"Cheap but good" - feature for Cycle magazine

[Cugel]

attitudinal cost-savers ...
Best one of all: don't buy what you don't need.

Cugel, for whom words are evidently free, has hit the big one here.

Well .... mind ..... er ..... this may be a case of "do as I say" rather than "do as I do".

Cugel, trying to hide various naughty purchases in cupboards and drawers, for fondling when the chief accountant isn't looking. I really needed that new pair of tin snips. Oh yes I did!

[Sweep]

A Samsung S5 for inexpensive route finding and route guidance, £15-40 on eBay. The batteries are replaceable in seconds, spare batteries are around £5 and the phones have more than sufficient processing ability, very clear screens and last well. They're lightweight and reliable, showerproof but not fully waterproof.

Top tip - thanks - would be insecure for using online for much beyond map downloads I think but fine for the use you outline.

I look forward to the day when pretty much all phones again allow you to swap out the battery so easily.

[mattheus]

A Samsung S5 for inexpensive route finding and route guidance, £15-40 on eBay. The batteries are replaceable in seconds, spare batteries are around £5 and the phones have more than sufficient processing ability, very clear screens and last well. They're lightweight and reliable, showerproof but not fully waterproof.

Top tip - thanks - would be insecure for using online for much beyond map downloads I think but fine for the use you outline.

I look forward to the day when pretty much all phones again allow you to swap out the battery so easily.

Fingers crossed! There are strong movements around for user-fixable electronics, so there is hope!

Re: online security - get a VPN? Not that I know much about such matters ... :-/

[Jdsk]

...
There are strong movements around for user-fixable electronics, so there is hope!
...

From another thread:

Right to Repair (UK):
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/re ... /cbp-9302/
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/right-to-repair-uk

Right to Repair (EU):
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/ ... -important
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/ ... e-products

Apple Self Service Repair:
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/self-service-repair

Jonathan

[re_cycler]

Right to repair is a great concept for simple items but when software is involved unless the code is open source you'll eventually hit the point where the hardware works but is no longer supported.
BBC article this morning claiming that over half of Smart Devices may have no support beyond 2 years.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-64249388

[mattheus]

...
There are strong movements around for user-fixable electronics, so there is hope!
...

From another thread:

....

Nice, thankyou.

(unfortunately you've now derailed THIS thread !!! )

[Jdsk]

I consider long life and the possibility of repair to be important parts of "Cheap but good".

Jonathan

[Jdsk]

Right to repair is a great concept for simple items but when software is involved unless the code is open source you'll eventually hit the point where the hardware works but is no longer supported.
BBC article this morning claiming that over half of Smart Devices may have no support beyond 2 years.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-64249388

The Which? piece: "Smart products abandoned by big brands after just two years":
https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/sm ... f4o6V6VlE3

and they've connected that to: "New security laws for smart devices: what it means for you":
https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/ne ... JO50M7C3jo

Jonathan

[Cugel]

In cycling about for quite some time and miles, I've noticed that gizmos on the handlebars (or elsewhere) that supply data you can either do without of just remember are a bit of a nuisance, detracting as they do from the bike riding pleasures. Sometimes they cost loadsamoney too. Even the cheap 2nd hand ones are redundant, really.

So, in contrast, here's another Amazon cheap-but-good buy (two similar ones, in fact):

Shimano 160mm discs, at under £12 each rather than the ridiculous prices generally found in bike shops and cycling on-line emporiums:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/SHIMANO-Unisex ... C63&sr=1-1

Or get a disc with the matching resin pads for Shimano disc brake callipers as well, for under £20 the set:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shimano-SM-RT1 ... C63&sr=1-3

For them that has disc brakes, the discs and pads are essential items that also wear out. (Try cycling without them, on your disc brake bike)! Forego the handlebar data gizmo, though, and you may find the bike ride vastly improved.

Cugel

[Jdsk]

There was some discussion in this forum of a surprisingly cheap dedicated satnav device (not a smart 'phone). Not a Garmin. I can't remember the make or model. Anyone?

Jonathan

PS: And of course (!) there are lots of maps and apps that are not only "Cheap but good" but also "Free but excellent".

[Sweep]

Right to repair is a great concept for simple items but when software is involved unless the code is open source you'll eventually hit the point where the hardware works but is no longer supported.
BBC article this morning claiming that over half of Smart Devices may have no support beyond 2 years.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-64249388

The Which? piece: "Smart products abandoned by big brands after just two years":
https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/sm ... f4o6V6VlE3

and they've connected that to: "New security laws for smart devices: what it means for you":
https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/ne ... JO50M7C3jo

Jonathan

but for mapping use security will not be a big problem.
I have an old phone I use for that.
It connects to the internet only to download maps every now and then which are used offline.
No email, anmd definitely nothing vaguely "erotic".
Maps full stop - once a month at most.
And it is on an entirely separate account from my main devices.
the ORIGINAL suggestion to use the old phone for mapping was an excellent one.

[re_cycler]

but for mapping use security will not be a big problem.
I have an old phone I use for that.
It connects to the internet only to download maps every now and then which are used offline.
No email, anmd definitely nothing vaguely "erotic".
Maps full stop - once a month at most.
And it is on an entirely separate account from my main devices.
the ORIGINAL suggestion to use the old phone for mapping was an excellent one.

I wasn't thinking so much for security, more from the problem that as the operating system develops the application developers tend to want to stay in step, one as that's where their market is heading and secondly as maintaining an application to be backwardly compatible eats up resources. I'm a big fan of sweating the hardware and software for as long as possible, I have 15+ year old PC software still running but parts of the functionality are now broken as they require talking to the vendors databases which no longer exist.

[Bmblbzzz]

In cycling about for quite some time and miles, I've noticed that gizmos on the handlebars (or elsewhere) that supply data you can either do without of just remember are a bit of a nuisance, detracting as they do from the bike riding pleasures. Sometimes they cost loadsamoney too. Even the cheap 2nd hand ones are redundant, really.

Personally, I agree with you. But for many people, recording and analysing that data is a part of the pleasure of cycling.

[Biospace]

A Samsung S5 for inexpensive route finding and route guidance, £15-40 on eBay. The batteries are replaceable in seconds, spare batteries are around £5 and the phones have more than sufficient processing ability, very clear screens and last well. They're lightweight and reliable, showerproof but not fully waterproof.

Top tip - thanks - would be insecure for using online for much beyond map downloads I think but fine for the use you outline.

I look forward to the day when pretty much all phones again allow you to swap out the battery so easily.

Fingers crossed! There are strong movements around for user-fixable electronics, so there is hope!

Re: online security - get a VPN? Not that I know much about such matters ... :-/

Yes, don't trust your online banking or anything similar to an unsupported digital device. Having said that, my everyday phone is 7 years old and continues to receive security updates from Apple and generally amaze with its abilities, you could have bought this model around three years ago for £50-ish. Truly great camera for the age (not so much difference from the Summicron-lensed 'proper' camera even when on a large screen) and easily pocketable (it's a 2016 SE).

However, an ancient Android like the S5 (I use an S4 mini) is generally useful when offgrid because there's no need to seek out daily charging or carry a relatively heavy battery bank, just a spare phone battery or two. iPhones generally seem to demand daily charging and switch on wifi once every 24h even if you've disabled it. It's perhaps a little unfair to compare an iPhone full of apps and data which are constantly trying to communicate with their masters, with a mostly empty Samsung.

[Cugel]

In cycling about for quite some time and miles, I've noticed that gizmos on the handlebars (or elsewhere) that supply data you can either do without of just remember are a bit of a nuisance, detracting as they do from the bike riding pleasures. Sometimes they cost loadsamoney too. Even the cheap 2nd hand ones are redundant, really.

Personally, I agree with you. But for many people, recording and analysing that data is a part of the pleasure of cycling.

Hee hee, I know .... but .....

I would classify those data-parsing pleasures as something other than cycling. After all, you can do it without any cycling at all. I suppose its the data from their personal cycling that they're most fond off, though.

But what would life be like if we collected such data about every activity we undertake? How many times did I go to the netty and how much micturation did I emit on each visit, with the average for the day and the week? And so forth. After all, such data might be much more important than how many miles I did on the bike this week, at what speed. The netty data might reveal all sorts of impending, er, issues.

Cugel, off to collect the number of seconds and words involved with typing into this forum, with averages for sentence length, word variety, number of colons (and semi-colons) ...... [That's more than enough pointless Cugel data - the forum anti-boredom monitor].