Unlucky in Raffle Draws

Missed Opportunity

Just a word of warning that this will be a trash of a post because of the ranting. It's okay if you skip this one, just let me hate on something for now.

A cycling vlogger that I follow recently joined a group ride showcasing Garmin's newest bike computer, the Garmin Edge 1040. Just by reading through its website, it features solar charging on its screen, better GPS and on-device training guidance, among other useful features.

What irks me was that, the cyclist just used the Edge 1040 as a speedometer most of the time. He didn't even bother to load the route, it was painful to see him use his phone's Google Maps to check the route - leaving one hand on the bars - which defeats the purpose of having a GPS-enabled bike computer.

That is the sole reason I bought the Wahoo Elemnt Bolt v2, to think that it's too expensive for a beginner cyclist like me. I want to make use of the maps and be able to go to places without the fear of getting lost. True enough, I was able to go to Antipolo (sorry, I am that much of a noob to say I don't know my way up to Antipolo) and other places during our Bisikleta Iglesia just because I have my trusty Wahoo with me. The cyclist that I was referring to got lost and almost went straight to Tagaytay ridge because his fellow cyclists have already gone ahead. He could have gone left, but since he doesn't have the route loaded in his bike computer, he went straight ahead.

But to give him the benefit of the doubt - he probably got the unit only a day before the event. Even so, knowing that he's using a 530, he never used the GPS feature (at least not much in his recent long rides), probably to conserve on battery. He probably doesn't rely much on GPS because he knows his way around the area.

So what is my problem? Maybe I am just geeking way too much on gadgets like this that I hate it when people get these and don't use much of its features. In this case it's basically just a glorified speedometer.

I guess it's not my business - people can do whatever they want with their money.

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Jamie Larson
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