Matthew's Journal

I wanted a GPS for my bike, mostly for navigation (I'm not really interested in optimised training or anything like that), and recently acquired a Garmin Edge Explore 2.

On the whole, I'm happy with it - I can plan a route on e.g. cycle.travel, export it to Garmin Connect and send it to the Explore. It's then pretty good at providing directions and a little map to see what's coming up; also, it copes pretty well with deviations from the route, taking you back to the route in a sensible manner rather than trying to get you back to the point you left the route (which a number of GPS units will try and do instead). I had to start a planned course after the start at the weekend, and it coped with this fine.

Garmin claim 16 hours of battery life when in use (i.e. navigating); I had it going for about 5 hours yesterday and it was claiming 75% charge left. It seems likely to be enough for all but the longest days out!

The display is colour, and I've found the map clear to follow. It's happy in the rain, and charges over USB-C. The Garmin Connect app is reasonable and you don't have to pay for it (but it's not free software). You can also load routes over USB (you put them into NewFiles).

On the less good front: you can't turn off particular noises (e.g. the beeps for "have you started riding?", "have you paused?"), only turn alerts on or off entirely. The default view is distance/speed/etc not the map, which means if you start a new course you have to select map view (which requires the touchscreen). Making a course out of a recorded route requires the web application. And software updates have to be done over Bluetooth and take forever; I've had to do two now (one when it was new, and another one this week, only a few weeks later), and they take about 90 minutes. This is really annoying, because when my phone turns its display off, that seems to interrupt the Bluetooth transfer, so I have to keep poking it to keep the screen awake while it does the update.

I think there is Garmin Express if you have Windows or Mac systems (I don't), although I gather it's not a lot quicker. I'd rather Garmin just provided the update as a file I could upload over USB...

Despite that, if you want a GPS unit for navigating you along a route when out on the bike, this is a very good unit.

[this is a public post, so I'm screening comments; I'll unscreen unless you ask me not to]

I would like to remind everyone of rule 163 [0]. It exists to protect a vulnerable minority who are regularly subjected to abuse and intimidation by a more powerful group. That intimidation and abuse nearly always goes unpunished unless injury results, and if this minority are killed and a prosecution occurs, the penalties are relatively small. I'm talking about cyclists.

Rule 163 states, amongst other things "give motorcyclists, cyclists and horse riders at least as much room as you would when overtaking a car", which is sadly not very clear, but is helpfully illustrated:



It is my experience that many many drivers ignore this rule entirely if obeying it would mean the slightest delay to their journey. When you're in a car, please remember rule 163, and give cyclists plenty of room; if you're not driving, encourage the driver to do so, especially if they are a professional driver.

When commuting, I find I often have an unpleasant choice to make - either I cycle in the primary position, in the center of my lane, and get shouted and honked at and overtaken dangerously by some drivers who want to punish me for holding them up, or I cycle in the secondary position (about 1m from the kerb) and get people squeezing past with inches to spare because they are trying to overtake even though there is oncoming traffic and it's not safe to do so. This is quite frankly unacceptable.

On one evening cycle home, one taxi driver passed me twice (I overtook him while he was queuing in traffic). On both occasions, he sounded his horn repeatedly, revved his engine hard, and overtook dangerously close - if he'd misjudged it, or I'd wobbled, he would surely have hit me. I complained to the council's taxi licensing officer who said he'd do nothing unless there was a prosecution. The police/CPS won't prosecute unless a cyclist is injured, so taxi drivers can (and do) behave dangerously around cyclists they don't like without fear of any comeback.

There are a few further points I'd like to raise:

Cycle facilities are often worse than useless. The recommended width of a cycle lane is 2m; almost none that are not also bus lanes are this wide. That means that motorists overtaking at the white line (which many of them do) are passing at much less than the Rule 163 distance. Furthermore, the surface of these on-road cycle lanes is often poorer than the rest of the road, and they fill with debris from the road. I often cycle just outside these sort of lanes for these reasons. Shared-use paths for pedestrians and cycles are dangerous, for both cyclists and pedestrians; indeed there is research showing they are more dangerous to cycle on than the road proper. If you cycle much faster than walking pace, there is a risk of collision with pedestrians who meander across the shared-use path as if it were a pavement, and for all cyclists, there is a risk of collision wherever the path crosses a side-street - it seems that drivers don't expect to meet cyclists at these points, so fail to spot them. Indeed, I'd go as far as to say that many cycle facilities actually make cycling more dangerous, as drivers are more likely to bully cyclists using the road if they see such a facility that the cyclist isn't using.

Accordingly, I'd like to remind drivers that cyclists are not obliged to use these facilities, and you should not shout at those that choose not to. As I say above, often the cyclist is safer on the road. More generally, though don't intimidate cyclists who you feel are delaying you. Cyclists are perfectly entitled to be on the roads, and are a vulnerable group of road users. If you feel a cyclist has made an odd decision about whether to use a cycle facility or not, whether or not to wear a helmet, or whatever, consider that they are entitled to make their own minds up about these things, and have probably given the matter more thought than you have. Shouting "helpful" comments to them is bullying.

Finally, and it shouldn't need saying, driving dangerously to intimidate or punish cyclists is immoral and illegal. Don't do it! I should be able to cycle to and from work free from people threatening to kill or maim me with their vehicles. In an ideal world, there would be effective sanctions against dangerous drivers who collide with cyclists, even if the cyclist is not seriously injured. In practice, this doesn't happen, and even when drivers kill cyclists, they not infrequently escape being charged with any offense.

So yes, remember rule 163, and give cyclists a chance!

ETA This DfT article is quite sensible.

[0] No, this isn't a joke about rules about porn on the internet

A slightly cheerier post, for once. I have a range of different outfits for cycling to work in, depending on the temperature. Over the last few months, I've been trying to settle on the decision points, as it were - at what temperatures I need to add or remove a layer. I thought I'd post the results here, in case anyone cares :-)

Waterproofs are quite a warming addition, and evenings seem to feel a bit cooler than mornings at the same temperature. Below is the temperature at which I add items of clothing - above 11.5, I'm cycling in a t-shirt and trousers (I don't currently ever wear shorts to work). Temperatures are in centigrade.

Temperature	Clothing
11.5	gloves
10	fleece
7.5	jumper
5	ear-warmer
2	scarf
-5	face-cover of some sort

The latter is intentionally vague - we only had a couple of days that cold this year, which rather hurt my face. I think a Buff or similar might be a good idea if it looks like being a hard winter again...

The ear-warmer is a fleecy ear-band thing. It looks a bit daft, but keeps my ears warm without cooking my head.