The phone zone !
Back in the days of the telephone box the only time a cyclist wearing proper cycling gear was seen on the phone was if they ‘bananafied’ a rear wheel and had to call out the 24 hour breakdown service (ie : the wife ) to come and pick them up . Nowadays , however that’s all changed . The mobile phone has become the most important item concealed in the rear of any cycling jersey . Nokia’s theme tune can now often be heard at the crucial stages of some races .
A few years back Kelly told us about commentating on the Giro d’Italia and Mario Cippolini taking a call on his mobile from an Italian TV commentator who was live on air – within the last 5 k of a stage . One which he remarkably went on to win . Now I don’t know how many TV commentators are ringing the sprinting talents of the C bunch but recently there have been a number of reported ‘final countdown ‘ polyphonic bleetings overheard within the bunch .
So what is the best type of phone to use on the bike , seeing that we all do have one in our back pockets , even if we don’t admit it . The I-Phone is all the rage at present , but is too big although not quite as big as it’s rival the Nokia N95 . The Nokia 6300 and 5200 are popular among cyclists at present due to their small size and light weight but are a bit featureless .
In my opinion the ideal phone for a cyclist should be small and light but also have a good mp3 player with enough memory to store enough music for a five hour spin , a good camera , at least 3 megapixels or above . It should also have an RDS radio which won’t sound of interference and loose signal every 3 k and of course have a good handsfree set of earphones . And to top it all off it must be easy to use . Plus , I almost forgot another important requirement for every cyclist nowadays , it must have GPS . So what phone ticks all of these boxes or even comes close ? Close will do . Well now that’s up to you , if you have any suggestions just pop them into the comment box below and whoever comes up with the best suggestion gets a new assos cotton cap – so away you go !
Barry
5 COMMENTS
Paul B
I’ve had SE K800i for about 2 years. Good camera, radio, 3G, email, takes memory cards for MP3, great battery life and cheap now since it’s a out of date. Mine has survived a 30km/hr drop from bike and still working.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30363527@N00/450782773/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30363527@N00/380953729/
Bonus: mp3 ringtones so you can have TdF style car horns
junior
Barry,
You mentioned one of the contenders for your phone in the piece itself the N95. I’m hopefully picking one up soon, I can get the garmin V10 Maps on it for 50 Notes, and with the 8Gig Memory it’s more than enough to store the Greatest Hits of Bon Jovi and all G’N’R’s back catalogue !
Plus as well you can turn it into a light sabre as well, always handy for those moments when you need to cut your way to the front of the bunch.
Eoin
I think the N95 is the only phone that does everything you ask. It has a 5mb camera, MP3 player and comes with a 1g micro card (New model has 8g built in) It has a radio and the ability to tune it in the stations from the phone network to give perfect reception. The earphones come with a remote control. The GPS is pretty good, you can download a program called “sporttracker”
http://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/main/index.do
so you can set up routes and record your times. You can also export them to google earth by bluetooth at the touch of a button.
Jason
Yup nokia n95 all the way!too many uses to list,oh and look again i wouldn’t consider that big.
worldwidecycles
And the winner is ……………………….
Eoin , who gets a cool new Assos cap . I went out and bought the N95 8GB and it really is the perfect phone for the bike , all it’s missing is a heart rate monitor and it would be complete .
I’ve been using the sports tracker as Eoin suggested and it is class . Riding along it gives the same info as a garmin sat nav . Radio works brilliantly and days of music are on tap due to teh large memory . Camera could be a bit less fidgity but thats minor .
The concensous seemed to be the N95 but Eoin summed it up to a tee .
Thanks everyone for the suggestions .
Barry