By Greg Conderacci
You might think that putting a compass on your bike is bit old-fashioned, considering the miracle of modern GPS devices. But a compass gives you a sense of direction…of the wind.
Have you ever found yourself trying to draft other riders, only to discover you’ve been struggling along on the wrong (windy) side of their rear wheels? In light winds and on routes with a lot of turns, it’s an easy mistake to make.
With a compass, you can take a bearing on the wind (often from watching a flag or some other “weathervane”). So, for example, if the wind is from the northwest, you know you want to be on the southeast side of the rider in front of you.
The compass doesn’t weigh much, there’s no battery, and, if your GPS dies, it doesn’t take your sense of direction with it.
Greg Conderacci is a marketing consultant and a former Wall Street Journal reporter, non-profit entrepreneur, and investment bank chief marketing officer. In Getting UP!, he brings you the same skills he teaches at a top graduate school and Fortune 500 companies. Lots of people promise better performance … Greg proves it. Using his energy techniques, in 2015 he rode a bicycle across America in just 18 days — averaging 150 miles a day.
I use a compass with a carabiner type clip, attached to the side of my front bag. Invaluable for touring. Beware that some compasses close to the frame may be affected by the metal and read inaccurately. Also, you need to have it level for the needle to float to north.
I also use a compass, mine is attached to my watch band. I use it for when I go bikepacking and hiking.
I don’t use a compass because here in Michigan many (most) roads are laid out on our survey grid and are either north/south or east/west. Even if the road you are on is not on the grid, the roads you cross are and you can orient yourself. BUT, the comment about knowing where to draft put way to much emphasis on knowing wind direction. When drafting other riders you get constant feedback about the draft direction by feeling and hearing the wind. You should be tuned to that feedback and not to what your compass might tell you. Winds are constantly shifting and therefore so should your position relative to the rider in front of you to find the sweet spot in the draft.
I’ve thought of this before and wonder if the Garmin 520 has a screen to show direction of travel in terms of a compass point? I can get the wind direction from my Apple watch.
As a sailor, I am used to using “telltales”, or yarns on the sails and shrouds to see flow and direction. For years I used a 7″ yarn tied to my shifter cables in front of the handlebars to see the apparent wind direction. Small angle changes will tell the story. But now I have wireless shifting and no cables out front!
I use a $5 globe-type compass that I pin to my shorts or tights just above the right knee. The compass floats in water so is always oriented correctly. The one I use is the only one I have found that has the N, E, S, W visually prominent enough to read at a glance. I put it on for every ride, even when I am on trails that determine my direction(s): I use it often for wind direction readings as well.