New idea for navigating LEJOG?

[PH]

If you plot your route in Base camp for the day, you don't need a waypoint at every junction. Plot the day out, split it into 2 or 3 sections (ensuring each ones got less than 50 waypoints) and upload.

This is the bit that trips some people up. What you load onto the device from Basecamp, or any other program, is the set of waypoints, not the route between them. Depending on the settings and mapping on the device it might not direct you on the same route as the one you saw when planning. In many cases there is only one obvious route and this won't matter, or the one your device chooses might even be better. There's also an issue if you decide to go off course (Or there was with my Etrex, I haven't tried with a more recent device) it re-routes you to the end, ignoring any intermediate waypoints!
Unless someone knows otherwise, I think the only way to ensure what you get on the device is the same as what you've plotted, is to upload it as a Track, rather than a Route (Or Course as it's called on some)

[wearwell]

Have to ask - is there any particular point in all this high tec navigation stuff as compared to straight paper maps, or is it just the novelty value? It looks and sounds so difficult!
I've cycled Lejog and all over Britain and a lot of Europe but can't say I've ever encountered a problem to which the methods on this thread would be a solution.

[Jdsk]

Have to ask - is there any particular point in all this high tec navigation stuff as compared to straight paper maps, or is it just the novelty value? It looks and sounds so difficult!

We can all make our own choices. But do you really not understand why some other people choose to use satnavs?

As always: try as many methods of navigation as possible, and once you're familiar with them then make a choice of what you want to use when and where.

Jonathan

[Tigerbiten]

This is the bit that trips some people up. What you load onto the device from Basecamp, or any other program, is the set of waypoints, not the route between them. Depending on the settings and mapping on the device it might not direct you on the same route as the one you saw when planning. In many cases there is only one obvious route and this won't matter, or the one your device chooses might even be better. There's also an issue if you decide to go off course (Or there was with my Etrex, I haven't tried with a more recent device) it re-routes you to the end, ignoring any intermediate waypoints!
Unless someone knows otherwise, I think the only way to ensure what you get on the device is the same as what you've plotted, is to upload it as a Track, rather than a Route (Or Course as it's called on some)

Somewhere in the setting there is an option which lets the Garmin recalculate the route if you go off course.
The first thing I do with my Garmin is to turn this off.
That way if I go off route, it keeps trying to navigate me to the next waypoint rather than recalculating it straight to the end.

YMMV .........

[Mike Sales]

Have to ask - is there any particular point in all this high tec navigation stuff as compared to straight paper maps, or is it just the novelty value? It looks and sounds so difficult!
I've cycled Lejog and all over Britain and a lot of Europe but can't say I've ever encountered a problem to which the methods on this thread would be a solution.

Have these people no sense of adventure?
Should we not leave room for serendipity?
I crossed France on the red Michelin single sheet of the whole country.
Who needs a map anyway? The Polynesians crossed the Pacific using only their head full of knowledge.
Even a map seperates you from the experience, but following a screen, and following a predetermined course....No fun at all.

[Mark01625]

£180 for a Garmin sounds expensive. I'm planning to do the route in the summer and was thinking about using Google maps. I planned my circular route of Mcr last year (65 miles over 11 points, each set individually along the way) and it wasn't much bother. Used earphones. I must be missing something or is there a much cheaper alternative?

[PH]

Have to ask - is there any particular point in all this high tec navigation stuff as compared to straight paper maps, or is it just the novelty value? It looks and sounds so difficult!

Have these people no sense of adventure?

It's a bit of a misunderstanding to assume there's such a limited range of adventure.
GPS is a tool, it doesn't need to be contentious, it's like a map or any other, you can use it to increase or decrease the adventure, or keep it the same and just transfer some of the time spent navigating to sorting it out before you leave. Like any other tool, it's use is optional, but you can carry on your handlebars, or in your pocket, more detailed mapping over a larger area, than you're likely to carry in paper maps. It isn't difficult, but to get the best from it then a bit of time spent understanding it is worthwhile, same with maps and compasses. I like maps, nothing else gives a better, bigger picture, I'd not tour without one, but just like a GPS you can use them as much or as little as you choose. I know people who plan meticulously with paper maps, marked with a highlighter pen, and then follow that route more accurately than I ever do with a Garmin. I rode E2E pre GPS days, if doing it again, I'd take one. My first long GPS tour was Derby to Barcelona, very little planning, a list of towns and some cycleway numbers. But on the GPS I had all the municipal campsites loaded, when I'd had enough riding, the Garmin would direct me to the nearest, it did so with such reliability, it was something I could forget about for the rest of the day. Didn't decrease my adventure and I like to choose my own fun.

[Jdsk]

£180 for a Garmin sounds expensive. I'm planning to do the route in the summer and was thinking about using Google maps. I planned my circular route of Mcr last year (65 miles over 11 points, each set individually along the way) and it wasn't much bother. Used earphones. I must be missing something or is there a much cheaper alternative?

Lots of people now use smart 'phones rather than dedicated devices, and I'm expecting that to increase.

Things to bear in mind:
* Waterproofing and cases and mounts.
* Robustness, especially if it decides to visit the road surface.
* Battery life, but of course there are solutions.

How do you feel about earphones affecting your awareness of other road users?

Jonathan

[PH]

How do you feel about earphones affecting your awareness of other road users?
Jonathan

I can't answer for Mark, but I do some bike delivering and use a phone app and headphones for directions, which adds up to a lot more hours than touring and more complex urban routes.
Battery life would only be an issue if you relied on the phone battery. A cheap battery pack will last all day, though if touring you do have to consider recharging, as you would with a GPS. I use a handlebar waterproof case, no issues. I use bone conduction headphones, it's not easy to describe the experience, it's more like background sound and like that you could have it turned up loud enough to drown out all else, but you don't need to. Before that, I used a single earpiece, not as comfortable but otherwise the same.
When touring, I prefer a Garmin, at least in part to keep the functions separate, but I'd have no problem using a phone, though I'd probably choose mapping other than Google.

[Mike Sales]

It's a bit of a misunderstanding to assume there's such a limited range of adventure.

For me uncertainty of outcome is the very definition of adventure, and so I put the the minimum of effort into eliminating it.
I find more than the minimum of prior planning tedious and prefer to react to what is around me.
We are all different, and of course you will do things your way. I just want to put a diifferent view, to explain why some don't want to bother with the electric hassles.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
You could type a route.
Then use software to convert it to speech.
Then buy yourself a cheap MP3 player, Last longer even by two then one is charging when you're using the other one.
It's easy then to cut the tracks into logical steps on your route.
there might be an even simpler way of doing this by simply producing a audiobook track?
Save your texts of your route to your computer, so you always have some sort of back up.
And effective satnav which just shows you the direction to go clearly, with no other bells or whistles is all this really required.
I have used turn by turn notifications but seriously Not really needed or necessary as long as you have the arrow to show you where to turn and go.
For everything else you use your mobile.
Tuck the mobile away And off to save power, carry a power bank to charge devices.
If you don't know the area well then it's probably prudent to carry a simple paper map of the area.

[rareposter]

I think the thing with GPS, especially if you're fairly new to the technology is to look at all the features and then find a list of problems. Very few people bother to try them out either, they assume they can just load up a route and go. Whatever software you plan your route on (RideWithGPS, Strava, CycleStreets, Komoot etc) will all have slightly different look and feel to them, most using Open Source mapping but all with a range of options like "prefer trails", "avoid main roads", "use most popular" and so on. Click on start point A and end point B and it'll direct you different routes depending on which option you choose.

When that file gets uploaded to the GPS, make sure the settings match. If you upload a .gpx or .tcx file to the unit and it was done using "most popular" but your GPS is set to "always use trails", the GPS will likely re-route a lot of it. As mentioned above what you're really uploading is a list of waypoints, not a complete track. This can be frustrating if you plan your road ride, upload it and head out and the unit is directing you off down every trail it can find. It is well worth doing a few trial runs with a new GPS on roads you know - upload a route, head out and see what it does. Try going deliberately off course - does it re-route you back to the last point you were on the route, does it try and "cut the corner" and join up later or does it bin the whole route off and direct you to the end point via its own creation?

At the top end, GPS cycling computers are like mini fitness centres, designed to connect to power, HR and cadence sensors, record all the metrics of a ride and use that to feed into your online training plans - they also do navigation but that is not really their primary function.

Middle of the road, you end up with the ones that are more designed for mapping/navigation and touring and travel rather than primarily performance metrics. However there are also significant differences between GPS for walking (which will show FPs, close up detail) and GPS for cycling (which will focus on roads and cycling trails like BWs and remove a lot of the memory-heavy close up detail).

You've bought is a walking / hiking specific one which will never be as good for long distance riding. On a walking one, you can get away with far fewer waypoints because you're travelling far less distance - however the map will be far more detailed, potentially even showing walls and pylons like a 1:25000 OS would. A long-distance trail walker might do 40 miles a day at a push whereas for a touring cyclist that is 3hrs riding time and you absolutely don't need that level of detail.

OP - ultimately I'd say you've bought the wrong GPS and while it can probably be persuaded to work without too many issues, you'd be far better off with something like a Garmin Edge Explore.
Re the comments about tech:

wearwell wrote:
Have to ask - is there any particular point in all this high tec navigation stuff as compared to straight paper maps, or is it just the novelty value? It looks and sounds so difficult!

Like any tool (and paper maps are just a tool as well) you have to know how to use them. You wouldn't walk into the hills with a map having never opened it before and assume you could read it when the need arose. So why assume that you can just turn a GPS on and follow a line? They both need some familiarisation.

[PH]

It's a bit of a misunderstanding to assume there's such a limited range of adventure.

For me uncertainty of outcome is the very definition of adventure, and so I put the the minimum of effort into eliminating it.

I doubt anyone has any issue with that, I certainly don't. Your first post questions whether others have any sense of adventure, which I do have an issue with. If the question is whether everyone shares your definition, the answer is no, some people have their own.

[Mike Sales]

If the question is whether everyone shares your definition, the answer is no, some people have their own.

If you look up the definition of adventure in a dictionary you will find it mentions risk. Look up risk and words used in the definition are danger and hazard.
I do not think I am making my own definition, but that you are the Humpty Dumpty.

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less." "The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things." "The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master—that's all."

[wearwell]

Have to ask - is there any particular point in all this high tec navigation stuff as compared to straight paper maps, or is it just the novelty value? It looks and sounds so difficult!

We can all make our own choices. But do you really not understand why some other people choose to use satnavs?.......

Yes I understand why people choose to use them - they work brilliantly in the car.
They don't do so well on a bike though. We've had several Warmshowers visitors over the years and several of them have been driven insane by trying to follow a route on a phone or whatever. Mainly because of blindly following instructions and lack of "over-view". Then there's batteries, bad back lighting, failure in heavy rain, having to stop at every change of direction, and so on.
Had to sit them down with maps! Given several maps away, including my original one with my own Lejog route marked up in felt tip!
The OS Routemaster 1/4" maps were spot on for long distance cycling. Sadly no longer available.