GPS device advice

[jpjof]

Does anyone know of an informative guide for selecting a GPS device? I can't search the forums as GPS is being ignored as too common a word. I normally use a printed map.

Device requirements are nothing extraordinary:

95% UK based for maps
Pre-planning routes
Turn by turn navigation
Relatively short tours (2-7 days), camping off the bike.
Also able to "record" route-free cycles at weekends etc. to load up to PC/Strava/Endomondo etc.

Slight complication is a desirable requirement, as a runner, to record jogs/runs.

I've looked at Garmin Edge bike computers, but also their multi-sport watches, which while expensive can contain maps etc.

[meic]

The forum doesnt let you search GPS because it only has three letters, it needs four.

My favourite GPS's the Etrex range are not very good for turn by turn navigation.

For doing that you will find a GPS unit which takes .tcx files a much more useful device.

They are pretty good touring GPS's in other respects.

Very good free maps are available for most of Europe and beyond.

[al_yrpal]

Use any smartphone, cycle.travel to plan routes and the £5 version of Osmand+ to follow them screen and voice guided, that's all you need.

Al

[jpjof]

Can't use smartphone, no GPS and battery is an issue as not always camping with power.

[Psamathe]

Can't use smartphone, no GPS and battery is an issue as not always camping with power.

My smartphone has a GPS and does all you ask. Battery good (doing what you ask) for more than a day and portable power packs readily available.

My phone will record a track for a 405 mile ride using around 20% of the battery, but that is will all the GSM (poor coverage=lots of power use), e-mail checking, other syncing, etc. going on as well. Disable all the non-GPS activity things would improve.

And the GPS in my phone does work with the real GPS/GLONASS satellites and does not just GSM base station triangulation, does work 100% without any GSM signal (incl. in "Airplane Mode").

Not trying to push Smartphone over anything else but to make the right decision for yourself best be fully aware of the actual advantages and disadvantages.

Ian

[landsurfer]

Garmin Edge Touring ..... 3 cyclists in the family, one Garmin .... shared device = inexpensive device.
And it's brill ....

[Heltor Chasca]

No need to camp with power. Solar panel does wonders. Dynamo hub does even better. And it's all 'free'.

[geomannie]

I can endore the Etrex GPS units, the only downside being that they do not do turn by turn (no TCX support). Having said that, its still easy to follow a GPS route (GPX) created using an online website and I rarely (almost never) miss a turn.

For cycle touring/camping they are great as all you need to do is carry a spare set of batteries, no need for a charger. Battery life is good at about 22hours/set (2xAA).

Combinded with opensource maps the Etrex is a good option for cycle touring.

[Bez]

My phone will record a track for a 405 mile ride using around 20% of the battery, but that is will all the GSM (poor coverage=lots of power use), e-mail checking, other syncing, etc. going on as well. Disable all the non-GPS activity things would improve.

Really? You reckon you could ride about 2000 miles on a single phone charge? That's ten days at Tommy Godwin pace, and I don't know of many, if any, smartphones that'll run for ten days with the radios on, even without being touched.

Come on, then, spill the beans: what phone and software are you using for this?

PS given that "0" and "-" are adjacent on the keyboard, did you mean "a 4-5 mile ride"?

[[XAP]Bob]

I used to have an HTC desireS as my main phone, and that would easily do 10 days on a charge.

I had many things turned off, but the mobile signal wasn't one of them.
And that's not exactly a phone with a large battery.

For many applications the smartphone is actually a perfectly reasonably answer

[Bez]

For many applications the smartphone is actually a perfectly reasonably answer

I agree it is, although it has a few significant shortcomings (few are weatherproof, capacitive screens don't work when wet, mounting to the bars is generally not straightforward unless you're happy with a huge plastic bracket…). One of the key weaknesses for many people, though, is that most phones with most tracking apps will go for maybe six hours or so. I've stretched one out to 20 or so hours before with careful fettling, but a 400 mile ride on 20% of charge is a whole different league, hence my scepticism

[[XAP]Bob]

Drop it to 2G, turn off data/wifi/bluetooth and you'll go a lot further.
Add a cache battery charged from a dynamo and you'll end up round the world.

Turn down the screen brightness and let it be off for a good amount of time as well...

[Psamathe]

My phone will record a track for a 405 mile ride using around 20% of the battery, but that is will all the GSM (poor coverage=lots of power use), e-mail checking, other syncing, etc. going on as well. Disable all the non-GPS activity things would improve.

Really? You reckon you could ride about 2000 miles on a single phone charge? That's ten days at Tommy Godwin pace, and I don't know of many, if any, smartphones that'll run for ten days with the radios on, even without being touched.

Come on, then, spill the beans: what phone and software are you using for this?

PS given that "0" and "-" are adjacent on the keyboard, did you mean "a 4-5 mile ride"? ;)

Typo, meant 40 mile ride (don't know how the 5 got in there).

Ian

[Psamathe]

For many applications the smartphone is actually a perfectly reasonably answer

I agree it is, although it has a few significant shortcomings (few are weatherproof, capacitive screens don't work when wet, mounting to the bars is generally not straightforward unless you're happy with a huge plastic bracket…). One of the key weaknesses for many people, though, is that most phones with most tracking apps will go for maybe six hours or so. I've stretched one out to 20 or so hours before with careful fettling, but a 400 mile ride on 20% of charge is a whole different league, hence my scepticism ;)

It was obviously a typo. Give it a break!

It's like continually pointing out bad grammar or misspellings on the internet, just pathetic.

Ian

[Bez]

Sorry. Wasn't that obvious, and if there was a way of making a phone work for several hundred miles of have been genuinely interested. In hindsight it seems unlikely, granted, but there are plenty of people on here go do those sorts of distances. I guess my Critical Thought Neuron must have been having a tea break.

Anyway, you can be satisfied in the fact that I look stupid and you don't.