Finally, the main drawback of the iPhone as a bike computer is the lack of a good weatherproof mount to put it in front of you for when you want to check your progress. In my reading,this case from BioLogic appears to be getting the best reviews, but I've yet to drop the money for it. For now I just leave the phone in my pocket or in my bike bag while I ride. 

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Permalink Reply by Michael A on March 26, 2011 at 5:55am

I upgraded from a garmin 705 to the new 800 touch screen, it worked flawlessly all winter. I have no idea how the touchscreen works with my thick winter gloves but it does. It is also has a lot faster processor in it, map renderings and route calculations are zippier. They added a few new features and the OS is a bit easier to navigate. THe unit mounts on any handlebar or stem with ease and can be switched from bike to bike in seconds. The garmin also can detect and work with most ANT heart rate and power meter units.

 

Here is an example of last week's HalfAcre open team ride

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/73876264

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Markus on March 26, 2011 at 4:16pm

My bottom of the line Garmin is what I use to geo-cache (did a 14 cache day this week) and one of the features is a speed function. This model has no map capabilities at all thus no directions UNLESS you know the coordinates of your destination then it offers a constantly updating directional arrow and distance to those coords.

Jeff

The Chicagoan

JM Chicago or JM CHGO on geo-cache site

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