What is best gps for cycling
Cycling Computer Vs Smartphone: Which Should You Choose? | Cycling Weekly
[Applause]
when you're out on a bike ride a small
cycling computer is a great way to show
your speed and distance without taking
up too much space but your mobile phone
can also do the exact same functionality
without any extra cost it gets more
complicated when you want to start
tracking your location on your bike
rides because as soon as you add GPS
into the mix cycling computers get a
whole lot more expensive and you'll be
quite reasonable to question why you
need to spend the extra cash after
you've already bought a mobile phone so
in this video I'm going to compare a
cycling computer to a mobile phone so
you can work out exactly which device is
best suited to your riding experience
[Music]
we'll start was the most important
consideration which is of course the
price now your smartphone is probably
undoubtedly already a hefty chunk of
money they can be some of the most
expensive objects that we buy and you
might be quite reasonably reticent to
spend any more on a cycling computer
when you think the two can do the exact
same job now cycling computers of
varying prices not just top-end ones
compared with third-party sensors
including heartrate and cadence as well
as power meters as long as they
communicate via a and t + or blue to
smart they then take all of that
information and present it in a useful
place such as a head unit it's more
difficult with mobile phones there's
only some apps such as whoohoo fitness
actually letting you connect third-party
sensors and others including Strava
removing that functionality altogether
so our advice to you would be know what
type of cycling you're looking to do if
you're already a committed cyclist with
additional sensors then you're probably
better off going for a cycling computer
and if you know that's the area you want
to be getting into then the same applies
however if you're not so first about
your heart rate power or speeding
cadence and would much rather just know
about your speed and distance then
you're probably going to be fine with a
mobile phone
[Music]
one of the big differences between
phones and cycling computers is their
battery life now we've all experienced
it you've owned a mobile phone for
exactly a year and it's battery life
seems to have completely collapsed and
it's no good being half way through a 50
mile buy tried to have the dreaded 10%
battery life sign pop up on the screen
even if your phone states at 26 hour
battery life like most modern
smartphones do using GPS is going to
severely affect it so as soon as you
fire up Google Maps or Strava you're
eating into this valuable lifeline
however a cycling computer is made with
this action in mind and most top-end
cycling computers will state a battery
life of well over 15 hours the Garmin
Edge 830 offers twenty hours the wha-hoo
element roams 17 and the kuru hammerhead
15 but the key thing is is that all of
these units are designed with GPS in
mind so they have optimized the battery
life to work with that signal they're
also designed to work well in cold
weather and poor weather whereas a
mobile phone's battery life is likely to
tank as soon as you take out in the cold
a cycling computers will carry on being
absolutely fine so it's always worth
bearing in mind that eating out your
phone's battery life could leave you in
a bit of a vulnerable situation if you
get into an emergency and I'd always
rather have battery life on my phone
than on my cycling computer as a
get-out-of-jail-free card
[Music]
one of the big appeals of using a
cycling computer is that they are sleek
and attractive and look really good when
put on the front of a bike unfortunately
that's not really the case for a mobile
phone which is quite bulky big and is
definitely not aerodynamic which some
cycling computers claim to be such as
Wahoo's Element bolt you could opt for a
cheaper cycling computer which is a lot
smaller and can display your speed and
distance but your phone can do that and
a lot more it's got a bigger screen
which makes it easier to read it's got
Google Maps at your fingertips which is
most people's preferred way of
navigating and it's got a touchscreen
which is a really easy way to hop
between apps on the fly so sometimes
bigger is better
[Music]
if you're training to push your
performance you want to have as accurate
stats as possible but are you
sacrificing that accuracy by using a
mobile phone instead of a cycling
computer well not necessarily mobile
phones do have pretty good GPS because
they use something called assisted GPS
which is where they use a structure such
as a cell tower or a network tower to
give it your location that way they pick
up your location quicker and often a bit
more accurate straightaway than a
cycling computer is however a cycling
computer can access loads of different
types of GPS signals including GPS
Galileo the European satellite and GPS
GLONASS the Russian satellite this is
really useful because you can actually
pick the signal you want on most top-end
cycling computers which means you can
tailor the device for what you need so
if you're riding right out in the middle
of the sticks on a multi-day adventure
then you might want to save as much
battery life as possible and just use
standard GPS however if you ride
somewhere with a lot of coverage such as
in the woods or forest or in the city
where there's tall buildings you'll want
to go for a more powerful signal such as
GPS GLONASS or GPS Galileo a sokham
computer lets you pick that level of
functionality that you want whereas a
mobile phone doesn't necessarily do that
[Music]
cycling computers are built to withstand
poor conditions they're water resistant
and they don't lose their battery life
in the cold now a lot of smartphones are
also water resistant but not all of them
for example mine actually isn't
waterproof at all and it's a whole lot
more frustrating if you water log this
rather than a cycling computer because
that way you can kiss goodbye to
Instagram mobile phones are also a whole
lot more likely to smash should you drop
them on the floor or god forbid have a
crash on your bike however so can
computers tend to be pretty chunky and
able to withstand even the pretty harsh
impacts that outdoor use can bring
[Music]
ultimately the answer to this question
comes down to your use case if you
commute by bike or you just like cycling
because it's a lovely thing to do then
you're probably absolutely fine with
your mobile phone or you could even get
a small non GPS enabled so computer to
give you your speed and distance however
we've all caught the cycling bug at some
point and the more you get into this
great sport the more you're probably
going to want to crunch your numbers and
look at your data at this point it's
probably worth buying a cycling computer
that can do that for you and after all
who doesn't like spending a bit of money
on a nice shiny product I hope that
you've liked this video and it's help
answers some of your questions about
cycling computers and mobile phones if
you have liked it or if you have any
more questions and please do leave them
in the comment section below and we'll
do our best to answer them in the
meantime don't forget to Like and
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channel and I'll see you next time
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