Ideal bike satnav - what should it have?

[Bledlow]

What, within the constraints of current technology* & remembering that it has to be possible to sell it at a profit & at a price that large numbers of cyclists will be willing to pay, should your perfect GPS unit be able to do? What facilities should it have? Mount? Etc.

I'd vote for the option of using bike-friendly external power sources, so it doesn't have to have huge internal batteries. It could have internal batteries adequate for modest day rides, & to keep it going while the external power source is unplugged, e.g. for changing.

*I'd rather we didn't have requests for infinite battery life, impermeable unobtanium case, etc.

[Kim]

Sensible stuff like batteries, waterproofing, a minimum of structural elastic bands and glove-friendly user interfaces go without saying.

I'll suggest the ability to share data in something approximating realtime over a cellular network.  Would be awesome for coordinating group rides, if done right.

[PloddinPedro]

Almost a “how long is a piece of string” question this one and I expect there are several different “perfect bike GPS unit” specifications depending on the particular use the unit is to be put to.

The Edge 705/800 style comes pretty close to meeting all the requirements of the “training/fitness” rider out for a few hours of masochism and who isn’t too worried about navigating on-the-fly.

The tourer/long Audax rider needs something with much longer duration, either from swappable power cells or from external power from say, a dynamo.

The “racer” wants a small elegant “sexy looking” device that won’t detract from the image, while the tourer/Audaxer is likely to prefer something with a larger screen to aid readability on the move.

These styles of use are diametrically opposite, so it seems to me that you have to “pay your money and take your choice” but the one aspect of both styles of unit that I’d like to see improved is the ability for the user to customise the unit exactly how he/she wants it. I’ve used a number of different units over the years and each time I splash out on a new one it seems to offer some nice new features but frustratingly, loses some valued aspect of the model it replaces. Too complex to list here but this would be avoided if the customisation options list is expanded each time rather than being “dumbed down”

Mind you, that would make Garmin’s infamous inadequacies in the Owner’s Manual writing department even worse!

[fuaran]

Options for connecting to lots of sensors, and logging data from them. So at least heart rate and cadence, and probably speed for when GPS signal is poor. Plus power would be interesting, though I know any power meters are very expensive.
Also weather related sensors - I notice Garmin recently released a temperature sensor. Other things like wind, rain, sunlight would be nice, though probably impractical to measure on a bicycle.

[teethgrinder]

Apart from being weatherproof, reliable and uses batteries which are easily obtained anywhere as my etrex does.

Be more like a computer where add ons can be attached, such as heart rate monitors and power monitors etc, internet, have a link with other GPSs so that you can track other GPSs on yours and a link with a live weather satelite, so you can see the weather up the road. It'd be handy if it talked sometimes too, to tell me which way instead of me having to look down at the screen, especially in busy towns when I like to be on the lookout for hazards.

As it is, I think that mobile phones will become personal pocket computers (they allready are) and that a GPS will be an extension of that via some software or something.

[Wowbagger]

A death ray for the automatic vaporising of any car / driver combination that executes a close pass.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Option to use downloaded maps

water/weather-resistant

should withstand being dropped, whether from a hand or when attached to bike

Memory card for expansion/easy loading of routes

[teethgrinder]

Having a "Go to" facility which sends you a direct route which can be altered easily, instead of some of the crazy stuff that my Garmin has come out with.
My favourite example was when I was in Guilford and asked it to "Go to" Milton Keynes. It sent me via Winchester! Winchester is 100 miles from my home, Guilford is only 80.

[Feanor]

Make sure the routing options are set for 'Distance' not 'Time'.

Otherwise, it may decide to take you a long way round if it thinks the roads are faster.
That may be a sensible default in a car, but not usually on a bike.

[dasmoth]

Regarding dedicated devices, I reckon Garmin are already pretty close.  I love my Oregon, running on 2xAA batteries seems like a good setup for both day-rides and touring/audaxing, although it clearly does compromise the shape a little bit.  Main thing I'd change given the chance is the screen technology.  What's currently best for daylight visibility without drawing lots of juice¹.  AMOLED, maybe?

That said, I reckon someone will crack the "decent weatherproof smartphone" issue sooner rather than later, and this will stomp all the dedicated devices flat pretty quickly except for really specialist applications.  I hope so, anyway.  (I sort-of wonder if Garmin might make a pre-emptive strike in this area -- the Montana is already pretty clearly smartphone-inspired).

¹ snarky comments about old-fashioned reflective mono LCDs not welcome, this is the Century of the Fruitbat now...

[Manotea]

Head-up display with real world overlay and natural language interface, built in phone, camera, apps...

I'm sure Google is working on it, a commodity gadget within, say, five years.

[Kim]

Main thing I'd change given the chance is the screen technology.  What's currently best for daylight visibility without drawing lots of juice¹.  AMOLED, maybe?

E-ink?

I appreciate that nobody's going to make one that isn't capable of doing colour, and I'm not sure whether that technology's quite there yet, but as someone whose vision is based on contrast, I reckon an OS map looks absolutely stunning on a Kindle.

Obviously it would need some sort of lighting, and the software optimised for a screen with a slow redraw rate (move the cursor, only scroll the map in chunks at the edges sort of thing), but I reckon that would be worth it for the awesome daylight visibility.  Presumably the power consumption would be fairly low, too.

Certainly better than reflective LCD.

(Incidentally, the mono ones were overrated: eTrex C series has just as much contrast in daylight as the mono eTrex - it's just that the colours are a bit murky.)

[Bledlow]

I reckon the decent weatherproof smartphone ain't going to crack it because of battery life. The manufacturers don't see a market for having the screen on long enough for an audax.

Since most of my bike rides are optimised for nice roads (or tracks) to ride on, or following an externally dictated route (e.g. audax), & I greatly prefer plotting them on a big screen, the routing software in the unit isn't very important IMO.

[Jaded]

A processor that doesn't make you wonder if you are on a 600 rather than a 200. The 705 is slow.

Better screen options - I want to be able to read the thing without having to put glasses on at night.

Voice directions.

[Andrij]

I'm pretty happy with my etrex30 so far, but I'd like some future device to display/record temperature as well as function as a bike computer.  Heart rate and such would be nice, too (if I ever get around to recording such).

[rogerzilla]

OS maps are pretty important - the Garmin maps on the eTrex series are hideous.    If they're going to build in autorouting then the map must be accurate in terms of one-way streets, no through roads etc (the City Navigator NT maps I have are bad).

Readability in sunlight and waterproofing, too.

Finally, a "choose flattest route" algorithm would be very useful.  You could allow it to go up to 30% further if it could reduce climbing by 50%, for example.  (I hear the sound of an Apple lawyer patenting this right now).

[Feanor]

A processor that doesn't make you wonder if you are on a 600 rather than a 200. The 705 is slow.

The 800 is slow, too.

As I approach a junction, I glance down to see what it has to say.
It switches into a detailed zoomed-in map view a couple of hundred metres befor each navigation point.
Only it can sometimes take forever to re-draw the screen.
I'm approaching the roundabout / junction willing the thing to get a bloody move on.
Sometimes I reach the junction before it's finished rendering the screen, which I find a bit annoying.

So I've taken to manually switching to map-mode in advance of the junction, so I can see the projected route ahead, before it blanks out for what seems like forever zooming in.

[L CC]

I reckon the decent weatherproof smartphone ain't going to crack it because of battery life. The manufacturers don't see a market for having the screen on long enough

Nope. Neither do garmin though...
I've used my phone to track DIY by GPS before now. Needs an external battery, just as my etrex does, if I'm going a long way.
Unlike the etrex, I always have my phone with me.

My ideal cycling GPS would need to have a much better system for drawing routes. Tracks are ok, but drawing a route takes ages and is not easy, straightforward, or intuitive.

[frankly frankie]

I’ve used a number of different units over the years and each time I splash out on a new one it seems to offer some nice new features but frustratingly, loses some valued aspect of the model it replaces.

Looking at the somewhat similar digital camera market shows that no manufacturer has any incentive, ever, to produce the 'ideal' device.

[PloddinPedro]

Looking at the somewhat similar digital camera market shows that no manufacturer has any incentive, ever, to produce the 'ideal' device.

Absolutely true, but then, to be (a little bit) fair, we probably couldn't agree on the "perfect specification" could we?

[urban_biker]

Looking at the somewhat similar digital camera market shows that no manufacturer has any incentive, ever, to produce the 'ideal' device.

Absolutely true, but then, to be (a little bit) fair, we probably couldn't agree on the "perfect specification" could we?

Certainly not at the perfect price anyway.

[henshaw11]

Rather than focussing on precise sw features, how about 'not locked to the manufacturer's view of how you should be using it' - ie open source/hackable/scriptable at least to a useful level. For example- my Etrex 30 does most of what I think I want, but say I wanted it to log power and or distance rather than heart rate or cadence - nope, can't do that, despite (at the Ant+ level) being capable. Likewise HRM-related stuff that I assume appears on the Edge units, like HR zones/times etc. And any other stuff that's more like a cyclocomputer.

Judging by the complaints about units slowing down - likewise IME trying to navigate around a map to add waypoints -  it sounds like there's some scope for cpu clock/power management - run the thing quicker when it needs to, then slow it back down again to reduce power when updates can be slower or more gradual.

[frankly frankie]

True - the thing I hanker after most (apart from more screen contrast) is a single extra assignable button - say a 2nd front button on the Etrex - which simply toggles to/from any mode and setup I program into it. 
User profiles are partway there (except they were very buggy on my E30 when I had it) but it takes a minimum of 7 clicks (often several more) to switch profiles, and another 7 to switch back.