Learning from Rookie mistakes already…

With just one day to go, after the hearty breakfast and the dreamy tour around Fremantle town I thought I better test out the ole Garmin 1030 and the IPWR 5500KM “one big fat file downloaded” only file.

I started the route testing a little worried as the “way more tech than me” IPWR bunch at Gino’s politely pointed out that the one file only downloaded on the 1030 may NOT be the way to go.

I was still confident.

Back home, the entire file downloaded in a jiffy.

I could see the whole map fine. From Perth to Sydney.

All there. In all its intricacies.

I did think about splitting it up but ya know.

If the whole thing downloads and it’s there, it’s there, right?

What I didn’t account for was Garmin’s ‘calculating’ time once the ride and the navigation of the course started.

The ride test from the start line out of Fremantle showed me quick smart I should have definitely downloaded sections of the whole 5500KM only.

Not the whole route.

Because the Garmin 1030 just remained in ‘calculating’ mode forever. No cues. Nothing.

Oooops.

What to do.

I had no desktop to plug in and transfer the routes segmented hard files over to the Garmin 1030 like I did the first “very big obviously not the way to do it” file.

Panic set in. The heart a little racier.

The planning for two years was going down the gurgler and frankly I just wanted my blankie.

In terms of tools, I only had access to an iPhone and the Garmin 1030.

Not one for things going wrong and not being tech-minded this was definitely the first test of my little “ride across a great big f*cking country” journey.

I had no choice but to work it out.

I remember  the generous offer of the tandem cycle duo Marc and Tracey saying they’d help if I got stuck and came a cropper after the test ride. So I sucked in my pride and called them.

The legends came straight to my room to try and assist.

After a little emergency conference call with the moderator they left to go on a training ride with the hope we’d work it out in the meantime without me sucking up their time trying to work it out for me.

Luckily for them, they didn’t need to suck in my dilemma any further.

I worked it out.

My saviour?

The Ride With GPS app on my iPhone.

The IPWR segmented smaller file routes I had saved in this app were there. Thanks to the bloke on the Dot Watcher Facebook page who did alllll the work uploading these to RWGPS.

Love. You. Forever.

I just had to work out how to get them onto the 1030.

By default, being a Garmin 1030 owner I had Garmin connect iPhone app too.

A few tense calls to the moderator and we had a game plan.

We’d connect/sync from RWGPS  to my Garmin Connect app and THEN to my Garmin 1030 via bluetooth.

The neuron connections in the head said this plan 100% made sense.

Happy daysssss.

Initially though, it didn’t work.

Pressing buttons. Spinning. Syncing.

Downloading to 1030 yet? Nup.

Panic.

But then a miracle!

The missing piece of the puzzle was simply to “PIN” the RWGPS course. It then synced without fail to Garmin Connect.

Writing this in case someone else in future hits this super frustrating hurdle and googles a fix.

Bottom line: Only ‘pinned’ courses will sync from RWGPS to Garmin Connect.

Via Bluetooth, I could see all the data flow in to the 1030 like a cup runneth full.

I had my IPWR navigation back.

My course to Darwin thwarted.

I’m still not liking Garmin’s navigational prompts. They clearly will play with my head.

But if I stick to the blue line track and not panic I should be right and not end up in Uluru.

IPWR meet and greet…Only one that got shat on by a bird. Def good luck.

Tonight was the meet and greet with all the IPWR riders.

A bird decided my head looked like a toilet so I copped it.

If it means good luck navigating this beast of a ride, I don’t mind that at all.

Enough for now.

In around 36 hours it’s time to pedal hard. Or go home.

Cheers – Willy Maykit.

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