What is the best Garmin or GPS (not smart phone) for touring

General cycling advice ( NOT technical ! )
Bez
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Re: What is the best Garmin or GPS (not smart phone) for touring

Post by Bez »

For what it's worth, Wahoo got back to me on the feature requests and said they'd raised them all with the developers, so we shall see.

The apps have recently been updated on both Android and iOS but the battery consumption (both) and unresponsiveness (iOS) remain for me. I've raised tickets for them, though.

Thanks for mentioning manual route planning with OsmAnd, by the way. I'd never really given much thought to route planning on the phone (it's not something I'd ever routinely do) but given the limited functionality of the Wahoo app's route planning I might try some other apps to see which works best for the rare occasions I need it.
Bez
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Re: What is the best Garmin or GPS (not smart phone) for touring

Post by Bez »

For what it's worth, I've just played with a bunch of apps over lunch (in addition to the numerous ones I've used previously) and for my money the clear winner in terms of being able to plot a route on the phone easily and with good control over the actual routing is Komoot.

You need a Komoot account (free, just need an email address) to get into it, and it won't save GPX files from the app, but you can save the route to your account and the Wahoo app will sync with Komoot, so you should be able to get the route onto the Elemnt provided you have a data connection. (I can't see a way of getting it on there from Komoot via Bluetooth, so if you're out of signal then this won't work. OsmAnd might work, since it uses offline maps, but when I tried planning a route on it I nearly threw my phone through the nearest window in frustration.)
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al_yrpal
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Re: What is the best Garmin or GPS (not smart phone) for touring

Post by al_yrpal »

After using Osmand+ on my phone for a week in a hire car in Canada I now use it in preference to the Garmin built into my car. It gives much more sensible routes, better voice instructions and better screen display than the Garmin. Driving to various places in Brittany this week, bang up to date and no hassle. Cycle routes can be planned on the phone itself too using cycle.travel which gives quiet off main road routes, and it's simple to pick up the gpx route it produces straight into Osmand + if you set up directories intelligently.

Al
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yutkoxpo
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Re: What is the best Garmin or GPS (not smart phone) for touring

Post by yutkoxpo »

I haven't explored too much with the Komoot app. You have to pay for the maps and be online to plot a route.

I'm familiar with OSMand. Plus, I really only want to be able to plot a route in an emergency situation, so Osmad is perfect for that. Add destination & off I go.

Once Wahoo make the route processing able to occur offline, it's the perfect solution for what I need.

By the way, there's a new cycling planner on the block. I tested it out with a 350 km round trip this weekend - no issues whatsoever.

https://cycle.travel/

It's a website, so you have to be online.
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Sweep
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Re: What is the best Garmin or GPS (not smart phone) for touring

Post by Sweep »

Hobbes, that planner is already a fave of many on here. Search and you will find lots of plaudits for it. Yes, it's great.
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Bez
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Re: What is the best Garmin or GPS (not smart phone) for touring

Post by Bez »

HobbesOnTour wrote:You have to pay for the maps and be online to plot a route.


Not true; I haven't paid for anything and route planning works fine.
martinn
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Re: What is the best Garmin or GPS (not smart phone) for touring

Post by martinn »

Sorry for the thread highjack.
I currently have a Mio 315 somehow my eldest managed to break the screen . those that have ridden with me are probably aware that if it gets to the end of anything longer than a100km without it going wrong in some way it's unusual! I have tried using a dynamo and a battery to charge.
Anyway, Looking at what is currently out there, more for mapping than stats, I have sort of narrow it down to either a Wahoo elemnt or do I take a punt on the newest GPS on the block, the Hammerhead Karoo??
I would like turn by turn navigation, and a readable map, and I do like the facility of a unit to automatically change to the map screen when you get very close to the junction.
So wahoo or Hammerhead? There is an offer price for the Hammerhead at present.

Thanks

Martin
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Heltor Chasca
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What is the best Garmin or GPS (not smart phone) for touring

Post by Heltor Chasca »

I am delighted with my Wahoo Elemnt. Completely trounced my Garmin. For TBT: get your GPX file from cycle.travel onto Ride With Gps and it automatically lands on your Wahoo. Seconds Esther than minutes. The fact your smartphone is the Mothership is a bonus. Loads your rides onto Strava etc instantly. (You don't need to have your phone paired while you ride/navigate etc.

I'm delighted. Have I said that already?
gxaustin
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Re: What is the best Garmin or GPS (not smart phone) for touring

Post by gxaustin »

HobbesOnTour wrote:
I've had the use of a Garmin Edge Touring for the past month or so and it is unbelievably poor. Crashes regularly,


How true - but I have found that the chief bugbear on my touring is the turn by turn directions. Sometimes straying off route by a few feet can give a "route calculation error" - like when roadworks diverted us around the wrong side of a roundabout. Or even because the Garmin route "drives" on the right hand side of the road, necessitating correction at every roundabout.
I have found it's better to turn all that off and just follow the map trace.
Frustratingly, it worked really great after an update about a year ago - and then reverted to unreliability following another update.
They keep updating models with new gimmicks instead of debugging the ones they have.
I know someone who is on his third Garmin 1000 :?
Bez
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Re: What is the best Garmin or GPS (not smart phone) for touring

Post by Bez »

Your route recalculation woes should be fixed by going into the settings and turning route recalculation off.
drossall
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Re: What is the best Garmin or GPS (not smart phone) for touring

Post by drossall »

My Touring Plus gets route calculation errors on most downloaded GPXs for Audaxes and the like. I still get a track, but no directions. Haven't figured out what's going on yet.
yutkoxpo
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Re: What is the best Garmin or GPS (not smart phone) for touring

Post by yutkoxpo »

Bez wrote:
HobbesOnTour wrote:You have to pay for the maps and be online to plot a route.


Not true; I haven't paid for anything and route planning works fine.


Sorry, Bez,
Maybe you could enlighten us. My Komoot app tells me that I need an Internet connection to plan a route.

And other than a free download of a (small) local region, the maps are only available for a fee.

Or maybe you have a workaround? :D :D
yutkoxpo
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Re: What is the best Garmin or GPS (not smart phone) for touring

Post by yutkoxpo »

martinn wrote:Sorry for the thread highjack.
I currently have a Mio 315 somehow my eldest managed to break the screen . those that have ridden with me are probably aware that if it gets to the end of anything longer than a100km without it going wrong in some way it's unusual! I have tried using a dynamo and a battery to charge.
Anyway, Looking at what is currently out there, more for mapping than stats, I have sort of narrow it down to either a Wahoo elemnt or do I take a punt on the newest GPS on the block, the Hammerhead Karoo??
I would like turn by turn navigation, and a readable map, and I do like the facility of a unit to automatically change to the map screen when you get very close to the junction.
So wahoo or Hammerhead? There is an offer price for the Hammerhead at present.

Thanks

Martin


Hi Martin,
I don't know the Hammerhead and am still only learning about the Elemnt, so I'm far from an expert.

Turn by turn is available for the Elemnt, but it depends on the service you use to create the route. I don't need it, the breadcrumb trail suits me fine.

Readable map is on the Elemnt, but is very, very basic.

You can create your own pages on the Elemnt and change from one to the other by hitting a button. One of them is a map page. I don't use turn by turn, so it's not an issue for me.

Read Bez's critique of the Elemnt a few posts back! It'll help a lot
Frank
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Heltor Chasca
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What is the best Garmin or GPS (not smart phone) for touring

Post by Heltor Chasca »

I'll just add from my experience that the mapping is much better on the Elemnt than my Garmin Touring ever was. With colour on the Garmin you often loose the clarity and it's very hard to read. The Elemnt is black and white and doesn't clutter the page with every road name like a Garmin, therefore the definition is crisp especially in daylight. It was perfect at night with a headtorch or backlight. Sometimes less is more.

I found the breadcrumb trail ok but in the middle of the night it was mental strain I could have done without. I much preferred a recent, 4 day, Turn By Turn route which I uploaded from Ride with GPS. I originally planned the route on my favourite cycle.travel

I'm not expecting that my comments will usurp DCRainmaker's or Bez's reviews, but I hope that helps.
Bez
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Re: What is the best Garmin or GPS (not smart phone) for touring

Post by Bez »

HobbesOnTour wrote:Sorry, Bez, Maybe you could enlighten us. My Komoot app tells me that I need an Internet connection to plan a route. And other than a free download of a (small) local region, the maps are only available for a fee.


You need to have a data connection, yes. But I can plan a route on it, I've just tested it again to make sure. I've only downloaded the free sample area (which I did to test the voice guidance) and I just tried creating a route outside that area. Works fine.
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