Brightening up a ride on the bus

I had a rest day today. Always a pain as it means spending £8.60 on a travelcard and then spending the day knowing I have to face the scrum of Oxford Circus in the evening (they may have made it look like Shibuya but in Shibuya they have about 300 entrances to the station instead of the 2 that are currently in operation here!).

Today was an added stress as the trains were cancelled meaning a bus journey to Brixton was thrown into the commute bargain. So, imagine my glee as I sat on the top deck and looked out to see Team Garmin Transitions (I’m Tyler Farrar…..) cruising down the road. Not something that you see in the Brixton rush hour traffic every day.

Oh how I wished I had been on the PM – I imagined myself pulling up alongside, tapping the window, being handed a sticky bidon by a trusty soigneur and completing my journey to work. One can but dream

Why do I do it?

Behold the latest upgrade - the Garmin Edge 500 (with cadence and heart rate, bien sur). I read about it, looked at it, read about it some more and then decided to buy it after finding the best internet price and getting Cycle Surgery to match it - the best way to buy for those of us who like to physically rather than virtually spend our pennies.

Of course the appeal was the myriad of functions and GPS capabilities (and my inner grimpeur simply MUST know it's gradients) but the reality is that in order to access the myriad one must read the instructions. Alas this is the fundamental flaw in the interface between product and this particular consumer - I HATE READING INSTRUCTIONS. Why can't it just do what I know it can do without me have to ask it??!!

And so it sits patiently on my handlebars awaiting it's first outing and downloading (I have already forgotten my Garmin website password) whereupon I will realise that I already know where I have ridden (how else would I have gotten home?) and that the signs at the top and bottom of each hill can already tell me the gradient.

Will I ever learn?