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by exabrial 1513 days ago
nice!!!

I honestly think the next thing to do would build a decent app to replace a bike GPS... there is nothing special about a head unit other than the ANT+ radio (which is superior to BLE in a lot of ways). The only one that comes close is shimano's e-tube ride, but they abandoned the app before adding critical features like GPX import. Everything else I can find is bloatware or is just really awkward to use.
4 comments
c0nsumer 1513 days ago
The other very special things are battery life and durability. It's going to be very hard to get a phone to both work screen-on for 12+ hours (or even 5-6) running the GPS on high res mode, readable in direct bright sunlight, and robust enough to be fine during most bike (and mountain bike) crashes. They also generally offer either a touchscreen that works properly with gloves on and when wet, or has physical buttons for all the functions.

Quality bike computers are specifically designed to fill a niche that smartphones just can't do, which is why the market still exists.

Strava, et al, work fine for a lot of uses, but as one gets into more serious riding a dedicated bike computer is the way to go. This is because of the hardware, not due to a lack of app to be run on a general purpose mobile.

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nightski 1513 days ago
The battery life is a big item for me. I use a Wahoo Element bolt and love it. It does everything I need, lasts all day, and the best part is my phone is not being drained in case I need it.
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TrueGeek 1513 days ago
I disagree. The bike computer is more rugged and I’m much more comfortable mounting it on handlebars. It’s a better size then even my iPhone Mini. As the other commented said, the battery life is much better then a phone, and it’s trivial to hook up to a dyno hub. (I’ve run a Wahoo head unit over multi day rides many times)

Plus, it keeps my phone free for photography.

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e44858 1513 days ago
OpenTracks is a pretty good alternative: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.dennisguse.opentracks/

I’ve used it for a few years, and battery life is excellent compared to all the other tracking apps I tried.

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iSloth 1513 days ago
Have you tried wahoo’s GPS range, I love my bolt
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exabrial 1513 days ago
Garmin hardware does something that's been lost in software engineering: extreme reliability. I have no doubts when I turn on my InReach it'll work, and I don't think I've ever seen my Venu watch crash or freeze in the 3 years I've owned it. Even Garmin Connect is pretty awesome, other than the one outage a year or two ago when they let themselves get ransom-wared.

That being said, the head unit is not as sexy hardware. The UI looks dated, the screen tech isn't OLED, and the battery life is "just ok" given the age of the other tech.

The final thing is I actually trust Garmin not to "sell my data", unlike google/apple.

I guess consider jumping ship if I had the Connect ecosystem, just done a little better!

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