GPS advice please.

ANITA77

HI

I would like to go further afield on my bike but afraid of getting lost in areas that are new to me. I am also looking for a GPS that can double up as a cycle computer so I can monitor my fitness. I have been looking looking at the Garmin range but don't want to make an expensive mistake! Can anyone offer some advice please?

Thanks
Anita

antfly

Garmin edge 605 or 705 is what you want.

Beer, anyone?

yep, I use the Garmin Edge 705 (it is expensive, but definitely not a mistake). I got it in order to plan routes on the laptop, upload them to the device to be able to follow en route and have used it when I've had enough and need to find a train station...

You can get it as a bundle deal from places like wiggle where mine came with HRM, cadence sensor and Europe road mapping - note the maps it comes with automatically are useless unless you ride on A roads and Motorways.

I don't use it anywhere near its full capabilities as a training device yet, but plan to it has lots so you can set up interval training for example and "race" yourself over previously completed routes.

I find it useful to use when running as well to map my runs with the heart rate info etc.

Frank the tank

GPS are a great tool.

I haven't got one but I have been totally lost and I laugh about it now............infact I laughed about it at the time. I had to else I would've cried, I was seventy odd miles from home soaking wet and still on the outward half of me ride.

Not to mention I'd forgotten to take any spare tubes with me. :roll:

Beer, anyone?

Quite frankly I've still got lost with the GPS - I didn't know there was a place near Bath called Box Hill... Luckily I started to get suspicious before it was too late.

But I did have spare tubes (and an emergency peanut butter sandwich).

hamstrich

If you're looking not to spend too much, then the Edge 305 is still a great option, as long as you don't mind having to plan your routes beforehand and (more or less) stick to them. I have a really poor sense of direction and got peed off at having to stop to look at maps all the time, so I bought a 305 and it completely changed the way I cycle - now I try to do a different route every time I go out

JohnnyAllez

I use my Garmin Nuvi 765T out of my car on my bike, cycle mount was cheap as chips, works great.

fto-si

I use my Garmin Edge 205 in conjunction with MapMyRide if I want to have some navigation but must admit I like to just get out there and explore new areas. Close to home you are not going to get truly lost anyway theres always a signpost pointing to a location you know eventually.

antfly

Frank the tank wrote:

GPS are a great tool.

I haven't got one but I have been totally lost and I laugh about it now............infact I laughed about it at the time. I had to else I would've cried, I was seventy odd miles from home soaking wet and still on the outward half of me ride.

Not to mention I'd forgotten to take any spare tubes with me. :roll:

Did you ride all the way home?If you did then that`s some long ride,140 miles in a day,in the rain.You must have slept for a week. :shock:
Anita seems to have lost interest.

Bronzie

hamstrich wrote:

the Edge 305 is still a great option, as long as you don't mind having to plan your routes beforehand

I absolutely love my 705 - so many great features - but I still prefer to do my routing on the pc and download to the unit as the 705 will invariably take you down A roads if you let it loose with the navigation. It can of course get you home if you get lost, but not by the most scenic route.

I'd recommend getting the Europe NT Navigator 2009 map with the unit (supplied on a plug-in MicroSD card) as purchasing the mapping afterwards (as I did) is a bit more expensive. The basemap that is supplied with the unit as standard is of no use at all (only A-roads and motorways and even these are only roughly in the correct position).

antfly

I find it rude when people post a question and never come back.

Frank the tank I shall take your silence as a no,you got a lift back {when you got lost}.

a_n_t

Bronzie wrote:

the 705 will invariably take you down A roads if you let it loose with the navigation. .

the auto-routing in the 705 is bloody useless!! Hopefully a firmware update will help.

Frank the tank

antfly wrote:

I find it rude when people post a question and never come back.

Frank the tank I shall take your silence as a no,you got a lift back {when you got lost}.

Not being rude my owd, just was unable to get back on the computer, but now I'm here.

The ride was from home (sunny Hucknall in deepest Notts) via a convoluted route to Waldo's chip shop in Sutton-on-sea and then back in time for supper. My son was driving a back up car should it be required, and I'd arranged to meet him at said chip shop about 11.00am.

I'd set off at 5.00am and realised I had no tubes about three hours into the ride, It had been raining since abot 7.00 then about nineish I got lost. :roll: My map, due to not being plastic coated was steadily disintegrating as it got wetter and wetter Any way to cut a long story short I ended up riding aimlessly around the Lincolnshire country side down all manner of country lanes in rain that was bouncing 3"-4" off the road eventually meeating my lad at Waldo's at 12.00noon.

Had a plate of fish,chips & peas and a couple of teas lovely. Set off back about 1.30pm. I ended up abandoning on the outskirts of Newark after the bike suffered a puncture and I severely cramped up whilst mending it.

The time was 7.00pm. My lad picked me up about 7.15 and I had covered almost 190miles.

Got home about 8.00 had a bath and went to the pub to lick my wounded pride with a couple of pints of Guinness.

Sorry to go on.

I'm going to attempt it again this year only this time I'll "nail it".

antfly

Sorry,I meant thoe op`er was rude not you.

Bloody hell.That is some ride,190 miles and you still managed to go to the pub.That must be some kind of record,i`m surprised it wasn`t on the news.It should go down in the annals of long rides.

fnegroni

Got myself an Edge 205 (Garmin) last October and I have just one word of advice: don't forget to *upload* the course onto it or you'll feel very silly...!

I now use bikely.com to plan the route, but you can use Google Earth or Google Maps (which Bikely.com is based on).

You can also upload your training history to motionbased.com and get a few more details out of your ride, like weather station readings etc.

hamstrich

fto-si wrote:

I use my Garmin Edge 205 in conjunction with MapMyRide

Have you tried using bikeroutetoaster or bikehike? I originally used to use mapmyride, but I got annoyed with how slow and glitchy it can be sometimes. Now I use bikehike, which is faster, more reliable and has an awesome OS map feature so that you can view the contours as you plot the route. Awesome stuff.

ANITA77

Hi all

I am really sorry I did not respond to all your great advice. I had a family crisis over the last couple of days and have not had chance to get on my computer (even had to take time off work). I am not usually that rude - HONEST!!!!

I really appreciate all your advice - what a nice bunch you are

howiejmidlands

As Hamstrich says, i also use Bikehike or Bikeroute Toaster. Both are good, and i save the routes as GPX or download as a Course to the Garmin. The 705 i use is brilliant, lots of features for speed, HR etc, and the mapping is OK once you have a course or route loaded into it.
A great tool for logging training rides and fitness data.