roadcx.net

Yesterday, Andrea went on a long ride as a pair. She plotted out a long 95 mile route on BikeRouteToaster. We ended up adding a few miles along the way to get an even 100 miles. The route was a good one, although the long northward march (we did the route counter-clockwise) wasn’t super fun with the 10-12 mph cold NNW wind yesterday. The route also included two stretches of dirt roads of about 2-3 miles each: Old Solomon Mill to Lambert Dr (north of Somerville) and Braden Road south of I-40. I don’t think I have actually ridden 100 miles in one go since a 3-state, 3-mountain probably in 2003 or so. Since then, I have plenty of rides/races in the 75-90 mile range, just usually haven’t bothered to go the extra distance.

Staying on the subject of route mapping, I put together a short email for a friend that just got / is getting a Garmin 705 to use with his SRM.

• First thing out of the box, update the firmware to 2.6 (or whatever the newest is). There is a Garmin updater utility for both Mac and Windows.
• The default maps suck, get the $100 upgrade maps chip (if you haven’t already).
• The Garmin desktop software is pretty useless in my opinion, except for maybe the Garmin updater.
• You can download Garmin TCX files from MapMyRide or better yet BikeRouteToaster.com. BRT is a bit clunker, but at least you can put turn warnings in. You can move the files using the Garmin plugin or just drag the saved file into the Courses folder on your Garmin’s drive.
• Mounting, I used the stem mount, the little plastic tab broke off after three months. I rigged up something using hair bands (hair bands).
• Stopping will now create a break in the file (it didn’t use to). The time line will continue, so you will see 2:11:01, then 2:30:01 on the graph view in WKO+ if you stopped it for 20 minutes at 2:11 ride time, for example.
• Downloading to WKO+. Just plug it with a mini-USB cable (included). The device will mount as two drives (if you have the maps). The Garmin one is the one you want. Under history, drag and drop files onto an open WKO+ window. It will ask which athlete you want to put it for. Couldn’t be easier. (There is no way as far as I know to pull the files from the 705 like you can from a PT or a SRM PC, but it is easy this way, so it is no big deal).
• I have the Garmin sensor GSC10 for speed / cadence. The GPS alone does a pretty good job for measuring speed / distance, although their will be speed / spikes dropouts. Even with the GSC10, you get some of these occasionally. I am not sure if you can get cadence out of the SRM crank directy (although it is measuring it obviously… power = [force] x [lever arm] x [angular velocity/cadence])
• To pair, you need to wake up your SRM. I don’t remember how it went the first time, but it was pretty easy, as I remember. You will need to do a zero offset each time conditions change. As of now, there is no auto-zero capability (the current Firmware for SRM/PCVI has this capability as I understand).
• From WKO+, you can right click on a workout in calender view, to export to Google Earth (you will need to install this). You can also do the same with a selection (either a manual selection, lap selection, or best 20 minute power, etc).

I don’t have any regrets about the 705. I have been using it since mid-October 2008.