Comments for Team McAlister

Comment on Closing in on first competitive tri… by Tim Clevenger

Tim Clevenger — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:23:24 +0000

That was a good post till, “I think I’m beginning to look forward to this.” Then, and right then, I knew you were suffering from some mental sickness.

Comment on The Cyclemeter Review by Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 11:32:58 +0000

I have had problems with Cyclemeter in the last two weeks.

It struggles to get a GPS fix on a route that worked OK previously.

I start it off, pop it in to my arm band and push off. But when I get to work, it still says Zero distance.

Is it a problem since the last update?

Comment on The Cyclemeter Review by Raj Sharan

Raj Sharan — Thu, 06 May 2010 19:05:45 +0000

“Having a bike mount for my phone has alleviated some of the GPS problems, compared to when I rode with my phone in my pocket.” – what bike mount did you buy or recommend? Thanks!

Comment on I don’t know who came up…. by Colin

Colin — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 04:30:48 +0000

I’m really excited to show you my favorite hill in Marin. Not too long or difficult, but definitely too long to be a power climb. And it has the best descent ever.

Comment on The Cyclemeter Review by Lou

Lou — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 01:19:24 +0000

Very fine review and very accurate. I second what Colin says. I think knowing how the GPS works on an iPhone was pretty good for guy with an English degree – I’m sure not an engineer at an elite Silicon Valley firm working on mobile devices. It’s nice to have Colin’s professional colleagues affirm my suspicions, though. I have a 3Gs iPhone and don’t experience the slowness issues Colin writes about. There are some absolute accuracy issues, but that has to be attributed to cell signal and how the network interacts with the mobile device. For instance, my top speed today was not 64 mph! I’ll post my ride from today.

Also, I sometimes play an iTunes list while riding (like today). Cyclemeter worked well, although a 3 hour ride, with tunes, with GPS, etc ran through quite a bit of battery. It did not deplete the battery entirely though. I generally turn off the screen on Cyclemeter because I carry in my back jersey pocket.

Good app. Good responsiveness from Abvio guys. Still glad I have my iSport power meter to give me lots of the stats I need.

Comment on Hey Cyclemeter, you are my new favorite iPhone app. by Team McAlister » The Cyclemeter Review

Team McAlister » The Cyclemeter Review — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:10:16 +0000

[...] Initial impressions were great. Cyclemeter is packed with nice features. In fact, I can’t think of much that’s missing (Strava support would be really cool, but I’ll get into why it’s not on my features wishlist in a minute). It seems to be geared toward the kind of user who wants as much info in as many ways as possible, which to me is always a good thing in this kind of app. Not only can I tweet my rides for everyone on Facebook to see, but they can follow along as I ride. Useful for coworkers who might start to wonder how much later I’ll be getting in to work – They can actually check the map to see where I am. Not that anyone does, as far as I know. I also have a ride report emailed to me when I finish, and have a folder in my Gmail just for recorded rides. Pretty cool. [...]

Comment on Skyline is amazing. by Colin

Colin — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 18:49:30 +0000

My gym has foam rollers, so I’ll definitely start using them and see if that helps. Can’t get one for home, there just isn’t the floor space to roll! I try to stretch responsibly but I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t do it nearly enough…

I’ve pretty much narrowed it down to the saddle, my chamoises…es… are fine and I use some sort of anti-saddle sore stuff that works well. And my bike was fitted by Ernie himself. I’m going to see how the Fizik works out tomorrow (going to just put it on the Orbea).

Comment on Skyline is amazing. by Lou

Lou — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 17:16:39 +0000

Sounds like a great ride! I’d like to take it.

As for your knee problem, the first thing to check is your iliotibial band (IT band). That is one of the main culprits for that type of knee pain (trust me, I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express once). Seriously, you remember the foam roller that brought tears to your eyes? A tight IT band is what it fixes. Additionally, ignore stretching of the hamstrings, quads (vastus medialis, vastus intermedius, vastus lateralis, and sartorius), gastrocnemius, and rectus femoris at your peril! All of those guys need good massage also. My guess is that you’re tight (and maybe lots of lactic acid build up, making you sore), and you may have adhesions is muscles such as the gastrocnemius that need to be broken down. Foam rollers are about $20 and are worth 10x that!

While I can’t guarantee that will fix your patella problem, I can tell you that it fixed mine 100%.

I also highly recommend DZ Nutz (from Dave Zabriskie) in addition to a good chamois, good saddle, and proper cycle fit to help with ABS. Live and learn.

Comment on Maybe it’s the chocolate chips. by Colin

Colin — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 04:41:58 +0000

I was going to make a snarky comment about how cell carriers don’t have anything to do with GPS signals but then I checked Wikipedia, and I was wrong.

Apparently even cell phones equipped with GPS (as opposed to AGPS, like the original iPhone) use cell towers to some extent. So if you’re getting a weak or no signal, your GPS could be inaccurate. This could at least partially explain why Cyclemeter seems to be less reliable in the Mission, where AT&T just can not get their shit together.

Comment on Sticking with the stuff that works! by Colin

Colin — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 01:31:21 +0000

I’ve come to the same conclusions about Cyclemeter. Can’t expect a do-everything device like the iPhone to be the best at anything, or to hold up to comparison against a specialized device like a Garmin. I still maintain that it’s the best tracking app on the iPhone, though!