Author Topic: GPS owners - did it help you?  (Read 6399 times)

Re: GPS owners - did it help you?
« Reply #25 on: 04 May, 2010, 09:54:05 am »
I love my GPS  ;D ;D ;D It has made exploring so much more fun - even in the local area. And yes I can read a map but it is such a faff!

I also love maps - sat at home planning a trip but for following a route the GPS is great.

My current GPS is an Oregon 450 - and this is the best unit I've had.

frankly frankie

  • I kid you not
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Re: GPS owners - did it help you?
« Reply #26 on: 04 May, 2010, 03:14:58 pm »
The Garmin Dacota 20 looks pretty good and from what I understand and "think" I/we need it would do it too a tee and will be "future" proof too.

Have you read the review thread for that model?
when you're dead you're done, so let the good times roll

woollypigs

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Re: GPS owners - did it help you?
« Reply #27 on: 04 May, 2010, 03:21:16 pm »
Yes and that is why I think it will do the job for us.
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vistaed

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Re: GPS owners - did it help you?
« Reply #28 on: 04 May, 2010, 03:48:22 pm »
Yes and that is why I think it will do the job for us.

So have I and I think it's just a matter of time until one finds it's way to me in the post. I'm looking forward to taking less A roads on DIY rides and actually being able to follow an Audax route in the dark.
after hardship comes ease -
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frankly frankie

  • I kid you not
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Re: GPS owners - did it help you?
« Reply #29 on: 04 May, 2010, 05:34:36 pm »
Oh - well this isn't the best thread for this but let me just say that if anyone out there has a Legend or Vista HCX, or even a very good condition Vista Cx, and thinks they might prefer a Dakota 20 - PM me because I will happily do a straight swap gaah! no more!
[/emerges from heap of emails].
when you're dead you're done, so let the good times roll

Panoramix

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Re: GPS owners - did it help you?
« Reply #30 on: 04 May, 2010, 05:49:58 pm »
Oh - well this isn't the best thread for this but let me just say that if anyone out there has a Legend or Vista HCX, or even a very good condition Vista Cx, and thinks they might prefer a Dakota 20 - PM me because I will happily do a straight swap.

You have PM
Chief cat entertainer.

Re: GPS owners - did it help you?
« Reply #31 on: 05 May, 2010, 08:13:44 pm »
Oh - well this isn't the best thread for this but let me just say that if anyone out there has a Legend or Vista HCX, or even a very good condition Vista Cx, and thinks they might prefer a Dakota 20 - PM me because I will happily do a straight swap.
Oh dear. Does this mean that our sterling gadget tester has become so disenchanted with the Dakota that it's abandon ship? And what precisely would the reason(s) for this be? We should be told!!

Seriously though, isn't it bl**y annoying that manufacturers so often seem to take two steps back as well as three forward when they "improve" things!

Re: GPS owners - did it help you?
« Reply #32 on: 05 May, 2010, 08:19:34 pm »
Seriously though, isn't it bl**y annoying that manufacturers so often seem to take two steps back as well as three forward when they "improve" things!

Garmin Forerunner 405/410XT running GPS.

Several steps back from the Forerunner 305.

I want buttons not some shitty bezel control magic that stops working in anything more than 10% ambient humidity. Gah! Fuckers!
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

Re: GPS owners - did it help you?
« Reply #33 on: 05 May, 2010, 10:53:30 pm »
Well I really like the Oregon - much better in my opinion than any of the previous GPS I have used but we all seem to use them differently! The touch screen is really fast and intuitive.

frankly frankie

  • I kid you not
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Re: GPS owners - did it help you?
« Reply #34 on: 05 May, 2010, 11:22:43 pm »
With the touch buttons, I expect the larger screen of the Oregon really makes a difference.  The interface was designed for that screen, and later simply scaled down with no other modifications, for the smaller Dakota.
when you're dead you're done, so let the good times roll

Wowbagger

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Re: GPS owners - did it help you?
« Reply #35 on: 06 May, 2010, 08:45:35 am »
I put tracks down on mine (Vista HCX) and follow them, although occasionally I trust it to find a route.

The other day, in Wales, it excelled itself. We were coming to the end of a long and very hilly ride and one of our number was suffering: she had a nasty cold and had struggled on every climb on the return route.

On a whim I told the Garmin to find our B & B village and it spotted a road that I had overlooked. At the best of times I find it quite hard to distinguish between yellow & white on the OS landranger series but this particular road also doubled up as the National Park boundary - which is marked in yellow. The Garmin found this road an it saved us a couple of miles' cycling and a hundred or so feet of climbing - and that was using OSM!

So, Woolly, get a GPS! They are great fun and definitely reduce map faffage when out and about. I do like to have a paper map as well, because they are not foolproof and being a machine it will break one day.
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scottlington

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Re: GPS owners - did it help you?
« Reply #36 on: 06 May, 2010, 08:52:12 am »
Remember as well that part of the fun of plotting the route for the GPS1 is that you get to trace the route out on a map or on Google maps. From that you get a really good sense of the route as it sits on the landscape. I would never be without mine and it's especially vaulable on night stretches or when you are very tired.

1 If you use 1 waypoint per routesheet instructions and direct routing as I and others on these parts do.

The Mechanic

Re: GPS owners - did it help you?
« Reply #37 on: 06 May, 2010, 09:54:21 am »
I got a Etrx Vista HCX a couple of years ago because I kept getting lost on audaxes.  I love it.  I have the Mapsource City Navigator maps.  Not the best but does the job for audaxes.  The only problem I have found is that, when using follow road and auto routing, the route that appears on the garmin is not always the same as that on the PC.  I think this must be something to do with the way the two handle routing.  It has meant that I have ended up being led along main roads instead of back road occasionally.  I can usually sort this out by putting in additional waypoints.

Re: GPS owners - did it help you?
« Reply #38 on: 06 May, 2010, 11:06:03 am »
I set the track to show on the map and the route to navigate over the top - that way i get full navigation but can double check the route is following the track as well. Works for me.

Re: GPS owners - did it help you?
« Reply #39 on: 06 May, 2010, 12:47:57 pm »
I got a Etrx Vista HCX a couple of years ago because I kept getting lost on audaxes.  I love it.  I have the Mapsource City Navigator maps.  Not the best but does the job for audaxes.  The only problem I have found is that, when using follow road and auto routing, the route that appears on the garmin is not always the same as that on the PC.  I think this must be something to do with the way the two handle routing.  It has meant that I have ended up being led along main roads instead of back road occasionally.  I can usually sort this out by putting in additional waypoints.

It can be more interesting that that; I went out on a ride with a friend from work who had a different model Garmin to mine, but we both had the same maps and the exact same .gpx route file.
The units disagreed several times as to which route to take (always along the lines of one taking us one way around a block whilst the other took the other way).

Re: GPS owners - did it help you?
« Reply #40 on: 06 May, 2010, 03:44:53 pm »
You'll be surprised how many bridleways are indistinguishable from metalled roads on Ye Olde Ordnance Survey Mappe....
May I RESPECTFULLY point out to The Honourable Organiser that Walbury Hill quite cleary has a bridleway* over the top (check it on BikeHike), whatever your GPS said!

(actually I think it's a B.O.A.T., but I would always expect the surface to be the same)

I had no particular example in mind, sniff, tho I still have flashbacks regarding traversing the 'road' from Mapledurham through to Hardwicke with the progenitor of the Willy Warmer on our first routecheck. As I recall my companion spent the next 20 minutes picking the mud off his £3k bike with a twig...
;D It's white on the OS maps, with overlaid red dashes . . . .  But I've done it on a tourer, many times. All of it's OK except after heavy rain, when the first bit is a little mucky.
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

mattc

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Re: GPS owners - did it help you?
« Reply #41 on: 07 May, 2010, 12:22:15 pm »
You'll be surprised how many bridleways are indistinguishable from metalled roads on Ye Olde Ordnance Survey Mappe....
May I RESPECTFULLY point out to The Honourable Organiser that Walbury Hill quite cleary has a bridleway* over the top (check it on BikeHike), whatever your GPS said!

(actually I think it's a B.O.A.T., but I would always expect the surface to be the same)

I had no particular example in mind, sniff, tho I still have flashbacks regarding traversing the 'road' from Mapledurham through to Hardwicke with the progenitor of the Willy Warmer on our first routecheck. As I recall my companion spent the next 20 minutes picking the mud off his £3k bike with a twig...
;D It's white on the OS maps, with overlaid red dashes . . . .  But I've done it on a tourer, many times. All of it's OK except after heavy rain, when the first bit is a little mucky.

The Whitchurch-Mapledurham track? That's very nice WHEN DRY! (CTC use it).

As for Walbury Hill .. there are two points here Bledlow:
- It's clearly not a proper road on the OS, yet the GPSes said it was.
- I can believe your experience - it looked pretty navigable when we were there (dry day), probably better than the tarmac option; drop-followedby-chevron-climb!


I hope I'm not missing something here - surely if the OS has put Red Dashes on a track/road, you know it's not a proper road, don't you? You might be lucky, and find enough tarmac to use, but that's all you could ask for, I think.
Has never ridden RAAM
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Re: GPS owners - did it help you?
« Reply #42 on: 07 May, 2010, 02:40:48 pm »
My Garmin eTrex Vista HCx and Mapsource City Navigator have transformed my cycling.

I no longer have to rely on maps which saves stopping to navigate.  Whilst the GPS and Mapsource is not infallible it is a more accurate than me with a map.

If someone else is doing the navigation I can use my GPS to track where we have gone so I can replicate the route on another ride.

PS: I use my Vista on auto routing mode.  Providing you sprinkle enough waypoints around it works very well 99% of the time.