Off road 700c x 23's?

Crazy question I guess. Today I went for a ride I downloaded off
Bikely.com.

The ride took me from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast via Old Gympie Road.
Unfortunately I did not notice that this road was mainly off road (more like
a goat track). I did not get a puncture although I wondered if there was a
Roubaix type tyre designed to be light but tough enough for a bit of off
road - or are all tyres with the Kevlar in them in this category?

I can thoroughly recommend the ride (there's lots to download). Also, it
was the first time I got to try out my GPS as a navigation tool instead of
just being a very expensive cycle computer (I've only had it since Dec
2006). Whilst I hate this particular company's after service/warranty (what
after service/warranty?), I was very impressed that I was able to download
the route and ride without having to refer to a map as such - rather I had a
distinct track to follow on he screen and if I deviated even just a few
metres, it was obvious straight away that I had taken the wrong turn so not
much lost energy backtracking.

Hopefully you all had a decent weekend whether you were off or on the bike!

BtC

Hi BtC
Which Bikely route did you take?
Cheers,
D.S.

Sounds cool.. What GPS do you have?

Oh and tyres.. I'm not sure ;-)



Bill the Cat wrote:
Crazy question I guess. Today I went for a ride I downloaded off
Bikely.com.

The ride took me from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast via Old Gympie Road.
Unfortunately I did not notice that this road was mainly off road (more like
a goat track). I did not get a puncture although I wondered if there was a
Roubaix type tyre designed to be light but tough enough for a bit of off
road - or are all tyres with the Kevlar in them in this category?

I can thoroughly recommend the ride (there's lots to download). Also, it
was the first time I got to try out my GPS as a navigation tool instead of
just being a very expensive cycle computer (I've only had it since Dec
2006). Whilst I hate this particular company's after service/warranty (what
after service/warranty?), I was very impressed that I was able to download
the route and ride without having to refer to a map as such - rather I had a
distinct track to follow on he screen and if I deviated even just a few
metres, it was obvious straight away that I had taken the wrong turn so not
much lost energy backtracking.

Hopefully you all had a decent weekend whether you were off or on the bike!

BtC

On Apr 20, 11:25 pm, "Bill the Cat" wrote:
Crazy question I guess. Today I went for a ride I downloaded off
Bikely.com.

The ride took me from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast via Old Gympie Road.
Unfortunately I did not notice that this road was mainly off road (more like
a goat track). I did not get a puncture although I wondered if there was a
Roubaix type tyre designed to be light but tough enough for a bit of off
road - or are all tyres with the Kevlar in them in this category?

Vittoria make some randoneur tyres that might be suitable, talk to
your local LBS about them. also some cyclocross tyres may suit.
Again, talk to your local LBS about what's available.

"Bill the Cat" wrote:

Crazy question I guess. Today I went for a ride I downloaded off
Bikely.com.

The ride took me from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast via Old Gympie Road.
Unfortunately I did not notice that this road was mainly off road (more
like a goat track). I did not get a puncture although I wondered if there
was a Roubaix type tyre designed to be light but tough enough for a bit of
off road - or are all tyres with the Kevlar in them in this category?

Not available in 23mm, but this Vittoria Randonneur Cross is a very good
tyre for rough gravle roads, and worse: http://www.rei.com/product/709112

I've taken it along 4WD fire trails in the Kosciuszko NP with few problems
(this was the 40mm size though)

--
Cheers
Peter

~~~ ~ _@
~~ ~ _- \,
~~ (*)/ (*)

It's strange - I cannot find it now, but where the D'Aguillar Hwy and
Beerburrm rds intersect just the north side of Caboolture, there is the
beginning of the Old Gympie Rd which is the 3rd road making up that
intersection.

In the map link below, you will see that the author of that route has chosen
to go down Beerburrum Rd instead of Old Gympie.

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path...side-to-Coolum

Happy Trails.
BtC


wrote in message
...
Hi BtC
Which Bikely route did you take?
Cheers,
D.S.

"Jules" wrote in message
news:Z_mdnT-XVr9tU5bVnZ2dnUVZ_hjinZ2d@internode...
Sounds cool.. What GPS do you have?

Oh and tyres.. I'm not sure ;-)


Jules,

I hesitate to name them as I do not think they have a truly good product.
They are the only ones who really make anything like this, but I suspect
that if they had competition, they would go belly up. The fight to get them
to honour a warranty was incredible - at first instance I could not get
anyone (either the vendor or the company to acknowledge that repair was
necessary). I don't actually blame the vendor - they did not make the damn
thing. The manufacturer asked me to give them credit card details (for
$25US to cover postage from their end) and mail them off to Taiwan. Garmin
Australia isn't it turns out and htey will not have anything to do with it
either - apprently they only sell them, fixing them is someone else's
department.

I have a Garmin Edge 305. It has been constructed so cheaply that it is
unlikely to last much longer than a year. On some forums I have read, some
people have had to use a rubber band to hold it together. They have made
the claim that it can be submerged in water for however many hours without
ill effects, although they were forced to point out later that meant it was
submerged in still water and they don't recommend using it for Triathlons
and the like.

They might make great avionics, but they turn to dust if you need assistance
from them. They have a support forum at motionbased, but I read a number of
denial posts from their reps whenever there is trouble.

The other nasty feature is that it is "hookware". The unit costs a small
fortune but it comes with a software progie that is suppposed to take your
download data and show you where you went and sort your information (heart
rate etc) to allow you to analyse performance. Unfortunately, you cannot
look at decent maps showing the route without buying maps (somehow Sport
tracks does not have this problem and allows options of google maps,
satellite and hyrid of both - and it's free).

Hook number two is that to anaylse your data you have to subscribe to a site
called motionbased.

The firmware on the unit itself is very creaky and simply did not allow the
unit to operate anywhere near its full potential although this is much
better now than it used to be.

A number of 3rd party entities have written support software for it that is
truly brilliant and free - see sport tracks. Also there are websites which
make very good conversion software to enable the downloading of routes -
otherwise you would have to enter the points manually, which would be vvery
clunky indeed..

I would not pay them on top of the $500 cost of the unit for their hooks and
certainly not to honour a warranty - fortunately I only lost the
functionality of the heart rate and cadence sensors, but there was no way I
was going to provide credit card numbers to unidentified personelle in
Taiwan.

Buyer beware - read the motion based forums and get a feel for just how much
they are distancing themselves from the poor performace of the product.
Apparently there are only a few discontents like myself, but I know there
have to be many like me who just could not get assistance after they made
the sale.

They do not like discussion of Sport tracks on the Motionbased site even
though it is supposedly to support the Garmin unit as well as their
program - a free program is a "competitor". They are as tight as a fish's
bum. (I acknowledge that this is probably fiar enough, but I just can't
help it - I just want to sink the boot in as their after care has been
terrible)

However, the plus is the GPS function. However if the unit winks out on the
road, have a map to fall back on. Also battery life is a problem - going
camping you need a power source to recharge it with as the battery life is
not huge and cannot be supplemented without an electrical engineer.

If you are going to the full maps unit (705?) you may as well get a really
robust hand held one that is not cycling centric.

Good luck if you get one.
BtC

On 2008-04-22, Bill the Cat (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
I hesitate to name them as I do not think they have a truly good product.
They are the only ones who really make anything like this, but I suspect
that if they had competition, they would go belly up. The fight to get them
to honour a warranty was incredible - at first instance I could not get
anyone (either the vendor or the company to acknowledge that repair was
necessary). I don't actually blame the vendor - they did not make the damn
thing. The manufacturer asked me to give them credit card details (for
$25US to cover postage from their end) and mail them off to Taiwan. Garmin
Australia isn't it turns out and htey will not have anything to do with it
either - apprently they only sell them, fixing them is someone else's
department.

Australian Trade Practices law probably begs to differ on those
matters. It Is Their Responsibility[TM].

--
TimC
Chuck Norris stops his fixie by putting his beard on the front tire.
....and he'd kill you with his bare hands for mentioning yourself in the
same sentence. -- Donga in aus.bicycle

"Bill the Cat" writes:

"Jules" wrote in message
news:Z_mdnT-XVr9tU5bVnZ2dnUVZ_hjinZ2d@internode...
Sounds cool.. What GPS do you have?

Oh and tyres.. I'm not sure ;-)


Jules,

I hesitate to name them as I do not think they have a truly good product.

...snip...

I have a Garmin Edge 305. It has been constructed so cheaply that it
is unlikely to last much longer than a year. On some forums I have
read, some people have had to use a rubber band to hold it together.
They have made the claim that it can be submerged in water for however
many hours without ill effects, although they were forced to point out
later that meant it was submerged in still water and they don't
recommend using it for Triathlons and the like.

....snip...

Ah, another Edge 305 owner with a collapsible GPS :-(


Buyer beware - read the motion based forums and get a feel for just how much
they are distancing themselves from the poor performace of the product.
Apparently there are only a few discontents like myself, but I know there
have to be many like me who just could not get assistance after they made
the sale.

I'm one of them. I'm on my second Edge 305, I *should* be on my third
but due to some shifty sleight of hand the twelve month warranty on the
purchased unit turns into a three month warranty on the replacement one.

First one died after 10 months

Second one started dying after a further 10 months.

Repairs and warranty are via a company called "GME Australia"

GME Australia claim to be "just a repair place" and to contact Garmin
Australia to discuss warranty and device faults, claims "the units are
unreliable."

There is no such entity as Garmin Australia.

Garmin international point you back to GME Australia.

...snip..

Adrian