gps

[HLaB]

Hi,
New to the site but need some advice. A friend and I are doing a charity ride the length of the country but I'm having alot of difficulty planning the route as i don't have access to a GPS system and we were trying to keep our costs down and didn't want to go to the expense of buying the GPS system and the PC maps that in total would cost us around £400. Any ideas anyone???

You could try bikely for planning or some other web based too but it'll be time consuming or you could buy something like memory map (how did I forget).

 

[xilios]

Hi,
New to the site but need some advice. A friend and I are doing a charity ride the length of the country but I'm having alot of difficulty planning the route as i don't have access to a GPS system and we were trying to keep our costs down and didn't want to go to the expense of buying the GPS system and the PC maps that in total would cost us around £400. Any ideas anyone???

Microsoft Auto Route Express Europe.
Great program we use it all the time to plan our tours.
I can't recomend it, (for obvious reasons) but if you look hard enough, you can find it on the net for free.

 

[Kirstie]

Is the Garmin Vista the one with the full colour screen and full orientation? ie you get an idea of what's around you rather than just following a line?

I was thinking of getting that. At the moment I have an edge 305 which is really good if you stick to the preprogrammed route but if you have to deviate for any reason you need a paper map with you. Having said that i always think it's good practice to have paper maps and gps because the technology aint always right, and sometimes the info presented to you needs interpreting.

For LeJog just buy a road atlas, and a set of highlighter pens. Mark out your route on the back lanes, and then cut/stick it together with sellotape and scissors! Job's a good'un.

 

[CopperBrompton]

Yes, and you can zoom in or out as much as required. I don't ever use paper maps any more (though I do plan my cycle routes on the PC in Mapsource).

Ben

 

[andrew_s]

Is the Garmin Vista the one with the full colour screen and full orientation? ie you get an idea of what's around you rather than just following a line?

Yes, but only if you buy the maps too (metroguide, city navigator or topoGB). Otherwise you just get the useless base map. The topoGB shows more detail, but unless you want to use it off-road that translates to more clutter, making it harder to use.
Get the HCx version.

 

[PatrickPending]

Is the Garmin Vista the one with the full colour screen and full orientation? ie you get an idea of what's around you rather than just following a line?

I was thinking of getting that. At the moment I have an edge 305 which is

Hi, I believe the vista HCx (pictured in post above) is the full colour version, you can load maps into it but need to buy them seperately (such as metroguide europe) tho it does come with a basic map showing main routes. I had the previous b&W version - found it to be pretty good and with metroguide managed to find my way round lots of obscure lanes in leicstershire I do take as paper map too for a bigger view.....