Following up my earlier post:
https://cycle.travel/post/7102
Continuing my quest to produce some of the most boring videos ever made public, I offer a few more. These might enable you to compare navigation using the cycle.travel app with the appearance on some dedicated cycling computers.
I apologise if this seems like an application for membership of the Dull Men’s Club (a real thing, see https://dullmensclub.com/). At least they are mercifully shorter than my previous efforts.
This is a series of videos of real-world rides from Sherborne to Castle Cary, 19.5 kilometres (or 12 miles) through part of the Dorset and Somerset countryside. The route was created on the Cycle.Travel website and saved as the GPX Track format with elevation data.
There are links to individual videos, but you can also find these by an internet search for “YouTube Reg Pither”.
1. The first video is a screen capture of the Cycle.travel app, version 2.1, with audio so you can hear the turn prompts. This was done using the screen recording function pre-installed on my Sony Xperia mobile phone, but for an unknown reason the recording stops part of the way through the ride. The C.T app continued to work properly to the destination.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ih3Z1RZtHCY
2. The second video is similar: a recording of the Cycle.Travel app, version 2.3, with audio and with the elevation displayed (swipe up on the app). Again, the screen recording stops a little short of the destination, but the app did not. Note that at 10:06 the elevation profile zooms in because the C.T app has chosen this as the start of a distinct climb.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQFSOpzq6_w
3. Same ride, as seen on the screen of a Garmin Edge 840 with default appearance. Screen recording is switched on via a hidden menu in beta firmware (version 30.18 dated 12/02/26). The route was sent from C.T to the Garmin Connect app, and thence to the 840. There was quite a bit of work to turn this into a video (I know, yawn), as the Garmin stored the screenshots as 9,473 bitmap files. The Garmin decides that there are five distinct climbs on this route.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvEwq-_8k7Y
4. Same ride, as seen on the screen of a Wahoo Elemnt Roam v2 (firmware WC50-17071). The right-hand side of the screen shows vehicles approaching from behind, as detected by a Garmin Varia radar device – a faintly amusing feature is that the version 1 or 2 Wahoos allowed you to change the graphic of the approaching car: in this video they are Father Christmases left over from December. The Wahoo decides that there are eight distinct climbs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLn04SsCUKw
5. Same ride, as seen on the screen of a Wahoo Elemnt Ace (firmware WG77-302041). Version 3 Wahoo devices (Bolt, Roam or Ace) don’t allow the radar graphic to be changed, so just cars. Just one feature might be of interest: I placed a marker on the Cycle.Travel map at the location of Chapel Cross Tearoom, which is slightly off the planned route; this becomes a waypoint in the GPX Track, and transfers to third generation Wahoo devices as a Custom Point of Interest (a magenta circle on the map). At 48:47, a magenta banner pops up clearly warning you that you are approaching your chosen point – this might be useful for, say, an Audax control point or sportive feed station, or (for me) something like a monument or church that I want to look at. The Wahoo Ace also does audio turn announcements, but as most of my riding is in quiet areas, I don’t have this turned on. The more riding I have done, the less I depend on the turn-by-turn instructions – an occasional glance at the chevron route line and I can see where to go long before any junction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlqeRD5dfak
6. If you would prefer to see a slow ride through Dorset and Somerset, I have also uploaded video footage from my Cycliq Fly12 front safety camera: blue sky, birdsong, and hollow way hedgerows. This is in two parts, because I can’t work out a way to merge all of the five-minute MP4 files into a single video. On the audio track you will be able to hear the turn prompts from the Cycle.Travel app, and see how these relate to the road. Try to ignore the sound of an old man puffing up the hills.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEV88A9YL3k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdMXQhyEPEc
Hope this helps.
