The Fretboard Cycling Club

vanlooy1

Nikc said:

vanlooy1 said:

BlueStrat said:

Great pic of the ride as always @MagicPigDetective 
 I’m looking forward to getting out on the bikes once my lad has finished his GCSEs. He loves going to Coed y Brenin, so many great rides around that area. Even the totally flat Barmouth to Dolgellau ride is a lovely day out

Picking your collective brains - I’m thinking of getting a gps that I could download routes to. How would you rate the Wahoo versus the Garmin?
i was thinking maybe even an old phone with a gps app could do the trick but not as well as a proper unit

I’ve got a Garmin 530 and the GPS navigation is really good, definitely worth the money.

The battery life is more like 12 hrs compared to the claimed 20 and it has an annoying habit of unpairing with my phone but apart from that….

I've always used Polar just a hang over from `hr monitoring days - ``i now use a `polar `vantage watch rather than a bike computer - I use to record what I've done I don't ever seem to need navigation I always have a good idea of where `i'm going

A good friend of mine who owns a bike shop really rates `Wahoo and is not keen on `Garmin if that helps.

Yeah I usually know where I’m going too but since he was asking about the gps…

thermionic

vanlooy1 said:

BlueStrat said:

Great pic of the ride as always @MagicPigDetective 
 I’m looking forward to getting out on the bikes once my lad has finished his GCSEs. He loves going to Coed y Brenin, so many great rides around that area. Even the totally flat Barmouth to Dolgellau ride is a lovely day out

Picking your collective brains - I’m thinking of getting a gps that I could download routes to. How would you rate the Wahoo versus the Garmin?
i was thinking maybe even an old phone with a gps app could do the trick but not as well as a proper unit

I’ve got a Garmin 530 and the GPS navigation is really good, definitely worth the money.

The battery life is more like 12 hrs compared to the claimed 20 and it has an annoying habit of unpairing with my phone but apart from that….

Garmin have just released the 540, which looks like a decent improvement on the 530. I’d guess the 530 is now discontinued but you might find some on sale at a reduced price for this reason. I have an old 520 Plus, but I don’t bother with routes.

BlueStrat

I have such a crap sense of direction I’d defo need the gps functions out in the hills. I’m hoping to get a bit more adventurous this summer and branch out from llandegla and Brenin so would need as much help as possible

The wahoo boot and roam look great, I’ll check these out in person. The old versions have been reduced by a fair bit of cash too

littlegreenman

I have the older Wahoo Elmnt Bolt, now delegated to commuting duties. Great little thing, although lack of intelligent rerouting can be a pain.

Now use a Hammerhead Karoo 2. All the bells and whistles and would highly recommend, although it is on the spendy side but not that bad compared to a Garmin, which I've never used.

Useful, huh?

thermionic

BlueStrat said:

I have such a crap sense of direction I’d defo need the gps functions out in the hills. I’m hoping to get a bit more adventurous this summer and branch out from llandegla and Brenin so would need as much help as possible

The Garmins can run the Trailforks app which is a database of off-road routes. I was going to suggest that you check if it’s available on the Wahoo, but it looks like they’ve recently added it.

drofluf

drofluf said:

BlueStrat said:

Great pic of the ride as always @MagicPigDetective 
 I’m looking forward to getting out on the bikes once my lad has finished his GCSEs. He loves going to Coed y Brenin, so many great rides around that area. Even the totally flat Barmouth to Dolgellau ride is a lovely day out

Picking your collective brains - I’m thinking of getting a gps that I could download routes to. How would you rate the Wahoo versus the Garmin?
i was thinking maybe even an old phone with a gps app could do the trick but not as well as a proper unit

I’d not use a phone as running a gps app really saps the battery so may be flat when you have an accident or mechanical and need to call for help. Perhaps I’m over cautious….

I haven’t used a modern Garmin but find the Wahoo really easy to use: setup was simple and it easily syncs routes from Strava or RideWithGPS. Probably other sites as well but I haven’t tried. Also very easy to connect to hrm, cadence etc. if you want to do that. You do need a smart phone to set up but it sounds as if you have one so that shouldn’t be an issue for you?

I may be upgrading my ELEMNT to a colour screen version in the near future. 

EDIT …so may be selling my old ELEMNT if anyone is interested 

ELEMNT now listed in misc classifieds. 

Jaycee

Finally got the road bike out today, after using the Gravel for the winter. Tad over 36 miles with legs almost cramping on the last climb.

I put it down to different geometry, faster ride (until I changed direction into the wind) not been on the bike for three weeks and i'm an old git .  Weather was lovely tho'

MagicPigDetective

Went back to Coed y Brenin yesterday. Did the same route a month ago, and back then it was a killer, stamina wise. Yesterday after a month of regular cycling, I was amazed how much fitter and stronger I was on the climbs. Still on the blue trail… had a look at a red one and don’t feel quite confident enough..

Also wore five tens and knee pads for the first time. The sun was out and the place was almost deserted…. heavenly out on the trails. 

thermionic

Very annoyed with myself today for forgetting that our club rides have switched to 9am for the summer, and I (an idiot) turned up at 9:20. Determined not to waste such a nice day I put my head down and hammered 80km at 25.7km/h!

MagicPigDetective

thermionic said:

Very annoyed with myself today for forgetting that our club rides have switched to 9am for the summer, and I (an idiot) turned up at 9:20. Determined not to waste such a nice day I put my head down and hammered 80km at 25.7km/h!

Good going! Whereabouts did you go, the vale or the valleys?

I finally cracked the 50km barrier today. It's incredible how much I'm improving from where I was two months ago, I did a host of PB's on segments today. Also tackled a climb I've been avoiding for years, it was nowhere near as bad as my mind had made it. Loving it!

thermionic

Newport, Llanwern steelworks, and back along the wetlands. The only climbing was a couple of railway bridges!

In other news, Geraint Thomas lost today’s Giro d’Italia time trial stage to overall favourite Remco Evenpoel by less than one second. Evenpoel has sadly tested positive for Covid-19 and has had to pull out. Thomas now in the lead going into Tuesday’s stage (rest day tomorrow).

Nikc

Week 7 of back to commuting - I think I'm ready to start training again. 

It felt wearisome at first but now just feels natural I don't think about driving in - If I have to it seems like I'm doing something wrong. 

It's good to be back

Mellish

@Nikc ; good for you!

 

Nikc

Mellish said:

@Nikc ; good for you!

 

Thanks man 

Jaycee

Nikc said:

Week 7 of back to commuting - I think I'm ready to start training again. 

It felt wearisome at first but now just feels natural I don't think about driving in - If I have to it seems like I'm doing something wrong. 

It's good to be back

Excellent.

vanlooy1

Rode The Suffolk Sunrise sportive this morning. 65 miler starting at Framlingham Castle. Building towards the Dunwich Dynamo in July.

thermionic

I’ll be checking Strava later because a couple of my clubmates are doing the Bryan Chapman Memorial Audax. They had a start time of 4am yesterday from Chepstow, then it’s up the length of Wales, cross the Menai bridge and get their card stamped in a car park opposite Waitrose, then back down. 600km. Their plan was to not take advantage of the couple of youth hostel booked for riders to have a short sleep. At least the weather is good for them!

Nikc

That's a monster I think one of my club mates is riding that - qualifying for PBP (for the second time - last time he rode to Paris did PBP and then rode home - Nutter)

Koa

Did anyone ego to the Gralloch gravel race in Dumfries & Galloway? The Instagram feed looked pretty cool.

thermionic

Update - they did a shade over 600km in 24 hours and 4 minutes. Average speed of 24.6 km/h, which puts my club ride of 112km at 24.0km/h to shame!