OMG How fast was that?! Part 2 aka GPS on the cheap

Right, lets keep things simple, cut out the wires, magnets, sensors and all the rest and lets embrace technology. GPS in theory should be able to measure everything we want it to do, contained within a unit flexible to display and record the information we want to know.

Dedicated GPS units have been around for a while now and are popularly used by walkers and mountain bikers alike. Like most things in this world, you can spend as little or as much as you like depending on make, model and functions.

More recently though, GPS units are being integrated more and more into mobile phones, and are being offered free as part of phone contract packages. This is where my current set-up comes in and is merely one way to do things.

Part 1) Acquire the phone!
I've been with Vodaphone for around 8 years now on a package costing me approximately £13 a month with the option of a new phone every year on the proviso that I sign up for a further 18 months. For an extra £1.50 I get an itemised phone bill which ensures that most of my calls which are for business use are claimed back through expenses. This year I opted for the Blackberry 8900 with integrated GPS.

Part 2) Get protected!As we all know, using protection prevents life's little mishaps and given my history with mobiles, is a must! There may be better protection available but plenty of people on the forums rate the Otterbox. Made up from three layers - a transparent layer that covers the screen, a hard plastic shell that clips over the top, and a soft rubber outer covering, its pretty robust and should give the phone a bit more of a change to survive a stacking. On that point, as I do like to ride alone, carrying a mobile is a very, very good idea, again, just in case worst comes to the worst.

The Otterbox does bulk up the phone as a whole, but it is still east to use the keypad and trackball. Maybe not whilst using Hillbilly gloves, but hey! Got mine £25 off ebay from some chap in the UK and as of 3 months riding, is still intact.

Part 3) Get Software!

Commercial software is available for example ViewRanger that has been tested and rated highly by Mountainboard Magazine. Viewranger doesn't support the blackberry unfortunately so the search goes on.

Fortunately, there is some fantastic free software (donation ware) that I primarily use called GPSLogger:

GPSLogger

GPSLogger does everything without being flashy logging your location and height every set interval time. It can then display various pages on screen as shown below, or can export the data in GPX, KML or CSV format for use in MemoryMap, Google Earth or Microsoft Excel.

Simply setup the options such as metric or imperial units and the sample interval in seconds. I tend to use 1 second for downhill mountain boarding, and 15 seconds for hiking. Select 'Start Logging' to begin, and 'Stop Logging' when done (obviously!).

The following screens are an example of me riding down KMC earlier this year. If you think it looks a bit odd then you're right - I fell over near the top and decided to climb back up rather than stop and then start the logging over again. Note that you can use the tracker ball to select individual points on the line trace to get specific information for each particular point.

Speed:
Path:

Elevation:
Updated versions of GPSLogger are released every so often through the webpage so its worth visiting.

Other available packages include TrekBuddy which contains very handy functions, but is currently work-in-progress for me to get to grips with.