For longer touring and casual sport cycling I want to finally get my hands on a bike computer. Have used my phone so far, but I don’t like
- battery life
- water situation when it’s rainy
- arguably not too good for the camera stabilizer
My requirements are not too high I would say, but I would like
- connectivity to some peripherals (ANT+ I guess)
- ability to add GPX files and also extract them
- not buy myself into some cloud (or otherwise fenced) solution
What it boils down to: What would be the least restrictive brand out there?
I am aware of https://github.com/hishizuka/pizero_bikecomputer but currently I don’t see myself tinkering that much – since I do longer tours I need some kind of decent case, a way to take it off and be a little tough.
(Sorry if this is not he perfect place, I could not think of another community that would fit well)
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The Coros runs a little cheaper and has great battery life. I’ve been a Garmin user forever but am looking to move away due to the fact that they can’t get their stuff to behave well with ANT+ devices a lot of the time. I don’t know if anyone else is any better, but I’m willing to try.
This is probably not exactly what you’re looking for, but I rode across the USA (4200 miles across 12 weeks) about a decade ago and this is what I did:
I used an ancient kindle to display my pdf route/cue sheet from a clear pouch on a handlebar bag that I could easily read and “flip through” while riding. (You can also just use paper) The battery life lasted long enough to get through every week of campsites where power isn’t promised. We’d stop at a hotel about once a week just to have a nice shower and charge our things. Of course I also had a full set of maps as well, but they are more difficult to read while you’re riding- thus route/cue sheet.
I had my phone and would use GPS if I feel like I got lost. I didn’t have great service in large patches of the route, but the gps works regardless, so as long as you have the GPX files, it should point you in the right direction.
I also have a SON hub dynamo that lead to a Sinewave Cycles Revolution USB charger (there’s probably more modern USB chargers you can buy nowadays). But with that I charged a usb power bank and was able to charge my phone every night.
I’d also be interested if there exists a singular device like that that is able to last a long time on a tour. Good luck and have fun on the road!!
Man, I would love to do some cycle touring…
I don’t have any experience with open bike computers but I did set up a very old Fairphone 2 running Fairphone Open and the OsmAnd app for this. In airplane mode and only GPS for location the battery life was incredible, even without making use of spares. And you can of course import & export gpx tracks freely in OsmAnd, which is basically the best app ever.
A totally viable solution.
i second an old phone with one of these: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OsmAnd#Bicycle_and_pedestrian_features
i personally use organic maps: https://f-droid.org/packages/app.organicmaps/
Garmin bike computers connected via USB cables let you download any activity…
Honestly in the sport tracking world, Garmin devices can be used 100% offline, don’t need online activation and all data is accessible (raw) with an USB cable.
Its still proprietary software on very expensive hardware.
Thanks for your answer! Since you go explicitly “by USB” I assume everything else goes via their app only, right?
The Garmin stuff (I’ve used Oregon a lot - various models since 2011) auto-saves tracks as GPX and is very reliable about that.
The newer stuff also saves as .FIT with extra info.
When you plug these into a computer by USB they appear as a normal extra drive, with the files available natively. As /u/Shimitar says, they don’t need the cloud, or an account (unless they have changed that)
They’re also pretty robust and weather proof.
Downsides - expensive. Sometimes limited features. The cameras on the Oregons are useless, and you mention a camera is needed - so it depends what features you want, your budget, and the range.
Exactly… Using the app is the straightforward way, but you can plug the cable and download raw data files.
