Bike, GPS, Route!

[cycle2run]

Hey guys, new to the forum...and to cycling, I had a question regarding my bike earlier to which people were more than hapy to help so thought i'd try my luck again at more (Probably silly) questions.

I am doing my own organized charity challenge in my fathers memory, I am cycling to paris in April then running the Paris marathon (For Mind mental health charity as he took hs own life). New to both types of sport!! I have a feq questions, hoping this area of the forum is OK if not let me know and I will move. I currently have a Carrera TDF which I bought just to get my training going. I plan on upgrading in March before the event, which is where my first question lies:

I have 3 options (I Guess), Buy new, Buy used, or combine both and build my own road bike to my own spec within budget. What would be the best option, obviously used I would get more for my buck than new, but could I extend that value and optimise my performance if I built myself? ould be very interested to know

My other query, is what is out there in regards to a "sat nav" i havnt planned route yet, only google mapped the route to dover using the cycle icon which I dont know whether provides a good route or not. Are there any good cycle aimed sat navs that can guide you through a set route?

Hope this isnt too much in one post, thanks for any advice and I looked forward to sharing my experiences during my training and challenge, and hopefully end up enjoying it when the sun appeard and continuing the riding! (Not the running!!!)

 

[Joffey]

Q1: Depends on your budget and what you want in a bike. You can get a decent carbon bike new for a grand or you can pay lots more, or do you want alloy...

Q2: Depends on your budget! A basic Garmin will let you follow a route you have uploaded but it's not too sophisticated but you can pay a little more (£150ish) and get one that will make you a route and provide turn by turn navigation on a map.

FYI I bought a serving hand alloy bike for £350 (hand built frame, Mavic wheels, 9 speed Shimano 105) and gave done lots of miles but then I bought a new carbon bike too... N+1 (Google it) - I still use both and love them both. Oh, also had Garmin 200 which let me follow routes but updated to Garmin 510 for ant+ features such as HR monitor.

Everyone will give you a different answer, best thing to do is look online, bike shops, magazines etc to get a feel of what's out there and what you fancy owning. The best bike is the one you like, not what we say! :-) It's the best bit of cycling - looking at stuff you can buy!! YouTube is your friend too, lots of knowledge on there that can help you make the right choices.

Good luck!!!

 

[cycle2run]

thankas for the reply

Looking to get as light as possible and gearing to handle hilly rides I suppose within my budget of £1000. tempted to build my own I think. Will keep training on the TDFand as I get used to it hopefully make a more informed decision

 

[LocalLad]

It's not quite what you're looking for, but google the arch to arc triathlon...they run from marble arch to the channel, swim the channel and ride to the arc de triumph. You could do that then the marathon!

Might give you some ideas for a route

 

[cycle2run]

LocalLad, I can deal with cycling, I can just about cope with running...but swimming? not a chance :P lol

 

[Ajax Bay]

Your Carrera will take you all the way, if you want to ride it. The route Warwick > Paris is relatively flat so bike weight is not much of an issue. And you will be very familiar with it with all the training you've committed to do. But if you do buy another bike, give yourself time to get to know it and its foibles well before your start (29 March?). If you're riding supported, in a group, when deciding on a bike new to you, take into account how you will fit mudguards on it. It'll likely be wet and shitty in places and you'll want to follow others' wheels, and vice versa. In fact get a set for the Carrera (maybe you have already) and you can transfer them.

The same goes for any GPS you decide to use: you must practise its use on the road: I'd give it a month; so don't procrastinate. However there's no substitute for a thorough map recce and a backup of carrying laminated paper strip maps, cut from a 4 miles : 1" road atlas and the small scale (1:250,000) Michelin coverage (FR).

 

[steveindenmark]

Here is a bike worth looking at.

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/EBPXSL...on-classic-shimano-ultegra-6800-mix-road-bike

I have a Garmin Touring which is excellent. I use it with Plotaroute.com which is a great free route planner.

 

[phil-b]

as it is for charity maybe you could put an appeal out for the loan of a sat nav just for the event . you could try asking on forums or with local bike shops and clubs

 

[Ajax Bay]

http://www.sustrans.org.uk/shop/route-maps-guides/avenue-verte-london-paris-bike

 

[Yazzoo]

Are you going to have any support on this ride? i.e. a car full of spares, tools, food, layers etc? That may also have an impact on your bike choice - do you need to be able to carry equipment etc.

Garmin are the market leaders in cycling and running gps. Others are available! dcrainmaker is the man in the know about all things gps, google him or youtube.

Amazing thing you're doing, good luck with it!

 

[tallliman]

Wonderful challenge you've set yourself. Good luck!

I've been planning a tours recently and find plotaroute pretty good. Strava has a route planning facility which let's you see a map of most-used cycling routes. I find that useful when planning a ride somewhere I don't know.

 

[Dogtrousers]

A few thoughts

Self build costs have a habit of running mysteriously over budget.
Another option (or two options) would just be to ride your current bike, or perhaps to ride your current bike and upgrade the wheels.

There's a ton of choice out there for GPS that will support planned routes. You might (or might not) want to consider something that's handy for use during your running training as well as on the bike. I'm not up to speed with the latest kit, but there is lots of choice, and it's often possible to get not-quite-the-latest thing fairly cheap second hand from people who like to upgrade as soon as the latest thing comes out.

There's a similarly wide choice of route planning websites. My favourite is www.gpxeditor.co.uk because it enables me to swap between OS, OSM, and Google maps, and jump easily into street view. But it can be a bit ... er .... quirky at times, and you need to pay to get some features. Apart from that, the usual suspects like RideWithGPS and Strava can help.

As @Ajax Bay says ... be sure you are very familiar with all your kit before the event.

 

[Wolf616]

I bought myself a very cheap smartphone (Huawei Ascend Y330 if you are interested - just £40) which is more than adequate for route-planning when combined with the Viewranger App (you can then plot a route in plotaroute.com or use cyclestreets if you are lazy, download the gpx file and import it into Viewranger).

It'll work with your current smartphone if you have one, I didn't hence why I had to buy one. I'm not convinced by getting a whole seperate device like a Garmin SatNav when your phone does it just as well (handlebar mounts like this work well with most phones of a certain size) seems ridiculous to me

 

[si_c]

I'd buy a bike either new or second hand. Building a bike will run over budget and more worryingly for you, over time, if for no other reason than you also need to start buying bike-specific tools, then you'll run into problems you're not sure how to fix unless you've done it before. You can get a really good bike, plus all the kit you need, including GPS for around a grand.

For navigation, you can use your phone, but I'd recommend a proper GPS navigation unit, either the Garmin Edge Touring or a Mio Cyclo 200 would be perfect. One advantage to the GPS unit is that battery life will likely be a bit better, and you won't be dependent upon having an internet connection necessarily. Plus you will still have your phone for backup.

As others above have said, you need to familiarise yourself with your new bike and kit before your trip, if for no other reason than you'll need to make adjustments to the bike to get properly comfortable.

 

[Spinney]

There's a bike advertised on here may be of interest:
https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/2007-dawes-super-galaxy-for-sale.194312/#post-4102862

(apologies if this is no lighter/better than the one you've got, but it looked like a good price to me!)