Ask HN: Smartphone as a Bike Computer Replacement? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Smartphone as a Bike Computer Replacement?

1 pointexabrial4 comments

This really surprised me... cyclists will _regularly_ spend $400+ on a cycling "head unit" that is just a dumbed down smartphone to give them turn-by-turn directions, record data from sensors, and work as a HUD.

The only advantage of a head unit is they have an ANT+ radio, which is a superior protocol than BLE for data gathering. Nowadays, nearly every sensor has dual mode BLE/ANT+.

Shimano has ETube Ride, which is about the closest thing I can find to a replacement, but it lacks a critical feature to be able to import a route. It does connect to BLE speed/candence/DI2 transmission however, but does not connect to a BLE heart rate monitor ironically.

Other apps like Strava will do routing, but only connect to BLE HeartRate sensors, and don't connect to speed/cadence/DI2 (electronic bike transmission).

It seems like nobody has the whole package. Am I missing something? Just seems like an obvious hole in the ecosystem a startup should have filled by now.

"Serious" cyclists already own some kind of mid-to-high-end smartphone (because with billions of smartphones out there, the odds that serious cyclists don't own one are practically nil)

They probably already have "nice" bluetooth earbuds/headphones (whether AirPods, AfterShokz, or something else)

And they probably have a "good" smartwatch - Apple Watch, Fitbit, Garmin, etc

Why would they also buy a "dedicated" cycling device?

That makes absolutely no sense to me

A bike-countable cell phone holder is under $20

Maybe there's a really good reason to have yet another dedicated device ... but I'm at a loss to figure out what it is :)

Those cyclists have tons of disposable income.

If these bike computers make things even 10% easier, why not.

I have an iPad, it does nothing my iPhone can't do. Still , I use it so much it's more than paid for itself.

A "dedicated" cycling computer, though, is about the same size as an iPhone

Your iPad (even if it's the mini) is notably larger, and really comes-in at a point closer to laptop - but more portable :)

That's exactly what I was thinking when I posted this! Honestly if Etube Ride had an "import gpx" feature it'd do nearly everything, and if it could display heartrate it'd be a complete package.

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