Originally Posted by
Tourist in MSN
Did Jenny Graham break the record before or after Lael Wilcox?
I am a retired geological engineer, I worked with maps every day for my professional career before I retired. I bought my first personal GPS in 2001, I have lost count of how many GPS units I have bought over the decades. I often used my own GPS for work too, they did not provide one. When you had to have good maps and location equipment for your job, you have a different attitude on that sort of stuff than the attitude from a weekend roadie.
There have been a couple times when I put my phone in the clear map case on top of my handlebar bag, I do not recall why I did that but I recall doing it. I remember in bright sun not being able to see anything on it. Point being that I have used the phone as a backup to the GPS.
According to this link, only two of the riders that responded to the survey used phones for navigation on the Great Divide race this year, that is twice as many as used paper maps. Over 100 used GPS. I am actually shocked that so few used their phone since everyone would have carried a phone too. They probably were reluctant to use their phone in rain and snow.
https://bikepacking.com/bikes/rigs-o...r-divide-stats
If you enjoyed my story on my parking brake that saved the day for that phone user on a brevet, in brake mode my parking brake looks like this, two extra thick hair elastics:
Jenny Graham was before Lael Wilcox. Graham's book was enthralling. I'm glad I chose the audio format, because she herself read it, and she included a few voice memos she recorded during her trip.
I followed Wilcox as she rode around the world, listening to her podcast. It was not very engaging. I shouldn't fault her for not being a good writer, but it does seem that she had more support than she was entitled to, people following her and taking care of many of her needs.
Of course, I remember the pre-digital days when paper maps were the only maps. I appreciate the digital maps and use them heavily, but I'm sure you agree that we lost a bit when we lost paper maps.
Your parking brake is nice. I've done something similar but manage to live without it most of the time. Remember the Flickstand? It was clever, but of course, it doesn't work with fenders.