If gadgets were people, they’d be those people who just need to change their bottom bracket and index their gears in the car park before a ride. Just a little suspension tune-up at the most weather-beaten point in the ride. Just one tyre change before we set off. Just three gigabytes of updates to download before you can ride. That sort of thing.
When it comes to tech I am capable but curmudgeonly, and, let me set your expectations now – while they’re all functional devices that work well in certain ways, and while some are better than others, not one of the GPS units in this test has software that’s well designed throughout. I go out into the great outdoors to get away from progress bars and notifications, so all of the set-up procedures required for six GPS units were not a welcome crossover into this part of my life. Nor the design philosophy of some of them, which seems to cater to people who absolutely must get every text message or social media gnat fart immediately delivered to their eyeballs like little doses of digital crack.