Car sat nav for offline bike mapping
chaikhosi
Posts: 4
Hello there,
New to the board, and I hope to gain from all your collective wisdom :-)
I'd like to buy a sat nav that does turn-by-turn in my car, but also works as a bike map and route planner. I'd only need to look at it occasionally while cycling, so it can stay in my pocket and doesn't need a handlebar mount. It does need to understand the difference between car and bike routes though.
All the map apps I used on any smartphone had a massive appetite for battery, and usually froze or lost connection at exactly the wrong moment, so I'd like a dedicated device. The other essential feature is working offline with the maps downloaded in advance. Can't count on having a signal down all the country lanes, and hunting for one takes too much battery.
This will be my first satnav ever, so I know nothing about the brands yet. Of the phone apps I've tried, Google Maps is fine til the signal or battery goes, or it just freezes. One of which always happens within an hour or two. Nokia Here maps work offline but don't have a bike mode (have to use pedestrian), and the detail is really basic. Navfree, at least on Android, is useless. It was taking literally days to catch up with my location, so quickly uninstalled.
I'm not a millionaire, but I'd rather pay up for something that always works than get lost carrying a useless brick.
New to the board, and I hope to gain from all your collective wisdom :-)
I'd like to buy a sat nav that does turn-by-turn in my car, but also works as a bike map and route planner. I'd only need to look at it occasionally while cycling, so it can stay in my pocket and doesn't need a handlebar mount. It does need to understand the difference between car and bike routes though.
All the map apps I used on any smartphone had a massive appetite for battery, and usually froze or lost connection at exactly the wrong moment, so I'd like a dedicated device. The other essential feature is working offline with the maps downloaded in advance. Can't count on having a signal down all the country lanes, and hunting for one takes too much battery.
This will be my first satnav ever, so I know nothing about the brands yet. Of the phone apps I've tried, Google Maps is fine til the signal or battery goes, or it just freezes. One of which always happens within an hour or two. Nokia Here maps work offline but don't have a bike mode (have to use pedestrian), and the detail is really basic. Navfree, at least on Android, is useless. It was taking literally days to catch up with my location, so quickly uninstalled.
I'm not a millionaire, but I'd rather pay up for something that always works than get lost carrying a useless brick.
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Comments
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Couple of options to consider are BikeHub and Cyclestreets. Not sure if they can be used offline but may be worth researching.0
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Personally I'd use your smartphone (and google maps) in the car as a sat-nav with a cigarette lighter adapter so it doesn't run out of charge.
Then get a dedicated GPS for the bike. The bike ones will be smaller, have better battery life and will be waterproof unlike the car ones.0 -
Personally I'd use your smartphone (and google maps) in the car as a sat-nav with a cigarette lighter adapter so it doesn't run out of charge.
Glad it works for you, but I've never been able to trust Google Maps for turn-by-turn. It works the phone too hard, so sooner or later it will overheat and crash or freeze. If it's on my car dashboard I probably won't notice, so the directions will stop randomly and I'll go on driving past where I should make the next turn. Same thing has happened with various phones so I don't think it's just one bad device. Not sure if it's a bandwidth issue from downloading everything in real time, or a graphics one from all the detail in the maps.
So far Here maps on my new Windows phone are much better for driving. I just wish that could do bike routes. Will be looking at bike GPS in Halfords this weekend.0 -
Couple of options to consider are BikeHub and Cyclestreets. Not sure if they can be used offline but may be worth researching.
I've still got my old Android phone so I'll try using it as a dedicated GPS. Will post back here how well those two work in offline mode. Thanks for the tip!0
