Garmin 1000 any good?

Bar Shaker

meanredspider wrote:

philthy3 wrote:

Bar Shaker wrote:

I don't disagree that the UI could be better but it has improved with every model and the 1000 is now very simple to use and very usable.

If you struggle with it, cycling gps units probably aren't for you (I don't mean you personally MRS).

Couldn't agree more.

I wish our customers had such low expectations as you guys. It's no wonder that Garmin (and others) continue to do such a bad job. If you put up with crap, that's exactly what you get. Next time you find yourself reaching for the instructions you'll know that it's only because you accept it that you get it. Simple as that.

I see this as the opposite being the case.

Products only significantly improve when markets are mature and new entrants see a return on their development budgets. I consider that the many thousands of GPS users consider their units to be rated as good enough or good. The very latest units are good or very good and new products will improve on this. The smart phone market is a classic model for such risk and reward. The product leaders can and will change positions, despite brand loyalties and any manufacturer who thinks this won't happen will quickly find themselves to be the Blackberry of that market.

Accepting a defective product isn't an option. With so little choice in our very small market, we either decide that the product development is at a level to suit our expectations or we make do without the product.

I believe the latest Garmin unit to be some distance ahead of the competition and other Garmin products and am happy with what I bought. Taking a few minutes to learn how to turn on the basic functions is no real hardship.

meanredspider

You haven't really addressed the point.

People (very much like me, in fact) sit in big multinationals and spend some of their busy day looking at complaints, returns and consumer reviews on places like Amazon. We want our products to be the Best. If consumers review products and say "It's not very intuitive", or ring up to ask "How do I do so-and-so" or, worse still, return the product because they can't figure it out, people like me think "We've got to do better". And then we talk to our Development colleagues, designers and clinical testers and say "We've gotta fix this - if not in this generation, then in the next. And, by the way, how can we change our development process so that we get it right first time?"

Again, you're accepting mediocrity, though when you accept that you have to take time to learn it. Why should you? The device has everything it needs. My iPhone doesn't come with any instructions and yet it's infinitely more complex. And it is interesting that you bring up Blackberry because, for me, they were the worst for human factors engineering - I hated mine with a passion because, in designing it, they clearly hadn't thought through want users want.

As for Garmin - they're just fat, dumb and happy because there's no credible competition. If I had a pound for all the people I've heard curse Garmin's existence, I'd be very wealthy.

lostboysaint

meanredspider wrote:

As for Garmin - they're just fat, dumb and happy because there's no credible competition. If I had a pound for all the people I've heard curse Garmin's existence, I'd be very wealthy.

And if you stopped whining about it and got your head together with an electronics manufacturer and produced one that does what you want and marketed it properly you'd be even more wealthy.

(Or simply took a pound for everyone that's happy with theirs, you'd still be infinitely more wealthy - but hey, if you're happy being a whinging pauper.

Bar Shaker

meanredspider wrote:

You haven't really addressed the point.

People (very much like me, in fact) sit in big multinationals and spend some of their busy day looking at complaints, returns and consumer reviews on places like Amazon. We want our products to be the Best. If consumers review products and say "It's not very intuitive", or ring up to ask "How do I do so-and-so" or, worse still, return the product because they can't figure it out, people like me think "We've got to do better". And then we talk to our Development colleagues, designers and clinical testers and say "We've gotta fix this - if not in this generation, then in the next. And, by the way, how can we change our development process so that we get it right first time?"

Again, you're accepting mediocrity, though when you accept that you have to take time to learn it. Why should you? The device has everything it needs. My iPhone doesn't come with any instructions and yet it's infinitely more complex. And it is interesting that you bring up Blackberry because, for me, they were the worst for human factors engineering - I hated mine with a passion because, in designing it, they clearly hadn't thought through want users want.

As for Garmin - they're just fat, dumb and happy because there's no credible competition. If I had a pound for all the people I've heard curse Garmin's existence, I'd be very wealthy.

The market for cycling GPS units is tiny in the world of electronics. If we don't like it, the alternative is a Cateye or a phone app that dies after 3 hours.

If Garmin could sell the volumes of Edge 810/1000 units that Apple sell of iPhones, we could rightly expect similar design, build and reliability standards. Apple's R&D budget needs them to sell hundreds of millions of units a year, at £600-£800 per unit, to make money. Garmin probably sell less than 50,000 Edge 1000 units a year. If it were twice as good, they would sell 10% more, because there are only a finite amount of riders who will spend £400 on a GPS, no matter how good it is.

Anyone can sit on a multinational board and press the button on incredible products, which no one will then buy because no one can afford them.

The 1000 does everything I could want of a cycle GPS a and it does it exceptionally well, all on a very good hi res screen. The screen is like drawing in Rotoring pens, when having previously only drawn in crayons. It is so much better.

The connectivity is good but this is where we will see these units develop, with more computing power being within an app on your phone and the head unit being reserved for data collection and display. The phone will hold the menus , the data manipulation and data storage will be on cloud services uploaded as and when we have a signal. This will give even better battery life for even lighter head units. Just think how long the battery lasts in your cadence or speed sensor! ANT+ reception will also be the next step for phones, as they continue on the health app route.

Unless you were seriously budget constrained, the 1000 does almost everything that cycle GPS units will ever do and I would buy the same again tomorrow. Don't judge it by what these units have done before, it builds on previous units but is the first one to really start to be integrated. Because it can connect to the outside world (it uses Bluetooth and wifi) software updates and phone apps will start to make much more use of these functions.

If you moan and shun it, you are missing out on a great piece of technology.

meanredspider

You miss the point that I bought it and sent it back. Not because I couldn't use it but because it didn't work. They might work now but it was riddled with faults.

The point about good design is that it doesn't cost much (per unit). You don't need to sell millions to get it right. And it soon pays for itself in more sales and less complaints and returns.

I actually think that the 1000 has improved in user experience. It wasn't me that raised the point that it's the user who screw it up. All of the problems I came across were firmware/software problems. I resented the fact that Garmin launched it clearly before it was ready. Not all the features were ready and many of them didn't work properly (I can list them). Garmin Connect also wasn't finished and functions like map updates didn't work either. It was terrible. If one of my development teams had tried to launch something this half-finished, I'd have exploded.

nibby

I think they have only just scratched the surface with these devices. Lots more to do and if they want to compete in the future with phones they will have to make big strides and give people what they want.

For example I'm not sure why with the current 1000 they couldn't allow for text messages to be sent from the device and not just the ability to view (I think that's correct?)

Other future stuff would be things like displaying real time segments from Garmin and Strava, allowing for training software integration etc.

Lots still to do.

I've had a few Garmin's in my time and tbh and touching wood none of them have broken down. I wish the same could be said for some of the Apple devices I've had!!

nferrar

I agree that the 1000 still leaves a lot to be desired and they're lucky they don't yet have serious competition. But the 1000 does do most of what most people would want from a bike GPS. All I'd really want to see improved is: better screen (it's still a long long way short of smartphone standards), longer battery life (although this somewhat conflicts with wanting a better screen - an easier way of piggy backing additional battery packs would be a good start though) and better on-the-fly routing options (like if a road is closed to be able to route around it by creating new waypoints on-screen until you were back on the original route).
I don't really see the point of things like being able to use it to text from, you'll have your phone with you anyway and that's always going to be the better option, maybe an SOS feature (press a button on the garmin and it sends out a pre-defined text to a pre-defined number) might be handy but hopefully very few people would ever need it so not really worth developing until all the other issues are resolved.

StillGoing

nibby wrote:

I think they have only just scratched the surface with these devices. Lots more to do and if they want to compete in the future with phones they will have to make big strides and give people what they want.

For example I'm not sure why with the current 1000 they couldn't allow for text messages to be sent from the device and not just the ability to view (I think that's correct?)

Other future stuff would be things like displaying real time segments from Garmin and Strava, allowing for training software integration etc.

Garmin aren't trying to be mobile phones though. The SMS and call alert is just that; an alert for the rider should they wish to respond to the sender/caller and in which case stop and do so, as to do it from the bike when riding would be idiotic. Garmin and Strava are two separate companies and in the area of performance measuring for riders, unlikely to give each other access to their systems in order to give alerts for segments. With the 1000, users can re-create Strava segments to alert them when they are on a ride.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1igmUMjS8Ko

The Garmin segments on the 1000 can be made to alert you during the ride.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q6txeDfAUE

Bar Shaker

Texting from your Garmin? Perhaps from the optional plug in keyboard you have mounted on the bars? Insane.

As for segments, Garmin segments are being created to mirror the Strava ones and you are still racing against your PB on the display so what's lost? It all works fine. In fact with auto upload, your ride is on Strava before you have sipped the first pint. You can then relax and browse your new KOMs without doing anything else.

None of you lot moaning about the Garmin 1000 have got one, have you?

meanredspider

I think there's a lot of good ideas on the 1000 - that's why I bought one - just a shame it didn't work.

I think there are still plenty of things that you could add: I like the SOS idea and, in fact, you could even have a feature that for pre-set parameters (like no motion for x minutes) it sends an SOS text from the phone to a pre-defined contact.

I think there's far more things that they could add relative to Di2 up to, and including, auto gear selection. Specs for 3rd party apps would be great.

Voice to a BT headset might be interesting too (coaching tips, turns, warnings etc) - could be via a phone app.

Routing that finds or avoids hills.

Airspeed (ie recognising when you're drafting, headwind, tailwind etc)

Loads of ideas off the top of my head.

lostboysaint

Stop rubbishing other people's products and crack on with developing your own then

meanredspider

lostboysaint wrote:

Stop rubbishing other people's products and crack on with developing your own then

I'd love to

nibby

Bar Shaker wrote:

Texting from your Garmin? Perhaps from the optional plug in keyboard you have mounted on the bars? Insane.

As for segments, Garmin segments are being created to mirror the Strava ones and you are still racing against your PB on the display so what's lost? It all works fine. In fact with auto upload, your ride is on Strava before you have sipped the first pint. You can then relax and browse your new KOMs without doing anything else.

None of you lot moaning about the Garmin 1000 have got one, have you?

Good point re not having one AND about Garmin mirroring Stava segments but it's not something I'm seeing at the moment tbh all my segments on garmin and strava are currently very different.

Re texting I was thinking more of a pre defined message that could easy be sent i.e. 2 or 3 clicks and bosh so I'm on the way home and decide to do an extra hour on the bike don't fancy stopping to get my phone out of my pocket etc etc but just want to send a quick text telling the wife I'm going to be late, message has already been setup 2 or 3 clicks job done.

Question:
With the current 1000 would it be possible for the Garmin to tell me when I'm starting and ending a segment and show me how I'm doing compared to my previous PB on that segment?

If yes I'm tempted

meanredspider

Yes - it will tell you. It counts you down and tells you whether you're ahead or behind. That said, since I created segments on my 1000 they've started showing up on my 800 - something I wasn't expecting.

StillGoing

nibby wrote:

Bar Shaker wrote:

Texting from your Garmin? Perhaps from the optional plug in keyboard you have mounted on the bars? Insane.

As for segments, Garmin segments are being created to mirror the Strava ones and you are still racing against your PB on the display so what's lost? It all works fine. In fact with auto upload, your ride is on Strava before you have sipped the first pint. You can then relax and browse your new KOMs without doing anything else.

None of you lot moaning about the Garmin 1000 have got one, have you?

Good point re not having one AND about Garmin mirroring Stava segments but it's not something I'm seeing at the moment tbh all my segments on garmin and strava are currently very different.

Re texting I was thinking more of a pre defined message that could easy be sent i.e. 2 or 3 clicks and bosh so I'm on the way home and decide to do an extra hour on the bike don't fancy stopping to get my phone out of my pocket etc etc but just want to send a quick text telling the wife I'm going to be late, message has already been setup 2 or 3 clicks job done.

Question:
With the current 1000 would it be possible for the Garmin to tell me when I'm starting and ending a segment and show me how I'm doing compared to my previous PB on that segment?

If yes I'm tempted

Why not read the threads people bother to post up? As for still wanting to send messages from your cycling device; just stop the bike and send it from your phone rather than risk becoming another statistic, or are you genuinely seeking a Darwin award?

philthy3 wrote:

nibby wrote:

I think they have only just scratched the surface with these devices. Lots more to do and if they want to compete in the future with phones they will have to make big strides and give people what they want.

For example I'm not sure why with the current 1000 they couldn't allow for text messages to be sent from the device and not just the ability to view (I think that's correct?)

Other future stuff would be things like displaying real time segments from Garmin and Strava, allowing for training software integration etc.

Garmin aren't trying to be mobile phones though. The SMS and call alert is just that; an alert for the rider should they wish to respond to the sender/caller and in which case stop and do so, as to do it from the bike when riding would be idiotic. Garmin and Strava are two separate companies and in the area of performance measuring for riders, unlikely to give each other access to their systems in order to give alerts for segments. With the 1000, users can re-create Strava segments to alert them when they are on a ride.
<span class="skimlinks-unlinked">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1igmUMjS8Ko&lt;/span&gt;

The Garmin segments on the 1000 can be made to alert you during the ride.
<span class="skimlinks-unlinked">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q6txeDfAUE&lt;/span&gt;

nibby

meanredspider wrote:

Yes - it will tell you. It counts you down and tells you whether you're ahead or behind. That said, since I created segments on my 1000 they've started showing up on my 800 - something I wasn't expecting.

Excellent, thanks for reply. Although not essential would be fun to have and would probably put me in a constant state of overtraining

philthy3 - obviously didn't read your post fully, my fault. Apologies.

Also thanks for your opinion re sending a text. Good job we are all different hey

I'll still wait until they develop the 1000 a bit more and bring out the 1010 which going by Garmin's standards wont be long!!

Bar Shaker

meanredspider wrote:

I think there's a lot of good ideas on the 1000 - that's why I bought one - just a shame it didn't work.

I think there are still plenty of things that you could add: I like the SOS idea and, in fact, you could even have a feature that for pre-set parameters (like no motion for x minutes) it sends an SOS text from the phone to a pre-defined contact.

I think there's far more things that they could add relative to Di2 up to, and including, auto gear selection. Specs for 3rd party apps would be great.

Voice to a BT headset might be interesting too (coaching tips, turns, warnings etc) - could be via a phone app.

Routing that finds or avoids hills.

Airspeed (ie recognising when you're drafting, headwind, tailwind etc)

Loads of ideas off the top of my head.

I wouldn't want any of those functions on my GPS.

It alerts loved ones that I have stopped moving, if I stop for coffee or help someone with a puncture? No thanks. Besides, just turn on Live Track if someone wants to monitor your progress.

Auto shifting? An EWW01 won't accept commands, it only transmits gear and battery info to the 1000. Why would Garmin want to take on your Di2 reliability (which is otherwise flawless) within their warranty agreement?

It can display pace info, similarly it can display the breach of HR and cadence limits that you have set as alerts. These can have an alarm to. Do you need it big enough for a waterproof speaker so it can read these out? All sounds a bit Fischer Price.

Routing to avoid hills? If you are creating the route then look at the map topology. If it's a set route such as a sportive, you get what it is. The base maps don't contain any topo info. Perhaps it could give you a BT voice alert when you are approaching a hill. Oh, wait a minute.

Airspeed??? I can tell when I have a headwind or tailwind, or when I am drafting the club pack. Why would I want my GPS to tell me this?

Really guys, it's a GPS. It's a £400 GPS. It's small, light reliable and waterproof.

Have you heard the saying that a camel is a horse that was designed by a committee?

meanredspider

Holey Moley, BS, I'm glad (or at least desperately hope) you don't work for a consumer electronics company (though, if you admitted you work for Garmin, it would explain a lot). You have incredibly low expectations. As far as you're concerned, Garmin can let the Edge team go - their work is complete. Personally I want a lot more and a lot better.

Take the hills example. The 1000 can suggest routes. What's one of road cycling's most variable aspects? The clue is where cyclists go on training holidays. The Netherlands isn't a great magnet for training camps.

The gear changing is already being worked on.

Airspeed - when you look back at your data (or segment speeds of you or others) how do you know whether you were drafting or riding a tailwind. Since "aero" is clearly really important and around 80% of your effort going into defeating air resistance, why not measure it?

I bet at least some of these are on future models. You'll be happy though because you can stick with the 1000 forever.

nibby

100% agree.

It's called progress and as previously said it's a good job we are not all the same.

Just because you don't want something doesn't mean nobody else might find it useful.

Just like we all don't need the fancy, lightweight bikes, could always just ride our Raleigh Grifter's from the 80's

meanredspider wrote:

Holey Moley, BS, I'm glad (or at least desperately hope) you don't work for a consumer electronics company (though, if you admitted you work for Garmin, it would explain a lot). You have incredibly low expectations. As far as you're concerned, Garmin can let the Edge team go - their work is complete. Personally I want a lot more and a lot better.

Take the hills example. The 1000 can suggest routes. What's one of road cycling's most variable aspects? The clue is where cyclists go on training holidays. The Netherlands isn't a great magnet for training camps.

The gear changing is already being worked on.

Airspeed - when you look back at your data (or segment speeds of you or others) how do you know whether you were drafting or riding a tailwind. Since "aero" is clearly really important and around 80% of your effort going into defeating air resistance, why not measure it?

I bet at least some of these are on future models. You'll be happy though because you can stick with the 1000 forever.

StillGoing

meanredspider wrote:

Holey Moley, BS, I'm glad (or at least desperately hope) you don't work for a consumer electronics company (though, if you admitted you work for Garmin, it would explain a lot). You have incredibly low expectations. As far as you're concerned, Garmin can let the Edge team go - their work is complete. Personally I want a lot more and a lot better.

Take the hills example. The 1000 can suggest routes. What's one of road cycling's most variable aspects? The clue is where cyclists go on training holidays. The Netherlands isn't a great magnet for training camps.

The gear changing is already being worked on.

Airspeed - when you look back at your data (or segment speeds of you or others) how do you know whether you were drafting or riding a tailwind. Since "aero" is clearly really important and around 80% of your effort going into defeating air resistance, why not measure it?

I bet at least some of these are on future models. You'll be happy though because you can stick with the 1000 forever.

Would you like it to actually pedal your bike for you and service it afterwards too? Hey how about it tells you your tyre pressure and why not add a vending machine function so it can dispense food supplements at the touch of a button. :roll:

meanredspider

philthy3 wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

Holey Moley, BS, I'm glad (or at least desperately hope) you don't work for a consumer electronics company (though, if you admitted you work for Garmin, it would explain a lot). You have incredibly low expectations. As far as you're concerned, Garmin can let the Edge team go - their work is complete. Personally I want a lot more and a lot better.

Take the hills example. The 1000 can suggest routes. What's one of road cycling's most variable aspects? The clue is where cyclists go on training holidays. The Netherlands isn't a great magnet for training camps.

The gear changing is already being worked on.

Airspeed - when you look back at your data (or segment speeds of you or others) how do you know whether you were drafting or riding a tailwind. Since "aero" is clearly really important and around 80% of your effort going into defeating air resistance, why not measure it?

I bet at least some of these are on future models. You'll be happy though because you can stick with the 1000 forever.

Would you like it to actually pedal your bike for you and service it afterwards too? Hey how about it tells you your tyre pressure and why not add a vending machine function so it can dispense food supplements at the touch of a button. :roll:

Now we're talking! I don't know why I'm still surprised but the cycling world is so conservative. Left to your own devices, many of you guys would still be taking your wheels off to change gear.

StillGoing

meanredspider wrote:

I don't know why I'm still surprised but the cycling world is so conservative. Left to your own devices, many of you guys would still be taking your wheels off to change gear.

It's because we take the Garmin Edge devices for what they are; an aid to record attributes in measuring cycling performance including mapping for those that have it and nothing more. What you're seeking is something greater than that and the closest thing I can think of that matches it is the infotainment system in my car. The size of that is far greater than the size of a Garmin device and I wouldn't want something that weight slowing me down.

Cyclists buying Edge devices are mostly in it to measure their performance. They don't see it as some media tool extension or something to replace the mobile phone or iPod for those that wear them while riding. As Barshaker has stated, routes you download for events you stick to anyway so elevation is out of your hands, but routes you create, you can choose whether you want hills or want to avoid them, although I don't know why you would? If you're just using the create route/surprise me function, then accept that it may throw in the odd hill or more. The Di2 link is merely another guide to measuring performance in telling you your gearing for a given speed, cadence etc. It isn't the forerunner to setting up the gears and neither would I want it to be.

meanredspider

But it already does more. Segments, weather, text and call alerts. I don't want media - I have that on my not-the-size-of-car-system phone. In fact, I could happily see that the bike computer simply becomes a GPS receiver and display - with the rest being managed by your phone connecting to a variety of sensors - this is the logical conclusion of the Internet of Things. Your system would then become far more configurable. You can build APIs into all of the items and hook them up how you like. In fact, I can see wheels having built-in speed sensors for instance. If you believe the 1000 is some sort of pinnacle, you haven't seen anything yet.

Bar Shaker

meanredspider wrote:

Holey Moley, BS, I'm glad (or at least desperately hope) you don't work for a consumer electronics company (though, if you admitted you work for Garmin, it would explain a lot). You have incredibly low expectations. As far as you're concerned, Garmin can let the Edge team go - their work is complete. Personally I want a lot more and a lot better.

Take the hills example. The 1000 can suggest routes. What's one of road cycling's most variable aspects? The clue is where cyclists go on training holidays. The Netherlands isn't a great magnet for training camps.

The gear changing is already being worked on.

Airspeed - when you look back at your data (or segment speeds of you or others) how do you know whether you were drafting or riding a tailwind. Since "aero" is clearly really important and around 80% of your effort going into defeating air resistance, why not measure it?

I bet at least some of these are on future models. You'll be happy though because you can stick with the 1000 forever.

Ok, let's take the hills. The unit can't avoid hills because base maps, all GPS base maps, are 2D. They don't have the topographical information. This is why the unit uses a barometer to guess the height climbed. This isn't a Garmin problem, or Bryton or Tomtom, it is a NASA/USAF/Ordnance Survey issue. It isn't an issue that is going to be solved by a maker of cycling GPS units. Further, GPS units need to assume that the earth is a smooth sphere to work. The maths to calculate your position on the surface of a smooth sphere is hard enough. Working it out in 3D isn't beyond the computing power we have now, but it would require significantly more precision in the time stamps from the 'birds' and they are already close (as in Galleleo) to what can be received once atmospheric density and gravity variations are added into the time taken for the time stamp signal to arrive. Military stuff may do it, but that wouldnt be for public (enemy) use.

There is good news though. I've heard from my colleagues in the Edge development team that your suggestion of an SOS is being taken seriously. If you are stationary for more than 3'45" during a ride, the new Garmin 1001 will send a text message and your co-ordinates direct to the Surrey Police helicopter, so that rescue can be co-ordinated. You see, they do listen.

meanredspider

Elevation is just the base map. Nothing to do with GPS. Just get a better base map and algorithm.

The emergency thing already exists and works very well. I have it in my phone. There's a helmet that does something similar.

We can argue about this stuff forever. I have a pretty good track record on seeing where this stuff goes - mostly because I'm in the industry. But it's still just an opinion and you don't have to believe me.

dmcg

meanredspider wrote:

The emergency thing already exists and works very well. I have it in my phone. There's a helmet that does something similar.

What do you use if you don't mind me asking?

I ask as I'm working on something similar at http://www.rescyoume.com

meanredspider

dmcg wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

The emergency thing already exists and works very well. I have it in my phone. There's a helmet that does something similar.

What do you use if you don't mind me asking?

I ask as I'm working on something similar at http://www.rescyoume.com

iSOS alert - I haven't used it for a while - I got it when I was winter commuting up in the Highlands and realised I could have a big " off" in the middle of nowhere and no-one would find me for ages (in the dark in sub-zero temps). It would just send a text message to someone pre-defined (spouse, friend, colleague) in the event that it detected no movement for a pre-defined time with your location. It would also warn you before it triggered (in case you forget to "disarm" it).

dmcg

meanredspider wrote:

dmcg wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

The emergency thing already exists and works very well. I have it in my phone. There's a helmet that does something similar.

What do you use if you don't mind me asking?

I ask as I'm working on something similar at <span class="skimlinks-unlinked">http://www.rescyoume.com</span&gt;

iSOS alert - I haven't used it for a while - I got it when I was winter commuting up in the Highlands and realised I could have a big " off" in the middle of nowhere and no-one would find me for ages (in the dark in sub-zero temps). It would just send a text message to someone pre-defined (spouse, friend, colleague) in the event that it detected no movement for a pre-defined time with your location. It would also warn you before it triggered (in case you forget to "disarm" it).

Ah yes, my brother in law has a similar app for motorbiking, although his is supposed to detect catastrophic deceleration not just stopping!

meanredspider

That's the basis of the helmet thing that's been developed. Stopping is fine though - you just pause it. I had mine set on a limit of 5 minutes (so the alarm would "trigger" after that time). The first thing in the trigger process is a warning alarm on the phone (to prevent false alarms). It would then send a text to one or more people which might say "phone me. If I don't answer, please help" It was just a bit of peace of mind. Using just the tracking feature of the 1000 would mean people would need to keep an eye on you (2 hours a day in my case) - clearly not practical. You could build in an acceleration threshold - you'd need to be sure a bad pothole didn't trigger it.

Bar Shaker

Blimey I remember when people just used to go out on bike rides.

The fatal flaw with these 'crashed in the middle of no where' things (and let's face it, we all always crash when we reach the middle of no where) is that the middle of no where rarely has a phone signal. There is a solution though. Modern satellite phones are now sub £2k and under 1kg in weight. Signal from the middle of no where is assured, provided the unit isn't damaged in the crash that has damaged you. All we need is a bit of room on the bars between the 1010 and the texting keyboard, for a sat phone mount and the parabolic antenna... or better still have it built into the 1010.

I really feel we are making progress with this and can't believe I was so blinkered in liking my 1000, as it is.