Blaupunkt BikePilot 2+

[Bert]

Does anyone have any experience of this device please and if so would you recommend it?
Most Garmins are considerably more expensive and over complicated for what I want, and this looks on paper to be better than the Garmins in this price bracket.
I am really just looking for an equivelant to google maps but which is not draining a phone battery but can actually find its way to the nearest shop without ending up in the middle of a field.
I am new on here and have tried the search function but didn’t find anything so please bear with me if the subject has already been done to death.

[hamster]

Blaupunkt are just a marketing company these days, so beware that it's probably just a generic Chinese product.

See their relationships here:
https://www.blaupunkt.com/en/navi-footer/brand-partner/

[st599_uk]

Looks nice, my only concern would be the advertising blurb in German says it contains maps for 13 countries. Do you know which?

[Bert]

Thank you for the reply and the link. It had crossed my mind to be honest.
On the link you posted it says on navigation Cabt GmbH so whether that means the product is German or not I have no idea.
The information on the Blaupunkt website is a bit sketchy.
£99 on Amazon looks like a better deal than the equivalent Garmins though which seem to be aimed at geocache enthusiasts.
I am looking for something where if I am in an area I don’t know I can simply put in the location I am aiming for, eg the local train station and it will do the rest like google maps but not kill my phone battery in the process.
And google maps is useless for cycling as I have discovered and as I have seen others say on here.

[Bert]

Looks nice, my only concern would be the advertising blurb in German says it contains maps for 13 countries. Do you know which?

Good point.
I’d hope the UK would be of of them but probably best to check I guess.
Wouldn’t want to go to Germany for a pint of milk.

[philvantwo]

Read the reviews on Amazon! One purchaser says it does not come with uk maps, you have to connect it to a PC (won't work with a mac) and download the map. Harder to set up than it should be was his last comment.
Just get a Garmin.

[Bert]

Read the reviews on Amazon! One purchaser says it does not come with uk maps, you have to connect it to a PC (won't work with a mac) and download the map. Harder to set up than it should be was his last comment.
Just get a Garmin.

The same reviewer also says it has a much larger screen, has similar features and is half the price of a Garmim 830. So his review would hardly support your conclusion.
I had read the reviews on Amazon but the few in English did not seem that comprehensive and I simply wondered if anyone on here actually had any experience of them beyond reading a couple of Amazon reviews.

[st599_uk]

I have a Navman Bike 1000 which uses similar maps, and it works well.

Does turn by turn navigation from GPX files, uses OSM mapping, and is generally quite good.

Layout looks similar to the Blaupunkt. if the Blaupunkt can download UK maps, and does what you need, then it's probably OK

It does need a computer to do software updates, including getting the latest mapping changes.

I also looked at the Teasi unit. That was probably better, but a bit more costly.

[cycleruk]

After a very quick read of the instructions - some thoughts.
Battery life ?
Map updating ? It does say uses Openstreetmaps ?
From what I can gather it uses "GPX" files only. ?

In the data sheet it does include GB.
https://www.blaupunkt.com/uploads/tx_dd ... _BikePilot²+.pdf

Do you want heart rate. ? Does it do "ANT+" ?
Will it connect to Strava if that matters?
It does have Bluetooth and says for connections to HR monitor, speed, cadence sensors, Etc.

It certainly looks/sounds O.K. and would be of interest if my Garmin 810 packs in.
I use my Garmin in conjunction with the PC to store and record all my rides. I can look at rides from when I first started with my Garmin. I can transfer my rides/routes to Strava that other friends can look at.
Does Bikepilot do everything you want.?

Just come across this :-
https://www.blaupunkt.com/en/nc/product ... gle/19044/

There a some Utube vid's but all in German.
AS Hampster points out, Blaupunkt are a marketing company, just click on "Products in the above link.

[cotswolds]

It's worth following through the various links on the page. It's sold from Germany by Cabt GmbH, who only seems to have 3 reviewed sales on Amazon. Curious. I doubt it's German though, it would be far more widely known, almost certainly Chinese.

It's worth translating some of the German reviews. Here are a couple of the bad ones (translated by Google):

----------------------
1.0 out of 5 starsNot suitable for cycling Reviewed in Germany on 26 May 2019 Verified Purchase A typical überzüchtetes device, egg-laying woolly milk. Previously had "BikePilot", where it came after years of use without any problems to the significant decrease in battery life. Everything really to the satisfaction of a cyclist, who made tours either in the navigation system itself, referred to the Internet or simply drove freely on the wonderful in the maps recognizable bike paths or in the "terrain". Saved tracks were also safe with the "constant updates" in the updater tool. Only the GPS signal sometimes came slowly, but remained stable. With the BP2 + the map is not useful despite zooming. This starts with the basic map, which does not allow the entry of the home address in a city or shifts it to distances ... Bike paths begin somewhere, so they are recognizable at the wheel driving, and end on HIGHWAYs or highways. The created profiles are deleted with each "attempted update" ... It simply does not take pleasure! Keep your hands off the BP2 +!

================

2.0 out of 5 stars Blaupunkt BikePilot ²+ too inaccurate to navigate
Reviewed in Germany on 16 June 2019
Verified Purchase
The bicycle navigation system makes a very good impression. Setup and operation are easy. I can't complain about connecting to a PC and “Activity Manager” even though I expected more functionality (e.g. creating POIs or optimizing tracks). During the first practice assignments, however, I immediately noticed the following points negatively:
1) The position recording runs up to 200 m behind the actual position. So turn instructions come when you are long past the turning point. Under foliage, the effect is worst, in the city very annoying and on open track with clear view of the satellites 10 - 15 m inaccuracy is too much for me too.
2) In the shade, the display is very good and rich in contrast. In direct sunlight, however, the display is difficult to read despite 100% brightness.
3) The recorded tracks are not suitable for descendants or tracking and for geotagging images, the number of points and the scattering of these points is too large.
4) The device takes a relatively long time to boot up (56 s), for this it captures the first position quite quickly (a few s).
5) The device has been “stuck” several times for no apparent reason or has booted several times in a row when switched on. It then ran normally after a HW reset or after the 3rd boot operation.

=====================

Looks risky to me, might do what you want but obviously quite a few people have had bad experiences.

Incidentally, someone has new Garmins - etrex 20x - for £120 on ebay. Not exactly equivalent, but has maps and good quality hardware, and lots of people here will have it or something similar if you need help.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Garmin-eTrex-20x-Rugged-Outdoor-Handheld-GPS-Topoactive-Worldwide-Maps/163837316852?epid=22012043664&hash=item2625770ef4:g:6RsAAOSw9NldZpES

[Bert]

After a very quick read of the instructions - some thoughts.
Battery life ?
Map updating ? It does say uses Openstreetmaps ?
From what I can gather it uses "GPX" files only. ?

In the data sheet it does include GB.
https://www.blaupunkt.com/uploads/tx_dd ... _BikePilot²+.pdf

Do you want heart rate. ? Does it do "ANT+" ?
Will it connect to Strava if that matters?
It does have Bluetooth and says for connections to HR monitor, speed, cadence sensors, Etc.

It certainly looks/sounds O.K. and would be of interest if my Garmin 810 packs in.
I use my Garmin in conjunction with the PC to store and record all my rides. I can look at rides from when I first started with my Garmin. I can transfer my rides/routes to Strava that other friends can look at.
Does Bikepilot do everything you want.?

Just come across this :-
https://www.blaupunkt.com/en/nc/product ... gle/19044/

There a some Utube vid's but all in German.
AS Hampster points out, Blaupunkt are a marketing company, just click on "Products in the above link.

I don’t think battery life should be an issue for me. It says 6 hours and I wouldn’t often if ever need more than that but I would prefer to use standard rechargeables as onboard batteries are often the cause of the early demise of otherwise serviceable devices. Although I am sure that could be got round.
Also I don’t think I would even need the Bluetooth capability.
Presumably you can update the maps when updates are available from a pc.
I really just want a basic navigation tool capable of finding the shortest route from a to b on a bicycle and getting me there without any swimming or climbing through hedges.

[Bert]

It's worth following through the various links on the page. It's sold from Germany by Cabt GmbH, who only seems to have 3 reviewed sales on Amazon. Curious. I doubt it's German though, it would be far more widely known, almost certainly Chinese.

It's worth translating some of the German reviews. Here are a couple of the bad ones (translated by Google):

----------------------
1.0 out of 5 starsNot suitable for cycling Reviewed in Germany on 26 May 2019 Verified Purchase A typical überzüchtetes device, egg-laying woolly milk. Previously had "BikePilot", where it came after years of use without any problems to the significant decrease in battery life. Everything really to the satisfaction of a cyclist, who made tours either in the navigation system itself, referred to the Internet or simply drove freely on the wonderful in the maps recognizable bike paths or in the "terrain". Saved tracks were also safe with the "constant updates" in the updater tool. Only the GPS signal sometimes came slowly, but remained stable. With the BP2 + the map is not useful despite zooming. This starts with the basic map, which does not allow the entry of the home address in a city or shifts it to distances ... Bike paths begin somewhere, so they are recognizable at the wheel driving, and end on HIGHWAYs or highways. The created profiles are deleted with each "attempted update" ... It simply does not take pleasure! Keep your hands off the BP2 +!

================

2.0 out of 5 stars Blaupunkt BikePilot ²+ too inaccurate to navigate
Reviewed in Germany on 16 June 2019
Verified Purchase
The bicycle navigation system makes a very good impression. Setup and operation are easy. I can't complain about connecting to a PC and “Activity Manager” even though I expected more functionality (e.g. creating POIs or optimizing tracks). During the first practice assignments, however, I immediately noticed the following points negatively:
1) The position recording runs up to 200 m behind the actual position. So turn instructions come when you are long past the turning point. Under foliage, the effect is worst, in the city very annoying and on open track with clear view of the satellites 10 - 15 m inaccuracy is too much for me too.
2) In the shade, the display is very good and rich in contrast. In direct sunlight, however, the display is difficult to read despite 100% brightness.
3) The recorded tracks are not suitable for descendants or tracking and for geotagging images, the number of points and the scattering of these points is too large.
4) The device takes a relatively long time to boot up (56 s), for this it captures the first position quite quickly (a few s).
5) The device has been “stuck” several times for no apparent reason or has booted several times in a row when switched on. It then ran normally after a HW reset or after the 3rd boot operation.

=====================

Looks risky to me, might do what you want but obviously quite a few people have had bad experiences.

Incidentally, someone has new Garmins - etrex 20x - for £120 on ebay. Not exactly equivalent, but has maps and good quality hardware, and lots of people here will have it or something similar if you need help.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Garmin-eTrex-20x-Rugged-Outdoor-Handheld-GPS-Topoactive-Worldwide-Maps/163837316852?epid=22012043664&hash=item2625770ef4:g:6RsAAOSw9NldZpES

Hmm. Thanks for that. The second one doesn’t sound good. The time lag issue would drive you mad pretty quickly. Maybe stick to google maps on the phone for a bit longer and investigate the Garmin you mention as that is a good price for a 20x and as you point out the ease of access to help should it be needed.
It does seem odd that there are so few reviews on Amazon and help might well be hard to come by.

[cotswolds]

Have you looked at this thread? https://forum.cyclinguk.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=134339

It might convince you your phone is a better choice than the garmin. The reasons are explained in the other thread, but if you download OSMAND https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.osmand&hl=en and data for the area you want and use it with your phone in airline mode you may find your battery life perfectly adequate. (Many other similar apps are available, but that one has a good reputation and is completely free - give them £5 for the plus version if you like it, but it doesn't add much functionality.)

Don't assume a garmin will do better cycle routing than a cycle-specific app. I did a long tour in France using a garmin etrex for navigation with an Android phone as backup. Initially I just let the garmin route each 50 mile day in the morning, but I found that the routes it chose were often odd - not terrible, but better options seemed to get ignored. I switched to letting OSMAND chose the route and breaking it down into legs of 10 miles or so which the garmin handled sensibly. The improvement in routing was worth the extra effort.

Most garmin users seem to prepare tracks at home and download them (which is mostly what I do). Routing is a fairly complex process and the faster processor and larger memory of a phone seem to do a better job IME (although newer garmins may be better). I'm not trying to put you off it, it works well enough, particularly for shorter distances, and it will be better than google maps, but don't assume it's the best solution.

For long days on the road I'm convinced a dedicated device is the better option, but for your more occasional use, you may think your phone adequate.

[Bert]

Have you looked at this thread? https://forum.cyclinguk.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=134339

It might convince you your phone is a better choice than the garmin. The reasons are explained in the other thread, but if you download OSMAND https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.osmand&hl=en and data for the area you want and use it with your phone in airline mode you may find your battery life perfectly adequate. (Many other similar apps are available, but that one has a good reputation and is completely free - give them £5 for the plus version if you like it, but it doesn't add much functionality.)

Don't assume a garmin will do better cycle routing than a cycle-specific app. I did a long tour in France using a garmin etrex for navigation with an Android phone as backup. Initially I just let the garmin route each 50 mile day in the morning, but I found that the routes it chose were often odd - not terrible, but better options seemed to get ignored. I switched to letting OSMAND chose the route and breaking it down into legs of 10 miles or so which the garmin handled sensibly. The improvement in routing was worth the extra effort.

Most garmin users seem to prepare tracks at home and download them (which is mostly what I do). Routing is a fairly complex process and the faster processor and larger memory of a phone seem to do a better job IME (although newer garmins may be better). I'm not trying to put you off it, it works well enough, particularly for shorter distances, and it will be better than google maps, but don't assume it's the best solution.

For long days on the road I'm convinced a dedicated device is the better option, but for your more occasional use, you may think your phone adequate.

[Bert]

Have you looked at this thread? https://forum.cyclinguk.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=134339

It might convince you your phone is a better choice than the garmin. The reasons are explained in the other thread, but if you download OSMAND https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.osmand&hl=en and data for the area you want and use it with your phone in airline mode you may find your battery life perfectly adequate. (Many other similar apps are available, but that one has a good reputation and is completely free - give them £5 for the plus version if you like it, but it doesn't add much functionality.)

Don't assume a garmin will do better cycle routing than a cycle-specific app. I did a long tour in France using a garmin etrex for navigation with an Android phone as backup. Initially I just let the garmin route each 50 mile day in the morning, but I found that the routes it chose were often odd - not terrible, but better options seemed to get ignored. I switched to letting OSMAND chose the route and breaking it down into legs of 10 miles or so which the garmin handled sensibly. The improvement in routing was worth the extra effort.

Most garmin users seem to prepare tracks at home and download them (which is mostly what I do). Routing is a fairly complex process and the faster processor and larger memory of a phone seem to do a better job IME (although newer garmins may be better). I'm not trying to put you off it, it works well enough, particularly for shorter distances, and it will be better than google maps, but don't assume it's the best solution.

For long days on the road I'm convinced a dedicated device is the better option, but for your more occasional use, you may think your phone adequate.

Thanks. I had been following that thread for a bit and I am going to go back to it and read again more thoroughly as I think you are right.
I will definitely download OSMAND and have a play with it before I do anything else.