[QUOTE=BearSquirrel;10106943]A lot of cyclometers will do that as well.
Originally Posted by
BearSquirrel
A handheld GPS is NOT a good replacement for a cyclometer. It is not designed for vehicular use.
Note that a "handheld" GPS doesn't work any differently than the ones desgined for "vehicle" use (ie, ones designed for navigation use in cars. The problem with any of them is that they don't work very well at registering speeds at low speeds (this ends up not really being a problem for cars, because they are relatively fast).
Originally Posted by
BearSquirrel
Further, the altitude readings from a garden variety GPS wildly inaccurate.
Anyway, the
real problem with GPS-only altitude measurements is that the GPS system was designed to locate position on 2-dimensional surface because that was really the only goal. (Adding precise altitude measurements would have made the system much more expensive.)
Originally Posted by
BearSquirrel
I guess someone reasoned knowing WHERE something is AND it's altitude are pretty critical to putting a missle on in it ;-)
Actually, knowing the altitude is irrelevent for targetting missiles since it's generally good enough to be able to hit the ground that the target sits on!
Originally Posted by
BearSquirrel
In any case, the Garmin bike GPS units have barometric altimeters in addition to the GPS reading.
To be able to determine altitude with more accuracy (to be any sort of use to people), the device needs more information than satellites can provide. GPS units use barometric pressure to provide that extra information.
Originally Posted by
BearSquirrel
You can also use a wireless speed sensor that will work regardless of cloud/leaf/building cover. You can also use wireless cadence and heart sensors with them. These are also things cyclists consider important.
The Garmin Dakota 20 (and some of the Oregon units) will display the data that cadence and HR monitors provide because the transmitters use ANT+ and these Garmin units are ANT+ recievers.
The Garmin Edge 705's
one special feature is that it will display speed from a wheel-based transmittier by allowing the wheel size to be entered into the display unit. The other advantage of determining speed this way is that it doesn't need access to satellites and it is more accurate at low speeds.