GPS for Lands End to John O'Groats

hoathy

Hi all.
Never posted in the touring section before so Hello!
I am currently planning a Lands end to John O'Groats ride for charity this summer. I am after a GPS that can give me turn by turn directions for routes each days riding. I want to be able to plan the route on the computer and I also want to be able to see a map onscreen. Does anyone know which system(s) will do the job and are any good, all my local shops are well out of thier depth!

Any help would be excellent!

John

ColinJ

Hi John.

There are all sorts you could choose from. Something you should bear in mind is how many hours use a day you expect to get out of the GPS and whether you will have access to mains electricity overnight for battery charging.

Some GPS models have built-in Li ion batteries and once those go flat you need to stop and recharge them. Mind you, the Garmins I would look at can do 12-15 hours on one charge so you should be okay provided you can plug the GPS in overnight to recharge.

I have an old Garmin which takes 2*AA cells so I could get hold of new batteries pretty much anywhere if I needed to. I only ever do one-day rides though so it isn't an issue.

toontra

Sounds like you want a Garmin eTrex HCx (Vista or Legend) with the City Navigator maps. I used a Vista on my LEJoG and it was faultless - only 2 wrong turns the whole trip and that was because I followed road signs rather than the Garmin!. Change the 2 x AA batteries every 18 hours or so (longer with lithiums). Will store multiple days of 150 waypoints (which I'd plotted using Marengo).

ColinJ

toontra wrote:

I used a Vista on my LEJoG and it was faultless - only 2 wrong turns the whole trip and that was because I followed road signs rather than the Garmin!

Ha - that's exactly what happened to me! I've done well over 10,000 km using my Garmin and have only got lost once and that was when I decided to turn it off and take a 'shortcut' which was not on my planned route. It turns out that the very first sign that I followed had been rotated to point down the wrong road! :evil:

(My cheap Garmin doesn't have maps so if I change my mind about where I'm going it can only help me by giving me a grid reference which I can look up on a paper map.)

hoathy

brilliant. cheers guys. I've opted for a Vista HCx, what sort of maps am I likely to need, are the City Navigator ones going to cover everything i need?

Solis

Hoathy wrote:

brilliant. cheers guys. I've opted for a Vista HCx, what sort of maps am I likely to need, are the City Navigator ones going to cover everything i need?

Yep cover everything down to and including minor roads.

hoathy

ok, i'll get that then. getting pretty excited about the ride now. still need to book some campsites...

janner1

Try using pages from a road atlas batteries won't go flat and if you need to change the route for any reason its right in front of you(ie looking for campsites). Before you go transfer the computer planned route on to the pages with any other info needed. i did this last year for a grand total of 5.00 pounds great back up for any failing technology

hoathy

i might well do that! sounds like a winner. i'm currently grappling with the fact the old rack i had kicking about is no where near up the the weight of the panniers etc.