The GPS Watch: Lessons Learned

I've had the GPS watch for about a week and have logged about 50 miles on my geared unicycle while using it. Here is what I know now about the guni (and the watch):

GUNI
1. It's far faster to ride up even the steepest hills in high gear on my guni than to switch back and forth between high and low gears. This is probably because it's hard for me to downshift, so I lose time trying, and because when I'm in low gear, the guni becomes nothing more than a heavy (and high-priced) 29" uni. In high gear, on the other hand, even slow pedaling can keep me going at least 7 mph.

2. I can ride uphill faster than I thought. This morning I decided to ride to a student's house in high gear the whole way. There is a steep hill that levels off only a bit and goes on for nearly a mile. I was able to maintain about 8-12 mph depending on the grade and the traffic.

3. Riding downhill, I hit 15 or 16 mph, which is a little dangerous considering the conditions. I could have attained higher speeds, but that would have been too dangerous.

4. Perhaps motivated a bit by the watch, and definitely because of the speed of the guni, I achieved new records for my trip to Packer from home (23 minutes, a few minutes faster than my previous fast times on the Coker) and for my trip to that student's house (11.5 minutes rather than the 13-15 it usually takes me)

WATCH
Some times, it takes a minute or so for the watch to locate the satellite. It depends on where I'm standing and whether I'm standing still. I've decided to have it show me the current speed, elapsed time, distance covered, and my max speed. That last category is a bit odd because there is a large disparity between the watch and the computer on this reading. I've noticed that the cycle computer usually has a reading 10-20% higher than the watch, but it's hard to know which one to trust more. A speed reached for a fraction of a second may not be worth as much as one that's been held for a few seconds.

GETTING SET TO GO
Ironically, altho I'm using it to measure my speed, it slows me down if I wait for the thing to kick in before riding. I also have to reset the cycle computer on my uni (that only takes a few seconds) and, if I want music, I have to set up my iPod. Of course I also need my helmet and wrist guards, so in all, it can take me 2-4 minutes to get ready.

The watch cost a bit over $200 and is worth every penny.