GPS system

South Tyne Rider

Good morning guys...

I've just booked a trip from the Amsterdam ferry port to Denmark and back next month.... I've planned the route out which looks fine, but last time I cycled around Europe the only downside was taking my phone out of my pocket every ten minutes or so to see if I was on the right path.

Just wondering if there's any decent, affordable digital maps / route planners / trackers around that won't cost the Earth? I've had a Garmin Edge 800 before and I just didn't rate it at all....

Was thinking of utilising my amazon kindle fire and have a Map My Ride route up on that but I'm guessing it won't be able to track my location when I'm offline.

Any suggestions will be welcome!

wongataa

Garmin 800/810/1000 or Wahoo Elemnt.

davesnothere

or get a quad mount for your phone?

Disclaimer: I wouldn't put my phone on a quad mount

South Tyne Rider

Thanks so far but I'm not keen on the Garmin 800. That's the one I had and I found the map quality very poor. Do any of the Garmins have sharper map detail? Like the map on google?

wongataa

The Garmin 1000 has the biggest screen. The Wahoo is black and white only. As to how map detail is displayed on Garmin units, that can be customised if you are willing to create your own maps or you can find freely available maps with different display schemes that might suit you.

I create my own maps for my Garmin 800 to display only what I want to see and with what colours I want each to feature have. It took a while to set up though.

Custom Garmin maps are made from freely available OpenStreetMap data (as are the maps the Edge 1000 comes with).

rolf_f

South Tyne Rider wrote:

Thanks so far but I'm not keen on the Garmin 800. That's the one I had and I found the map quality very poor. Do any of the Garmins have sharper map detail? Like the map on google?

Map quality depends on the map you choose. But it really doesn't matter very much. As long as it shows that you are on the route, and ideally where the side turnings are, what does the quality of the image matter? You should be mainly looking at the real world!

I have an 810 and use European maps I downloaded online for nothing. They could be prettier but it doesn't matter - the navigation is effective.

Would be interested in your choice of route to Denmark. I did Rotterdam to Denmark a couple of years back on my way to North Cape.

nickice

The important thing to remember about any Garmin is that the route-planning on the device sucks. You need to plan the tour on something like ridewithgps and then transfer it to your unit.

Speaking of phones, I sometimes use my phone with google maps (the directions option) and earphones