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Comment by farski | Hacker News Reader

There are a bunch of features on Karoo that will show or indicate turns regardless of which screen you're on. As jfengel said, if you're going 50mph you should know where you're going and not looking at your computer. The other things being removed (battery level, gear indicator, shift mode) represent no realistic safety concerns.

I'm annoyed that I'm losing these features, too, but they are all firmly in the nice-to-have category. Just like bike computers in their entirety.

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The reason to have a map on screen when descending is to anticipate upcoming bends. This helps you to take the best line through the apex of the corners. Also mountain descents will regularly throw you very tight, and sometimes blind corners at random, and the best practice to handle these without going off the road is to brake hard enough to scrub off some speed before you begin your turn, then let go so you're not braking while turning. Navigation prompts will not show this because they are not turns.

I am literally dressed and ready to head out for a 3000' training ride with tight twisty descents and IMHO it is quite suicidal to look down at a map when anything like you describe might happen. If I was a riding with you and I noticed you doing what you claim you need to do I would stop, let you go on, and if I didn't hear any crunching noises, resume, never to ride with you again.

Apex "civilization": people trust a fucking tiny map off in some other direction than they are traveling in lieu of the data streaming realtime right into their goddam eyes.

So you're looking at that fucking map, and what do you do when the squirrel/deer/javalina/pile of lumber discard appears in front of you?

I should delete this but no I am going to descend Thumb Butte road in a fury now.

Information is always useful. Your objection to it doesn't matter.

I hope you don't drive a motor vehicle without looking in the mirrors because gasp you are moving forwards at 80mph and need to be looking that way!

It’s obviously not the information that’s the problem, it’s looking away from the road surface even for an instant.

Cars protect the driver substantially more than bikes and car tires handle small debris in corners substantially better than bikes. Also the rare road surface that supports 80 mph speeds has relatively shallow corners and is closed to bikes. It’s a useless comparison.

Here's a stage winner of the Tour de France explaining using maps when descending. https://youtu.be/rY1-eq4FqTc?t=547

That's a great clip to link to because 30 seconds later Tristan says "I don't want to be responsible for you guys beaning it off the side of a hill because you were trying to go too quick," which obviously was him walking back Ben's recommendation a bit because even he thinks it's a safety issue to look at a map while descending hairpins as a tourist.

> Apex "civilization": people trust a fucking tiny map off in some other direction than they are traveling in lieu of the data streaming realtime right into their goddam eyes.

Well, I haven't heard about people driving into a cliff because their GPS told them to in a while, but it used to be somewhat common.

There is no reason to expect people to not the equivalent thing in a bike. There is something about easy information summaries that compels people to get them and act on them.

I hear you but... I myself, would not be trying to ride the best line, and hit every apex on a descent that I'm not intimately familiar with. I'd take it slow, and exercise caution until I am intimately familiar with the entire route.

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