Best sat nav for me

[taximan]

Next year I may be riding solo from Whitby to Lands End/ The Lizard & return and I am thinking of using a sat nav. I am something of a dummy with all things technical and would welcome some advice. I will be camping so recharging may be a problem so it would need to run on 'ordinary' batteries & I would need to be able to load my day by day routes into it. All I am thinking about is a basic unit probably from the budget end of the market as I will probably only use it for this one trip because I rarely cycle away from my own area.
Any advice please?

 

[mjr]

Fit a dynamo and something like a reecharge or e werk to charge it during daylight bits of riding.

Get one of those big solar panels for the top of the rear rack if you're riding in summer.

I've no idea on dedicated sat navs. I use my xperia phone and osmand and it gives me a day's tracking and voice navigation on about 50% of battery (about 8 hours).

 

[Vantage]

Etrex 20. £150 ish. Plus the bar mount which is another tenner roughly.
Runs on AA batteries. I get about 14 hours from a set of rechargeable Panasonic Eneloop batteries...duracells might be similar. You'll need to download a map for it. My personal favourite is http://www.openfietsmap.nl/ although there are others.
Your daily routes can all be planned out on http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php which has the benefit of OS mapping and saved as a GPX file on your computer. This then gets loaded into your etrex's GPX folder ready for following each day. Ridewithgps and Strava (I think) can also be used to plan routes.
You won't get turn by turn instructions like on some of the posher GPS units or a smart phone, but you follow the purple line as you ride along.
It doesn't have a magnetic compass so when you slow down enough or stop, the map on the screen can spin around and leave you wondering which way it was pointing which isn't half bloomin annoying.
Sometimes the unit can freeze up and mine once lost all the routes I'd planned just as I was 30 miles into my first tour.
They can be a real pita at times, but I wouldn't change mine.
I believe they sell well 2nd hand too.

 

[taximan]

Thanks guys, The etrex 20 sounds about right for me so thanks for that Vantage

 

[13 rider]

Wahoo element . Brilliant little unit long battery life over 12 hrs charge over night , routes via ridewith GPS link via WiFi . Simple to use as long as you have a smart phone . The screen is small but I find following a route easy

 

[13 rider]

I've read about these and may get one one day. They look good for home-based recording of routes and uploading. Touring, not so much. But the OP specifically needs something that runs on replaceable batteries.

Should have read the bit about op camping and charging issue . How will he charge a mobile phone if he takes one camp site hook up ? If so no problem charging the unit

 

[Heltor Chasca]

No need for replaceable batteries in the gps. A Thrunite lipstick charger has 18650 batteries that you can take out unlike most chargers. Either carry a stash of Fogstar vaping batteries which have a powerful mAh for a reasonable price, or: Recharge via solar panel, Dyno hub or in the pub/campsite reception at night.
HTH

Wahoo Elemnt gets my vote. Perfect for touring. (Unlike the Garmin Edge Touring. But that’s another rant for another time) Garmin were a continuous nightmare for 3 years of my life. There I go. Must stop.

 

[andrew_s]

Etrex 20.
Get the proper Garmin mount - the cheap copies are reportedly not secure.
Mine (actually a 30) came with preloaded OpenStreetMap - Garmin call it Topo Active Western Europe.

Mine runs 3 or 4 days riding on a pair of AA - either NiMh rechargeable for local use, or I'd take a couple of packs of disposable lithium AAs for a tour - they last slightly longer, are half the weight, and if you don't use them they'll be fine next year.
With built-in Li-ion batteries, a 12 hour run time still means you have to charge every night, as 12h isn't long enough to guarantee the second day, and unlike AA, you can't just pop a new pair in and carry on.

Campsites don't always have a reception to charge at (or usable electricity in the shower block), and if they do have a reception, using it for charging means you can't leave until it's open. Dynohubs & chargers, solar panels etc are significant extra cost, and unless you figure it's worth investing, it's best to keep charging requirements as low as possible. I carry a Mu plug, USB cable, and small USB battery pack, and charge the phone (directly by preference) at such cafes and pubs at which I stop.

 

[Vantage]

Thanks guys, The etrex 20 sounds about right for me so thanks for that Vantage

There's a bit of a learning curve to getting the most out of them but even I figured mine out.
This site taught me quite a bit. http://www.aukadia.net/gps/lw3_0.htm