GPS?

[snorri]

Are they worth the money do you think? or is that a 6 million dollar question!?

It depends on your style.
To me, satnav is an item which I would have to be careful not to lose, it would be attractive to thieves, recharging or buying batteries is just an inconvenience I can happily live without whilst on tour, in other words more worry than it's worth.
Getting lost on tour for a few hours is no big deal, it gives you a good opportunity to speak to the locals, and you can find yourself in some interesting places when lost.
I'm quite happy to tour with a cheapo paper map and my hand bearing compass on my belt.

 

[Rob S]

Great piece of kit if you only want to tour in the UK.

Or Holland.

 

[RedBike]

I used to use this http://www.viewranger.com/ on my Nokia phone. (I also had tomtom installed). I now use a Garmin Etrax £30 new off ebay.

The viewranger was great. The maps were far clearer and with a lot more detail on than the ones on my Garmin.

You can't really read the maps as you ride along. They're too small. You can just about make out where you are in relation to the route you want to follow but if you want to start navigating by them then you'll probably have to keep stopping to read them.

The tomtom worked just like it does in a car. "Turn left in 100yrds".
It allowed you to just type in a postcode and it would automatically plot a route there. It would also autocorrect when you went wrong. Neither the Garmin or the Viewranger would autoroute and when you go horribly wrong they very helpfully just stop telling you which way it is.

The Nokia did have a few BIG disadvantages (Which is why I brought the Garmin).
The battery life was poor. We're talking under 2hrs running tomtom with the backlight on so that you could see the map. I always found changing batteries mid way through a ride to be a pain. It wasn't waterproof!

The nokia was ideal for just switching on for a few seconds. Looking which way it is then switching it back off and sticking it back in your pocket. It got be back on track on several Sportives last year! It was no good for navigating all day by.


btw I used a Krussel case / bar mount for the Nokia.

 

[samid]

I now use a Garmin Etrax £30 new off ebay.
...
The tomtom worked just like it does in a car. "Turn left in 100yrds".
It allowed you to just type in a postcode and it would automatically plot a route there. It would also autocorrect when you went wrong. Neither the Garmin or the Viewranger would autoroute and when you go horribly wrong they very helpfully just stop telling you which way it is.

I'm using a Garmin eTrex Vista HCx, and with Garmin City Navigator maps, it does work more or less like a car GPS, with the exception that it does not actualy say it - but it beeps when you approach a turn, and shows exactly which way you need to turn (I usually have no problems seeing it even though I cannot read without the glasses). And, if you make a wrong turn it automatically recalculates the route and starts navigating again. In fact, it even knows such details as when the A1 becomes off-limits to bicycles when approaching Edinburgh. One thing it could not do was, it could not plot the whole route from Slough to Mussleburgh at once - my guess is that the complexity of the task got out of hand due to it having to avoid highways. Another very nice thing is the ability to look at your route after the tour, by uploading the tracks to a computer. So, ultimately, I would not say that a GPS is a replacement for paper maps - but a great compliment for sure.

 

[RedBike]

I'm using the Legend. It's an older / lower end model. It never makes a sound and it doesn't autoroute.

I purchased the garmin to navigate me around sportives / audaxes. It's used more as a reasurance that i'm still on route than as my main way of navigating.

 

[andym]

I'm using the Legend. It's an older / lower end model. It never makes a sound and it doesn't autorout

There are different Legends. The Legend HCx does do autoroute.

Or Holland.

Indeed - and Norway too by the looks of it.

Mickwood

If you want the best quality and range of maps then at the moment the main alternative is a phone or PDA running Windows Mobile (and oh do I wish SatMap could run it).

You might also want to check out the Garmin Oregon which, I think I I remember reading, will run proper OS mapping. But I may be wrong on that. also I've heard conflicting views on whether the display is bright enough to read in sunshine.

Digital mapping isn't cheap - but when you compare to the costs of paper maps it is very good value.

 

[mickwood]

Digital mapping isn't cheap - but when you compare to the costs of paper maps it is very good value.

Well...I get waterproofed maps for a fiver and have a load of them so.....it's just gonna be an additional and quite unnecessary expense...but gadgets are just bloody brilliant! lol!

It's the ability to set a route and essentially not have to stop and map read en route!

 

[Rob S]

You might also want to check out the Garmin Oregon which, I think I I remember reading, will run proper OS mapping. But I may be wrong on that. also I've heard conflicting views on whether the display is bright enough to read in sunshine.

Not sure about the mapping quality of the Oregon..looks pretty crap to me, heavily compressed and people seem to have a problem with unwanted autoroute overlays.

http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/modul...opic&t=73252&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

 

[Rob S]

Well...I get waterproofed maps for a fiver and have a load of them so.....it's just gonna be an additional and quite unnecessary expense...but gadgets are just bloody brilliant! lol!

It's the ability to set a route and essentially not have to stop and map read en route!

It's not just that...it's having ALL your maps with you, at the touch of a button and you don't have to decide which ones you'll need in advance....that means you can change your mind about where you want to go (in my case if train connections are late and I decide to do a ride somewhere completely different instead of waiting an hour for the next train..

 

[andygates]

Mapping is not always expensive. I have a weekly-updated Garmin UK streetmap with contours, from the OpenStreetMap dataset (see openstreetmap.org) free here: http://www.ravenfamily.org/andyg/maps - also check out OpenCycleMap for a bike-lane specific version.

 

[aqaleigh]

I'm glad you asked this question - I have been looking for a while for a turn by turn sat nav with a good battery life and had decided on the 705 (fantastic piece of kit) however the day before i was going to buy it, i read a couple of reports that it had frozen on people
As it is fairly new, i decided to wait and get a bit more feedback

For me the 705 is the best thing out there - if they prove reliable in the long term

HAS ANYONE EXPERIENCED THIS FREEZING PROBLEM?

 

[gavintc]

I'm glad you asked this question - I have been looking for a while for a turn by turn sat nav with a good battery life and had decided on the 705 (fantastic piece of kit) however the day before i was going to buy it, i read a couple of reports that it had frozen on people
As it is fairly new, i decided to wait and get a bit more feedback

For me the 705 is the best thing out there - if they prove reliable in the long term

HAS ANYONE EXPERIENCED THIS FREEZING PROBLEM?

No, not me. Still love mine and still exploring it's options and features. I think I have only used about 30% of its capabilities so far.

 

[yello]

sat nav with a good battery life and had decided on the 705

Eh? Do you mean you can recharge the battery loads of times before it claps out? Because, for me, battery life is one of the biggest draw backs for using an Edge for touring.

 

[Cranky]

Eh? Do you mean you can recharge the battery loads of times before it claps out? Because, for me, battery life is one of the biggest draw backs for using an Edge for touring.

The battery life on my Edge is still excellent after 2.5 years and several tours and day trips in all conditions. Admittedly I only use it for directions so it's not used every trip.

 

[yello]

Okay, around in circles we go! 2.5 years? That's a 305/205 then. So NOT really a GPS like the OP is asking for, i.e. one with auto-routing capability. The Edge with auto-routing, the 705 is by not "cheap as chips", as the OP asked for.

As for battery life, I think we are at cross purposes. How long does your Edge last from switching on to running out of batteries? Then you have to find somewhere to plug in to recharge it! (Unless you have a PowerMonkey kind of thing) Something like the Garmin Legend/Vista/Oregon is auto-routing, has a longer run time before 'recharge' (2 times an Edge in some cases) AND runs on standard AA batteries. Factor in the cost of the 705, and the Legend et al is pretty much a no-brainer preference!

Again, don't get me wrong. The Edge units are brilliant. I have a 305 and love it to bits. I reckon it's brilliant. Personally, I wouldn't use it for touring because I prefer maps. So I wouldn't bother with a GPS at all!

BUT, for the OPs stated requirements, I personally really really don't think an Edge is appropriate.