Goodbye Garmin

For some time now I've been growing more frustrated with my Garmin Edge 800. It takes way too long to load a route or find satellites. You have to turn it on five minutes before you start the ride to give it time to get ready.

I recently bought a stem mount for my Galaxy Note II but sent it back because it had a poor design. Today I received a bike mount for my Note II which it rock solid. It's heavy but it isn't going to snap off on the first pothole and send my cell phone flying across the road at 20mph.

I took it out for a spin up to the top of Keller Peak - my weekly sufferfest. I used the RWGPS android app, downloaded the route, clicked "Ride" and off I went. The app doesn't have as many metrics as the Edge but you can read them while looking at the map. I have a dynamo hub and a USB converter so I don't have to worry about running out of batteries.

This app is totally worth joining RWGPS as a basic member.

One of the very coolest things I found is that at the end of the ride you can upload the details to your RWGPS account without having to hook up to your computer. There is also a feature called "Live Logging" which updates your location to your account every few minutes so your loved ones can keep track of you.