Bike nav

[Mr Gear]

I am starting to consider getting some sort of bike sat nav. I live in London and want to take a really complicated route to work to avoid traffic. It is almost impossible to remember. In addition, I want to be able to ride out to places like Hampshire and Brighton on that back roads without having to stop at every junction to get a map out.

Things I want:
- Ability to plot complex routes with hundreds of waypoints
- Long battery life of about 8 hours
- Detailed maps
- Water resistant

Anyone got a Garmin Edge 800? They look like they will do the job. http://gbr.garmin.com/edge800/edge800.html

Any good alternatives you can suggest?

[OneDs]

For that level of detail and requirements the current apps on GPS phones don't quite cut it

OS has just launched this service that is meant to work with Garmin, and would work well with OS explorer at 1:25000 already on the hand held.

http://www.getamap.ordnancesurveyleisure.co.uk/

Edited by OneDs on Thursday 31st March 15:15

[itsnotarace]

http://www.pistonheads.com/xforums/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[son of a vette]

I've got a Garmin Dakota 20 which I use with a bike mount, find it great on the MTB.

Bought it without the maps packages from Amazon for around £250, maps add about an extra £100. But a bit of searching on the web, and you can find open source maps you can use for free. From memorry the web site is www.talkytoaster.com (but might be wrong)

Bike mount was £12 or so, which is a bit of a rip off for what it is, but it works well. You can wrap the lanyard round your stem just in case it gets knocked off in an accident, that way it stays with the bike.

Battery life should be in the 8 hour mark, runs on AA's I've put a couple of rechargeables in it.
Waypoints and map detail should be fine, you can boost the map memory with micro SD cards.

[Mr Gear]

OneDs said:

For that level of detail and requirements the current apps on GPS phones don't quite cut it

OS has just launched this service that is meant to work with Garmin, and would work well with OS explorer at 1:25000 already on the hand held.

http://www.getamap.ordnancesurveyleisure.co.uk/

Edited by OneDs on Thursday 31st March 15:15

I agree, I have yet to see a smartphone that is as capable at Nav as I'd like it to be. In addition, they are rarely waterproof. I can't get the website you linked to to work at the moment, but I will look at home. Thanks.

[Mr Gear]

son of a vette said:

Garmin Dakota 20

Thanks, I'll take a look.

[a boardman]

review on the bryton dont seem to bad, and cheaper than garmin

http://www.midlandtrailquests.co.uk/bike-orienteer...

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/bryton-rider...

I have no experiance of them,

[Captain Beaky]

I have an Edge 800 with OS 1:50000 maps and I think it will do everything you require.

I usually either download GPX files or plot routes on the PC using Bike Route Toaster (or similar) and then transfer them to the Garmin. Battery life is about 15 hours and it is certainly weatherproof.

There was a thread on this topic not so long ago which might help.

[sparkyb999]

I also have the garmin edge 800, Got it in november and have used it right through the winter in some horrible conditions and never had an issue, actually the only time something has happened was in cwmcarn last weekend, where i think the vibration turned it off which was strange.

Apart from that its the best gadget out there, and for training its excellent!!

[Mr Gear]

Cheers guys

[DrMekon]

Another thumbs up for the talkytoaster maps.

I dont rely on routing, myself. If I am planning a long ride, I´ll use a variation of the waypoint naming method described in the link below, make a invisible route using mapsource, then overlay a track that Iĺl make on bikehike. Bit of a faff, but the belts and braces approach works for mem, and helps when my brain is fading as I approach the 200km mark.

http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~jwo/landserf/audax/