Mio 300 - any good?

[Garry Booth]

Does anyone have any experience of using the Mio 300 bike GPS? Reviews are mixed but I like the idea of a preloaded unit that works out of the box. I know the Garmin Etrex is regarded as the business but I am not up to the level of technical input needed to programme and use the things. The Mio apparently allows you to simply tap in your chosen destination and produces a bike friendly route. Too good to be true?
Any comments from actual users much appreciated. There must be other people like me out there who have no sense of direction and are not very good with gadgets...

[WOOLIFERKINS]

Depends what it is using for its' "bike friendly route" Google's bike routing software is average at best and I cant see it improving fast as most people will use it for routing in unfamiliar areas so won't be able to suggest decent routes.

[cycleruk]

Look very carefully to see if you can "adjust" the route to suit your needs.
Quite often a "bike friendly" route will take you round the houses when there is a more obvious route to be had.
Will it re-route if you go off course or will it ask you to turn around when possible?

[andymiller]

The Mio apparently allows you to simply tap in your chosen destination and produces a bike friendly route. Too good to be true?

In a word: yes.

The Garmins do exactly the same thing. The results are variable: fine if you want a route through the one-way system of a town you don't know, but no GPS is capable of the kind of decision-making that we do as a matter of course - eg I want the shortest route on quiet roads but not if it involves an unnecessary climb unless there's a good view from the top.

All GPSes work 'out of the box'. But you need to read the instructions. My eTrex is no harder to work than my hifi or my radio-alarm clock (for both of these I need to refer to the manual). I doubt the Mio is easier.

I know there are two things men aren't good at (OK at least two things): one is asking for directions and the other is reading instructions. GPSes mean maybe we're off the hook on the first, but not, yet, on the second. Sorry.

[WOOLIFERKINS]

There are levels and levels though. Google cycle specific route from Wantage to St Albans runs you down the M40. Motorways are a basic coding deny in a cycle route plotter.

[michael42]

Does anyone have any experience of using the Mio 300 bike GPS? Reviews are mixed but I like the idea of a preloaded unit that works out of the box. I know the Garmin Etrex is regarded as the business but I am not up to the level of technical input needed to programme and use the things. The Mio apparently allows you to simply tap in your chosen destination and produces a bike friendly route. Too good to be true?
Any comments from actual users much appreciated. There must be other people like me out there who have no sense of direction and are not very good with gadgets...

IMO yeah, too good to be true.

Planning your routes before you go and loading the track onto the unit is the only way IMHO.
Although my Dakota 10 has talky toaster's openstreet based map on it, and that does routing on offroad, trails, byways, roads and so on reasonably well.

The Dakota 10 or 20 is a reasonable choice if you're not too concerned about measuring the performance aspects of cycling, but just want routing / mapping (the Dakota 20 will work with HRM and speed cadence but it doesn't have all of the data the Edges do) The other slight downside, you have to pay for bike mounts separately. But it's worth considering as an alternative.

It has mapping, it has a touchscreen, but, it's significantly cheaper than the 800/810 from Garmin, if you use the openstreet maps.

At the moment I use the Edge 500 to say how fast my legs, heart and bike are moving and take the Dakota 10 with me as well if I'm doing a new route or one I'm not sure of. It'll be an expensive spill if I fall off on those days

All the routes I either use basecamp or, more often than not, find other people's routes on garmin connect or ridewithgps and so on. The local road cycling club here puts a lot of their routes on Garmin connect, which gives me a plethora of local rides covering ~50,60,70 and 100km distances.

But that's IMHO, forget the idea of using a bike gps like a car sat nav, it's likely to take you somewhere you don't want to be on a bike (and since we all have different ideas about what is or isn't a good route, it's not really a trivial problem to solve)

[Garry Booth]

Thanks very much everyone for the advice. What I take away is that it would be best to get a Garmin and use it to plan a route keeping an eye on the contours. Luckily I have teenagers in the house that might help...
Thanks again. G