Month: August 2007

New Garmin Edge

Garmin Edge's new killer apps for cyclists – wireless route sharing and SRM power compatibility - gizmag Article

The mapping capabilities on the Edge 605 and Edge 705 allow cyclists to truly get lost in their ride without losing their way. Both units come with turn-by-turn routing to destinations based on built-in maps and optional detailed street or topographical maps on preloaded data cards.

Altitude is recorded using a barometric altimeter for the Edge 705. This accurate altitude data makes it much easier for cyclists to match their altitude profile with their speed, cadence, and heart rate during post-ride analysis. The Edge 605 measures altitude through GPS positioning.

Moultonbuzz believes that for a truly transcendental ride, you should leave everything at home... except a pump and perhaps a few jaffa cakes. But if you must bring a gadget with you, then a GPS mapping gadget is an excellent choice.

The Garmin Edge 205 and 305 have been out for a while and they looked great. I haven't used one but I was told that it lacked the facility to tell you where you were. You could of course do the usual GPS stuff - navigate to waypoints, and create a log of where you had been. But if you were truly lost, and turned on the device, it would presumably know where you were, but it couldn't tell you.
There was also the issue of fitting the optional speed/cadence sensor to a Moulton, because of the larger distance between rear wheel and crank. For an excellent article on how to do this modification see Detlef Beyer's article.

Garmin Speed/Cadence Sensor modified to fit a Moulton

The new Garmin Edge 605 and Edge 705 have lots of mapping goodness so either could turn out to be a good replacement for my current hodge podge of GPS applications and hardware which usually sits at home while I go for a ride.

When used with Garmin Connect — Garmin’s new and improved online training site — the Edge’s benefits continue long after the workout. By pairing the Edge 705 or Edge 605 with Garmin Connect, users can join a worldwide network of cyclists and outdoor enthusiasts and log their workouts, track their totals, share workouts and participate in an online community. They can also search and download routes uploaded by other users.

Which is fine if you're doing it when you should be working, but not when you should be on your bike 🙂

Weird and not at all wonderful

BikeRadar is at the Eurobike exhibition, and reports this morning on a new bicycle from Cannondale

...the Hooligan, a small-wheeled, hub geared urban machine that looks like the bastard offspring of a BMX and a Moulton.

It sounds weird but it might just work. Those small wheels will give you excellent acceleration (ideal for urban riding) and a long wheel base should make for stable and predictable handling, the hub gears mean low maintenance, and the burly frame certainly looks tough enough to cope with city streets - we shall see, we've already ordered one in for test.

Of course we all know that Moultons are pure breeds, and while it's vaguely possible that a frustrated early APB might fantasize about a dirty weekend with something classy like a Rivendell, it would certainly never mix it's genes with a BMX.

When you look at those fat tyres, only one thing comes to mind... the Raleigh RSW.

Fed up with newcomer Moulton selling so many bikes, Raleigh needed to hit back.
They badly needed to compete with the Moulton bicycle, but couldn't get around Moulton's suspension patents.

So they developed the RSW. At first glance it was vaguely similar to a Moulton. They used balloon tyres to get around the discomfort factor of unsuspended small wheels.

Raleigh RSW

The RSW was inferior in every way to the Moulton. It was 6lbs heavier and felt like cycling through treacle. But it was cheaper to manufacture, so Raleigh could sell it more cheaply.

The unsuspecting customer, walking into a bike shop to buy a Moulton could easily be convinced to buy this thing that looked a lot like a Moulton, but was over 10% cheaper, and had Raleigh's name on it.

Neo-liberal mass market corporation's greedy marketing tactics win out over sound engineering shocker.

So is history about to repeat itself. I don't think so. Firstly, Alex Moulton is unlikely to sell his company to Cannondale, as he did to Raleigh in the 1960's.

But more importantly, the original Moulton was sold to the mass market, and so was vulnerable to mass market competition, and big bicycle manufacturers.

Today's Moultons are a very much specialised product for a niche market. People who buy Moultons are a very different segment of the market to the majority of the market: mountain bikes that never see a mountain, junk hybrids, supermarket bike shaped objects and tour de france clones.

Land's End to John o' Groats on a TSR 30

I have been following the build up and now the progress of Simon Berry's Participation Ride 2007, which this year intends to use the National Cycle Network as much as possible.

Last year I raised £1,000 for ruralnet|uk's Participation Fund and that has been spent enabling people working hard in their own communities to attend our annual conference and access our online support services. PLEASE help me beat last year's total by clicking the 'Sponsor Me' button to the right. I will personally and privately acknowledge all donations.

In return I will endeavour to keep you informed and amused by blogging the trip here 'from the saddle'!
Many thanks.

In return I will endeavour to keep you informed and amused by blogging the trip here 'from the saddle'!

There's a great deal of interesting material on the route, with maps and lots of GPS goodies, accomodation and most importantly the bike. You can also read about last year's ride.

Also check out the page of video from last years ride.

The video below features Simon detailing the bike fully loaded, and it serves to demonstrate how well the TSR / Moultons in general are built for touring.