Who needs a satnav anyway?#

Sat 29 Mar 2025 08:03:55 PM UTC

I am experimenting with running Kurviger on one of my (several) old Android phones as a dedicated "satnav" for the bike, but tbh am not sure it's worth it.

• the phone mount blocks the ignition keyhole, so I have to remove the phone to put the key in
• if I disconnect the phone from its usb cable when I stop, so it doesn't drain the bike battery, next time I ride then I've drained the phone battery. Or I have to disconnect and remove it and take it inside to charge. [ Later note: not any more ]
• if I'm in the house plotting routes for my next ride, there's now an extra step to copy the route to my on-bike device
• and I need to enable the wifi hotspot on my actual phone so the on-bike device has internet. I suppose I could put a SIM in it
• on the plus side, my bluetooth headset can connect simultaneously to my bike phone and to my real phone, so no problem there
• and if, perish the thought, I were to crash and become separated from the bike, this would mean that my phone would go with me to hospital and not with the bike to whatever storage facility the police recover it to. If they even do that and don't just leave it at the side of the road.