Hammerhead System Offers a Better Way To Navigate While Cycling

Mark Gibbs writes "If you've ever tried to navigate using a smartphone while cycling you'll know full well that you took your life in your hands. By the time you've focused on the map and your brain has decoded what you're looking at you've traveled far enough to be sliding on gravel or go careening into the side of a car. What's needed is a way that you can get directions from your smartphone without having to lose your focus and possibly your life and Hammerhead Navigation have one of the most interesting answers I've seen."

Re:Really?

[Runaway1956]

Please, explain why people need all this navigation. I simply don't understand it. I can start any place in the continental United States, refer to Rand McNally, and maybe write a few notes on a scrap of paper. I can drive ANYWHERE in ConUS or mainland Canada, without any further guidance.

Now, I may be pretty smart (like most people I like to think that I really am smart) but it doesn't tax my mind to remember a series of route numbers and directions. I don't need a cell phone, or a GPS to hold my hand, and tell me whether to turn left or right, or how many yards to travel before turning.

Cycling is somewhat different than driving on the highway - but FFS, everything comes at you slower, there are fewer things to remember, and landmarks should be more "intimate".

I'm sorry, but I see all this navigation software as just a tool to help dumb down America. Better to learn to read a map, then actually read the damned thing, then do your own thinking. Hey, I'll admit that software such as Rand McNally produces are beneficial. I can't know the current construction status of every mile of roadway in America. If you update McNally regularly, the software will warn you that US 1 and 9 are under construction in Smelly Swamp, North Carolina. That's a great feature - I can decide to take I-95 to avoid the construction. But, that's a simple decision, that should be made BEFORE you ever start out on your trip!

Alright, so maybe I'm off on a tangent here. The discussion is about cycling. Let me think - ride down my home street to Oak Street, make a right, ride to the library and make a left, go across the bridge then take the third left, go to the crest of the hill and cut down the alley next to the yellow house, wave at the old dude sitting on his back porch, turn right at the HUGE magnolia tree, watch on my right for the hot chick who often waters her flowers, at the church make a left, and I'm at work. Do I REALLY need navigation? Getting across town isn't exactly rocket surgery . . .

non-issue

[SuperBanana]

As a many-years bicyclist, for transportation, recreation, exercise, etc...I offer the following advice:

Any time you see some new device being marketed, consider that the bicycle in its first forms dates to the early 1800's, nearly a century before cars were commonplace. In that time, cyclists have figured out the solutions to most problems, and those solutions have been refined as material sciences, engineering, and whatnot have evolved. So, for example, my front light uses a sophisticated mirror and LED to light 50 feet of bike path in front of me, while my back light uses LEDs and light pipes to provide a 2-inch wide big glowing red bar...all powered off a smooth, unnoticeable generator in my front wheel's hub.

The solution to this "oh my pretty little cyclist head just doesn't know where it's going" problem is one of the following:

• I look at my phone as I start my journey, figure out the first 2 or so turns, and look again at said phone when I get to a light or a convenient place to stop. I typically note approximate distance between turns and street names. It's a skill pretty quickly learned.
• I can place an earphone in my ear. Both Apple and Google provide spoken directions.
• I can place a GPS cycling computer with route navigation on my handlebars. They're daylight-readable and backlit, the batteries last 8-9 hours while navigating, they make a nice loud "BEEP DA DA BEEP!" for an upcoming turn, show a big-ass arrow you can practically see in your peripheral vision, along with the street name/distance, too, usually.
• I can place a "cue sheet" on my handlebars in any of half a dozen different ways. Clips, clear plastic holders, you name it.

The device strikes me as rather ignorant of how most cyclists travel, anyway. Most everyone I know, including if not especially beginners, consult Google Maps and think carefully about their route because of safety concerns. By the time we're on our bike, we probably know where we're going and how to get there.

Damn near everything bike-related that has come out of Kickstarter either solves a problem that was already solved, and was solved better...or solved a problem that didn't exist. Both are usually due to ignorance on the part of the designers, or designers preying upon ignorance among the general public.

Sadly, an increasing number of these products are designed to prey upon people's fears about danger, or continue a culture of placing the onus on cyclists to protrect themselves from other people doing stupid, dangerous, or illegal things with large, fast-moving vehicles who then strike them.

Re:Really?

[milkmage]

but the thing about biking (at least for some) is cadence - stopping breaks cadence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadence_(cycling) [wikipedia.org]

Bike HUD

[MarkvW]

All this is nothing to me. I'm waiting for a viable, programmable (and private) bike HUD (with rearview, HR, wattage, and navigation data.

That's what I'm waiting for.

Re:Um, voice directions?

[Neil Boekend]

I take care that I am suitably visible and if I share a road with cars that means that the max speed should be 60km/h for the cars. If it's faster then there is usually a separate bike lane. This gives them enough time to avoid me properly. If I dodge for every truck that will pass me the I will never arrive at my destination and I would look like an idiot. This means that I would not use the information, so I don't need to have it. Mind, I have my headphones on so softly that I can still hear traffic sounds. Not near hard enough to drown out a blaring car horn, because that would mean that I would get hearing damage and I like to hear my music properly.
Then again, I don't live in the US. I live in the Netherlands and biking is far more common here.