New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Specific board for this popular undertaking.
Jdsk
Posts: 24640
Joined: 5 Mar 2019, 5:42pm

Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by Jdsk »

But if you don't truncate the quote it goes on to say:

Jdsk wrote:As always: try as many methods of navigation as possible, and once you're familiar with them then make a choice of what you want to use when and where.

My emboldening.

You can get lost with any navigation tool with which you're not familiar... lichen on trees, DR, trip notes, wave angles, maps, compasses, star heights, LORAN, VOR, GPS...

Jonathan
afanasiew
Posts: 44
Joined: 23 Jun 2020, 10:10am

Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by afanasiew »

NATURAL ANKLING wrote:Hi,
You could type a route.
Then use software to convert it to speech.
Then buy yourself a cheap MP3 player, Last longer even by two then one is charging when you're using the other one.
It's easy then to cut the tracks into logical steps on your route.
there might be an even simpler way of doing this by simply producing a audiobook track?
Save your texts of your route to your computer, so you always have some sort of back up.
And effective satnav which just shows you the direction to go clearly, with no other bells or whistles is all this really required.
I have used turn by turn notifications but seriously Not really needed or necessary as long as you have the arrow to show you where to turn and go.
For everything else you use your mobile.
Tuck the mobile away And off to save power, carry a power bank to charge devices.
If you don't know the area well then it's probably prudent to carry a simple paper map of the area.


Great idea to use an mp3 player. I have a tiny old Sansa Clip that attaches to the chest strap of my Camelbak, so I'll just need to practice playing/pausing as I ride.

Thank you.
User avatar
Paulatic
Posts: 7804
Joined: 2 Feb 2014, 1:03pm
Location: 24 Hours from Lands End

Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by Paulatic »

afanasiew wrote:Great idea to use an mp3 player. I have a tiny old Sansa Clip that attaches to the chest strap of my Camelbak, so I'll just need to practice playing/pausing as I ride.

Thank you.


Am I the only one who thinks this is a crazy idea?
I seriously wonder if I would make it to the second day let alone ever teaching JoG using this method.
I’ve a number of ecenarios;
MP3> Continue along B**** for 21.4 miles then turn right ( no sign post)
You need something to measure the distance and a good memory as it’s 2 hours since you’ve heard the command.
or
MP3> Continue through Village name and take the second left.
You’ve dosed off missed the village name and don’t know which of the road ends to count as being second.

I could spend my morning thinking of all the ways it could falter without even rewinding the MP3 to refresh the memory on er which command did I miss.

Most of all the possible mistakes I’ve experienced mostly on Audax rides where I’ve switched off following rider in front or my mileometer didn’t agree with the organisers.

The little flashing spot on modern equipment pinpointing your location is pure beauty in my eyes and worth getting to grips with.
Whatever I am, wherever I am, this is me. This is my life

https://stcleve.wordpress.com/category/lejog/
E2E info
Pendodave
Posts: 531
Joined: 3 Jun 2020, 8:27am

Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by Pendodave »

Paulatic wrote:
afanasiew wrote:Great idea to use an mp3 player. I have a tiny old Sansa Clip that attaches to the chest strap of my Camelbak, so I'll just need to practice playing/pausing as I ride.

Thank you.


Am I the only one who thinks this is a crazy idea?
I seriously wonder if I would make it to the second day let alone ever teaching JoG using this method.
I’ve a number of ecenarios;
MP3> Continue along B**** for 21.4 miles then turn right ( no sign post)
You need something to measure the distance and a good memory as it’s 2 hours since you’ve heard the command.
or
MP3> Continue through Village name and take the second left.
You’ve dosed off missed the village name and don’t know which of the road ends to count as being second.

I could spend my morning thinking of all the ways it could falter without even rewinding the MP3 to refresh the memory on er which command did I miss.

Most of all the possible mistakes I’ve experienced mostly on Audax rides where I’ve switched off following rider in front or my mileometer didn’t agree with the organisers.

The little flashing spot on modern equipment pinpointing your location is pure beauty in my eyes and worth getting to grips with.

LOL!
I just flicked through this thread and got to the end. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
No malice intended, and if someone wants to do lejog their way, then fair play to them. But if ever there was a problem that didn't need solving, least of all like this, then this is it.
Maybe another lejoger will end up developing their own spheroid, datum or projection to facilitate a particular requirement that wasn't quite met by an existing combination? ;-)
rareposter
Posts: 1992
Joined: 27 Aug 2014, 2:40pm

Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by rareposter »

Paulatic wrote:
afanasiew wrote:Great idea to use an mp3 player. I have a tiny old Sansa Clip that attaches to the chest strap of my Camelbak, so I'll just need to practice playing/pausing as I ride.

Thank you.


Am I the only one who thinks this is a crazy idea?


You're not the only one at all, it's completely bonkers. Not just in usage (as you describe) but in sitting down and reading out every single turn. That'd probably take as long as riding the route, sitting there with map and Streetview and so on dictating road numbers and directions into a phone. :roll:
afanasiew
Posts: 44
Joined: 23 Jun 2020, 10:10am

Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by afanasiew »

Paulatic wrote:
afanasiew wrote:Great idea to use an mp3 player. I have a tiny old Sansa Clip that attaches to the chest strap of my Camelbak, so I'll just need to practice playing/pausing as I ride.

Thank you.


Am I the only one who thinks this is a crazy idea?
I seriously wonder if I would make it to the second day let alone ever teaching JoG using this method.
I’ve a number of ecenarios;
MP3> Continue along B**** for 21.4 miles then turn right ( no sign post)
You need something to measure the distance and a good memory as it’s 2 hours since you’ve heard the command.
or
MP3> Continue through Village name and take the second left.
You’ve dosed off missed the village name and don’t know which of the road ends to count as being second.

I could spend my morning thinking of all the ways it could falter without even rewinding the MP3 to refresh the memory on er which command did I miss.

Most of all the possible mistakes I’ve experienced mostly on Audax rides where I’ve switched off following rider in front or my mileometer didn’t agree with the organisers.

The little flashing spot on modern equipment pinpointing your location is pure beauty in my eyes and worth getting to grips with.


The key resides in the description, using distance rather than 'nth turn on the left and knowing that, on average, it takes me circa 4 mins per km or 6 mins per mile. I shall use an Etrex, with both paper maps and the typed route as backup to peruse each morning, Viewranger on the phone as well as the audio files. Belt, braces and elastication. I have a good memory and don't easily lose focus. Walking LEJOG, a recurrent pattern of thought was to recalculate distance and speed, so it's not an entirely unfamiliar process.

But thanks for your input.
afanasiew
Posts: 44
Joined: 23 Jun 2020, 10:10am

Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by afanasiew »

rareposter wrote:
Paulatic wrote:
afanasiew wrote:Great idea to use an mp3 player. I have a tiny old Sansa Clip that attaches to the chest strap of my Camelbak, so I'll just need to practice playing/pausing as I ride.

Thank you.


Am I the only one who thinks this is a crazy idea?


You're not the only one at all, it's completely bonkers. Not just in usage (as you describe) but in sitting down and reading out every single turn. That'd probably take as long as riding the route, sitting there with map and Streetview and so on dictating road numbers and directions into a phone. :roll:


Being retired, I'm time-rich and have typed 10 of 16 day routes thus far and recorded one to test the file size - circa 3.5Mb. An audio description enables you to keep your eyes on the road in preference to peering at a little device.
philvantwo
Posts: 1730
Joined: 8 Dec 2012, 6:08pm

Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by philvantwo »

My garmin will pair to my phone which then reads out the turn by turn instructions! When I did LE-JOG-LE in 1990 I used Shell road maps and a Cateye Mity 2!
No Garmins and no mobile phones in those days.........how did we survive?
User avatar
RickH
Posts: 5834
Joined: 5 Mar 2012, 6:39pm
Location: Horwich, Lancs.

Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by RickH »

Jdsk wrote:Garmin Edge 1000.

Very pleased with it. Battery life is a bit short but I've now got my workarounds.

I'd buy an Edge 1030 if I were looking now.

Jonathan

My only gripes with my Edge 1000 were, firstly, that if you were doing a long day's ride it needed careful management of settings (turn off backlight, etc) &/or a mid ride charge to last. Secondly, the rubber cover of the power button disintegrated. As the physical switch was still working underneath, I managed a temporary fix with a cut to shape blob of rubber & electrical tape.

Eventually I succumbed to a deal that I spotted on a 1030 Plus (that I suspect may have been a pricing error) & have not been disappointed.

No more rubber buttons.

The screen is much better & more of the top face is used as the display.

Battery life is a whole different ballgame. It logs the battery level in the .fit file & I reckon, in real life use with the backlight on auto, it uses around 3% of charge per hour (maybe up to 5% as the temperature gets down near freezing). Whereas with the 1000 I would charge pretty much after every ride, now I'm probably charging up about fortnightly doing about 70 miles a week, at around 12-13 mph moving average speed, at the moment. With the (also pricey) clip on battery pack you could probably do a LEJOG record attempt with charge to spare! :D

The other thing I've found it can do when following a route is to give audio turn-by-turn when linked by Bluetooth to a smartphone.

I don't know if it was on by default, or whether I switched it on fiddling in settings, but I had been doing some virtual tandem rides (while the rule didn't allow the real thing) with my regular sight impaired stoker - going for a ride & giving her a running commentary by phone while she used her turbo. I have some Aftershokz bone conduction headphones that let me hear what's going on around me as well as there is nothing actually in my ears (conversation levels seem broadly similar to a real tandem ride). One time we had ended the call when I suddenly started getting directions, much like any other satnav. It doesn't appear to interrupt if you've got somethings else on the go on your phone in the way that, say, Google maps navigation does (when I use that in the car I mostly set it to alerts only).
Former member of the Cult of the Polystyrene Head Carbuncle.
Jdsk
Posts: 24640
Joined: 5 Mar 2019, 5:42pm

Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by Jdsk »

Thanks, very interesting.

My main criticism of the Edge 1000 is the battery life, and if I were buying now it would be a 1030. But now that I'm calibrated I can manage the battery life OK and it doesn't affect my riding.

RickH wrote:The other thing I've found it can do when following a route is to give audio turn-by-turn when linked by Bluetooth to a smartphone.

There's discussion of audible notification above, but doing this with a device like the Edge is completely different as there's autocorrection and no cumulative error. If anyone doesn't know: you can set it to do audible notification of turns and detection that you're off course. That doesn't need a smart 'phone or earphones... but having read that I might have a play. : - )

Jonathan
User avatar
RickH
Posts: 5834
Joined: 5 Mar 2012, 6:39pm
Location: Horwich, Lancs.

Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by RickH »

Jdsk wrote:Thanks, very interesting.

My main criticism of the Edge 1000 is the battery life, and if I were buying now it would be a 1030. But now that I'm calibrated I can manage the battery life OK and it doesn't affect my riding.

RickH wrote:The other thing I've found it can do when following a route is to give audio turn-by-turn when linked by Bluetooth to a smartphone.

There's discussion of audible notification above, but doing this with a device like the Edge is completely different as there's autocorrection and no cumulative error. If anyone doesn't know: you can set it to do audible notification of turns and detection that you're off course. That doesn't need a smart 'phone or earphones... but having read that I might have a play. : - )

Jonathan

Another thing I forgot to mention is that the recalculation options if you go off route are much better. There are 3 rerouting options - go back to the point where you left the route, work out the best way to get back onto the route & the "I've had enough" option of just navigate me to the finish. Plus, if it is deliberate, you can pause navigation & it will twiddle its thumbs until you return to the route, or unpause at which time you can choose the rerouting options.
Former member of the Cult of the Polystyrene Head Carbuncle.
Jdsk
Posts: 24640
Joined: 5 Mar 2019, 5:42pm

Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by Jdsk »

Neat.

Jonathan
User avatar
NATURAL ANKLING
Posts: 13780
Joined: 24 Oct 2012, 10:43pm
Location: English Riviera

Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
Paulatic wrote:
afanasiew wrote:Great idea to use an mp3 player. I have a tiny old Sansa Clip that attaches to the chest strap of my Camelbak, so I'll just need to practice playing/pausing as I ride.

Thank you.


Am I the only one who thinks this is a crazy idea?
I seriously wonder if I would make it to the second day let alone ever teaching JoG using this method.
----------------/---------
The little flashing spot on modern equipment pinpointing your location is pure beauty in my eyes and worth getting to grips with.

Seconded, Have use Maps for many years but you can't beat a nice plain black and white satnav which can be used night or day with great ease.
I set off one day with no less than five maps, put the bag on the rack When I stopped, I remember the noise when they fell off as I cycled away, expensive mistake.
By all means have a hard copy of a map you can refer to if everything else fails, but move into the 20th century and buy a Lezyne XL GPS satnav!
NA Thinks Just End 2 End Return + Bivvy - Some day Soon I hope
You'll Still Find Me At The Top Of A Hill
Please forgive the poor Grammar I blame it on my mobile and phat thinkers.
crossy
Posts: 389
Joined: 9 Aug 2011, 6:48pm

Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by crossy »

I use cycle travel or view ranger to plan a route then down load the route to Komoot on my phone with the screen off and voice directions it will do 60 slow miles on a charge. I use a cheap £4 head phones with only one ear plug in for directions. The phone is in a Topeak dry bag. I wouldn’t trust Komoot to self plan a route. I carry a battery pack if the phone needs charging.
ICE Adventure E51, Van Nic Amazon E40, NWT Bike Friday E17, Orange Rohloff, Total E58
afanasiew
Posts: 44
Joined: 23 Jun 2020, 10:10am

Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by afanasiew »

crossy wrote:I use cycle travel or view ranger to plan a route then down load the route to Komoot on my phone with the screen off and voice directions it will do 60 slow miles on a charge. I use a cheap £4 head phones with only one ear plug in for directions. The phone is in a Topeak dry bag. I wouldn’t trust Komoot to self plan a route. I carry a battery pack if the phone needs charging.


Interesting - might give that a go. Do you pay for Komoot maps and/or Premium? Do you download from Viewranger as plain gpx routes with waypoints, i.e. with converting to tracks?
Post Reply