Mapping Options?

[Time Waster]

We're off to Brittany for a two week tour in a month. What mapping options do I have?

My take on this is as follows: -

Paper mapping such as Michelin or IGN.
GPS - either specific GPS unit or phone with viewranger or similar

The first is basic and simple. Doesn't require batteries or charging.

The third option has a few sub-options. We only have an ancient GPS 60 unit that has no mapping at all. That means a gps purchase. Which would result in a battery powered unit which is easy to use on a tour. The alternative is using a phone with the issues of keeping charged up. Recently I spent a week with only car based charging and we struggled to keep our phone charged up. However I have viewranger on it and even the basic maps seem good enough for us with a gpx route loaded.

The route we're doing had gpx files to download for free. That makes me want to use electronic GPS mapping as a second system with paper maps.

So how can we charge phones up? Battery packs never seem to work well for me in the past and besides the phones have enough work to do without battery draining location services.

GPS with mapping all seem expensive to me. Unless there's a £100 option I'll probably not get one.

Am I missing something?? Is there a good charging option for phones? What about charging at French campsites? Do they have facilities for charging in many of them? Some Dutch sites had lockable boxes that you could plug in your phone and lock it safely while it charged all for a relatively low price. Once backpacking on Skye there was a chemists and photography shop that would charge your phone while you did errands or had lunch. Does any particular type of French shop charge stuff for a small fee while you take a break?

Any other ideas?

 

[Ian H]

IGN is best for paper maps. For gpx tracks I'd go Garmin Etrex (walking/trekking/outdoor unit). 2nd-hand 20 goes for not much more than £100. Uses replaceable AAs.

 

[Crankarm]

IGN maps or GoogleMaps. You can buy IGN mapping just like you can OS mapping. There's also OpenStreetMaps for free and BikeMap.net (Dutch).

 

[steveindenmark]

If it is just for 2 weeks I would use paper maps along with the app Komoot and your phone. With Komoot you can select a start point and end point and then select way points inbetween. I choose Road bike on the screen. We rode 140km last weekend and it was on quiet country roads except for about 400m on a gravel track that was easy to ride. A powerpack may be worth taking. Just in case.

My Garmin is an Etrex 30x which runs off batteries. Far better than the Garmin Touring.

Finally. Save the best until last. I use the Wahoo Elemnt Bolt and plan the routes on the PC with Ridewithgps. Or on my phone with Komoot. The Bolt is better than anything else I have used.

So there you have 3 different priced ideas for you.

 

[lazytyke]

On a recent tour, found restaurants/cafes in France and Spain were more than happy to plug a phone in to charge while we ate. Also the receptions at most campsites would let you leave your phone there during working hours or a Powerbank to charge overnight. I did get reprimanded for charging a power bank in the toilets, but I think they were more concerned about someone nicking it ! Only one municipal campsite had charging cabinets , which you could use for a fee. I never did it, but there also the option of sweet talking neighbouring campers who have mains hook up in their camper vans. I did see one cycle camper with his own lightweight, home made hook up lead - given pitches often came with hook up thrown in, it's not a bad idea either

 

[mjr]

Many cheap car chargers or battery packs are crap. Get good battery packs with declared outputs of at least 1A (or higher if your device can use it but USB 2 was only 0.5A) and reviews saying they actually deliver the most your devices can use, then get a USB charger doctor (volt/amp meter which plugs into the USB line) and check before you go that it actually delivers it.

Solar chargers on top of the pannier rack can work well in summer, but again watch that they can actually deliver what's on the label, or I'd get a campsite hookup adapter as suggested but I don't camp so I've not tried it.

 

[Ticktockmy]

Being a old crusty I Use Paper maps for the big picture, and GPS for tracking and remaining on the planned route. It is so much easier if a change of route is required, ie road closed, flooding then a Paper map allows you to see a greater area then the silly little screen that is on a GPS. As to which make of GPS to use, best to go to a dealer who has a good selection you can look at and have a play with.

 

[Blue Hills]

Being a old crusty I Use Paper maps for the big picture, and GPS for tracking and remaining on the planned route. It is so much easier if a change of route is required, ie road closed, flooding then a Paper map allows you to see a greater area then the silly little screen that is on a GPS. As to which make of GPS to use, best to go to a dealer who has a good selection you can look at and have a play with.

You can also see the bigger picture by carrying a smallish low performance android tablet and installing OSMand on it. You can also put whatever GPX file you are following on the OSMand map.

Edit - i use this with an etrex 20. Very large scale map just for emergencies. After resisting electronic maps for years am now a convert.

 

[andrew_s]

I did see one cycle camper with his own lightweight, home made hook up lead - given pitches often came with hook up thrown in, it's not a bad idea either

They are called fly lead converters, and are cheap enough to buy that it's not really worth DIY, if somewhat bulky to carry.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/PowerMaster-341082-Lead-Converter-Socket/dp/B003IJAKLE/ref=pd_sbs_60_1
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B017DGWZ1U/ref=sspa_dk_detail_1

They won't always be readily usable, even if there are electric hookups - sometimes you get 4 or 6 sockets in a group, and it's expected that people will have a 15-25 m long cable to their tent/campervan (which would be to bulky/heavy for carrying on a bike).

I use smallish scale maps (1:250,000 to 1:400,000) for planning, so I can see most of the next day's ride in one view, and an Etrex 30x (2xAA) for on the bike and town detail that the map doesn't supply. With practice, you can create a route the evening before, no other devices or web access required.

Phones can work, but if the screen's on all the time, and bright enough to see, it's unlikely that the phone battery will last more than half the day's ride.
That means either using an app that gives voice prompts with the screen off (and therefore suitably prepared route files), or an external battery pack.

A potential problem with external battery packs when riding is that a USB port isn't very robust, and it's possible that a plug & lead bouncing about over rough roads could break the phone USB port, which wouldn't be good.
If you do use one, try to make sure the lead is well supported, which probably means a lead with a right-angle plug rather than the usual straight plug - like this, or preferably this.