Sorry, no idea - I'd never looked before you mentioned it and can't seem to find a way.
It's also interesting that " about" shows people following but not ignoring . I think it'd be helpful to new members if we had an ignore score .
Do cell phone holders damage phones?
- Thread starter Wes Turner
- Start date
Sorry, no idea - I'd never looked before you mentioned it and can't seem to find a way.
It's also interesting that " about" shows people following but not ignoring . I think it'd be helpful to new members if we had an ignore score .
BlackHand
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Western WA
Jeremy McCreary
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Carlsbad, CA
I've been on forums with signatures. Can't say I've missed them here. If someone needs to know what bike you have to respond to you, they'll ask.
Stefan Mikes
Gravel e-biker
- Region
- Europe
- City
- Mazovia, PL
A GPS bike computer is a small, strong, aerodynamic and lightweight device that is vibration and weather resistant. It is totally securely attached with its integrated adapter to a dedicated mount. The position is near to the stem, which is the safest place in any bicycle. By comparison, a smartphone is heavy, has a big frontal area, and it's made of glass. The smartphone is not necessarily installed at the best location of the handlebars, and it takes a lot of space.
On one of my past gravel rides, the terrain vibration was as strong as the phone got "torn off" its good external case and sent flying. It has never happened to any of my Wahoo computers to separate from its mount, be hit, or jeopardized in any way.
Three major GPS sports device manufacturers (Wahoo, Garmin, and Hammerhead) support the LEV ANT+ protocol, which is lingua franca for sports devices. Specialized, Giant, and some other motor manufacturers (but not Bosch E-Bike of "chinese" e-bikes) also support LEV ANT+. A compatible e-bike will send this information to the GPS bike computer:
- E-bike speed
- Distance ridden
- E-bike battery charge %
- Assistance mode name
- Rider's cadence
- Rider's pedalling power
- Calories burnt.
All the data you might need available in just three easily flippable screens. Workout, Summit (Climbing), GPS Navigation plus ride recording.
Of course, iPhone will do almost the same for you. First, you need to permanently unlock your phone, then, you need to flip between several applications to get the data you need. Of course, if everything you do are short rides, your iPhone will do.
Chargeride
Well-Known Member
The single biggest reason I don't mount my phone is that I can't see it without reading glasses and I don't need glasses normally, so I'm not wearing glasses to view a phone, they would need to be bifocal and an awful lot of my vision is used looking down to navigate terrain anyway , that's why I don't use Garmin's or smartwatches, the handiness is lost because I have to dig out my glasses to see the screen.
The only solution is blended eye laser treatment or some kind of flip down lens from my helmet.
Maybe there's a GPS with a large zoomed in screen?
Possibly some future superlight iglasses with augmented reality direction arrows, that would be nice.
The only solution is blended eye laser treatment or some kind of flip down lens from my helmet.
Maybe there's a GPS with a large zoomed in screen?
Possibly some future superlight iglasses with augmented reality direction arrows, that would be nice.
Stefan Mikes
Gravel e-biker
- Region
- Europe
- City
- Mazovia, PL
If you cannot see the details on Komoot or RideWithGPS on your phone, I think no device would help your vision condition. The maximum you could do on a typical GPS bike computer is exploding the Workout screen to see, say, just the speed and distance ridden. You wouldn't be able to zoom in the navigation screen (zooming in there only shows the course in more detail).
A friend of mine only displays the speed and the ambient temperature on his Wahoo, and he flips the screen to Navigation (map) when he needs one. Another friend only displays the speed and the distance ridden as well as the ride time. The first guy mostly needs the GPS navigation while the other just needs his rides to be recorded in Strava.
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Chargeride
Well-Known Member
I guess if I was road riding it wouldn't be an issue, I can drive and use satnav, which is roughly the same distance.
A handlebar mount would be one less thing to do I guess, but I'm not risking my phone offroad and I'd still have to take off a glove and zoom in to read OS maps.
I might research this better to see if I can have a tough unit that will display an offroad route constantly zoomed in enough.
A handlebar mount would be one less thing to do I guess, but I'm not risking my phone offroad and I'd still have to take off a glove and zoom in to read OS maps.
I might research this better to see if I can have a tough unit that will display an offroad route constantly zoomed in enough.
Stefan Mikes
Gravel e-biker
- Region
- Europe
- City
- Mazovia, PL
The biggest Garmin Edge unit (the 1040) has a 3.5" screen, while the biggest Wahoo ELEMNT one (Roam v2) is 2.7". When you are in the Wahoo MAP screen, you can configure it to have just the map/route (no text fields), or you might sacrifice a little bit of space for displaying, say, the distance to the next cue and perhaps the direction you are heading.
Users say the Wahoo MAP screen is far more legible than the one of Garmin. Your course (route) on Wahoo is a line made of black triangles. Now, if it is zoomed out, you can see a general course, possibly with a turn several hundred metres (yards) away. If you push the Zoom In button, you will see a very detailed view of just the nearest course. You are also getting temporarily turn directions as an overlay. There are many levels of zooming in and out on the Wahoo.
Garmin works differently. It is not (easily) possible to zoom the map in and out. However, Garmin has developed an interesting workaround. As you are about 100 m (yds) away from the next turn, Garmin automatically goes into the MAP mode, with the map greatly zoomed in! If you are already on the MAP data screen, the map will be automatically magnified, too.
My brother is telling me the bigger screen of Garmin does not necessarily mean a better view (as the map scale is constant, and the map magnification occurs only before turns).
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Wes Turner
Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Silicon Valley, CA
I was off. I thought I had checked for that setting. Thanks
Wes Turner
Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Silicon Valley, CA
I agree that signatures are a mixed blessing, but I had been scolded for not providing information about my bike. Now that you mention it, I think it might be more helpful if it was displayed on the left under my name & avatar.
Wes Turner
Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Silicon Valley, CA
That's a good point. When I am driving the car, I have my driving glasses on. So far, I have not worn them while biking. I better check whether I can even read the screen while biking. Leaving the phone in my pocket and listening to the directions on my headphones is probably the best solution for me.
I do and have found it very reliable and convenient.
Dmac
Active Member
- Region
- Canada
The vibration issues concern vibrations ruining the camera in your phone. The camera has stabilization built into it and this can be harmed which causes the camera to be blurry. Harming your phone in this way depends on the terrain. I am not worried on roads or smooth trails but there is one trail that is very bumpy and I use a quadlock with the vibration dampener on the out front pro mount (vibration dampener only works with that mount). This vibration dampener is used on motorcycles as well. I simply switch my regular case to the quadlock one when I use this mount on the bike. It takes two seconds and then I twist it in place.
Mr. Coffee
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- A Demented Corner of the North Cascades
My $0.02 on why I use a "GPS bike computer" (in my case a Hammerhead):
- Mount is much more secure, and also you can attach a keeper loop as a backup so even when or if the mount fails the device isn't bouncing off the pavement.
- You can customize what you are displaying much more than you can with any phone app. That includes having relatively few things displayed in bigger type faces so you can see them with older eyes. Some of them will also do cool bar graphs and visualizations that are sometimes useful.
- You don't have to deal with screen lock and unlocking the screen, or remembering to turn off screen lock before your ride.
- You don't have to deal with what raindrops do to your touchscreen. Which is usually not what you'd want or expect.
- Touchscreens suck with gloves on. Even fancy gloves that are supposed to work with touchscreens. (I'll note here that the Hammerhead Karoo 2 does have a touchscreen, but you can lock it out and get at 100% of the functionality from the large buttons on the sides of the device).
- Battery life. In the worst case scenario you can still get a decent day's ride out of a Hammerhead, and in some cases with these devices you'll only need to charge them once a week (assuming daily rides) or so. You are lucky to get 3-4 hours out of most phones while engaging maps and navigation.
- Nearly all such units run by default offline, which saves on battery life and also means they work fine even if you are in a place with no cell coverage. While you can get some of the apps to work offline, how you do so is often obscure, not immediately obvious, and also limits the functionality.
- Other devices. A bike computer can much more easily integrate in one place input from things like a heart rate monitor, cadence sensors, and smart lights. Although how easy that is to do can vary quite a bit and it still helps to be tech savvy before trying to pull it off.
I still use RideWithGPS for creating routes (again they have the route creation thing down) and for keeping historical information about my riding.
Stefan Mikes
Gravel e-biker
- Region
- Europe
- City
- Mazovia, PL
You do not want to upload your rides to Strava from Karoo2, do you.
Mr. Coffee
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- A Demented Corner of the North Cascades
Well, folks around here generally don't use Strava, they use RideWithGPS. And people I like to steal route ideas from again use RideWithGPS. So Strava buys me very little.
Stefan Mikes
Gravel e-biker
- Region
- Europe
- City
- Mazovia, PL
I export my rides from Wahoo to Komoot, RWGPS, and Strava at the same time. It costs me nothing.
The only time I was not exporting my rides to Komoot and RWGPS was the month when Wahoo had a bug, doubling the e-bike distance actually ridden. I could fix the distance in Strava but could not do it in other services.
Bicyclista
Well-Known Member
I also like the ability to attach a GoPro camera to the front of the Peak Design mount while the iPhone is facing to the rear. I have PD mounts on both my ebikes. I also use a small PD accessories bag on my Jones H-bars. And I have a PD car mount, PD camera leashes, PD camera cubes, etc.
Prairie Dog
Well-Known Member
- Region
- Canada
- City
- Red Deer
Speaking of GoPros. on longer rides, much of the time my phone is used for general photography and that’s where the quick release of the PD mount comes in handy. A Garmin 830 is usually attached to the top of the handlebar bag lid but when the GoPro is called into action, it’s just a matter of popping the Garmin head unit into the bag where it continues to work away. The phone on the PD mount is then converted into a Varia display replacing that function which is normally provided by the 830.
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