Bolsover & District Cycling Club

I'm thinking of getting a GPS for use when cycling, that would have a useful map that I could preprogramme a route on and hopefully spend less time getting lost/consulting maps when in areas with lots of little roads... Does such a thing exist, does anyone know, and can anyone recommend a good one?

Alison

Hi Alison , ill give you the benefit of my experience, its not the whole story but it might help with your decision..what you are looking for sort of exists, but they arent yet the perfect solution

Memory Map - To be avoided, this is not an "on the fly" navigational tool, its not bad if your prepared to stop at junctions and work out which way to go, essentially its not much more than a digital map with a line marked on it

Garmin edge (705) - much, much better than the MM unit, butr still not perfect, although you can plot a course and follow it for navigation, it requires a little faith sometimes, and if you stray off the course it takes a bit of effort to get back on it...for the cost of one of the units with decent mapping (the edge 800 is the latest) its a lot of money

All in all , dont expect the turn by turn detail and easy to follow maps that you get with in car satnav, but rum ors abound that Tom Tom is about to have a go at a unit, it might be worth waiting for !

If you are after a quick fix, and have an Iphone or similar smartphone, the mapmyride app is pretty good at doing what you are after for much less money, but for a decent ride you will need an external battery source

hope this all helps a little bit ! get in touch if you are still not sure

I’ve got a Garmin Edge 705 with road map built in (road maps cost extra, but worth it). I only really use it on road and find it works in two ways:

1. Follow a “track” that someone has been on before. “Tracks” are usually the format that you download from sites such as Bikely, cycle-route.com, etc.

2. Programme a route into it: the Garmin has Car SatNav software & will finding a way from 1 point to another. The more points you programme in, the more control you have over the route. You can type addresses directly into the Garmin, but it’s a bit fiddly. You can also set its defaults to avoid Major Roads. In road mode it’s not good at finding cycle paths, Sustrans off-road sections, etc. I have Memory Map (OS maps programme, not the SatNav unit Steve refers to) on the computer at home which I use when I’m on Audaxs where no “Track” download is available. Memory Map will not pick-up the roads, you have to manual plot a series of straight lines between points, then the Garmin will use its Road Map to give (visual) instructions like a car SatNav to get you from each point to the next. Garmin 705 has an input limit of 100 points, but unless you’re going 100+ miles you should be ok. I find that using more points to navigate around areas you want to avoid is best and to use less in the open countryside where it doesn’t matter if you the Garmin sends you a different way. The Garmin is quite good at knowing which streets are one-way, etc whereas looking at Memory Map you have no idea. However, the Garmin’s road map (and Google, see below) don’t know elevation data and will generally send you the shortest way between two points. This may involve going up a 20% hill and back down, whereas plotting a route on Memory Map at home you could find a more suitable route!

A free alternative for mapping is to use Google Maps: type in names of villages you wish to pass through and let it work out the route. You can add extra points and drag the route to suit yourself. Then use GMapToGPX (http /www.elsewhere.org/journal/gmaptogpx/) to convert to a gpx file that the Garmin (or any other bike SatNav) can read. Again off-road cycle paths may be missed using this. From my experience the Garmin is about 99% good if you have a “Track” from elsewhere, and about 95% using my programming methods, though this is probably more to do with the user input that the Garmin! The Garmin does have its occasional mad spells though and I always print a map of my route from Memory Map to carry too if I'm going somewhere I don't know. The Garmin will always accurately tell you where you are, even if its route planner has gone crazy.

Alternatively, if you have an iPhone National Cycle Network & Bike Hub do free apps which both include route planning options and show National Cycle Route and Sustans paths very clearly. From experience, the iPhone’s GPS is slower and less accurate than the Garmin. Maps are good and are updated for free, but you are reliant on 3G or Wi-Fi to use to full effect. But if you have an iPhone it might get you started. I have loads of “Tracks” available if you go the Garmin route (pun intended, but pretty bad). Mostly from Audax’s which are 100km+, but I’ve got other stuff from shorter local rides.