Cunobelin wrote:There is a another thread about the "Winged Wheels" and how this is being set up as a touring competition
It struck me as an example of how technology has changed cycle touring
When I first started this would have been announced in an newsletter, or by the DA
You would then write to the CTC at Godalming with an SAE and a week later would get a list of the known sites
If you found a new one then you would again write to the CTC who would then update the lists and ad a slip of paper to following lists with the addition.
However unless the addition was announced in the magazine or you replaced your list then you would never ever know of the addition
Now I just whip out my smartphone.................... Not only to I have an up to date list immediately available, I can check the one I have just found, take a photo, send it in and the addition can be available to all within minutes
We focus a lot on the GPS technology, but this is just one example of how technology has made a change.
Has Technology changed the way you tour?
Well, not quite but even a smart phone won't find a youth hostel that no longer exists. On the face of it, it isn't just the web that is useful to cycle tourists but the carryable device - the smart phone. It's almost as though they were designed for cycle tourists. But somehow they don't quite seem to make much of a difference. And they don't make up for the decimated YHA network. It's a moot point: such amazing technology, so little absolute need for it. It's kind of middling I suppose.