Teach me about bike vs car satnav
- Thread starter mustang1
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
Donger
Convoi Exceptionnel
- Location
- Quedgeley, Glos.
Thanks, https://cycle.travel looks a good planner, and I have saved myself a link for future use. But yes. I do just take a map with me. On longer solo rides I fit my larger bar bag with built-in map holder containing a photocopy map sheet. On club rides I use my smaller, lighter bar bag that doesn't have a map holder. When I do that, a small crib sheet containing bullet points of L & R turns, place names and road names/numbers usually suffices. I have the type of brain that just seems to remember information once I have committed it to paper, and as often as not i do not need to consult my notes. I also generally look at Google Maps in Street View mode beforehand and research any parts of the route that I do not already know.If you have a fair distance, or indeed a multi-day journey....do you just take a load of paper maps?
Memorise the turns and targets?
I struggle to remember the next village
I'm toying with the idea of a Wahoo - it *sounds* easy to send mapping from a mobile to their unit, but yes, remapping en route (if needed) wouldn't typically be done on the unit, from what I read.
Have just discovered https://cycle.travel for planning, and at first glance it looks *really* good at picking decent routes.
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
Cost.
To make a unit with sufficient processing power, memory and battery life, then to make it water and shock resistant would likely make it too expensive for the intended marmer. A mobile phone ticks many of those boxes, but their cost is subsidised by the network provider, whereas such a monthly subscription service is unlikely to have much take up on a bike.
You seem to not be aware of the bike computers that do offer on the fly turn by turn - many of them do and will get you to your destination without too many dramas. The issue is that each persons idea of a great route from A-B will vary, some want a direct route, some flat, some hilly, some rural, some scenic etc. The computer has no way of knowing what your particular preference is, you will probably find that you don't actually know anyway.
Johnno260
Veteran
- Location
- East Sussex
I just look on a map digital or paper and head in the direction I want, if I’m somewhere not familiar I just set my home location to the holiday home etc.
jay clock
Massive member
- Location
- Hampshire UK
no one seems to have mentioned the obvious, the many cyclists want a circular route. A car satnav is good at point to point but pretty useless at a circular route (unless you plot loads of waypoints). My weapon of choice is to plot on Ride with GPS and copy the gpx to my Garmin. For touring, i can now plot routes on my mobile with RWGPS app and copy to the Garmin.
united4ever
Über Member
Kind of hard to collect the data in a consistent way too. Roads can be driven with 360 degree cameras on the roof and then the roads mapped and attributed by people in an office in India or elsewhere. There is no concerted effort from the big players to collect bike paths in the same way (must not be enough money in it) and the smaller players don't have the scale to roll out something like that on a national or global scope so any apps etc are rather bitty with varied coverage and inconsistencies.
G3CWI
Veteran
- Location
- Macclesfield
Beeline is worth investigating. It’s a slightly different concept. Has some annoying quirks though.
cyberknight
As long as I breathe, I attack.
- Location
- Land of confusion
I do the same via strava route planner, i do use a pc as i am used to it but its the same effect
https://cycle.travel certainly has a "suggest a route" option from wherever you want - will give you 3 routes of a distance of your choice.
Still no "least hilly" option for me
I don't have a problem with using paper maps for local 1 or even 2 day things....the key navigating piece for me is for long distance multi-day trips in areas I don't know. Locally, I am fine pointing and pedalling!
Interesting device, not seen that before - 30 hour battery life is decent! What are the annoying quirks in your experience?
Chromatic
Legendary Member
- Location
- Gloucestershire
https://cycle.travel certainly has a "suggest a route" option from wherever you want - will give you 3 routes of a distance of your choice.
Still no "least hilly" option for me
I don't have a problem with using paper maps for local 1 or even 2 day things....the key navigating piece for me is for long distance multi-day trips in areas I don't know. Locally, I am fine pointing and pedalling!
Interesting device, not seen that before - 30 hour battery life is decent! What are the annoying quirks in your experience?
It constantly buzzes.
(Sorry!
)
G3CWI
Veteran
- Location
- Macclesfield
Probably the most annoying is no on/off switch so the battery s always flat when I want to use it! It's a quirky device. It does not buzz...
- Location
- Inside my skull
I’m working on a simplified routing app that’ll do shortest route navigating village by village. Refining and combining the data for the routing at the moment. I always thought just needing to know which village to head to next should work in combination with looking at road signs on the ground.
The problem with OSM data is that it is very granular as it’s designed to be easy to edit and update online. So it takes a fair bit of pre processing to produce something suitable for routing.
The problem with OSM data is that it is very granular as it’s designed to be easy to edit and update online. So it takes a fair bit of pre processing to produce something suitable for routing.
Last edited:
JtB
Prepare a way for the Lord
- Location
- North Hampshire
My routes are circular and I’m very particular about the sorts of roads I’ll cycle along, so for me it has to be pre-prepared routes loaded into a cycling satnav. The cycling satnav also tracks my rides which my mobile phone could do, but I’d rather save my phone battery for phone calls.
