GPS owners - did it help you?

[woollypigs]

I love maps, spend hours on them, and since google maps with satellite view even more - planning routes or just for the fun of it.

With getting a good map and along with your laptop you can plot a good route and I'm pretty good at remembering where to go and where I have been. And a small detour is part of the fun and I'm scared of asking 'where the heck am I?' when really lost, and in need of getting where I'm going.

On our last tour we had a map + two mobile phones with GPS and google maps (not always within reach of O2*) but sometimes our map didn't show all the roads in Wales, sometimes my memory was a bit out. So out came the map, and sometimes our phones to check where to go. To cut down that faffing would a GPS help, and would we really need it ?

The new toy/gizmo aspect of it means I would love to have a GPS, but the question is: has it really helped you? Or said in another way, talk me into getting one as I'm on the fence at the moment.

*) O2 not always the best in Wales, vodafone much better coverage.

[Chris S]

The reason I got a GPS in the first place was because I got lost in the last 10km of a 200k audax. I realised there are two aspects to being lost - first, you have to work out where the hell you are, and then (and only then) can you work out where to go next.

At night, in trees, a map may well not be able to tell you where you are. If you don't know where you are, you don't know where to go. A GPS can at least tell you where you are, and most are then capable of telling you where to go [sic].

It was only after I got one, that I realised you could turn it into an electronic version of an audax routesheet that would light up and beep at you when a turn was approaching, even in the dark bitter watches of the night. This aspect may or may not be important to you, but it has saved me from many extra km - not to mention the discomfort of having to wear a headtorch all night.

My GPS crashed this weekend during a ride, and on reboot, it dumped everything I'd programmed in. From that point on, it was of limited help.

It has never been a hindrance; only a help - say 3 to 9 on a scale of 10.

[MSeries]

I've just started using one. Saves faffing about with maps in unfamilar places if I am following a pre-planned route. Saves time as I don't have to stop and find my place on the map. I like the track it produces so I can see where I've been on a map when I get back. I've not used auto routing, I don't think my maps are suitable for it.

I wanted one for the Audax DIY Validations using the track, not for navigation really. Like you I like maps and are capable of using them effectively. I'd doubt I'd use it on tour,  my tours are not planned in that detail, I tend to plan my precise route a day at a time when I am out there and I wouldn't carry a computer with me. I wouldn't want to be reliant on batteries either.

[rogerzilla]

After getting lost on the 2008 Dun Run and then lost in London later that year, I bought the GPS.  Normally my navigation-fu works well, but it depends on landmarks and the sun.  At night everything looks the same and maps are useless.

The only problems I've had when using the GPS is if I allow it to auto-route, because there are too many errors in its database.

[Manotea]

I bought a GPS when I found myself doing a lot of DIY 200km+ solo outings and eschewing main roads found prepping 'use once' route sheets time consuming and error-prone.

If/when my GPS dies I would/will replace it immediately.

[JohnP]

I've not yet used GPS while cycling as I can always stop and check a map.   I generally keep my Garmin switched on when driving - normally just in tracker mode - to record where I've been.  When holidaying, I set overnight hotels and/or must sees as favourites so that I can get there when I must.  Major holiday at end of May through Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Luxembourg and home.  Tracker will be on to grab each days route and grab profile data (especially in the Alps and Grosslockner) so I can produce a trip report for our MG club later.  Also has a 'where am I' feature that can capture the screen as a jpg with date/time.


BUT I just love poring over maps before I leave and get a feel for the holiday.

[piedwagtail91]

i've been using gps for about 7 years. i've got tracklogs mapping on the netbook to plan rides. i do a  lot of 100's and some are complicated so a  gps has helped a lot.
 a few years ago a clubmate decided to do a  few "drive out" rides to places that we'd never been.
we looked up all the places of intrest and such like then waypointed them and joined them up in tracklogs using every minor road we could find.
we might not have known where all of the time we were but we we never got lost, always following the line on the gps.. i only use paper maps to get an overview of an area i never use them to navigate. batterys last a  day but i always take spares. if the gps should break, well then it's time to follow signposts or more recently follow the mapping in the phone!
the thought of taking several paper maps and all (what i see) as the hassle of stopping to check them on a 200 mile ride instead of pre planning and using a gps would lead me to stay at home.

[numbnuts]

I’ve had one for the last 14 years, before I would get lost in a supermarket carpark, I was hopeless at reading maps and would tend to stick the main roads only with plenty on sign post, now I can go where I like i.e. “what’s down there”.
I also use it on my kayak and in the car, as they say “I would be lost without it now”
My GPS is not made anymore Emap, but the new ones are so much better.

[Polar Bear]

I bought a GPS12 on sale about ten years back.   It cost me £50.   The purpose was simply to help me locate myself when I got lost.   My sight makes it difficult for me to pick out lamdmarks even with binoculars, so, my hillwalking navigation in particular improved massively.   A friend of mine now uses this unit for the exact same purpose.

Not long after the Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx was released, I upgraded:  Not just for kit sake, but because I also had recently acquired Anquet Maps 1:50,000 and realised that I could create routes in Anquet and load them into the Garmin.   I haven't really used it to anything like it's full potential, but, I find increasingly that the auto routing with Munky Maps and simply being able to locate myself when lost add a level of assurance to my travels that I like.  I'm not the sort of person who likes to go 'off track' unless I am specifically planning to do so if you see what I mean.

This summer I plan to take some time and really work at understanding and using my Garmin better, and indeed making good use of it for the OSM project.   I still have recorded tracks from the Nethy Bridge area of the Highlands, and extensive tracks from Orkney which remain unpopulated on OSM, as well as lots of local fillers which need adding in too.   

The one thing I that I would value on my unit though would be a speaker and spoken routing instructions.   One cannot have everything!           

[andygates]

For me the big impact is that "lost" goes from bad to fun.  It means that the traditional navigation malfs are trivial: things like overshooting your turn and forgetting which clone-street in a strange town your friend is on.  They still happen but it really doesn't matter, so fewer navigation arguments and more giggles.

Oddly I didn't get the same feeling from a non-map GPS.  Those just put me on edge.

Maps still rule - I wouldn't contribute to OSM if I wasn't dead keen on maps.  I need a map and a "you are here" and then I'm as happy as a hiker in a Dartmoor whiteout.

Even my recent twatnav moment (where I drove up to a boat and my "where's the BRIDGE?" face made the ferryman cackle) wasn't the GPS's fault: (1) I'd seen that my destination was on the same road as my pickup, so I didn't bother planning the route (2) I turned off "avoid tolls" on my GPS (3) I kept ignoring it anyway, blithely thinking that the road was good.  You could argue that I suffered from my complacency and you'd be right.  But I wasn't lost and I had a fun boat trip. 

[Aidan]

I have used two for a number of years.

1 Tom Tom navigator (on various devices) for car navigation. Set end point and follow( with a little common sense thrown in).  Generally great , saved me a huge amount of time finding places I havent been before all over the country.  But just another tool

2 Garmin Etrex  used in conjunction with Tracklogs this is where I have map fun!  Routes pre planned on tracklogs ( really useful for Audax)  and loaded up.  Then followed.   Has the advantage of being MY route, I can plan in to see or go wherever I want to see or go to, so if I want to go to an icecream farm way of the direct route I just plan it in and follow   have used it for short tours and day rides.  Wouldnt be without it

[MattH]

I love maps, we have a huge stack of OS ones here and I wouldn't be without a decent one in the car.

However, I got a GPS for my second audax, and haven't done a long ride without one since. I like being able to know that I am on route on an Audax, or if I'm doing a long ride on my own I can just slap in  half a dozen waypoints and know I'll get there.  You do get some "interesting" roads to ride on though - recently coming home from a ride my GPS was sending me down a lane only a few miles from home that I'd never been on. After the lane turned to mud and a cyclocross epic (in the dark with 300k in my legs) it wasn't so much fun, but I now know where it goes 

We also used to have navigation problems when out on the MTBs; after some twisty fast tracks we'd get spat out onto a b road in the middle of nowhere, and have to spend ages with the 1:25000 figuring out where exactly we were. GPS sorts that out too - though in that case we use it just for the coords and use the map to look for interesting tracks to head for.

When I'm organised enough I also carry the relevant pages torn out of a motoring atlas for long rides - they take up hardly any space and can be useful in case of road closures or GPS failure.

[Greenbank]

Yes, for following pre-planned routes they're great, you don't even need one with mapping if you put in the groundwork beforehand and upload a route as a series of points with instructions. It does a great job of guiding you along.

I've now upgraded to a mapping GPS (but mainly because it can record the PowerTap data) and have both the Gamin maps and OSM on separate cards. I've never needed to do more than a trivial detour from my pre-programmed route.

A 'phone with GPS would be fine as long as it can output OS map refs for its current location (in case there's no signal and it's unable to download local maps).

It has definitely helped;riding with a GPS for navigation can be so much easier than a routesheet, map or list of villages/towns/roads but there are a few common mistakes that need to be avoided otherwise it can be next to useless!

[Ivo]

I wanted one for the Audax DIY Validations using the track, not for navigation really. Like you I like maps and are capable of using them effectively. I'd doubt I'd use it on tour,  my tours are not planned in that detail, I tend to plan my precise route a day at a time when I am out there and I wouldn't carry a computer with me. I wouldn't want to be reliant on batteries either.

I'll certainly use it on tour. I've done so allready. But on a tour with little of no planning. The GPS I then only use to know where I are and the mapping software to add the smallest roads so I can use slightly bigger maps. On tour I'd only use the autorouting function to get through towns without too much hassle. Or leave them in the right direction (just search for the hamlet at the right exit of town and let the GPS lead you towards it).
I wouldn't want to miss it.

[Greenbank]

You do get some "interesting" roads to ride on though - recently coming home from a ride my GPS was sending me down a lane only a few miles from home that I'd never been on. After the lane turned to mud and a cyclocross epic (in the dark with 300k in my legs) it wasn't so much fun, but I now know where it goes 

Can still happen with maps. On my way down to Cornwall I went down this road between Crondall and Well in Hants.

A minor road with passing places, and so I plotted my route to use it (it's a nice direct way between the two places).

No, it was a track at best, more likely a stream with a rocky bed outside summer.

This was the view of the far end of it once it had flattened out and become a normal dirt track.

[MattH]

I know that bit well (no pun intended) - it's on one of my scenic routes home. I always take the b-road, as the only time I've done that track was on foot with a cub pack and I wouldn't like to ride it on anything other than a MTB.

But with decent maps at least you'll have a clue that it is possibly going to be an interesting road, with a line on a GPS display you have no clue.

[Manotea]

You'll be surprised how many bridleways are indistinguishable from metalled roads on Ye Olde Ordnance Survey Mappe....

[mattc]

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)

As for GB's example ... well just look at the OS Map there - it's screaming farm track, whatever the key says. Maybe I'm just a pessimist!

[Manotea]

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...

[Kim]

I had an eTrex before I got back into cycling.  A handlebar mount for it was a no-brainer.  It didn't have any mapping capability, so I mostly used it to record tracklogs so I could see where I'd been and how fast.  Plotting routes was more effective with a highlighter pen on a paper map, though it was sometimes useful to be able to re-trace the track.

Two upgrades later, and I now have a Vista HCX, with mapping and routing capability.  With a bit of forward planning, it acts as a light-up waterproof routesheet that will re-write itself if I deviate from the route, and never needs to be turned over.  When I'm too tired, fed up or in a hurry to care, it'll guide me to the nearest railway station.  When I'm doing random errands about town, I can use it as a numpty sat-nav.  I never get properly 'lost'.

I still prefer a paper map for getting an overall view of a route, but having a mapping GPS means I can carry a smaller scale map.

I find having an elevation display (and on the Vista it's reasonably accurate) strangely comforting.  You can watch yourself making quantitative progress on the climbs, and see how much elevation you have 'banked'.  It's that little psychological boost / distraction that's there when you need it.

[woollypigs]

Thank you, I think you all have convinced me now I just need to convince the bank Peli and figure out which model to go for.

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.

[MSeries]

I have got my autorouting to work today so I'll be using my GPS more

[GruB]

It helped me gain peace of mind when I am riding into unfamiliar territory.  This includes any audax event or even riding to meet people at a place knew to me.  I have a real 'need' to know where I am so the GPS has been great for that too.

I am more than satisfied with my purchase.

[Jaded]

It stops me faffing with maps. Up to 1 hour per 12 hours!

[andrew_s]

As for GB's example ... well just look at the OS Map there - it's screaming farm track, whatever the key says. Maybe I'm just a pessimist!

It's nothing to do with passing places.
The red dots mean there's public access. It would have been a proper road at one time but will no longer be maintained except by the farmer.