Navigation / Route Planning Curious

[Windle]

Hi everyone, I’m getting the urge to try one of those fancy, new fangled cycle sat navs that seem to proliferate these days. I quite often do ‘remote rides’ up around the Tyneside area, attracted by the maze of Waggonways and cycle paths up there. Generally, I plan a route in advance by using google maps on my PC, one that’s not too difficult to remember and if need be, I take screenshot pictures of google maps to highlight any awkward areas. Yes, I’m a bit of a luddite mobile phone wise, just using mine for texts and the occasional call. I don’t have a smartphone and don’t use the interweb on mine.
I’m after something that (as well as measuring the usual bike computer stuff) can be used for route planning, my ideal requirements are:

• The ability to set up route plans on a home computer (like the directions feature on google maps). I’ve dabbled with a few (Komoot, Cycle Travel and Hammerhead dashboard) with varying results.
• Load these onto the cycle computer.
• Have a map screen which gives directions like a car sat nav.

I’m not going to be totally dependent on it as I’ve a pretty good sense of direction and can usually find my way about, I’m just after the ability to have something that’ll keep me right and enable some more complex routes / exploring.

Price wise I’d rather not spend top end Garmin money, so maybe up to about £400 - £500 although a cheaper one that'll do the job would be fine.

I’ll throw this to the collective wisdom of Cycle Chat, any advice & experience would be much appreciated, thanks.

Windle.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

I have a Wahoo Roam, bought for similar reasons to yours. I use it with cycle.travel for planning, and it works very well. I like cycle.travel particularly because it allows (with a subscription) OS maps, which are miles better than alternatives for judging road style and gradients at a glance IME.

I've zero experience of the alternatives, which could well be better!

 

[ianrauk]

You can't go wrong with a Garmin Explore 2 which you should be able to get for around £200. There are more expensive Garmins but if you are not wanting metrics with power meters and such like, then the Explore 2 will be perfect.
It's a machine that works flawlessly doing everything that you wanted in your post and has a superb battery life.

 

[PaulSB]

In my opinion Wahoo is the best option and within your price range you can get a new Bolt or Roam. For an extra £50 you could go for the top of the range Ace. I find the Roam is more than adequate.

The problem you face with Wahoo is it comes with a companion app. You will need a reasonably modern smart phone to run the app and the Wahoo system, without this you can't run a Wahoo unit.

This may be true of othe GPS units, I don't know.