Real Naked Cycling (i.e. no phone or GPS)

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mjr
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Re: Real Naked Cycling (i.e. no phone or GPS)

Post by mjr »

pwa wrote:It isn't practical to go to a cave in Cuba to experience isolation once or twice a week, but not very far from your home, or mine, you can switch your phone off and be truly alone for a while. If that doesn't appeal to you, that's fine, but I like it. The idea of being constantly contactable makes me feel uneasy. There is nothing faux about switching the phone off for a while. And these days that is an experience in itself.

Unless paid to be so, having a phone doesn't make one constantly contactable. You do realise that you aren't obliged to answer the phone every time it rings?

Switching the phone off is not uncontactability anyway. The next person isn't far away in this country and people will contact you somehow if they need to, like when years ago I was called over the tannoy in a large train station abroad!
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Re: Real Naked Cycling (i.e. no phone or GPS)

Post by pwa »

mjr wrote:
pwa wrote:It isn't practical to go to a cave in Cuba to experience isolation once or twice a week, but not very far from your home, or mine, you can switch your phone off and be truly alone for a while. If that doesn't appeal to you, that's fine, but I like it. The idea of being constantly contactable makes me feel uneasy. There is nothing faux about switching the phone off for a while. And these days that is an experience in itself.

Unless paid to be so, having a phone doesn't make one constantly contactable. You do realise that you aren't obliged to answer the phone every time it rings?

Switching the phone off is not uncontactability anyway. The next person isn't far away in this country and people will contact you somehow if they need to, like when years ago I was called over the tannoy in a large train station abroad!


Having the phone switched off and in your bag means it is there for emergencies, but nobody can use it to contact you. And if you are doing this you don't reach for it mid ride to check messages. It is part of your emergency kit only. It won't ring.

This works for me even when there are other people around, so long as they don't know me. I am out there in the world among strangers, uncontactable by anyone who knows me even if only for a couple of hours. In practice that usually results in not talking to anyone, though sometimes I might strike up a conversation with a stranger. To heighten the effect you have to be more properly alone, possibly in a remote location at night. It takes your mind to a different way of being.
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mjr
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Re: Real Naked Cycling (i.e. no phone or GPS)

Post by mjr »

pwa wrote:And if you are doing this you don't reach for it mid ride to check messages.

If you do that if you ride with a phone, then I think you may have some self-control problems.

As for the other stuff, riding alone and not talking to anyone is not more real. Arguably, it's less real, as you could more easily replace it with one of those indoor cycling simulator games.
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Re: Real Naked Cycling (i.e. no phone or GPS)

Post by horizon »

I'm not sure if the idea underlying this thread hasn't been misinterpreted. I don't think the OP is suggesting that going without devices is better or that paper maps are more useful or that there are serious downsides to using GPS in finding your way. AIUI, he is saying that going without electronic support for a journey (of whatever length in whichever place, but really the UK, I presume) might throw up a different experience or some interesting ideas. He is not even saying that it definitely would. Of course, the choice is yours as to whether you try it or not.
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Re: Real Naked Cycling (i.e. no phone or GPS)

Post by Cyril Haearn »

The thread title is clickbait, grr, I thought there would be beautiful photos of nakedpersons, and tips on cycling in the altogether, plusminus? :? :wink:

At work everyone checks their messages at lunchtime or even during work. Not me, my device stays at home, not normal :wink:

Did nearly panic one time, thought I had left my telephone at home, went back to get it
Turned out I had not forgotten it, I had put it in the left trouser pocket instead of the right :(
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Re: Real Naked Cycling (i.e. no phone or GPS)

Post by pwa »

I would never attempt to promote the other type of naked cycling, the sort you do without clothes, because I think we have enough trouble with biting insects already. I would not give the horse flies more surface area to work on.
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Re: Real Naked Cycling (i.e. no phone or GPS)

Post by mjr »

horizon wrote:I'm not sure if the idea underlying this thread hasn't been misinterpreted. I don't think the OP is suggesting that going without devices is better or that paper maps are more useful or that there are serious downsides to using GPS in finding your way. AIUI, he is saying that going without electronic support for a journey (of whatever length in whichever place, but really the UK, I presume) might throw up a different experience or some interesting ideas. He is not even saying that it definitely would. Of course, the choice is yours as to whether you try it or not.

I'm old enough to have cycled before GSM, let alone widely-available GPS. I'm not sure if the question I keep asking about the underlying idea is being read: what different or interesting effect do people experience or expect from eschewing these devices?
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Re: Real Naked Cycling (i.e. no phone or GPS)

Post by pwa »

mjr wrote:
horizon wrote:I'm not sure if the idea underlying this thread hasn't been misinterpreted. I don't think the OP is suggesting that going without devices is better or that paper maps are more useful or that there are serious downsides to using GPS in finding your way. AIUI, he is saying that going without electronic support for a journey (of whatever length in whichever place, but really the UK, I presume) might throw up a different experience or some interesting ideas. He is not even saying that it definitely would. Of course, the choice is yours as to whether you try it or not.

I'm old enough to have cycled before GSM, let alone widely-available GPS. I'm not sure if the question I keep asking about the underlying idea is being read: what different or interesting effect do people experience or expect from eschewing these devices?

The effect is in the head. A feeling of being "naked" or "exposed", without the usual safety nets. And of being cut off from our usual contacts, so more able to be "in the moment". Perhaps "mindfulness" comes into it. Imagine, just as an example, doing a LEJOG with no mobile phone, tablet or GPS, just a collection of paper maps to get you though it. Imagine being offline for the duration. Wouldn't you find the experience interesting?
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Re: Real Naked Cycling (i.e. no phone or GPS)

Post by Tigerbiten »

pwa wrote:
mjr wrote:
horizon wrote:I'm not sure if the idea underlying this thread hasn't been misinterpreted. I don't think the OP is suggesting that going without devices is better or that paper maps are more useful or that there are serious downsides to using GPS in finding your way. AIUI, he is saying that going without electronic support for a journey (of whatever length in whichever place, but really the UK, I presume) might throw up a different experience or some interesting ideas. He is not even saying that it definitely would. Of course, the choice is yours as to whether you try it or not.

I'm old enough to have cycled before GSM, let alone widely-available GPS. I'm not sure if the question I keep asking about the underlying idea is being read: what different or interesting effect do people experience or expect from eschewing these devices?

The effect is in the head. A feeling of being "naked" or "exposed", without the usual safety nets. And of being cut off from our usual contacts, so more able to be "in the moment". Perhaps "mindfulness" comes into it. Imagine, just as an example, doing a LEJOG with no mobile phone, tablet or GPS, just a collection of paper maps to get you though it. Imagine being offline for the duration. Wouldn't you find the experience interesting?

Not really, I'd find it more of a hassle to stop every so often to get the map out to check the route.

Back before GPS's traffic densities and speed made it ok to use major A roads to get from A to B.
As a teenager, I didn't think anything of cycling on fast dual carriageways.
Now I'm more happy cycling on the back roads parallel to them.
So a lot more junctions must be navigated.
And the easiest way to string a number of junctions together is via a GPS.

YMMV ........... :D
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Re: Real Naked Cycling (i.e. no phone or GPS)

Post by pwa »

Tigerbiten wrote:Back before GPS's traffic densities and speed made it ok to use major A roads to get from A to B.
As a teenager, I didn't think anything of cycling on fast dual carriageways.
Now I'm more happy cycling on the back roads parallel to them.
So a lot more junctions must be navigated.
And the easiest way to string a number of junctions together is via a GPS.

YMMV ........... :D

I get that. And if the hassle would stop you enjoying it, fair enough. But how about the phone and other devices? Could you enjoy a LEJOG without a phone? With no internet access along the way?
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Re: Real Naked Cycling (i.e. no phone or GPS)

Post by rfryer »

I use screens for a number of things when our cycling; performance information, navigation, communication, research.

Lack of communication, and the ability to research, isn't something I notice until I need it (rarely), at which point its absence would be simply annoying.

Navigation information is more interesting. I don't often use it, but I can see that eschewing electronics in favour of traditional navigation skills would force one to engage more with the surroundings, and in that sense be more "real". I used to sail yachts, including traditional navigation, and a week on the yacht felt more like "real life" than a week starting at computer screens!

Finally, I find that getting rid of the performance metrics (speed, distance, etc) does have a noticeable effect on my experience of a ride. The ride itself is a more enjoyable experience, never feeling you're going "too slow", or straining to hit targets. But sometimes those metrics are a good thing, they can motivate you to get out, provide satisfaction in bettering yourself, and allow you to indulge in post-ride analysis over a cool beer. So I like both, and enjoy the contrast between then.
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Re: Real Naked Cycling (i.e. no phone or GPS)

Post by Tigerbiten »

pwa wrote:
Tigerbiten wrote:Back before GPS's traffic densities and speed made it ok to use major A roads to get from A to B.
As a teenager, I didn't think anything of cycling on fast dual carriageways.
Now I'm more happy cycling on the back roads parallel to them.
So a lot more junctions must be navigated.
And the easiest way to string a number of junctions together is via a GPS.

YMMV ........... :D

I get that. And if the hassle would stop you enjoying it, fair enough. But how about the phone and other devices? Could you enjoy a LEJOG without a phone? With no internet access along the way?

The only reason I carried a phone was incase of an emergency.
So I used it on average once a year ......... :D
After it got stolen out of my tent, I never bother replacing it.
So my last LEJOG was easily done without it.

Now the Kindle is another matter entirely.
I tend to read for +4 hours a day and I'll read +100 odd books on a 4-5 month tour.
Before the Kindle, I used to exchange my books at campsites.
But that was always was a bit of potluck in what was there.
So I'd be so bored without it.

YMMV ............. :D
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Re: Real Naked Cycling (i.e. no phone or GPS)

Post by ANTONISH »

pwa wrote:
Tigerbiten wrote:
I get that. And if the hassle would stop you enjoying it, fair enough. But how about the phone and other devices? Could you enjoy a LEJOG without a phone? With no internet access along the way?


I did JOGLE in 1993 so I didn't have GPS or a smartphone. I enjoyed the ride but the GPS would have been handy when I was forced to consult the map (had a lot of rain). Also the smartphone would have been useful for finding accommodation at the end of the day - I wasn't riding to a schedule - as it was I slept rough for a couple of nights.
My son persuaded me to buy the smartphone last year and I found it extremely useful in a trip across France in September - booking hotels as needed rather than booking all in advance or going through the dreary process of searching for accommodation at the end of the day - I no longer want to camp.
My Garmin etrex 30 does 22hrs on a set of replaceable batteries - I use rechargables normally but carry spare AAs on tour.
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Re: Real Naked Cycling (i.e. no phone or GPS)

Post by Mick F »

pwa wrote: Could you enjoy a LEJOG without a phone? With no internet access along the way?
My first JOGLE was in 1994.
I had a BT Chargecard and phoned home morning and evening from phone boxes.
I had a Cateye Computer driven off a magnet on the front wheel, and a note book ......... the sort with paper and you use a pen.
I had route notes and laminated sheets ripped from a road atlas.
The internet hadn't even been invented, let alone GPS for public use.

Of course I enjoyed it, and could do it again just as enjoyably, but the lack of telephone boxes these days would be a problem.
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Re: Real Naked Cycling (i.e. no phone or GPS)

Post by Tigerbiten »

Again it depends on where you cycle .....

I didn't really need it cycling around Iceland, mainly due to the lack of roads.
But it was helpful cycling across the Ukraine, simply because I couldn't read the road signs.
I tend not to use it to cycle into a city center as the roads will take you there, but I will rely on it to cycle out of the same city in the correct direction.

Luck ......... :D
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