What's the best device for route planning off road?

ncalla

Hi, taking a week off at the end of August with a mind to put my bike in the back of the car and go exploring. I have some routes in mind round Wiltshire then into south Wales and then up to snowdonia. Thing is I dont want to get lost but haven't used any gps devices before. My mate recommenced a Garmin etrex. Anyone got any experience with these or recommend anything else? I want something I can put a route into and then just go. Any info would be great?

Nigel
Trek 6500
Specialized allez sport

Bobhellen

get a map and dont look at the foot paths any thing form bridel way up is far riding. But you could just ask some one for a local route there must be loads of guys on the fourm that live that part of the world, and will let you know were att the best spots are

chiefinspector

I just recently bought a Garmin Edge 800 with 1:50000 OS Maps. Although this unit was quite expensive it is fantastic for pre planning routes and is small enough to fit onto the handlebars of your bike. The OS maps give a huge amount of detail and the unit itself it very user friendly.

GPS units are a great thing but always make sure you take map as a back up as you never know what can happen.

diy

Garmin edge 800 is good, though they do have a few software niggles. I personally use mine with open cycle map and open mtb map which you can squeeze on a 1GB micro sd card and have a bit spare for data.

Open MTB map should have all the local well know trails marked, so just a case of dialing them in.

http://opencyclemap.org/ - more road oriented
http://openmtbmap.org/ - more trail oriented

There are cheaper options than the edge 800, for example a smart phone, but the edge is also a decent fitness unit too and has vastly superior battery life than any smart phone.

You could of course just download garmin mapsource and install openmtbmap on top of base map, which will enable you to print out sections of the map and take them with you.

allen.coulson

I have a memory map adventurer 2800 which I think are being discounted in Amazon. Easy to use for planning and recording - has a bike attachment and comes complete with 1:50000maps. Of course you can buy additional 1:25000 maps but I've never found them a problem.

Both Garmin and MM have SiRF star chips which are good - mainly because I work for them!!

rhialto

IMO, the Garmin Oregon is better suited than the 800 for biking and hiking, at least as far as off-road navigation goes. I have done a lot of solo off-road exploration and I always plan my routes on my PC before I set out. I explore MTB routes on websites like Garmin connect, gpsies.com, mtb club sites, etc. I can then download the GPX files to my PC mapping software (I use Memory-Map with 1:25k OS maps) and analyze the routes, merge them, create new ones and save the resultant routes to my GPS device. As mentioned, I will print out maps to have as backups in case my GPS fails or runs out of juice. The Memory-Map software with OS maps does cost a bunch but for me it's well worth it considering the amount of terrain it has allowed me to explore. It's also provides me with hours of virtual exploration when it's raining out :-)

Briggo

Er how is the Oregon any better than the 800 for off road navigation, considering both use OS mapping.

Barteos

Garmin Oregon + Tracklogs

ncalla

Hi all,

Thanks for all the advice. Plenty to go on with.

Nigel

diy

dpaulett wrote:

IMO, the Garmin Oregon is better suited than the 800 for biking and hiking, at least as far as off-road navigation goes. I have done a lot of solo off-road exploration and I always plan my routes on my PC before I set out. I explore MTB routes on websites like Garmin connect, gpsies.com, mtb club sites, etc. I can then download the GPX files to my PC mapping software (I use Memory-Map with 1:25k OS maps) and analyze the routes, merge them, create new ones and save the resultant routes to my GPS device. As mentioned, I will print out maps to have as backups in case my GPS fails or runs out of juice. The Memory-Map software with OS maps does cost a bunch but for me it's well worth it considering the amount of terrain it has allowed me to explore. It's also provides me with hours of virtual exploration when it's raining out :-)

yep - the edge 800 can do all that, with the added advantage that if someone has included their performance data in their upload you can even race them

HandjobDan

I know you said you didn't want to neccesarily use a smart phone due to battery issues, but I've just downloaded Viewranger Pro from the App store.

Seems pretty good so far just need to find a place with some GPX files that can be downloaded and I'll see how that works. You get credits with the Pro version for map tiles and each tile in Landranger is about 7 credits or so. Once downloaded you can choose to follow a route and turn off the transmitter and just run the gps chip to save energy.

You can also search for routes so if people have posted them or there are well known cycle routes you can purchase them with credits too.

The app cost £15, I figured I always have my phone with me and I plan to do adventuring on my new bike once I've finished building it so it's not that expensive I don't think.

rhialto

It's just my opinion, but I prefer the Oregon for off-road navigation because of 1 - screen resolution (240x400 vs 160x240), and 2 - the Oregon uses AA batteries. Don't get me wrong, the Edge 800 is a great device but for me the resolution is more important.

I also use ViewRanger on my Nokia 5800, which has even better resolution and the app is excellent. The drawback is on my phone the battery life is about 4 hours, and less in the cold.

bartimaeus

There's always the traditional OS map and compass option