reliable gps!

pompy

Doing LEJOG later in the year and I am looking for a GPS unit that I can plot my route onto and follow! Does anyone have any recommendations? Looking at a Garmin Edge 605 at the moment.

rozzer32

Garmin 705 or 800. Job done!!

amaferanga

If its just for navigation then I'd recommend a Garmin Etrex Vista or Legend HCx. I used a Legend HCx for my LEJOG and it worked well. Big advantage of the Vista/Legend for touring is that they run off AA batteries and a set will last a good 20 hours or so. So you don't need to worry about getting power every night if you're camping as you'd probably need to do with the 605.

The Legend HCx can be had for about £120 plus you'll need a bike mount which costs about a tenner (but be careful that you get the right one as there are different bike mounts for different models of Legend/Vista).

amaferanga

rozzer32 wrote:

Garmin 705 or 800. Job done!!

Waste of money if he only wants the GPS for navigation though....

mercurykev

+1 for the eTrex. Uses AA batteries, holds loads of routes and can be used off the bike.

cycladianpirate

To amaf and mercury,

Are you saying that, purely in terms of GPS navigation, the Etrex can do everything the Garmin Edge 800 can do (import routes from BikeHike and the like), turn-by-turn navigation, using those OpenStreetMap routable maps on an SD card??

Does the Edge really only add heart rate and cadence and training specific stuff like the virtual partner?

Only ask because I was about to order one!!!!

de_sisti

Sorry to hijack this, but I use an Etrex Vista CX and it does indeed give turn by turn instructions.

Routes that I've recorded myself or ones I've download off BIkely, are saved to Tracklogs.
I then open them up in Garmin Mapsource, add waypoints and then download them to my
gps. It seems to work for me.

Edit: My unit only takes 50 waypoints (per route) and I navigate using routes rather than tracks.

amaferanga

cycladianpirate wrote:

To amaf and mercury,

Are you saying that, purely in terms of GPS navigation, the Etrex can do everything the Garmin Edge 800 can do (import routes from BikeHike and the like), turn-by-turn navigation, using those OpenStreetMap routable maps on an SD card??

Does the Edge really only add heart rate and cadence and training specific stuff like the virtual partner?

Only ask because I was about to order one!!!!

In terms of navigation the Etrex HCx models can do everything that the Edge 605/705 can do and uses the same maps.

pompy

Do the etrex/legend models need additional maps bought for them or can routes from bike toaster or google maps but be brought across?

amaferanga

pompy wrote:

Do the etrex/legend models need additional maps bought for them or can routes from bike toaster or google maps but be brought across?

Same maps as the 705. So either buy Garmin maps or the free OSM maps.

pompy

the main issue I have found with the edge series is far fewer waypoints can be plotted (100 compared to 1000 of the etrex series) is this a limiting factor when planning a long route using lots of minor roads or can the waypoints be edited down? :shock:

ColinJ

pompy wrote:

the main issue I have found with the edge series is far fewer waypoints can be plotted (100 compared to 1000 of the etrex series) is this a limiting factor when planning a long route using lots of minor roads or can the waypoints be edited down? :shock:

If you are working out your route beforehand, then you don't need anything fancy - the bottom of the range Etrex is all you need. These days, that is the 'H' model. (Mine pre-dates the 'H', but it is pretty similar and I've navigated thousands of miles with it without any problems.).

The 'H' is nice and cheap - you'd need it, a bar mount, an interface cable, and one or more pairs of AA batteries. I'd recommend high-capacity NiMH cells and a good charger. If you shop around, you can get that lot for well under £120. Just be careful to get the right cable. The standard cable connects to an old-fashioned RS232 serial port but you can get a cable with a USB converter in ith which is more convenient for connecting to a modern computer.

My 2,700 mAH batteries give over 24 hours use on a full-charge, not using the backlight. If you will be riding in the dark, use a head torch to save faffing about.. Have a pair of AA Duracells handy in case you get your charging regime wrong!

If you plot your rides as 'routes' then you have a total of 500 waypoints to play with (1,000 on more expensive models), but a limit of 125 per route. I've found that typically you can get about 100 km out of 125 waypoints but that depends on the complexity of the route.That might not be enough to do a LEJOG without reprogramming the GPS en route.

However, you can plot your journey as 'tracks' which don't include waypoints. The limit there is 10,000 trackpoints which should easily be enough since it would be more than 10 per mile.

My GPS has been 100% reliable, but I'd always carry some sort of maps with me on a ride like a LEJOG just-in-case!

PS You'll probably need to simplify the routes/tracks before uploading them to a GPS. You need to know what to do at decision points (junctions and roundabouts) not be able to follow every twist and turn of a lane with no junctions on it.

For example if you turn left onto a meandering 5 mile long road with no other roads off it, and then turn right at the far end - just plot a line to the first junction, then a straight line to the second, and a third line going off to the right from the second junction and pointing towards the next decision point.

This interesting article on the subject. persuaded me to buy my GPS in the first place.

pompy

In that case, would the Edge 205 be suitable too?

If I can use trackpoints instead of wayoints, would the gps still tell me when changes of direction and junctions are coming up?

Tbh, i don't need a map on view constantly if it can tell me which way to go as I'll have a back up map in my bag.

colsoop

I agree with ColinJ

I use my Garmin 60csx with the bike mount (make sure you get the right size for your bars) And then use a web app that transfers google map data in to gpx files either via waypoints or tracks.

I Upload it to my mapsource software and tweak the route so that it follows actual roads and then just upload it to the device.