Basic Bicycle GPS workshop

Series 03 workshop

I try to keep the Malaysian Foldies Forums and its Facebook page active by hosting at least two workshops a year. 
The first workshop we had was 'Basic Bicycle Recovery' workshop held at Desa Park City. The crowd was awesome, but the venue sucks.
Later, we had a more successful 'Basic Bicycle Touring' workshop at Edmund Foo's Atmosphere Outfitters in Subang Avenue in Subang Jaya. 
To kick off this year's programme, I designed the 'Basic Bicycling GPS' workshop to cater to those who are interested to find out more on utilising these navigational devices for fitness and travel.
Its also a way for me to give back to society by sharing my knowledge. Being a GPS user for the past 12 years, I think I am qualified enough to lead the small workshop.

Location, location, location...

For the purpose of educating my fellow cyclists, I chose an outdoor location.
Reason being is to enable the GPS units to acquire its signal as well as having an open space environment to conduct the class.
So, that said, I picked Taman Rimba Kiara near Taman Tun Dr Ismail for this purpose.
It wasn't hard to assemble the participants as we were lucky enough to get at least a dozen folding bicycle enthusiasts to participate in the event.
Among them were Uncle Francis Chin who uses a car GPS to navigate.
He told me that he used an external power pack to keep the device running.
"Aiya! I can only get so much usage time on the GPS. Now, I know that the bicycle GPS can do more and is actually energy effecient," said Chin.

Open air session: Sharing with the foldies

Pointing out the Garmin GSC-10 speed and candence sensor

A decent turnout

We had a good mix of people who came for the workshop.
This includes support from QuckSport Sdn Bhd, a Garmin re-seller and a representative from Garmin Malaysia.
Mr WT Yong was generous enough to offer his time to co-host the event.
I led off the talk with a simple history of the GPS and how it came about.
At the same time, the crowd had the chance to experience the Garmin Geko 201, GPSmap 72csx, Garmin Oregon 300.
I shared the benefits of having a dedicated bicycle GPS mounted on the handlebar and how the track logs can be shared with other bicyclists.
After I was done, Yong took the floor by explaining his flagship product, the Garmin EDGE800.
We also talked about the up and coming release of the Garmin EDGE810 and 510, but these will not hit the shelves until March.

Yong of QuickSport sharing his views on the Garmin Edge800

The attentive crowd

The workshop participants

   

Free, as always..

We don't charge a single sen for the Malaysian Foldies' skills workshop.
Just as long as there are people who are willing to learn, that'll be good.
I've lined-up some talks for the entire 2013 and the next one would be the 'Basic Bikepacking' workshop which I will slot for late April this year.