GPS Ease of Use

UK2004

How easy are GPS handheld devices to use when out riding, am presuming I literally park the car ride out and always be able to find my way back, am I right, whatever benefits are there to them and are they easy to use?

asquithea

You will probably want a fairly rugged unit that you can bolt onto the bars, and something that will show a trail, rather than merely coordinates. You'll most likely need a paper map for route planning, unless you only follow pre-planned routes or retrace your steps.

I tend to plan routes on bikehike.co.uk and download the route plan to the unit. You can follow the way-points as you would with an in-car display.

I use a Satmap Active 10, mounted on the stem. It's relatively expensive, but displays a detailed OS map in addition to the normal trail, compass, way-points and points-of-interest. It has a nice back-lit colour display, and feels like a bit like a mobile phone to use. Its main advantage is that you can dispense with carrying a map and looking up grid coordinates.

stumpyjon

You need to upload a route from a PC before leaving home (you can do it straight into the unit but it's time consuming and a faff).

If you leave your pre-planned trails they aren't that great for navigating back. If you go for one that shows on screen mapping seriously consider one that shows OS mapping like the Satmap or Garmin Oregon ones. The non-OS maps, e.g. TOPO GB from Garmin is useless for navigating on screen with.

GPS are really useful for recording where you have ridden and for following a pre-planned route without stopping every 5 minutes to check the map. They are however expensive and not an essential bit of kit.