I'd be interested to hear other people's thoughts and experiences on Sat Navs designed specifically for cyclists. I currently use the Mio Cyclo and have found it invaluable. (Also can work as a car Sat Nav - to get you to the start of your route). The one I have is the Cyclo 300, which I think Mio have discontinued but can still be purchased new if you look around. Its been replaced by the Cyclo 305, which is similar to the 300 but with, I think, a slightly bigger screen. (And, no, I'm not working on commission!)
Sat Nav for cycling
- Thread starter Wingreen
- Start date
Not technically a Sat nav but a navigational aid.
I use a Satmap Active 12 with 1:50k Full GB O/S map loaded.
Almost exclusively used off road and is a brilliant bit of kit that finds even the smallest trail.
Pre planned GPX routes can be created on a Mac or PC and loaded in as required.
Fully charged it has never gone flat on any full days ride. Takes all weather and mud when using additional rubber casing intended for very heavy use.
Two downsides as I see it.
£375 cost without bar mount and additional case.
Screen not brilliant in bright direct sunlight.
When in the middle of nowhere its comforting to know where I am.
I use a Satmap Active 12 with 1:50k Full GB O/S map loaded.
Almost exclusively used off road and is a brilliant bit of kit that finds even the smallest trail.
Pre planned GPX routes can be created on a Mac or PC and loaded in as required.
Fully charged it has never gone flat on any full days ride. Takes all weather and mud when using additional rubber casing intended for very heavy use.
Two downsides as I see it.
£375 cost without bar mount and additional case.
Screen not brilliant in bright direct sunlight.
When in the middle of nowhere its comforting to know where I am.
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D
Deleted member 4366
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Rather than waste your money on a bike GPS, get a GPS enabled smart phone and use it. The GPSs in them now are as good as any other. With a Smartphone, you can get any of the other cycling apps to log your rides, plan your routes, do your maintenance, etc. You can also listen to the cricket while you're riding. What more do you want.
Checkout the various GPS comparisons. The free Google navigation for smartphones always beats the Garmins, etc. I think they also did a comparison on The Gadget Show and Google won.
Checkout the various GPS comparisons. The free Google navigation for smartphones always beats the Garmins, etc. I think they also did a comparison on The Gadget Show and Google won.
You MUST try the apps cyclestreets and Bike Hub -both dedicated bike satnavs. you put one earbud in your left ear and the phone in your pocket and.it.sends you on your choice of route style,quietest,quickest, it's amazing. Both apps buggy, BH less so.
If anyone knows of better ones please say.
If anyone knows of better ones please say.
Some interesting ideas here.
I'm sure there are lots of options (and more being developed as we speak). Excuse my ignorance (I'm no Techy!) but wouldn't something on a smartphone potentially be "chargeable" (Don't laugh if I've completely lost the plot - I only have a basic mobile phone!).
The Mio Clio can be bought for under £150 (with no running costs) so it wont break the bank and it has a very interesting feature - press a button, tell it how many miles you want to travel, and it will work out three different circular routes of that distance, each of which will bring you back to wherever you are at the time.
I'm sure there are lots of options (and more being developed as we speak). Excuse my ignorance (I'm no Techy!) but wouldn't something on a smartphone potentially be "chargeable" (Don't laugh if I've completely lost the plot - I only have a basic mobile phone!).
The Mio Clio can be bought for under £150 (with no running costs) so it wont break the bank and it has a very interesting feature - press a button, tell it how many miles you want to travel, and it will work out three different circular routes of that distance, each of which will bring you back to wherever you are at the time.
D
Deleted member 4366
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You can get an octocore smartphone with all the latest sensors and a 13 megapixel camera for under a hundred quid. You can download all the maps when you're at home using your wifi. The satnav is free. Alternatively, if you want to pay £10 a month for a Giffgaff SIM, you can make a good amount of calls and you get enough data to downloads the maps as you go and do all your forum activities and check your emails wherever you are. Time to get a proper smartphone. I can't understand why anyody wouldn't have one these days. They can do just about anything. My Samsung Galaxy even has a heart rate monitor.
Here's what I do with my phone besides phone calls:
Fully featured Satnav
13 mp camera with image stabilisation, panarama and face recognition.
All the maps in the world.
Fully featured ships navigation system with detailed marine charts of the everywhere I'm likely to go.
Information on all the tides throughout the world.
Fully featured ships almanack.
Email
Internet
Remote control for my TV with more features than the one that comes with the TV
Access to the forum
Ebay stuff including sniper software.
TV program guide
Watch TV hundreds of channels throughout the world
Fully featured office software Excel, Powepoint, etc
Translation
Online banking, Paypal and share accounts. Buy and sell shares anywhere in the world instantly.
Complete home cctv monitoring and alarms
Weather
Music
Radio
Formula 1 timing information
Buy and read books
Meter readings
Movies
News
Planner
Recorder
Ebike battery usage monitor
Health and fitness planning and recording including activity and heart rate monitoring
Cycle maintenance guide
Cycle route planning and recording
Weather information including satellite picturs and forecasts.
Bright flashlight
Calculator
Alarm clock
Notes
Clinometer to see how steep hills are.
Compass
Car navigation
Bike navigation
Tell me where friends are
Call taxis and check where they are so that I know when they're coming.
It can do a lot more than that. There's apps for just about everything. All that costs me £6 a month for 1gb of data and calls. Peanuts!
Here's what I do with my phone besides phone calls:
Fully featured Satnav
13 mp camera with image stabilisation, panarama and face recognition.
All the maps in the world.
Fully featured ships navigation system with detailed marine charts of the everywhere I'm likely to go.
Information on all the tides throughout the world.
Fully featured ships almanack.
Internet
Remote control for my TV with more features than the one that comes with the TV
Access to the forum
Ebay stuff including sniper software.
TV program guide
Watch TV hundreds of channels throughout the world
Fully featured office software Excel, Powepoint, etc
Translation
Online banking, Paypal and share accounts. Buy and sell shares anywhere in the world instantly.
Complete home cctv monitoring and alarms
Weather
Music
Radio
Formula 1 timing information
Buy and read books
Meter readings
Movies
News
Planner
Recorder
Ebike battery usage monitor
Health and fitness planning and recording including activity and heart rate monitoring
Cycle maintenance guide
Cycle route planning and recording
Weather information including satellite picturs and forecasts.
Bright flashlight
Calculator
Alarm clock
Notes
Clinometer to see how steep hills are.
Compass
Car navigation
Bike navigation
Tell me where friends are
Call taxis and check where they are so that I know when they're coming.
It can do a lot more than that. There's apps for just about everything. All that costs me £6 a month for 1gb of data and calls. Peanuts!
Dave, I agree that you can do much the same and a lot more on a modern phone.
I've tried it but I found that after 4,5 hours the battery would flatten. The touch screen was a pain with wet or muddy hands.
My Satmap gives all day power with the display on dim setting and uses waterproof buttons instead of touch screen.
I certainly don't feel that I have wasted my money buy going down this route.
If you were to use a phone on the road in the dry it may be useful for a morning.
D
Deleted member 4366
Guest
The older iPhones used to have fairly short battery life, but modern phones like the Samsung Galaxy can run the GPS software all day.
If that's not enough, many ebike batteries these days have a usb socket, which can power your phone for about a year. If you're unlucky enough not to have a usb socket, you can get a pocket version that will power it for a month. They come in every size from a few grammes to larger ones like this:
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=221663258999&alt=web
If that's not enough, many ebike batteries these days have a usb socket, which can power your phone for about a year. If you're unlucky enough not to have a usb socket, you can get a pocket version that will power it for a month. They come in every size from a few grammes to larger ones like this:
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=221663258999&alt=web
My Sony Xperia z1 compact is waterproof to 1.5 metres or so and cost 170 new. Its processor is so powerful it can run several satnav apps simultaneously without breaking a sweat. It can be plugged into the bottle battery,and put under a protective cover (eg the waterproof cycle mobile holders) if you're worried about mud etc. As a bonus it has a 20mp camera with automatic image stabilisation so nothing is ever blurry -one of the best mobile cameras in the world. The downside is it's so good it will probably greatly increase your time on the internet.
But making and receiving phone calls not listed?! (OK, OK - those would be covered by "it can do a lot more than that", I know). Looks like I will have to explore a bit more of modern technology!
When I bought my Mio 305 I new it was possible to have a lot of what it does on a smart phone.
But I don't want a mobile phone, I refuse to ring mobile phones, if I were a dictator I would have them banned.
People are addicted to the dam things, can't manage without them. There're worse than little kids still having a dummy in there mouth covered in snot.
We managed quite well without and didn't get fat. I blame them for all this obesity... and the headaches.
But I don't want a mobile phone, I refuse to ring mobile phones, if I were a dictator I would have them banned.
People are addicted to the dam things, can't manage without them. There're worse than little kids still having a dummy in there mouth covered in snot.
We managed quite well without and didn't get fat. I blame them for all this obesity... and the headaches.
Much sympathy with that view.
There is an argument to be made that it's worth *paying* to be free of these addictive things. The only serious downsides I can think of are missing out on last minute get-togethers,getting lost, and losing one's companions. Although the infrequency of all that is probably dramatically outweighed by the upsides.
Trying to log onto a Wickes web page I found I was prevented because I don't have a mobile number.
Not the first to this, I found if I put 0711 111 1111 I can get it to go.
So if that is a genuine number, no apologies. Serves you right for having one.
Not the first to this, I found if I put 0711 111 1111 I can get it to go.
So if that is a genuine number, no apologies. Serves you right for having one.
I have a Garmin Edge 1000 which I use mainly on my unpowered bike, but also on the E-bike. Great advantages I see over the Phone is that it is
a) Preloaded with maps and needs no downloads
b) Waterproof
c) Much better battery life than my Iphone 6 when running Satnav.
Note that a) is not just a matter of data charges but also signal availability. I have been caught out in remote areas with nono signal and no preloaded maps when using the smartphone.
I know others have explained ways around all of these, but to my mind its one package which solves ( mostly) the various problems - it is expensive though.
Chris
a) Preloaded with maps and needs no downloads
b) Waterproof
c) Much better battery life than my Iphone 6 when running Satnav.
Note that a) is not just a matter of data charges but also signal availability. I have been caught out in remote areas with nono signal and no preloaded maps when using the smartphone.
I know others have explained ways around all of these, but to my mind its one package which solves ( mostly) the various problems - it is expensive though.
Chris
Aha but can a dedicated satnav give you a selection of routes of varying quietness or rapidity including bike-only paths? I believe some apps permit downloading of data (the electronic bike path maps are public data).
D
Deleted member 4366
Guest
That's really a thing of the past. I've never had that with a modern phone. A phone, of course, has the advantage that if they switch off the satellite gps transmissions, which has happened sometimes, it will still get a close position by triangulating phone masts and wifi transmitters. It can often get your position down to 20 meters or less without gps.
Some of the latest phones, like my Galaxy S5, are waterproof. It has a rating of IP67, which means that it can be submerged in water up to a meter deep for 30 minutes.
As I said before, you can preload your phone with all the maps the same as a dedicated GPS. You can use cycle maps, which show additional cycle routes that might not be shown on a dedicated GPS, or you can use OS maps, or the normal Google maps. There's no limit.
There's even military grade smartphones if ruggeness is important for you:
http://www.tuffphones.co.uk/waterproof-mobile-phones/cat-s50.html
I'm with you on this one Chris. I plan a route (I use RouteYou) then download it onto my Mio Cyclo. The Mio is then fixed to handlebars and, using (free) GPS the Mio shows me where I am and flags up next turn etc etc. If I wander off the route (following my nose as it were) it''ll take me back to the nearest point of the original route, if I want it to. Of course, it does other things too. I think its a case of "each to his own". If it works for you, why change. If it doesn't, there are lots of options flagged up in this thread that can be explored.
D
Deleted member 4366
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I don't know whether your implication is that the GPS on a smartphone is not free. If that's what you're implying, you're under a misaprehension. GPS on smartphones is completely free, as are the maps and the navigation apps.
Apologies - I wasn't implying that GPS on a smartphone wasn't free - I had no idea whether it was, or it wasn't. I just wanted to put in "(free)" re the Mio in case there was any confusion with that approach/device. Anyway, thanks for the info re the GPS being free on smartphones. That will certainly encourage me to explore the other options.