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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.
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 focussed on the map and your brain has decoded what you're looking at you've travelled far enough to be sliding on gravel or go careening into the side of a car.
Actually, after making a proper bike mount for my N900, I had no trouble using satnav while cycling.
Unlike TFA author Mark Gibbs, I'm aware that my experience is not universal, as people in some other cities have to deal with worse traffic than I do.
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.
I'm guessing you either don't cycle much or don't ever travel and cycle some place new?
Some of us happily ride 50, 60, 70 ... 100 miles when we go out on the bike. Typically it's on rural roads with lots of turns. Sometimes you might make a new route to suit the distance you want to cycle. So you combine lots of bike friendly roads you are used to riding on, but you use them in a different way. Remembering which turn you're planning to take typically involves printing out a map or cue sheet.
Other times, someone else will have plotted a ride using bike friendly roads you are unfamiliar with. Thirty turns wouldn't be unusual. That's a lot to remember, even if you have a pretty good idea of where you are.
Surely this is much better than a cyclist constantly checking their odometer so they don't miss the next turn.
An odd name choice for a bicycle navigation system. Ouch!
Please, explain why people need all this navigation. I simply don't understand it. I can start any place in the continental United States, refer to Rand McNally, and maybe write a few notes on a scrap of paper. I can drive ANYWHERE in ConUS or mainland Canada, without any further guidance.
Now, I may be pretty smart (like most people I like to think that I really am smart) but it doesn't tax my mind to remember a series of route numbers and directions. I don't need a cell phone, or a GPS to hold my hand, and tell me whether to turn left or right, or how many yards to travel before turning.
Cycling is somewhat different than driving on the highway - but FFS, everything comes at you slower, there are fewer things to remember, and landmarks should be more "intimate".
I'm sorry, but I see all this navigation software as just a tool to help dumb down America. Better to learn to read a map, then actually read the damned thing, then do your own thinking. Hey, I'll admit that software such as Rand McNally produces are beneficial. I can't know the current construction status of every mile of roadway in America. If you update McNally regularly, the software will warn you that US 1 and 9 are under construction in Smelly Swamp, North Carolina. That's a great feature - I can decide to take I-95 to avoid the construction. But, that's a simple decision, that should be made BEFORE you ever start out on your trip!
Alright, so maybe I'm off on a tangent here. The discussion is about cycling. Let me think - ride down my home street to Oak Street, make a right, ride to the library and make a left, go across the bridge then take the third left, go to the crest of the hill and cut down the alley next to the yellow house, wave at the old dude sitting on his back porch, turn right at the HUGE magnolia tree, watch on my right for the hot chick who often waters her flowers, at the church make a left, and I'm at work. Do I REALLY need navigation? Getting across town isn't exactly rocket surgery . . .
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
As a many-years bicyclist, for transportation, recreation, exercise, etc...I offer the following advice:
Any time you see some new device being marketed, consider that the bicycle in its first forms dates to the early 1800's, nearly a century before cars were commonplace. In that time, cyclists have figured out the solutions to most problems, and those solutions have been refined as material sciences, engineering, and whatnot have evolved. So, for example, my front light uses a sophisticated mirror and LED to light 50 feet of bike path in front of me, while my back light uses LEDs and light pipes to provide a 2-inch wide big glowing red bar...all powered off a smooth, unnoticeable generator in my front wheel's hub.
The solution to this "oh my pretty little cyclist head just doesn't know where it's going" problem is one of the following:
The device strikes me as rather ignorant of how most cyclists travel, anyway. Most everyone I know, including if not especially beginners, consult Google Maps and think carefully about their route because of safety concerns. By the time we're on our bike, we probably know where we're going and how to get there.
Damn near everything bike-related that has come out of Kickstarter either solves a problem that was already solved, and was solved better...or solved a problem that didn't exist. Both are usually due to ignorance on the part of the designers, or designers preying upon ignorance among the general public.
Sadly, an increasing number of these products are designed to prey upon people's fears about danger, or continue a culture of placing the onus on cyclists to protrect themselves from other people doing stupid, dangerous, or illegal things with large, fast-moving vehicles who then strike them.
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.
"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?
Please, explain why people need all this navigation. I simply don't understand it. I can start any place in the continental United States, refer to Rand McNally, and maybe write a few notes on a scrap of paper. I can drive ANYWHERE in ConUS or mainland Canada, without any further guidance.
Now, I may be pretty smart (like most people I like to think that I really am smart) but it doesn't tax my mind to remember a series of route numbers and directions. I don't need a cell phone, or a GPS to hold my hand, and tell me whether to turn left or right, or how many yards to travel before turning.
Cycling is somewhat different than driving on the highway - but FFS, everything comes at you slower, there are fewer things to remember, and landmarks should be more "intimate".
I just counted, and my commute to work takes me on 18 different streets - it winds through several neighborhoods and on some bike-only paths. When I drive my car, I drive on 5 different streets, most of it on a freeway. Why do you think there are fewer things to remember on a bike? When I drive my car I stick to larger streets that have clear signs for major destinations, when I ride my bike I stick to smaller streets and I check a map first to help me stick to bike friendly streets... my community doesn't yet have comprehensive bike route signs, so I have to remember the street names myself. Now that I'm familliar with the route I don't need a GPS, but the first few times I had to write down each turn, and still had to consult my phone GPS after I missed a turn.
I'm sorry, but I see all this navigation software as just a tool to help dumb down America. Better to learn to read a map, then actually read the damned thing, then do your own thinking. Hey, I'll admit that software such as Rand McNally produces are beneficial. I can't know the current construction status of every mile of roadway in America. If you update McNally regularly, the software will warn you that US 1 and 9 are under construction in Smelly Swamp, North Carolina. That's a great feature - I can decide to take I-95 to avoid the construction.
So what do you do when Rand McNally tells you that the freeway to your destination is closed for construction and you have to go through some smaller towns?
The discussion is about cycling. Let me think - ride down my home street to Oak Street, make a right, ride to the library and make a left, go across the bridge then take the third left, go to the crest of the hill and cut down the alley next to the yellow house, wave at the old dude sitting on his back porch, turn right at the HUGE magnolia tree, watch on my right for the hot chick who often waters her flowers, at the church make a left, and I'm at work. Do I REALLY need navigation? Getting across town isn't exactly rocket surgery . . .
Not everyone rides on familiar roads every day - some of us like to go someplace new.
Which? The product discussed here is hardware.
but the thing about biking (at least for some) is cadence - stopping breaks cadence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadence_(cycling)
Anyone has got to be a bit retarded to be doing 35-50mph without knowing where they are going. do they run face first into walls when it is dark too?
What you said! If you are bicycling and need turn by turn GPS to help you, you are doing it wrong.
I really don't get people today feeling like they can't move without having a GPS mapping system showing them their route and telling them where to turn and when. Look at a map ahead of the ride, plan the route, and ride. Like you said, bring a map if it's a new route and stop and look if you need to.
And yes, I ride. I'm only doing about 60-100 miles a week. No map, no GPS. I ride every day to and from work, and I don't carry anything but work gear. Road runs on weekends, I carry water, a bit of food stuffs, cell phone for emergencies, repair kit, and small first aide kit. If I get lost, I backtrack the way I came if all else fails.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Why not a smartphone app that hooks into the mapping/GPS/nav services, shows a large flashing arrow and reads out navigationally with vocal commands via a bluetooth earphone?
All this is nothing to me. I'm waiting for a viable, programmable (and private) bike HUD (with rearview, HR, wattage, and navigation data.
That's what I'm waiting for.
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.
Checking maps while cycling is inadvisable at best. You're right to consult a map while pulled over. Perfect.
But even checking a map is unnecessary and brings me to the point that this article is really pretty silly. I'm not normally one to complain about Slashvertisements (first time I've even used that word) but this is definitely a time to complain about it because SMARTPHONES
Both Android and iOS have Google Maps which delivers turn-by-turn directions for bicycles. I have a bluetooth speaker built expressly for cycling (Boombotix, you can search for it, but there are other) so when I am somewhere I don't know and which does not have a gird-based layout, I let Google Maps on my smartphone give me audible turn-by-turn directions.
The sound sometimes is not perfect and I might mishear a direction or two, but it's not much more difficult than using turn-by-turn in an automobile.
This front page story is really trying hard to make a problem when an 80% solution already exists.
blog
I bought my first automotive GPS when I was doing a driving tour through cities I had not visited for over 30 years. It proved its worth on that trip. It not only led me through the spaghetti maze of Boston streets-- just as bad as it was back in the day but now with lots of changes-- it also routed me around road construction and a traffic jam. No amount of studying a paper map will do that.
I use a GPS on my android phone on the bike. It is not only aware of current traffic conditions, but it also tells me where the nearest pub is when I'm ready for a break. The bicycle mode is getting better, though it still doesn't know about some of the alleyways that can avoid busy streets. But then, paper maps are even worse for that.
If you are going to get an android for some other reason, it makes sense to install a GPS map app on it-- it probably comes with one. Depending on the price of the Hammerhead, it might be a good accessory. There are times when I'm sharing the road in city traffic when there is no place to stop to read a map or cell phone; hell, there are times when I can't even look at the street signs between dealing with traffic, potholes, and road debris, even at 10 or 12 mph.
Will
I take care that I am suitably visible and if I share a road with cars that means that the max speed should be 60km/h for the cars. If it's faster then there is usually a separate bike lane. This gives them enough time to avoid me properly. If I dodge for every truck that will pass me the I will never arrive at my destination and I would look like an idiot. This means that I would not use the information, so I don't need to have it. Mind, I have my headphones on so softly that I can still hear traffic sounds. Not near hard enough to drown out a blaring car horn, because that would mean that I would get hearing damage and I like to hear my music properly.
Then again, I don't live in the US. I live in the Netherlands and biking is far more common here.
Well, I might have a way, but it only works on a semi spherical planet in a vacuum.
I'm guessing you either don't cycle much or don't ever travel and cycle some place new?
Looking at your UID you're not a spring chicken: your UID is older than mine.
What this means is that you were alive and mobile before satnavs existed as a consumer item. What on earth did you do back then?
I remember what I did. I looked up the route on a map, and would try to memorize a few key points for the next chunk of the journey, things like big road intersections etc. Worked well. Still worked well.
Oh yeah and that was in London where there are (a) no road names[*] and (b) a lot of roads.
[*]Seriously, this is one thing I really miss about the US. You guys religiously lavel every road at every intersection. It makes navigation much easier. We prefer a more homeopathic approach to road labelling here.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Sorry but experience is very different than cliche.
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
So basically you don't cycle much and you mostly use the same route. This does not work if you make bike tours into unknown places. I find my turn by turn GPS navigation very helpful when I do the 60 miles on a single day, exploring the surroundings, and mounted on the handlebar the voice output of the navigation is loud enough so I don't have to look at the screen. I do not know where you live, but here in Germany towns often are a mess of small alleys of, apparently, non-Euclidian geometry, very easy to get lost.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
God what a stupid post.
Cadence is about maintaining a steady rapid pace pedaling. Not about not stopping, Let me point out that you need to do so at stop signs and red lights.which actually are perfect places to check a map. BTW most people don't check a mpa often enough to come anywhere close to interrupting cadence.
You're entire post validates his point. The problem is that you're head is stuck so far up your own ass, you're utterly missing the simplicity of the world around you.
When you move to a new city, a GPS is the WORST thing you can use to 'learn' the city. This has been proven by multiple studies. GPS is a shitty way to learn since you don't learn, you just follow directions and don't absorb them or the route you took.
Why are you riding your bike in such a shitty environment that you're afraid to stop. That sounds like you're too stupid to make intelligent decisions about your path anyway, so its unlikely technology is going to save your dumbs.
Why should you plan? ... Technology doesn't save the ignorant, which is what you are, especially without a plan.
Stopping up hill is a massive ball ache for you? Then I'm 100% certain you should have put your fat lazy fucking ass in a car. The speed you had is of very little use, it takes you the same energy to get up the hill and overcome gravity regardless of speed, anything else you experience is entirely in your head.
In short, all of what you posted is typical trendy idiot biker bullshit.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
You're not a cyclist are you?
Its illegal not to stop on the road at those red orthogonal signs that have the word stop written on them. Idiots like you deserve to get creamed, but its unfair that someone will have to live with the fact that they ran over your stupid ass because you refuse to follow the rules of the road due to your arrogance and self entitlement bullshit.
You deserve to get ran over for making such an ignorant response to his.
You're pulling off the road not to 'avoid using an electronic navigation aid' ... you're pulling off the road so you don't get turned into road smear because your dumb ass was staring at the GPS rather than the world around you, you ran into traffic and a garbage truck turned you into a very thin smear of blood and guts on the road.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
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.
Well, as a bicyclist I have the right to treat stop signs as yield sign
Not in most places you do not. Stop signs are stop signs and the rules are the same for bicycles as for automobiles. You stop at a stop sign the same as everyone else. If you do not then in most places you are breaking the law and being the sort of asshat who gives cyclists a bad name. I am aware local laws permit what you describe in some places but it is not widely true nor is it clear that it is a good idea in general.
You're not a cyclist are you?
Its illegal not to stop on the road at those red orthogonal signs that have the word stop written on them. Idiots like you deserve to get creamed, but its unfair that someone will have to live with the fact that they ran over your stupid ass because you refuse to follow the rules of the road due to your arrogance and self entitlement bullshit.
You deserve to get ran over for making such an ignorant response to his.
You're pulling off the road not to 'avoid using an electronic navigation aid' ... you're pulling off the road so you don't get turned into road smear because your dumb ass was staring at the GPS rather than the world around you, you ran into traffic and a garbage truck turned you into a very thin smear of blood and guts on the road.
For anyone who thinks that bikes are the problem, and not the attitudes of drivers, this should pretty much end that arguments.
The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
You're not a cyclist are you?
Its illegal not to stop on the road at those red orthogonal signs that have the word stop written on them. Idiots like you deserve to get creamed, but its unfair that someone will have to live with the fact that they ran over your stupid ass because you refuse to follow the rules of the road due to your arrogance and self entitlement bullshit.
You deserve to get ran over for making such an ignorant response to his.
You're pulling off the road not to 'avoid using an electronic navigation aid' ... you're pulling off the road so you don't get turned into road smear because your dumb ass was staring at the GPS rather than the world around you, you ran into traffic and a garbage truck turned you into a very thin smear of blood and guts on the road.
I don't know if you'd bothered to read the article about this topic (the link is at the top of this page, go ahead and click on it, it won't hurt you), but the entire point of the Hammerhead GPS is that you don't need to stare at it to use it -- the flashing lights are visible in your peripheral vision, or at worse with a quick glance. No need to stare at the blinky lights to know that when all of the lights on the right side are flashing then you should be making a right turn. Even better, when you see the left lights flashing 100 feet from your turn, you have plenty of time to gently merge into traffic to make your left turn instead of stopping at the stop sign, pulling out your map and then trying to make a left turn from the right side of the road.
I understand that you don't like bikes, but at least learn something about the product before you make an argument that tries to shoot down the very problem that the device is designed to solve (i.e. the need to stare at the GPS).
but the thing about biking (at least for some) is cadence - stopping breaks cadence.
So you actually admit being one of those assholes who ignore stop signs and red lights? You belong in an intensive care ward, that might cure your obsessive assholishness.
Stupid kid.
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