Several months ago I saw a little story in BRaIN about how GPS units for bikes have really come a long way. More recently, I've noticed that they're some of Mountain Bike Magazine's "Favorite Things" and Road Magazine did a little article about U.S. Pro Erik Saunders using one during the Sea Otter Road Race.
Imagine having someone walk into your shop and download all the local rides right into their handlebar-mounted GPS unit. Or, maybe IMBA could make a select list of their Epic Rides available via GPS as a membership premium. As these units become more common, consumers and shop owners will start figuring out all sorts of cool ways to use them. Should be interesting.
I log local rides on GPS and put them on my blog. If you are in New Zealand and want some Auckland Sightseeing rides let me know!
GPS is a very cool accessory and doesn't require huge investment. It’s a very cool thing to see that little pointer rolling along indicating turns! Elevation report it gives is also very handy as you can learn a lot about climbing etc watching the rate of change as you ride.
see: http://rcd.typepad.com/personal/cycling/index.html
Posted by: Robin Capper | June 15, 2005 at 05:11 AM
Forgot to say, wlecome to TypePad! I love it
Posted by: Robin Capper | June 15, 2005 at 05:12 AM
Then there will spring up a P2P / Bittorrent black market for exchanging these valuable ride files...and the ride developers will claim they need to have control over distribution to reclaim their costs of developing the rides...and then all the bike GPS units will start having competing proprietary DRM systems...and we'll have to sit through patronizing ads at the beginning of movies about how stealing ride files is anti-American...and next thing you know, the industry's gone and killed itself by crippling the technology's usefulness.
Isn't that how it works these days?
Posted by: Jessica | September 02, 2005 at 03:32 PM