7 hours ago, Lazarus said:

I got a Garmin watch in 2019 but it stopped working (it refuses to recharge) pretty quickly.  I also have a Garmin bike computer, which I find a bit difficult to use.  The interface isn't intuitive at all (and the Garmin watch's interface wasn't intuitive, either).  If you don't use it regularly, you will forget which button does what. 

 

My first Garmin (Vivoactive HR) died a little over two years old - while the watch itself was waterproof, apparently the buttons weren't entirely so if pressed while the watch was wet (which was stated very clearly in the manual). My fault in the end.

Anyway, though it was well out of warranty I reached out to Garmin support for suggestions on how to dry it out. Along with a few ideas they offered a replacement for $60 - the watch itself was originally $250. I'd guess if you contacted them when the charging issue happened they would have made good.

 

7 hours ago, Lazarus said:

The Garmin app is okay, but not any better/worse than Strava. 

 

The app shows an absolutely ridiculous amount of data with my new watch, way more details than (at least the free version of) Strava. A lot of it is daily stats and biometric info. I particularly like the detailed training status/recovery info which I've found quite accurate. The biggest problem is there is just a LOT there, so its a bit overwhelming.

6 hours ago, mrCharlie said:

 I went mountain biking with it today on trails I've never ridden, and was really glad to have the built-in maps which are surprisingly usable.

 

 

Hopefully the rise of these watches won't motivate trail stewards to abandon traditional signage. 

 

Already, one of the ridiculous aspects of mountain biking is the difficulty in finding trailheads and then wasting 3-4 visits to a new place just trying to figure out how the place is laid out.  In my experience this is a bigger problem with the older 1990s-era trail networks that aren't as popular as newer trail areas, but I really disagree with how a lot of places are laid out in general.  Giving everything a goofy name is no help with wayfinding.  Weird little connector trails that aren't on the maps don't help, either. 

 

 

 

 

8 hours ago, Lazarus said:

 

Hopefully the rise of these watches won't motivate trail stewards to abandon traditional signage. 

 

Already, one of the ridiculous aspects of mountain biking is the difficulty in finding trailheads and then wasting 3-4 visits to a new place just trying to figure out how the place is laid out.  In my experience this is a bigger problem with the older 1990s-era trail networks that aren't as popular as newer trail areas, but I really disagree with how a lot of places are laid out in general.  Giving everything a goofy name is no help with wayfinding.  Weird little connector trails that aren't on the maps don't help, either. 

 

There is a state park near me that's particularly bad for this, older trails as you mentioned - though my understanding is they've done a lot of work recently and added signage. The mountain bike only trail (one main loop with a couple of cutoffs) is thoroughly interwoven with bridle and hiking trails, most intersections are unclear leading to user conflict and horse damage on the bike trails. In the past I usually rode using trail map apps on my phone as a GPS, but reception is iffy and the phone stays in my bag. The watch will be nice next time, I also have the option to set the route ahead of time and get turn-by-turn guidance. All of that assumes the trail map data in the watch is current, which brings us back to no substitute for good signage.

 

I realize a lot of the confusing layouts on trail systems are the result of trying to cram as much distance as possible into a small area, erosion control, and keeping hills ridable. I've certainly found myself appreciating shortcuts when the weather turns or me/my bike is broken (or just having a few options for a shorter ride) - but good signage is a must regardless, even with tech-based solutions.

5 minutes ago, mrCharlie said:

 

There is a state park near me that's particularly bad for this, older trails as you mentioned - though my understanding is they've done a lot of work recently and added signage. The mountain bike only trail (one main loop with a couple of cutoffs) is thoroughly interwoven with bridle and hiking trails, most intersections are unclear leading to user conflict and horse damage on the bike trails.

 

Near Cincinnati I think Hueston Woods and East Fork both have this situation.  I've only been to a number of places once because the trail map situation was so irritating.  Where am I supposed to park?  Is this the mtb trail or a hiking trail?  Nobody's around.  Nobody knows.  God forbid that you start riding on the wrong trail and get a lecture from a women's hiking group. 

 

It seems like the guys who expand the mountain bike trail networks can only think from their own perspective - someone completely familiar with the place before the expansion - and not someone coming to the place brand-new.  It's as if the trails are named numerically in the order in which they were built, even though there are no numbers in the names, and even if there were, that information would be of no use to the newcomer. 

 

 

 

 

On 5/18/2023 at 9:21 AM, GISguy said:

Snapshot from last week - any biking is good biking.

 

For those in NEO reminder that this month is the Bike Month Challenge in Gohio Commute - NOACA is offering prizes on a weekly basis: https://gohiocommute.com/#/challenges. You can tie this in w/strava and it'll keep track of your rides (and if you mark them as commute, it'll count them towards the challenge).

 

#2? Slacker

On 5/18/2023 at 10:21 AM, GISguy said:

Snapshot from last week - any biking is good biking.

 

For those in NEO reminder that this month is the Bike Month Challenge in Gohio Commute - NOACA is offering prizes on a weekly basis: https://gohiocommute.com/#/challenges. You can tie this in w/strava and it'll keep track of your rides (and if you mark them as commute, it'll count them towards the challenge).

Ah man, I was out of town for work!

On 5/10/2022 at 10:44 AM, GISguy said:

Just bumping this thread up. Hope folks are enjoying this nice weather that's been going on lately! Very UO-centric, but highly recommend tying wandrer.earth to your Strava account

 

Definitely gonna be using Wandrer now—I've been on CityStrides for a few weeks and while it's free, it only works for walking and running which makes it painfully difficult to be competitive. I'm only at 62 points so far but expect that to get much higher now that I'll actually be tracking my bike routes (apparently I've only ever recorded 2 rides on strava 🤦‍♂️). 

 

 

On 5/18/2023 at 11:08 AM, HGRHS said:

I have heard good things about Garmin but really don’t know where to start. Any info is appreciated!

 

I absolutely LOVE my Garmin Instinct—I had an Apple Watch before but found it more annoying than anything (I don't need/want a whole cellphone on my wrist). It's a very rugged and barebones watch, but now my battery lasts multiple weeks on a charge. It has built-in solar charging which comes in handy if you spend a lot of time outside, waterproofing to 100 meters, and basic bluetooth functionality (notifications, music controls, etc.)

Edited June 1, 20232 yr by sonisharri

3 minutes ago, sonisharri said:

Definitely gonna be using Wandrer now

 

It's addictive! You've been warned. 

 

I ebb and flow with my use of it, currently sitting at like 68% of the city - I used to do a lot of my rides without any particular route in mind - zig zagging all over so a lot of my work is now cleaning up and closing out neighborhoods. I've pretty much gotten Old Brooklyn, Brooklyn Center, Tremont, Slavic Village, St. Clair Superior, Midtown, Hough and have chipped away at Glenville. Also a sidenote, they use OpenStreetMap for their roads and I've been going in and correcting road segments as I see them wrong (marked as public when private *cough cough* Brantenahl, bike access allowed, etc.) on my rides.

 

  

^This brings back nightmares of a 1099 job I had in 2006-07 where I had to drive every single street in Hamilton County and across the river in Kentucky with some sort of wi-fi detection device hooked up to my cigarette lighter.  I was pulled over more than once since I did a lot of the driving at night after my regular job.  I remember that I marked off which streets I had driven on a physical map, since it predated smart phones.  

3 minutes ago, Lazarus said:

^This brings back nightmares of a 1099 job I had in 2006-07 where I had to drive every single street in Hamilton County and across the river in Kentucky with some sort of wi-fi detection device hooked up to my cigarette lighter.  I was pulled over more than once since I did a lot of the driving at night after my regular job.  I remember that I marked off which streets I had driven on a physical map, since it predated smart phones.  

 

idk how streetview drivers do it and remain sane. This sounds roooough.

8 minutes ago, GISguy said:

 

idk how streetview drivers do it and remain sane. This sounds roooough.

 

I had a printed letter that I gave to the police when I was stopped.  I recall that I was paid $17/hr.  It was always a little mysterious as to how the device knew when I was in a new area and when I wasn't, so far as my getting paid, since it didn't have a light that turned green or anything like that.  You just had to trust this thing.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On 6/1/2023 at 9:40 AM, sonisharri said:

I'm only at 62 points so far but expect that to get much higher now that I'll actually be tracking my bike routes

 

*August update: it’s been a busy summer but I’ve managed to reach 222 points on Wandrer. I’d love to see some more forumers join and share their progress!

 

*In other news: as of this summer Scott Breeden from City Strides has likely become the first person to have run or walked every single street in the City of Cleveland, at least with public GPS proof

https://citystrides.com/cities/8086

I don't pay for the Wandrer subscription, so this is only fairly recent activity:

 

 

And Cleveland:

 

 

I only started a Strava account at the beginning of this year, and I generally only use it for biking. I'm currently sitting around 9.5% for HamCo but have slowed down during the summer as I've been busier.



I need to get a GPS watch so I can get more segments while on vacation:

So I haven't been terribly motivated this year to wander, but at 72.5% of Cleveland. Here's what I have for the year - and a lot of what I'm doing now is cleanup from the former random riding I'd do - so it might be a small segment in the middle of a 'completed' neighborhood. Also paying for it kind of is neat because you see all the stuff you've done but unfortunately definitely missing some pre-Strava big trips and cool rides...

 

Year to Date: 

 

I've got to button up the far reaches of the city - nothing like riding 15 miles to get the ride 'started' lol

 

 

Overall rides (unfortunately missing the loop around Lake Erie!)

Edited August 23, 20231 yr by GISguy

1 hour ago, GISguy said:

I've got to button up the far reaches of the city - nothing like riding 15 miles to get the ride 'started' lol

 

Down here, 2 of the top bike Wanders have agreed that driving to get new miles is cheating, but I have suggested to them that riding the bus to get new miles is not.

1 hour ago, Dev said:

 

Down here, 2 of the top bike Wanders have agreed that driving to get new miles is cheating, but I have suggested to them that riding the bus to get new miles is not.

 

Lots of my rides start/end at rapid stations 

Here is my Strava "personal heat map" going back to 2018.  Before that, I used Runkeeper, starting around 2012, but I lost all of that data. 

26 minutes ago, Lazarus said:

Here is my Strava "personal heat map" going back to 2018.  Before that, I used Runkeeper, starting around 2012, but I lost all of that data. 

 

ha, before I had a smartphone/bike computer I'd plug everything into MapMyRide from memory. Definitely helped me learn some of the roads post-group ride. 

First off, I love seeing people's maps, those big long lines across a state, bravo! 👏

 

My City of Chicago Map, just about to hit 30% in Chicago. Bet you can't guess approximately where I live. Trying to get northside miles, ugh.

 

 

My Regional Map: I did all my Cleveland riding pre-strava, so I've got a giant bogey there. My goal is to come to Cleveland and do at least a casual century next summer

On 8/23/2023 at 4:05 PM, GISguy said:

 

ha, before I had a smartphone/bike computer I'd plug everything into MapMyRide from memory. Definitely helped me learn some of the roads post-group ride. 

 

 

It's always amazing to see how much better the top 10 people are than the entire rest of the city.  Even within the top 10, the #1 is usually significantly better than #10. 

 

You can also make the mistake of entering a race with these people and getting absolutely stomped.  In August I got last place out of 16 men in my category at an endurance 6-hour mountain bike race.  I got lapped by about 8 of those guys and seeing them go full-blast into blind corners is something I'm never going to be able to do.  They also absolutely nail every turn and come out of them faster than they go in.  They're doing stuff that doesn't seem physically possible and doing it perfectly over and over again.  Bicycling can be a decent spectator sport, depending on the specific event, but you only get an appreciation for how unbelievably good the best people are by riding with them. 

 

 

This graphic illustrates Strava's usefulness...here are 7 rides of the same mountain bike course in 2023.  You see zero improvement during the first half of the year, then a dramatic improvement in September:

 

This happens to me every year...I start getting into shape in mid-summer, but the heat prevents faster times even as my fitness improves and weight drops.  Then the weather cools off in September and suddenly I'm much faster while riding the exact same bike.  In fact, in this example, I rode the course twice today, both times much faster than any previous 2023 ride. 

Bumping this thread for anyone who might not know about it. There's a link to the group on the first page - I'm Jordan A. on there.