by Paul S. Kramer
It's been a great ride!
Back when I first started riding brevets I had a real problem following the cue sheet. Even if I reformatted the file ahead of time so the text was large enough for me to read, I couldn't seem to get the hang of things: Riding along, I would glance down to see what the next turn should be, and that's when the trouble began . . . my eyes would glaze over at the long list of instructions as my brain tried vainly to remember what road I was currently on—in order to find myself on the sheet, to then read the next row in the array and follow its command. I would scan the document, hoping a street name would jolt my memory, but Elm and Maple and Oak streets each sounded plausible (I did seem to remember turning onto some sort of "tree" street), and at times I'd remember it was "Chestnut," only to see Chestnut Street mentioned in several places on the sheet! My head would bob up and down between looking where I was going and looking at the cue sheet; it was a mess.
So that was the problem the Q-Box solved (that, and the necessity of keeping the pages out of the rain). It was a great solution that even won me a contest: snapguide.com/guides/get-the-most-out-of-your-cue-sheet/
But that was then and this is now. And now I, along with almost everyone else, use a gps that displays the route, tells me where I am, tells me when to turn, alerts me if I'm off-course, allows others to follow my progress from the comfort of their homes, and provides a record for posterity (or perm owner) of my progress through space and time.
So I'm going to bid my Q-Box farewell. I'll put it on a shelf in the garage, next to my Halogen headlights, toe clip straps, and freewheel puller.
And next time out, I'll carry the provided cue sheets (sans custom formatting) in a ziplock bag, safely tucked into my handlebar bag, to be referenced in case of phone failure, or the need for detailed info about a controle, or in hopes of finding a note about nearby port-a-potties.
Back when I first started riding brevets I had a real problem following the cue sheet. Even if I reformatted the file ahead of time so the text was large enough for me to read, I couldn't seem to get the hang of things: Riding along, I would glance down to see what the next turn should be, and that's when the trouble began . . . my eyes would glaze over at the long list of instructions as my brain tried vainly to remember what road I was currently on—in order to find myself on the sheet, to then read the next row in the array and follow its command. I would scan the document, hoping a street name would jolt my memory, but Elm and Maple and Oak streets each sounded plausible (I did seem to remember turning onto some sort of "tree" street), and at times I'd remember it was "Chestnut," only to see Chestnut Street mentioned in several places on the sheet! My head would bob up and down between looking where I was going and looking at the cue sheet; it was a mess.
So that was the problem the Q-Box solved (that, and the necessity of keeping the pages out of the rain). It was a great solution that even won me a contest: snapguide.com/guides/get-the-most-out-of-your-cue-sheet/
But that was then and this is now. And now I, along with almost everyone else, use a gps that displays the route, tells me where I am, tells me when to turn, alerts me if I'm off-course, allows others to follow my progress from the comfort of their homes, and provides a record for posterity (or perm owner) of my progress through space and time.
So I'm going to bid my Q-Box farewell. I'll put it on a shelf in the garage, next to my Halogen headlights, toe clip straps, and freewheel puller.
And next time out, I'll carry the provided cue sheets (sans custom formatting) in a ziplock bag, safely tucked into my handlebar bag, to be referenced in case of phone failure, or the need for detailed info about a controle, or in hopes of finding a note about nearby port-a-potties.
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