Farewell Garmin, You have Served Me Well

It happened just before dark on Sunday, as I entered the Seattle area on the last leg of the Seattle International Randonneurs "gravel grinder Summer 600". My Garmin Edge 800, still showing plenty of battery after the umpteenth recharge and one mid-ride reset, crashed.
It has happened before, but this time it shows no life. Did I just imagine a slight whiff of fried electronics? I think, "you are finally gone".

Thank you, Edge 800, for your years of service in extreme conditions. Despite your buggy software, lack of good instructions, and that little chip in your front plastic touchscreen (a kind of "beauty mark"--actually a scar from when I dropped you onto hard pavement long ago) you have served me well and given your all.

Rest in peace.

UPDATE:  Sadly, the Garmin is still dead four days later. I have tried to charge its batteries and it gets quite warm -- almost hot -- from the charger, something I have never noticed before.  The electronics must be deeply troubled, beyond repair.

Time to experiment with my iPhone as a navigation device?

Sunday Ride to Lake Tsukui -- without Garmin -- and review of iPhone GPS cycling apps - Strava, Mapmyride, RidewithGPS, Runtastic, CycleTT

On Sunday I went for a ride out to the Tsukui-ko area.  Out Onekansen Doro, along the Tank Road, around the north side of the lake via the forest road, then a loop and back over a different bridge to the North side, and home a slightly different route.

It was a relatively short (97.5km) and easy ride.  Saturday I had conflicting commitments; Monday we will have rain later in the day as a typhoon approaches.

Nothing unusual, except that I left my Garmin Edge 800 device at home.  No, I did not forget it, I just left it at home.

Early fall near Lake Tsukui

Mysterious weather ... still far ahead of a massive typhoon

Watch out Garmin.  Your days are numbered, at least for recreational use!

It is a commonplace observation that Apple and its products, especially the iPhone, have been like a mass extinction event for parts of the consumer electronics industry.  Sony Walkman and other MP3 players?  Gone.  Record and CD retail shops?  Gone, when most buy the same music on iTunes for instant download. Cable TV and broadcast radio talk shows?  No need when you can get the same content customized via podcasts. Digital cameras and videos?  I think I bought my last digital camera about 5 or 6 years ago.  The photos taken on my iPhone 5S are much better, plus when I need to I can use the free "Theodolite" app and get a photo stamped with time, GPS coordinates, elevation and direction and vertical/side-to-side angles on the photo.  Train timetables?  Weather forecasts?  Filing receipts?  Personal video conferencing?  Foreign language dictionaries and phrasebooks?  Maps, and more maps?  All gone.  There's an App for that (as they say).

I tried some of the cycling GPS apps back when I got my first iPhone (4S)  in 2011.  I found that they would eat up battery life, so I could not imagine using them on any full day ride or longer brevet/randonee.  But with subsequent versions of the iOS and a newer phone (5S), I now rely on Google maps instead of a car Navi and find the power usage acceptable.  So I figured it was time to try again the cycling apps.

A month or so back, I started using Strava and RidewithGPS for recording some of my commutes.  Last week also MapMyRide.  They record the 30+ minutes each way (with the screen turned off much of the way) without a noticeable drop in the battery, so I thought it was time to try them on a longer ride.

They all work great.  Each app is using the same underlying data and GPS sensors from the iPhone, and each is going into a "sleep" mode when the phone's screen is switched off (but still capturing and recording the GPS data), so it is not surprising that the results are similar. The interfaces are each different, and everyone will have a favorite.  I rode for almost 5 1/2 hours, and used about half my iPhone battery life.  I also sent and received/checked emails and SMS messages, plus used Google Maps navigation for about 15 minutes to find a shop.  So these apps are now just nearing the point of being usable for an all day ride.

Please note, what follows are just a layman's impressions.  You can get much more detailed, technical information and guidance elsewhere.  And just go to the TCC site for lots and lots of discussions about these services.

Strava.  I like the clean Strava recording screen, ... but I need to go to another screen to access a map and that page lacks the cyclecomputer data, whereas the others have a map on the "main" page.

Strava has the best integration with its website and its social media-style features -- you can see your "feed"on the iPhone app, and upload quickly to your friends when you finish a ride.  And if you ask the App will find you a "route back to the start".  It chooses this based upon the popularity of various potential roads with cyclists.  So when I was out near Hashimoto and asked for a route home, it directed me down Onekansen Doro -- by far the best choice I know of as a cyclist, and not the choice that Google Maps would have made.

I am not a "premium" Strava member, but the service seems to just get better and better.  I just tried their route drawing sub-application, and it seems to work very well now.  I do not know if it even existed the first time I tried Strava.  Also, way back then Strava had a limit on the number of monthly rides recorded for non-premium (non-paying) members.

RidewithGPS.  RidewithGPS uses the screen "real estate" very well -- with both cycle computer info and a map on the main page.

RidewithGPS iPhone app does not seem very customizable (though it was possible to switch the map from a "pointing North" orientation to a "pointing the same way as the bicycle" orientation, and the app nicely pulled in my basic choices from the website (e.g. metric system).  Then again, with 5 key pieces of data on the main app screen, I cannot think of much I would add (or subtract).   And it does offer numerous background map choices, as with the website version.  Plus it features tight integration with photos -- great if your trip report consists of the RidewithGPS data and photos you took along the route.

I long ago joined RidewithGPS as a paying member, since I really valued their route drawing/export-friendly site, and also they were the only site with clear instructions about the differences between GPS data formats -- GPX (and GPX track), TCX, FIT, etc.  and recommendations on what to use for which Garmin Edge device.  Plus, as far as I can tell RidewithGPS is mainly a young guy named Zack in Portland, Oregon.  He would send personal responses when I had a question, so I felt I owed him my business.

And what RidewithGPS lacks in customization at the App level, it more than compensates for on its website, with a wide range of views, tabs.  RidewithGPS generally piggie backs on existing social networks -- Facebook, Twitter -- rather than trying to create its own.

MapMyRide.   This app toggles between two data sets ... good if you think of your GPS as more of a calorie counter, but useless for the rest of us.  And there is a screen pulldown tab so you can see all 4 data items at once -- distance, duration, speed and calories.

MapMyRide annoyingly asks me to upgrade to MVP with prominent notices.  Strava has much more tasteful, subtle upgrade requests -- more effective.  Then again, the Mapmyride App seems to have more customization possibilities.  And Mapmyride has lots of social network features as well.

Comparison of the 3 apps website views.

Strava -- clean, slick design, focus on segments (just below this screen capture).

RidewithGPS -- lots of data and selection tabs, and plenty of menu choices all the top as well.

MapmyRide -- another nice interface, but that annoying MVP upgrade request.

And the Winner Is.  This review barely scratches the surface, but I guess I still rank RidewithGPS and Strava ahead of Mapmyride.  If you like the Strava social media features -- the segments, activity feed and challenges, you will find them unmatched.  I find it quite satisfying to do the Strava "Eddy Merckx 1969 Challenge" to ride 700 kms in 20 days ... and end up #11 out of 850 riders in Japan, #773 out of over 55,000 worldwide.  Yes, I may not be fast, but I do go far.

As for the rest of the App, I prefer the RidewithGPS App's "single screen", especially when I want to see a track along which to navigate.  So I guess I will probably use RidewithGPS when riding on a Brevet or an unfamiliar route, and Strava for commuting or familiar rides.  Or I can try the same as this ride -- and just turn on both apps at once.

The key point, for me, is that ANY of these apps works great for a 5 or 6 hour ride.  And with a USB charger/battery, that time can be doubled or tripled.  Plus with a dynamo hub driven charger, it can be extended indefinitely.

The Garmin Edge (excuse the pun).  My Garmin Edge 800 still has some advantages over these iPhone apps.  Actual battery life is still around 14-15 hours.  Plus if the battery should happen to run out ... I can still pull out my phone and use it. If the phone battery runs out ... then I am really stuck.  Of course, the answer is to carry a small supplemental battery.  Plus the Garmin data screens are highly customizable and work with all kinds of additional sensors -- power, heartrate, etc.  I have not used those lately, but could be tempted again.

And in pouring rain, I do not mind the Garmin being exposed on the bike.  The iPhone, even with case and all ports plugged, I will probably still put in a plastic bag!  Then again, the Garmin has died on my in the rain before, and though the USB port eventually recovers, it seems to take some weeks.

I will keep using the Edge 800 on longer rides, as long as it functions.

Audax riders in the U.S. note that they go through many areas without mobile phone coverage. Without mobile data, you cannot access the map information via iPhone in Google or Apple maps, so lose significant functionality.  And financially not viable when "roaming" and incurring high data charges.  But as has been pointed out to me, it is possible to load OpenStreetView maps onto an iPhone for "off network" map coverage.  ... and this surely cannot be much more difficult than doing so on the Garmin, since Garmin gives no instructions on such things and just expects you to buy one of their Micro SD cards with proprietary map loaded.  I will need to try loading some maps and using the iPhone apps with mobile data turned off ... but GPS on ... and see if it works.

With a dynamo powered charger and a plastic bag to cover my iphone in streaming downpours, and some maps loaded in advance, I should be ready to go.

Garmin the Company.  Of course, sometimes I will stay loyal to a company because of things about the company, or just plain inertia, rather than the strength of a product.  (Note my mention of Zack's great customer service at RidewithGPS).  I got a Garmin Edge 205 long ago, switched to a 705 with its more readable screen and maps, then around 5 years ago when the 705 stopped downloading to my PC upgraded to the Edge 800.   But Garmin never has seemed user friendly.  The models I own are not adapted to Japan -- will not work with Japanese characters.  The Japan-specific versions were outrageously priced. ...  And the proprietary maps were an expensive add-on.  So I figured out how to use OpenStreetMap alternatives.  What kind of business builds itself around selling expensive add-ons when the educated, tech-savvy customer can find a free workaround?  A business that views its customers as cash registers, even chumps.

Of course, I could be wrong.  Maybe Garmin is a great company?  After all, it does sponsor a pro tour cycling team, and so it is supporting racers!  And it is a U.S. company, right, started and built up in Kansas.  Indeed, its entire business is based on a series of satellites bought and paid for by the U.S. government, and its first customer was ... the U.S. Army.  My tax dollars at work.  And Garmin is part of the Standard and Poors 500!

Err, at least Garmin WAS a U.S. company.

Then it did a "tax inversion" so that a Swiss entity is now its parent, even though its headquarters is still in Kansas.  No more U.S. taxes on the non-U.S. business.  When Allan Sloan of Fortune Magazine asked them about the inversion, Garmin apparently responded to Fortune that it never was a U.S. company.  Maybe they did not understand the question.  Well, I guess they will need to remove those "Oregon", "Montana", "Colorado" and "Dakota" lines from their handheld GPS models.

So now Garmin is a "top 10" company.  Top 10 corporate tax avoiders.

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I should mention that Japanese cyclists tend to use a Yahoo Japan-affiliated site, Route Labo, for drawing routes that can be exported to Garmin/GPS. These routes are visible on the Safari browser on a page designed for mobile use, though I do not think there is a specific iPhone app.  Then again, more and more Japanese riders seem to use Strava.

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Nov 2, 2014 update:  Another GPS iphone/computer application was recommended to me -- the road bike pro version of "Runtastic".  It has the major benefit of offline OSM map integration.  If you trace your route and download maps ahead of a ride, you will be okay even if you do not have (or, if roaming internationally, want to pay for) mobile data during the event.  I paid the $4.99 and downloaded the app.  On first impression, it tries to do too much -- too much marketing, too many email messages, too much attempt at social media integration.  Too commercial.  But I hope I will get the settings right since the offline maps are a great option.

On my Nov 2 ride with Jerome, I used the Garmin Edge 800, plus set the RidewithGPS on from the start around 7:45AM.  Both ran uninterrupted (only "auto pauses").  The total elapsed time was 9 hours and 10 minutes.

• The Garmin still showed almost 50% battery remaining -- perhaps a benefit from running it with a timer page -- not a map page -- visible the entire ride.  Maybe it is recalculating the map screen that burns up Garmin battery life, such as on the Nishi Tokyo 200 brevet?  
• I also used my iPhone for photos and emails/messages at times during the ride.  The battery had gone down to 16% so I turned off the ridewithgps application at just under 8 hours elapsed time -- 152kms travelled.  If I had not wanted to preserve the ability to use the iPhone for its core telephone (and email) functions, I could have just made it home on the last 16%.  Next ride I will try the same experiment with the Strava iPhone app.

Nov 10, 2014 update:  At Cyclemode there was a display for a Japanese iPhone app -- CycleTT.  It is available on the iPhone App store (at least the Japanese app store), and has a free version and a "premium" mode for 500 yen per month or 5000 per year.  I have not yet tried it but will do so.  Zenrin Datacom is the provider -- a major Japanese map data supplier for "Navi" systems and Google maps.  I will try the free version in due course.

Personal Records All Around!

Today another classic P.E. ride -- the Reverse Paul Jason.  The first time on this course since the visit last fall of P.E. Europe women's champion Juliane P.  This is a good training ride - about 140 kms, with 1350~1400m of elevation, split among the Akigawa climb to Kobu Tunnel, the Uenohara golf course hills, and the steep almost 450m climb up the west side of Wada Pass.

Elated, having just shaved an entire SIX seconds off my personal best for the north side climb to Kobu Tunnel.  All four of us had PRs on this climb, AND on the Ura Wada climb!

Doug, Alexander, Graham, Pete and I headed out shortly after 7:30AM. After a bit of a warm up with me pulling in front, Pete W. moved to the head of our group and the pace quickened, noticeably, all the way to Itsukaichi.  I averaged just about 30kph for the first 40 kilometers of the trip.  Graham seemed to be suffering early ... but I knew he would not fade.  Pete, who had already done other rides this week, said farewell at Itsukaichi, having ridden us into the ground even before we entered the hills.

Doug, who is now a much stronger rider than Alexander, Graham or me, kept going with us.  Doug is now training for, and seems quite looking forward to, TCC's official "king of the mountains" ride, scheduled for June 30 -- a ride that includes the always painful (and sometimes very hot) Mikuni Toge, and ends at the top of Matsuhime Toge!

Alexander, who claimed not to have been riding at all (at least not outside of town) since he our Matsuhime trip over 2 months ago, did confess to some hiking.  And when we got to the top of Wada, he recognized it from a recent hike over Jimba-san.   When I rode with him in April, I thought -- this is someone who, once he gets back in cycling shape, I will NEVER beat to the top of a climb.  I guess he rode himself back into shape today, since I did manage to get up the climb to Kobu Tunnel ahead of him, but he was stronger from there on out.  And I think he will be stronger, from here on out.  His physique reminds me a bit of Ludwig/Manfred ... so I would call Alexander "Ludwig II", except that Ludwig II was the mad Bavarian king with the wild castle MOB visited last year, and Alexander appears the very model of sanity.

After last week's post on GPS-based cycling social networks, we wanted to put in a good effort on the main two climbs of the day.  We rested a bit at the bottom of the climb to Kobu, and then were off.  I could still see Doug rounding the corner ahead of me as we were more than half way up the climb, so I knew I was putting in a good effort -- pushing the needle up to, but not way into, the red zone.  And sure enough, on Ridewith GPS I shaved 6 seconds off my time -- from 11:42 to 11:36.   The deviously placed Strava segment goes further ... all the way to an endpoint in the area between the first and second tunnels (need to remember this -- a great chance to win the KOM points after the other riders think the climb is already over).  I seem to have set a new PR for that longer segment as well.  Strava also shows that Graham's ride today set his PR there.  And Doug's time will definitely be a PR ... when he uploads the GPS data.  Likewise for Alexander, ... should he choose to join Strava and/or RidewithGPS.

The descent was uneventful, the golf course hills nasty, brutish and short, as usual and the foliage everywhere was overgrown -- stretching out over the roads, obscuring views around corners that were clear only a few months ago.

A rest at the Daily Yamazaki in Route 522, then another brief one to collect ourselves before the west approach climb to Wada.  This climb, as well, resulted in a PR for each of us.  My time of 33:23 shaved 1:07 off my former best climb there, 34:30, December 18, 2010.

Hot Graham at Wada

I am sure that without the brief rests at the bottom of these segments, I could not have beaten my previous times.  Maybe I'll go back on some beautiful fall day, take the train out to Fujino, put on my lighter climbing wheels, and really try to gun it up Wada?

Needless to say, we were pretty tired by the top of Wada -- at least Graham and I were.  I was running on empty during the ride back into town.  I ended up losing over 3kgs (water) weight over the course of the ride, despite drinking 1800mls between the start and Itsukaichi, somewhat more than that again on the remainder of the ride, plus yogurt drink, coffee drink, etc.  I need to focus on acclimatizing to and beating the heat, and staying hydrated.  I did eat various items of  food with salt (including a salted hard boiled egg), had a banana (potassium), and some "gratin" to get a bit of energy on the way back.  But I did not take Nuun tablets this time for my water bottles -- last week I brought them, and blamed them, rightly or wrongly for my not drinking enough liquid.  Need to find a better solution.

Refueling stop.

Anyway, that was my last hard training before Cascade 1200.  Now I let my legs recover and try to get enough sleep most nights over the next 12 days.

UPDATE:  Doug reports that his time up the west approach of Wada was 27:28.  Very fast.  But, unfortunately, his Garmin data is not downloading for some reason, so his time will not make it onto Strava or RidewithGPS.   I guess he might as well have stayed home.

Social Riding ... Overkill?

On Sunday, I headed out on my first normal weekend ride in some time.

The weekend before, visitors in town, then looking back down the calendar, Tokyo-Itoigawa, the weekend before that, recovery, and before that, Tohoku Brevets, Ishigakijima, Yatsugatake, Tateyama, etc.  So I have not really had any normal weekend rides since the trip over Matsuhime on April 1.

Since I did not plan ahead, and ended up leaving home well after 9:30AM, I rode alone.  Still, I was determined to make this a "social" ride.  Alone, but social.  "Social" in the sense of socially networked.

I made sure that my Garmin GPS was fully charged and switched on as I left home.  This is my ride to Tomin no Mori and back -- 148 kms and including the classic hill climb up to 1000 meters:

Or here:

I use two GPS online services, RidewithGPS and Strava.  I gave up on Garmin Connect when they switched from Google maps to Bing's vomit-colored yellow, difficult-to-read maps at one point -- though they seem to have improved since.  And Mapmyride ... had some annoying features for its free (non-premium) users and the site did not function nearly as quickly for me as RidewithGPS.  Strava ... might have captured my loyalty, except they initially limited the number of rides per month that a non-premium user could upload, so there was no way to "catch up" and load a set of historical rides.

Also, RidewithGPS has the best explanations I have seen online for how to upload to a Garmin Edge 705 or Garmin Edge 800 micro SD card the free OSM maps available at various sites -- tricky, and crucial if you need a map for a region where you do not have (and do not want to pay a lot of money for) a Garmin basemap.  They also make it extremely easy to draw your own tracks for a future ride.  And they help you to download your own or others' rides and tracks, give you information on which type of file (tcx and gpx) to select, and how to upload/use those on your Garmin device, for which purpose.  So they are doing the "customer service" that Garmin really should provide.

Strava is much more polished, has more money behind it -- maybe real venture capital funding, etc.  Ride with GPS seems to be two guys (maybe just one?) in Oregon.  When you have question, you get a personal response from Cullen.  So long ago I decided I would use RidewithGPS, and it is the only service where I signed up for "Premium" (paid) features.

Still, I now find that I really need to upload my rides to Strava as well, since it has become a social network, and if record a ride using GPS, and don't upload the results, it is as if I did not ride it at all.

This has the feeling of back when Facebook first became popular a number of years back.  If people were in a group of friends that reported happenings on Facebook, you were pretty much compelled to do so as well if you wanted to stay in touch.  Now, I'm following over 20 Tokyo-based cyclists on Strava, and 20 or more are following me.  Plus I am following Taylor Phinney (BMC) and Ted King (Liquigas).

Some of the folks I follow record EVERY ride, even daily commutes, by GPS.  Every day I get an email telling me who rode where: that M. rode to 9.8 work and set a personal record on a 500 meter stretch of a road, or that G. rode home from the swimming pool.  And of course the email also notes that Tom rode 250 kms and set the "KOM" on more passes in the mountains of NW Saitama.

The feature that drives all of this "social" (but not truly social) behavior is Strava's segment feature.  You can define a "segment" from any of your rides, and then track your times (and others') on that particular stretch of road.  And you will unwittingly ride others' defined segments and get a notice after the fact that, even when you did not realize that you were being "compared".  Ride with GPS has added a similar feature, though they have fewer users in Japan at this point, so it is less of a network effect.

As Graham noted the absurdity of all this to me a few months back, one of the defined segments is along Komazawa Dori, from the traffic signal at Nakameguro/Yamate Dori up the hill toward Yutenji.  This 650 meter stretch, with 20 meters of elevation gain, is now to be raced at maximum speed (?).  Actually, there are four traffic signals along this stretch, and plenty of traffic, so it is not recommended for racing.  I've ridden this stretch for years, ... but always commuting, and I never thought it was a test of my climbing ability, or worth uploading.  I should note that Graham rode a personal best up this slope on his way out of town on May 26, and is now back up to 3rd place out of 45 Strava riders, ahead of James, Dominic, Thomas P., Tim S., Shane, and even Race-Across-America veteran Jamie S.  Keep it up!  Kudos!  And the rest of you, haul ass and put up some better times.  We are watching.

So I set out on Sunday with a specific goal.  I wanted to get a better time on the climb from Motojuku Crossing to Tomin No Mori.  This is a true, even a "classic" hill climb segment in the Tokyo area.  It is where Pete W. and many others train regularly.  I don't ride it regularly, but I've gone up it at least 2-3 times each year since 2005.  My personal best at the climb, in December 2010, is 68 minutes and 43 seconds, as you can see from the Positivo Espresso Togebaka page.  (See Togebaka #3).  I think I did it in 71 or 72 minutes once back in 2008 or 2009, but not with a full GPS recording.

The problem is that when I did the climb in December 2010, I must have rested at the bottom and/or the top, and missed either the beginning or end of the segment, and left the recording on while resting at the time.  So the Strava/Ridewith GPS segments add additional time, recording 102 instead of 68 minutes.

So yesterday, despite roads that remained wet, the hot, sticky mid-day air, my Brevet wheelset (testing slightly heavier Conti Four Season 25x622 tires on 36/32 spoke wheels), and suffering a somewhat bloated stomach after the traditional 7-11 food stop at Itsukaichi, I tried to make a good effort on the climb.  I started BEFORE the intersection at Motojuku, and kept going for at least another 50 meters AFTER the parking lot for Tomin no Mori, no stops, just to make sure that I got a complete time.

I recorded 73 minutes and 31 seconds for the Strava segment, and 73 minutes 14 seconds for the nearly identical RidewithGPS segment.  Not great, but acceptable given the conditions, and enough to at least push me up by 5 spots in the rankings.  I need to go back and try this climb one cool morning later in the year, with my best climbing gear, and see if I can get my recorded time under 70 minutes.  And I'll need to return to most of the "Togebaka" climbs later in the year and at least post a time that is representative for me, even if I'll never be KOM up these or other hills.

If you don't post and share a ride using these services, ... you might as well have stayed home.