Slashdot Mirror
Hammerhead System Offers a Better Way To Navigate While Cycling
Mark Gibbs writes "If you've ever tried to navigate using a smartphone while cycling you'll know full well that you took your life in your hands. By the time you've focused on the map and your brain has decoded what you're looking at you've traveled far enough to be sliding on gravel or go careening into the side of a car. What's needed is a way that you can get directions from your smartphone without having to lose your focus and possibly your life and Hammerhead Navigation have one of the most interesting answers I've seen."
All its missing is a buy now button
Define cycling pace? There's people who struggle to go faster than 10mph, and there's people who can hit 40 or 50mph on a good road bike. My personal record is about 35.
Also, even at 10mph, looking at a map while you're moving isn't a very bright move. When I was learning the bike route to get to work, I would stop to check maps. Not sure why people can't do that... seems a perfectly sane way to navigate on a bike.
Also, even at 10mph, looking at a map while you're moving isn't a very bright move. When I was learning the bike route to get to work, I would stop to check maps. Not sure why people can't do that... seems a perfectly sane way to navigate on a bike.
I couldn't agree more - just stop and check the map.
Too many people are trying to solve problems with technology when often a non-technical option is the better one.
Stopping isn't always safe or convenient; where do you stop on a road with a small shoulder? "You shouldn't be there"? In much of the country, shoulders are a non-existent luxury.
No, you're wrong. Not everybody has your opinions, despite your insistance to the contrary. There are people that care about other people on bikes. Also, I agree with GP as far as "anybody with some skill on a bike can properly evaluate risks before taking attention away from the road". However, this is for n00bs who want to spend crap to feel like they're more into biking. Not interested.
"Makes me want to start cycling again."
Translation: the author, like most tech bloggers, doesn't actually use a bicycle, but considers themselves qualified to speak about bicycle products.
Please help metamoderate.
where do you stop on a road with a small shoulder?
You stop at the next intersection. I have been biking about 100 miles/week for 30 years. During that time, I have never, not once, needed to check a map while pedaling. If you are in such a hurry that you can't pull over for 30 seconds, then maybe you should have taken the car.
It's nice that you always bike in familiar areas, but I like to explore new places on my bike, and often map out my course in advance so I can stay on bike-friendly streets. While I could print out a paper map and keep it in my back pocket, or stop every few turns to consult my phone to see if I'm on course, I can appreciate why someone might want a GPS to help them. Why should I pull over for 30 seconds to consult a map when I could have an unobtrusive GPS aid on my handlbars to tell me which way I should be turning at the next corner?
Why do you think that a GPS is any less useful for a cyclist than for a car driver?
You might try pausing at those octagonal red signs you might have seen. They have white letters on them.
Not that any other bicyclist does...
AC
Get over yourself. The thing about biking is getting from point A to point B. If it's not, you're doing it wrong. However, getting from point A to point B is a mostly solved problem - do your groundwork and plan, before you even set off. For another 9, have something to refer to when the route doesn't match your plan. It's worked for centuries.
"Cadence", sheesh, I almost feel embarassed to have never had a road-going vehicle with more than 2 wheels in my 3 decades of adult life. And you wonder why Critical Mass Porto Alegre happened?
Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
Bicyclists here are supposed to follow the established automobile rules, yet most cyclists I see don't give a flip about stop signs/crosswalk indicators/red lights. I know full well if I drove like these paragons cycle I'd be buried under the jail by now.
I appreciate cycling and honestly wish I lived and worked such that I could ditch my car too. But so long as were forced by circumstance to co-exist, please mind the signs - I hate lawfully coming to an intersection and nearly flattening the cyclist who didn't feel like stopping when indicated...
Also, is it just me or do many cyclists cycle with chips on their shoulders?
Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
Cyclists around here love to pick the busiest, curviest, narrowest roads they can find and they JUST LOVE the morning and afternoon rush hours. That's when and where I see them the most. Did I mention they overwhelmingly pick roads with no real bike lanes or even decent shoulders?
Congratulations! You just found out that there are people who cycle to work. And they do that despite the bad infrastructure.