OS Maps are good, who knew?

[mrcharly-YHT]

The lovely contour lines and ability to quickly tell whether a road is going up, down and how steep wins for me. OS all the way.

Anything else sucks balls.

[frankly frankie]

Mapping © OSM
Contours © NASA
Magnificent screen display © Garmin

[Kim]

Mapping © OSM
Contours © NASA
Magnificent screen display © Garmin

+1 for that (I'm actually still using City Navigator, which is lower-clutter than OSM, but starting to show its age).  It's ideal for road cycling - you can see what's coming hill-wise round the next corner.

Not a patch on an OS map when you venture off-road though.

[Wowbagger]

I wish that OS would bring out a cyclists' range at 1:75000. I reckon they could do that with minimal changes ust by reducing the existing data on the 1:50000 series. Not much would be lost.

I have a subscription with OS for their maps, but when you really need some help you often don't have enough of a phone signal to get any. Great when sitting at home with an A4 sized Ipad though.

[Kim]

I have a subscription with OS for their maps, but when you really need some help you often don't have enough of a phone signal to get any. Great when sitting at home with an A4 sized Ipad though.

Yeah, online mapping's a waste of time outside of cities (when an OS map isn't the best tool for the job anyway).  It needs to be stored locally on the device, as per Viewranger, Memory Map, etc.

[Cudzoziemiec]

1:75000 would be a decent scale, IMO 1:100000 would be even better. But clutter, or its absence, is everything. Some of the OS Tour maps (I think that's the name) are at 1:100000 and they're okay but tend to have to a bit too many "sites of interest" marked for cycling use (the various blue icons). Also, they don't have the contours. Other maps in that range are at smaller scales and not quite so good. Goldeneye make maps at 1:100000 and they're pretty good but only for certain areas – and even they have clutter in the form of route recommendations. The Sustrans maps at similar scale are pretty useless.

[Ham]

OS used to do a 1:100,000 map, called "Tour Travel Map" which were absolutely perfect for cycling.1cm to 1Km (doh!) every road was on them, all the extraneous detail was stripped, they were extremely clear and covered a useful amount of territory and provided town maps, too. I still have the two I bought for DunRun back in .... (looks for date)....2006/7?

ETA - obv, no contours, which is the only major drawback.

EATA - apparently they still make a tour map, but it is a mixed scale  1:175k/100k and only for selected areas, not the whole country. Probably most use for motoring.

[bludger]

I have a subscription with OS for their maps, but when you really need some help you often don't have enough of a phone signal to get any. Great when sitting at home with an A4 sized Ipad though.

Yeah, online mapping's a waste of time outside of cities (when an OS map isn't the best tool for the job anyway).  It needs to be stored locally on the device, as per Viewranger, Memory Map, etc.

The OSMaps app lets you do that! On android at least.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Mapping © OSM
Contours © NASA
Magnificent screen display © Garmin

That's still not a lot of use when you want to check the routing twenty, forty miles ahead though. Dead simple on a paper map.

[Ian H]

I use the Garmin almost exclusively for following pre-plotted routes and recording.  All planning is done at home using OS, Google and OSM (& cycling derivatives).

Thus the Garmin needs only basic mapping info, in fact the less-cluttered the better. 

For walking I'll take an OS 1:25000 paper map.

[Phil W]

I'm same as Ian when it comes to pre planned routes.  Agree about 1:100,000 perfect scale for touring if on a more liberal excursion.  I don't have contours on my Garmin naps, it's had enough seeing the roads in bright sunshine.  Do wish there was a GPS with e-ink levels of readability.

[perpetual dan]

For local rides I've got the 2 relevant OS 50k sheets, and a custom for the overlap. Rides up the join were a whole new experience.

Further afield I'll often use Sustrans for the simpler view and more km to the refold. But also have copies of the bits of OS that are relevant for going off tarmac or finding particular places i want to see.

I used to have a satmap with OS maps, that was pretty good. But I've come to enjoy the barbag sized view and have better things to spend my money on than replacing it (water got in on Exmoor, which wasn't ideal).

Sent from my LG-H850 using Tapatalk

[Wowbagger]

I use the Garmin almost exclusively for following pre-plotted routes and recording.  All planning is done at home using OS, Google and OSM (& cycling derivatives).

Thus the Garmin needs only basic mapping info, in fact the less-cluttered the better. 

For walking I'll take an OS 1:25000 paper map.

That's what I do. I don't let the Garmin on my handlebars tell me where to go. I just follow a pre-plotted breadcrumb trail. And agreed about 1:25000 for walking. Mind you, some of those are a right PITA when they are printed double-sided.