New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Specific board for this popular undertaking.
afanasiew
Posts: 44
Joined: 23 Jun 2020, 10:10am

New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by afanasiew »

Let me start by saying this is a 'new-to-me' idea - I'm sure it's been done before, but I'd like to know if it can work well in practice.

After toying with many options for navigating LEJOG and finally opting for a Garmin Etrex 22x, since I only want directions and nothing else, I find its maximum of 50 waypoints for turn-by-turn directions way too limiting; I'll be averaging 65 miles per day and don't want to be loading a new file every few miles.

I started to type out directions to help me memorise each day's route by reading it before I set out when it occurred to me I could read it out & record it on my phone, mount the phone on the handlebars, stop-start the description as I ride and listen over wireless earbuds.

Has anyone tried this method and, if so, how successful was it?
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cycleruk
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Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by cycleruk »

50 waypoints sounds very low.
The spec' on the Garmin Etrex website says 2000 waypoints.
https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/p/669244#specs
You'll never know if you don't try it.
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robgul
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Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by robgul »

I think it would drive you nuts - you'd need to stop pretty frequently to check where to turn next . . .

. . . and, this is a personal view close to the "helmet argument" - I think that riding with any sort of headphones/ear-buds is dangerous as you need to be able to hear traffic.

Both times I rode the E2E I had an A5 size printed mapbook on a barbag - it was the 1-50,000 OS with the route marked (easy to print) - the second time my riding companion had a Garmin GPS which worked pretty well with a new file each day . . .my map tended to rule if there were any queries!
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thirdcrank
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Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by thirdcrank »

I've not tried this but it sounds like an audio version of the route maps the AA used to provide free for members.

One problem with them was that if you went off your route for whatever reason eg detours round a road closed by a crash, it could be a bugger getting back on your route because even with a sheet map of the area as back-up, you might not know exactly where you were as you hadn't navigated with the map.

If things don't go exactly to plan then it can be difficult finding your place in notes, even your own; it's loads easier doing it on paper than messing with an audiotape etc.
afanasiew
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Joined: 23 Jun 2020, 10:10am

Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by afanasiew »

cycleruk wrote:50 waypoints sounds very low.
The spec' on the Garmin Etrex website says 2000 waypoints.
https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/p/669244#specs


The 2000 waypoint limit applies to 'Off-road' whereas, for 'On-road' - aka turn-by-turn navigation, 50 is the limit.

Frustrating.
afanasiew
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Joined: 23 Jun 2020, 10:10am

Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by afanasiew »

thirdcrank wrote:I've not tried this but it sounds like an audio version of the route maps the AA used to provide free for members.

One problem with them was that if you went off your route for whatever reason eg detours round a road closed by a crash, it could be a bugger getting back on your route because even with a sheet map of the area as back-up, you might not know exactly where you were as you hadn't navigated with the map.

If things don't go exactly to plan then it can be difficult finding your place in notes, even your own; it's loads easier doing it on paper than messing with an audiotape etc.


I'd have printed maps and Viewranger on the phone as backup. Had this combination when I walked it in 2019 and never used the paper maps.
Jdsk
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Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by Jdsk »

afanasiew wrote:I started to type out directions to help me memorise each day's route by reading it before I set out when it occurred to me I could read it out & record it on my phone, mount the phone on the handlebars, stop-start the description as I ride and listen over wireless earbuds.

Are you happy with the battery life and waterproofing of your 'phone when used like this?

Jonathan
afanasiew
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Joined: 23 Jun 2020, 10:10am

Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by afanasiew »

robgul wrote:. . . and, this is a personal view close to the "helmet argument" - I think that riding with any sort of headphones/ear-buds is dangerous as you need to be able to hear traffic.

Both times I rode the E2E I had an A5 size printed mapbook on a barbag - it was the 1-50,000 OS with the route marked (easy to print) - the second time my riding companion had a Garmin GPS which worked pretty well with a new file each day . . .my map tended to rule if there were any queries!


They're not noise-cancelling earbuds and the directions would be intermittent, prompted by tapping the phone. Haven't tried it yet, though.

Your map book presumably had a waterproof case.

Which model Garmin?
afanasiew
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Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by afanasiew »

Jdsk wrote:
afanasiew wrote:I started to type out directions to help me memorise each day's route by reading it before I set out when it occurred to me I could read it out & record it on my phone, mount the phone on the handlebars, stop-start the description as I ride and listen over wireless earbuds.

Are you happy with the battery life and waterproofing of your 'phone when used like this?

Jonathan


As yet untested for battery life with the voice recorder running, but it's fine with Viewranger all day. I have a good waterproof case, a mount and a spare phone, same model.
rareposter
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Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by rareposter »

Have you actually loaded a route onto it and used it on a long ride?

50 waypoints on road sounds incredibly low - I mean I know it's not a cycling-specific GPS but surely it must accept a route created online, uploaded as a .gpx or .tcx and then it'll just be a case of following the line on the map? If it is 50 waypoints it might not give turn-by-turn at every junction but the map will have a line to follow. And that'd be far less prone to error (and far less time consuming!) than you reading out directions, recording them and then hoping you can hear them properly. I can only imagine that passing through a town or city with junctions everywhere, you would not want to be tapping your phone every few seconds and trying to hear the directions.

I'd create a route on local roads of the approx distance that you intend to ride per day on LEJOG and then test it out, see how it reacts before looking at solutions like typed directions and dictating them into your phone!
ossie
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Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by ossie »

I'm not sure you need turn by turn navigation. I've never used it in a decade of touring using Garmins (Etrex Hcx and Etrex 20x )Just download your route and follow the pink line (or whatever colour), when zoomed in its quite easy.

The only turn by turn navigation I use is on my phone when I'm close to a camp site / accommodation that I've decided on at the end of the day that might be off my pre determined route.
PH
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Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by PH »

I think some testing of the Garmin is required, you can plan a route, but load it as a Track and it won't use any waypoints. Waypoints are what you use if allowing the Garmin to choose the route for you, so from one town to another, if you were going to do this, 50 would be more than you'd need for a day's riding. Even if using Waypoints and didn't want the device to plot the route, you wouldn't need one at every junction, only where there might be alternatives, much like the way you'd use online mapping such as Cycletravel.
Boring_Username
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Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by Boring_Username »

ossie wrote:I'm not sure you need turn by turn navigation. I've never used it in a decade of touring using Garmins (Etrex Hcx and Etrex 20x )Just download your route and follow the pink line (or whatever colour), when zoomed in its quite easy.


Whatever the incremental benefits of turn by turn, following a line sounds a great deal easier than the suggestion of having to stop/start verbal directions by tapping a phone.
Jamesh
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Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by Jamesh »

AA map

Keep the sun on your right in the morning and left in the afternoon.

If it's raining stay in the pub!!!

If the sun is in your face you've drunk too much! ( Lejog obviously!)

Cheers James
cycle tramp
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Joined: 5 Aug 2009, 7:22pm

Re: New idea for navigating LEJOG?

Post by cycle tramp »

afanasiew wrote:Let me start by saying this is a 'new-to-me' idea - I'm sure it's been done before, but I'd like to know if it can work well in practice.

After toying with many options for navigating LEJOG and finally opting for a Garmin Etrex 22x, since I only want directions and nothing else, I find its maximum of 50 waypoints for turn-by-turn directions way too limiting; I'll be averaging 65 miles per day and don't want to be loading a new file every few miles.

I started to type out directions to help me memorise each day's route by reading it before I set out when it occurred to me I could read it out & record it on my phone, mount the phone on the handlebars, stop-start the description as I ride and listen over wireless earbuds.

Has anyone tried this method and, if so, how successful was it?


...I know if I attempted it, I'd fail. My personal issue is that the information that I would include in the audio description to myself may not match the visual clues to which I would be seeking whilst riding. It's very easy to say 'when in Bodmin turn right at the third bend' however without any visual clues and dealing with other traffic I know there would be a chance that i may miss the junction or simply miss count it....
Last edited by cycle tramp on 7 Mar 2021, 3:49pm, edited 1 time in total.
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