smart phones

General cycling advice ( NOT technical ! )
sevenhills
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smart phones

Post by sevenhills »

Hi

Is there any good uses for a smart phone whilst cycling? I generally know where I am going; I was thinking more about distance travelled and checking and recording the bodies pulse ect?
Mark1978
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Re: smart phones

Post by Mark1978 »

What sort do you have? And the answer to your question is yes! You can do any amount of things with it!

Personally I use the Endomondo app to track where I've been, speed, distance etc and it can also record my pulse if I had suitable equipment.

There's a shed load of apps which do similar things.
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Vantage
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Re: smart phones

Post by Vantage »

My phone is thick as two short planks. It can't even find the milk for my cereal in the mornings.
Technology...flippin useless it is... :P
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sevenhills
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Re: smart phones

Post by sevenhills »

My phone is an HTC desire, maybe ok for recording my journey then, but a watch monitor might do a better job than an phone att.
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bikes4two
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Re: smart phones

Post by bikes4two »

sevenhills wrote:My phone is an HTC desire, maybe ok for recording my journey then, but a watch monitor might do a better job than an phone att.


err, what's a watch monitor?
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Big T
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Re: smart phones

Post by Big T »

bikes4two wrote:
sevenhills wrote:My phone is an HTC desire, maybe ok for recording my journey then, but a watch monitor might do a better job than an phone att.


err, what's a watch monitor?


A combined watch and heart rate monitor. About £15 from Decathlon.
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andrewjoseph
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Re: smart phones

Post by andrewjoseph »

my view is that the phone should be kept as a phone when out riding. Tucked in a pocket or backpack, safe from weather and knocks.

When things go wrong you want to be able to use the 'phone' to get help. Finding out the battery is nearly dead or you've lost it several miles down the road is not a good thing to happen.

Get something dedicated to the functions you want and not be too upset when it breaks.
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Mark1978
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Re: smart phones

Post by Mark1978 »

Personally I just use the phone for GPS logging, it stays in my pocket, and I have a cycle computer for on bike readouts.
Bengdogg
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Re: smart phones

Post by Bengdogg »

Google maps are available offline which is useful. Other than that I keep it in my pocket
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timmitchell
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Re: smart phones

Post by timmitchell »

Strava

Logs your route and times and lets you compare against yourself and others on hills and othet tasty bits. Turn your phone to airplane mode and it shoudl last for 5 hours or so
daveg
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Re: smart phones

Post by daveg »

I've got an LG phone and downloaded quite a few bike apps. They do what they say but they suck the battery dry pretty quick. Don't use them anymore.
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sevenhills
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Re: smart phones

Post by sevenhills »

Mark1978 wrote:Personally I use the Endomondo app to track where I've been, speed, distance etc and it can also record my pulse if I had suitable equipment.


Might try just that one and see how I go; its a new phone so battery life is quite good, if I dont go on facebook too much. Thanks all.
michael42
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Re: smart phones

Post by michael42 »

sevenhills wrote:Hi

Is there any good uses for a smart phone whilst cycling? I generally know where I am going; I was thinking more about distance travelled and checking and recording the bodies pulse ect?


Well most of them have GPS et al and you can program them, so in principle you can do whatever you like.

If your smartphone has ANT+ presumably you can use Garmin's cadence and heart rate stuff (I believe Garmin has a smartphone app to this end - no doubt they've noticed smartphones are cutting into their market. looks like they sell an ant+ adapter for the iphone)

There's a list of android phones that have ANT+ [url]https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?caseId={f3027e90-f8de-11e0-73d0-000000000000}[/url] Not a huge selection.

But, although rugged smartphones, with gorilla glass et al, and longer battery life is making the gap between them closer I would suggest buying a dedicated cycle computer and/or cycling GPS is a better buy at the moment if you intend to use it a lot. I wouldn't want the average smartphone connected to the bike if you fall off.

You can get reconditioned Edge 705 with heart rate and cadence for under £200 at handtech. I'm slightly disappointed now I got the Dakota 10 which doesn't work with the monitors.
Mark1978
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Re: smart phones

Post by Mark1978 »

Bengdogg wrote:Google maps are available offline which is useful. Other than that I keep it in my pocket


Offline? How?
andrewjoseph
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Re: smart phones

Post by andrewjoseph »

Mark1978 wrote:
Bengdogg wrote:Google maps are available offline which is useful. Other than that I keep it in my pocket


Offline? How?


you download the sections of map you want when online, then turn mobile connection off and the program uses the data stored on the sd card or phone memory.
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