GPS Devices for Inline Skating

[Robert]

Do you have a GPS device to keep track of your skating stats?

Here's Travis Brown's review of the Garmin Forerunner 201:
http://inlineplanet.com/articles4/garminforerunner.html

He's pretty happy with it.

Have you tried one? ... Or any other? ... What are your thoughts?

[Mr. T]

Here is another solid review of the product:

http://www.epinions.com/content_157024030340

[Slacker]

I have the Forerunner 201. I find it works well for me, although I only use it for tracking distance for each skate and periodically checking my current speed.

The biggest annoyance is synchronizing the satellites. When I skate from home, I can just turn it on, start skating and after about a quarter of a mile it will have acquired enough satellites. However, there are other locations where I need to remember to put the gps out and let it synchronize before I start. It's not really a big deal, just bothersome to start skating, then tell my friends "Oh wait -- I have to stand around for a minute for my gps."

I don't download statistics to my computer, so I can't comment on that aspect.

Battery life seems good. I seem to get around 12 hours per charge.

[chucky]

I really have a lot of fun with this doohicky. While I can see how it'd be useful for training, I skate mostly just for fun, and I like the device mostly to see how fast I'm going -- especially down the hills!

This morning I wore it during one of my favourite local short hikes up "Hand Glider Hill." One of its potential shortcomings, as I had come to understand it from reading reviews on Amazon.com, is its tendency to lose a signal under trees and near tall buildings. The hike this morning up the hill was completely under a hardwood canopy, yet I experienced no signal problems whatever!

Here's my hike uploaded to my computer onto Garmin's "Training Center" software. Cool stuff, and I expecially like the graph of elevation change (though I'm particularly fond of being considered somewhere between a squirrel and a SNAIL!







Here's a pic I took last fall of the beautiful view from the top:

Panorama


Here's a pic I took April 23:

GAK!

[Tahiti girl]

Chucky, Iam so jealous I could eat dirt!!! What a great hike! Glad you took your camera (in April) Remember, escargot and flying squirrels are really pretty neat

[chucky]

Hey Slacker,

You've got some excellent rollerblading over your way. Every year when I come out to visit my brother in Ann Arbor for five days of frisbee golf, I make sure to bring some blades with me. The Huron River trail I enjoy skating solo (my non-skating brother is set on the notion that feet are meant for planting, not rolling) very early in the morning when almost nobody's around. I park at the parking lot on Dixboro Rd. and skate to Forest Park, then back along the river to the baseball fields, and finally back to the parking lot. (Unfortunately, right now the leg to Forest Park is closed off due to construction of a new bypass). Great skating, just gotta mind the fresh goose scat in certain areas.

Last year I skated at Hudson Mills Metro Park, where we play a lot of frisbee golf, and I really enjoyed the nice, smooth ride. Next year I want to try Kensington Metro park, which also has a nice frisbee golf course, but I'm told there's also a beautiful 8-mile trail around the lake. Have you had a chance to skate Kensington?

Chucky "the Squail" Daniels

[Slacker]

Hi Chucky,

I've skated Kensington a few times. It's a nice trail with rolling hills. You can also cut off it on the south end and go west out to Island Lake park. My only problem with Kensington is that it tends to be crowded when the weather is decent.

I often go to Lower Huron park. You can skate a 13 mile trail along the Huron River (through three parks -- Lower Huron, Willow, Oakwood). It tends to be less crowded. Take Haggerty south off of I-94 (just west of I-275).

http://www.metroparks.com/parks/pk_lower_huron.php
http://www.metroparks.com/parks/pk_willow.php
http://www.metroparks.com/parks/pk_oakwoods.php

The next time you're in Ann Arbor, try to catch our friday night skate:

http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/dreeves/skating/

[Spdskermom6726]

Im just curious how much is it?
Where do you order it?

[Robert]

It costs about $115-150 ... and you can buy it online. Just do a google search for it or look on amazon. You'll find lots of vendors.

[JayC]

I strap mine to the top of my helmet. Seems to get a more consistent signal that way and dont have to worry about signal drop outs depending on where my hands are.

[Mr. T]

Yes, but what if you'd like to use the trainer assistant or control your for each mile? I strap mine around my wrist and turn the device around so that the display is on the lower part of my arm. In this way, when I skate with my hands behind my back, the GPS faces the sky.

[JayC]

What happens if you take your hands out from behind your back, though? The GPS faces the ground.

I did the same thing for a while and I guess it depends on how you use your device. I have the 301 so I use the heart monitor and mainly like to chart everything on the PC afterwards. For doing what you do, tho, I agree that your position is better than keeping it on top of your helmet.

I have found that keeping it on my helmet gives me much better coverage tho. You can skate the same path, once with the unit on your wrist and once on your helmet and the distances don't match up. I was losing about .2 of a 2 mile loop with the GPS on my wrist.. but again, this is going to depend mainly on where you skate.