Orpington, return

Last weekend I experienced some aggro on my training ride.

I was committed to better my last average ride to Orpington, and I was ready to make use of the new found strength.

Unfortunately, my GPS started playing up and switching off mid ride. It would do that any time there was some vibration.

It is a Garmin Edge 205, and so far it had been very reliable, even off-road.

Unfortunately, as I have now found out, it suffers from a design flaw which means a particular vibration frequency triggers tiny sparks in the contacts between the battery and the main board.

The result is that it can switch off 10, 20 times during a few hours ride.

Fortunately, I managed to only loose around 1 mile out of 72 on the first day, which means I managed to keep an accurate average speed record: 18.4 mph, 0.3 mph faster than previously.

Again, the highlight of the ride was Box Hill. This time I was able to push harder than previously: as soon as I saw a few riders ahead of me and behind me catching up, I pushed a harder gear, climbed faster and managed to beat my previous performance. I then jumped on the wheel of another rider who was going faster, overtook pretty much anyone on the way past the Cafe, and then went to the front, leading the way. Speed crept up to 23mph on the uphill, when this other guy and me had a chat. Found out he used to race and I was glad I managed to lead and keep up.

I had to let go though at some point, because I still had another 35 miles to go.

I got to Orpington in record time, and managed the last climb without even realising I did. Overall a great ride, tainted only by some GPS issues.

The next day i went back to Wokingham. I was aiming to better my average again, and I think I might have done. But I will never know: the GPS was playing up so much i ended up missing about 10 miles recording, which meant all calculations were off.

I have been looking online for solutions to the Edge 205 problems. Apparently it can be fixed in house, but it would invalidate the warranty.

An alternative I am now implementing, suggested to me by a colleague at work, is to insert some foam in between the handlebar and the mounting bracket.
The foam I am using is a cut out from a dishwashing sponge. The hope is that it will reduce the vibration frequency, and effectively reduce the effects on the GPS reliability.

If that turns out to be ineffective, I will have to either send it back for repair, which might take a long time and not be back before the charity event, or repair it myself.

I must test it this weekend, or the next at the latest.

Fingers crossed it will work!