by Paul S. Kramer
In my last post I wrote about the retirement of my Q-Box. I thought of that piece of invention as 'Cue Sheet 2.0' because it improved on the sheaf of pages handed out to a rider by my joining them into a continuous roll of paper and encasing them in a waterproof box.
But I didn't want to give up on written cues entirely, depending only on voiced instructions whispered in my ear before each turn by my ridewithgps app. I find that the notes the route creator provides on a cue sheet often prove to be life savers, e.g. "Bike store, R at intersection, 2 mi off route" or "Port-a-Potties on L."
But I didn't want to give up on written cues entirely, depending only on voiced instructions whispered in my ear before each turn by my ridewithgps app. I find that the notes the route creator provides on a cue sheet often prove to be life savers, e.g. "Bike store, R at intersection, 2 mi off route" or "Port-a-Potties on L."
After removing my Q-Box from the bike, I filled the new-found void in front of my bars with a terrific handlebar bag from Dill Pickle Gear; and seeing the clear plastic map pocket on its top gave me an idea—since it looked the exact size of my Kindle!
I devised a way of reformatting a cue sheet's Excel file into a multi-page PDF, with each page containing a single cue (plus, for added measure, the previous cue above and the next cue below). And in this way, I now have a backlit, waterproofed (via a Zip-Lock), light-weight, rechargeable, easy to read cue sheet—I simply need to tap the right side of the screen after each turn and the next page appears, showing the new instruction in the center of the screen in white-on-black type. With each tap, the "next" cue moves from the bottom stripe up to the middle, black position, the "current" cue moves up to the "previous" position, and the "previous" cue moves up and off the screen:
I devised a way of reformatting a cue sheet's Excel file into a multi-page PDF, with each page containing a single cue (plus, for added measure, the previous cue above and the next cue below). And in this way, I now have a backlit, waterproofed (via a Zip-Lock), light-weight, rechargeable, easy to read cue sheet—I simply need to tap the right side of the screen after each turn and the next page appears, showing the new instruction in the center of the screen in white-on-black type. With each tap, the "next" cue moves from the bottom stripe up to the middle, black position, the "current" cue moves up to the "previous" position, and the "previous" cue moves up and off the screen:
RSS Feed