Beeline

[Gwylan]

Anybody using this? And what might the alternatives, cheaper and or better, be?

 

[scragend]

I have a Beeline Velo 2, and I had the original before that.

I started with them for the simplicity of the navigation - the idea of just having an arrow saying "go this way, now" rather than a full map on a screen.

The original one I found slightly irritating though because there was often a lag so that it sometimes only showed the turn when it was too late. It would be showing a straight on arrow and then switch to a left arrow, for example, when I'd passed the junction. Like a "go straight on, oh no sorry you should have turned left there". It struggled a bit when there were two turns in quick succession too because of the lag. I also found it a bit of a pain at complex junctions knowing exactly which direction it meant. And the graphic that showed which exit off a roundabout I should take often seemed to be one out.

The Velo 2 is much better and doesn't have either of those problems. The display is a little bit more detailed which is handy at complex junctions, and there is no lag. The only thing I would mark it down for is that it's quite heavy on phone battery because it's the phone that runs the navigation and the Beeline unit just displays it. If I'm on a long ride I have a power bank which I plug the phone into to make sure the battery doesn't run out. The battery on the Beeline itself is fine and lasts a decent length of time. Overall the Velo 2 is a massive improvement on the original I think.

I also like how it beeps to notify me of a turn. I think it's once at 100 yards, once at 20 yards and then a double beep for "now". The only thing with that is if there are pedestrians around at the time they sometimes think it's me beeping at them!

I don't really use the Beeline app for navigation - I import my own GPX files into it and just use it to tell me the route that I've already planned. The downside with that is that it doesn't appear to reroute me if I go off route - I think if you use the navigation within the app it does.

Thumbs up from me though.

 

[Gwylan]

I have a Beeline Velo 2, and I had the original before that.

I started with them for the simplicity of the navigation - the idea of just having an arrow saying "go this way, now" rather than a full map on a screen.

The original one I found slightly irritating though because there was often a lag so that it sometimes only showed the turn when it was too late. It would be showing a straight on arrow and then switch to a left arrow, for example, when I'd passed the junction. Like a "go straight on, oh no sorry you should have turned left there". It struggled a bit when there were two turns in quick succession too because of the lag. I also found it a bit of a pain at complex junctions knowing exactly which direction it meant. And the graphic that showed which exit off a roundabout I should take often seemed to be one out.

The Velo 2 is much better and doesn't have either of those problems. The display is a little bit more detailed which is handy at complex junctions, and there is no lag. The only thing I would mark it down for is that it's quite heavy on phone battery because it's the phone that runs the navigation and the Beeline unit just displays it. If I'm on a long ride I have a power bank which I plug the phone into to make sure the battery doesn't run out. The battery on the Beeline itself is fine and lasts a decent length of time. Overall the Velo 2 is a massive improvement on the original I think.

I also like how it beeps to notify me of a turn. I think it's once at 100 yards, once at 20 yards and then a double beep for "now". The only thing with that is if there are pedestrians around at the time they sometimes think it's me beeping at them!

I don't really use the Beeline app for navigation - I import my own GPX files into it and just use it to tell me the route that I've already planned. The downside with that is that it doesn't appear to reroute me if I go off route - I think if you use the navigation within the app it does.

Thumbs up from me though.

Thanks for that. Looks like it suits my sort of cycling. There are times I'm not happy about having my phone on the handlebars.

 

[Gwylan]

Thanks for that. Looks like it suits my sort of cycling. There are times I'm not happy about having my phone on the handlebars.

Well I raided my savings pot and gone for it.

Feel increasingly nervous having my mobile on the bars. Especially in towns where it seems it might get snatched before I could get my panga out.
Foolish because it's not worth a bag of smack anyway.

 

[markemark]

New to the beeline 2 and so far I love it. It does so much less than the garmin I used to have but what it does do it is so much clearer and easy to use.

The battery life is incredible and because it uses the phones processor and gps then it works super fast and very accurately.

 

[steveindenmark]

My made used Beeline to get all the way from Bulgaria to the UK he really likes the simplicity of it.