adlai

Does one exist?

The problem with using an automotive GPS on a bike IMO is that it might lead you onto a freeway by accident.

mulveyr 

During a 200 mile tour with my son last summer, I found that using my Android phone with Google Maps their Bike Directions feature worked spectacularly well.

dorkypants

That's a function of the mapping program(s) you're able to use with the GPS, not the device itself. More at issue is power consumption. Car GPS units generally operate on the assumption of being powered by the car's 12v electrical system. On a bike you have to rely either on battery power you can carry with you, or else power you can generate while pedaling.

Garmin makes GPSes for cyclists (and runners), and there seems to be a Taiwanese newcomer, Bryton, which makes GPSes for biking.

NeilGunton

I really like the Garmin eTrex Vista HCx. It is a good size for mounting on the handlebar, and with 2 Energizer Lithium disposable batteries I was getting somewhere between 1 and 2 weeks of all-day use (on all day while riding to record trackpoints). To me, any electronic device where you can measure the battery life in weeks rather than hours is the holy grail for bicycle touring.

You also need to get Garmin City Navigator for detailed roads and routing, which is a pain (extra $$$) but it also includes a POI database (points of interest) that has a fair number of motels, grocery stores, gas stations, ATMs and the like, which can be useful for seeing about lodging in towns you are approaching. As for being routed on to freeways, the Garmin has an option for bicycles, which makes it try to avoid highways whenever it can. This actually has odd effects at times, e.g. when I was somewhere in the middle of Nebraska, on a perfectly good back road (actually, the only road), the GPS thought this was a highway and kept trying to take me off it onto a network of dirt roads. So I just ignored it when it did that; the good thing is that if you go off its recommended route, it realizes this very quickly and recalculates in a couple of seconds. Usually, though, I would only use the routing option to get me through strange towns to off-route motels (and back on-route in the morning). This was really nice, I didn't have to buy any detailed local maps that would only be used once, or depend on flaky directions from locals who only get around by car (and so usually have pretty vague senses of distance and hills).

I use my eTrex Vista all the time now, both on the bike and in the car. It doesn't have the latest stuff like touch sensitive screen, but I see this as a good thing - the screen on the eTrex seems to be made of some extremely tough, scratch-resistant material. It's certainly more resistant to scratches than just about any other screen I've seen.

It doesn't have voice cues (i.e. text to speech), just cute little beeps, but I don't care about that. Oh, and there is a potential problem sometimes with the rubber surround coming unstuck when you leave it exposed in a hot car (I think the heat eventually melts the glue), but I got mine from REI and they exchanged it for a new one a year later without complaint (REI rocks, I love them). Garmin can be a bit fascist about locking their City Navigator maps down to one GPS unit, but I explained the situation to them and they gave me a new unlock code for the new unit (I just forwarded them a couple of emails from REI to "prove" that this was an exchange and not a whole new unit).

There are newer models out there now, but the little eTrex still works very well. I really like it a lot. It's one of the few electronic devices that I've become really attached to.

Neil

BigBlueToe

I also have a Vista HcX. I used it on the Lewis and Clark trail last summer. The big cons are that it doesn't have bike paths in its database so it wants to route you onto the nearest road (even if it's a freeway!) Also, the ACA waypoints were almost useless because they put way too many of them in their zipped files, including all the optional routes. I tried to delete all the superfluous ones and just keep the usefull ones, but it didn't work very well. Also, the names they use are so obscure and arcane that you can't figure anything out.

The pros were that I always knew where I was, and I used it to find things like restaurants, motels, etc. It even had phone numbers of things like car rental places.

I used it to enter my own route from the Amtrak station in Portland to my first night's lodgings (using Google maps - bicycle - and street view), then from there to where I could join the ACA route. That worked pretty slick.

The ACA maps were more useful than the gps, and I ended up turning the gps off most of the time to save batteries. In concert with the maps the gps was handy. I'll bring it on future trips - especially if I'm not on an ACA route.

cyclist2000

I like the Garmin Oregon 450. It has mapping, uses AA batteries, has a heart rate and cadence capabilities. I don't have one but I have been looking for a gps for a while. the 705 looks fine but I like the ability to use AA batteries in the event that I can't find a place to charge it or ride a long day and use up the batteries.

Cyclebum

The Vista HCx is a good unit. Long battery life, water resistant, shock resistant, elevation and compass readouts, handle bar mount. It is great for telling you how fast you're moving. No good at all at estimating your time of arrival at a waypoint.

The $100 City Navigator program, at least for me, is marginally useful. It will reliably tell you how far it is to the next waypoint, though not necessarily the best way to get there. It may be able to find a specific address, may not. It is pretty good at locating service points and having phone numbers for motels.

A gps is a fun and occasionally useful adjunct to a good paper map, as long as you don't blindly trust it.

Mine was a gift. Should it fail, I would not buy another.

AsanaCycles

I use a Garmin 705
of course its a gps, so you always have an indication as to your location.

by using the software, BaseCamp, and looking at Google Earth
there is a definite way to start to chart your tracks, add waypoints, points of interest, etc...
typically I end up going between two maps, North America city streets, and the appropriate topos.

by sitting at the computer, charting your routes, and studying things, you already start to understand where you will be

gps is awesome. I do all sorts of things with it, right down to marking specific spots, right down to a 20ft interval.

also I use a SPOT GPS tracker, so that when I'm on tour friends and family can see exactly where I'm at and not have to stress out.

https://www.asanacycles.com/Asana_Cycles/SPOT.html

diverguy

I use the iPhone 4 in a handlebar bracket running MotionX GPS software. Works great. Using sites like RideWithGPS, MapMyRide or one of the many others, you can preplan your routes and export them as gpx files to your computer. They can then be imported to MotionX GPS so you can overlay them on the map and follow the preplanned route. The app tracks your time, distance, current, average, and maximum speed, altitude, descent/ascent rate, etc. Cheap - $2.99.

Lamabb

For my trans-america trip this summer, I'm going to create myself a HUGE cuesheet. And if I get lost, I have an application called "Gmapcatcher" that keeps all the maps you look at in google maps, so i can look up where I am when I get really lost.

staehpj1

I am a regular GPS user. I never go trail running or sailing without one and usually use one when hiking, kayaking, snowshoeing or XC skiing. That said I generally find it more weight and trouble than it is worth on tour. I might be more likely to take one if I was going on an off road MTB tour.

I'd use the one in my Blackberry once in a blue moon if I took the Blackberry, but since it is on the Nextel network coverage is bad enough that it stays home (it is my work bb so I have no choice of providers).

sstorkel

I used my Garmin Edge 705 when I rode down the Pacific coast last year. Very handy! Wouldn't leave home without it...

contango 

The problem there is with the maps rather than the GPS itself.

I too use a Garmin GPS, although mine is the 60CSx. It's sturdy, waterproof (I've used it in rainstorms and cleaned mud off it by holding it under the tap). If you put decent maps in it then it's fine. I use maps taken from OpenStreetMap data which covers the UK in almost excruciating detail but I'm not sure what the detail for the US is like. Most auto routing functionality tends to assume you're in a car although some will let you specify your mode of transport. My unit lets me specify I'm on a bike but I do need to keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't do anything silly. Sometimes it has me turn across the traffic to follow a parallel road for half a mile to then turn across the traffic again. It's great to dodge the main road for half a mile but turning across the traffic twice seems like a spectacularly bad trade-off.

As with anything else if you trust a GPS blindly you can get into difficulties. If you use it as a guide rather than a master they are very good.

psmiffy

I have a Vista HcX - but apart from in big cities I rarely use it for navigation - I prefer to make my route up as I go along

and - I like maps too much

cbike

I use the Garmin Oregon 450 as well. Routing is a hit or miss. It worked once quite well, getting me out of a town on my way and the next moment it tried to send me down interstates and gravel roads. Much better is if you have created a track of the route you want to cycle. You can show the track on the map and see which way to go. Of course it doesn't give you audible alerts. The downside with tracks is that you have to create them before hand. That's time intensive and keeps you on a fixed route (i.e. not easily updatable on the road).

The Oregon 450 really shined when I did night riding. I knew exactly where I was in the dark and could track progress easily. A set of alkali batteries is good for a day's worth of riding (~8h?) have spares if you do a long day. BTW, the Garmin bike mount work quite well and is pretty cheap (~$8-$10).

djb

boy reading all these posts emphasizes how much of a luddite I am in this respect. I guess its one thing in a car where if there is a mistake, well, you push the left pedal to stop, turn around and then push the right pedal to go back the 5 kms you went too far (or 10 or whatever)
I just cant see myself stopping using a map and having a very good idea of where I am and where I am going.

caveat, I do see at some point when biking gps's get much less expensive and reliable, I would use it in conjunction with a map, just to have more details of where one went, to pass on to others etc. I do see it as one more doohicky to keep track of and to power.

contango 

A GPS is pretty reliable as long as the maps are reasonably up to date. I don't even take my bike for a test ride having tweaked something without mounting the GPS - it shows me distance, speed, average speeds and by downloading the track log I can see how fast I was going at something like 100 foot intervals along the route.

I often like to cycle out somewhere and get lost, the great thing about the GPS that wherever I end up it will tell me the way back home.

Cyclebum

That's about what a gps with City Navigator amounts to on a bicycle tour. I do enjoy being able to quickly find out exactly how far it is to the next town, McD's, campground, etc, but do worry about having it stolen. It is kinda fun to
play with, see how much info you can find in it. There is an awful lot. Some is actually useful.

In short, do not put a lot of navigational trust in a gps, and try to verify anything it tells you that may be critical to your journey.

CB HI

+1
and it has saved from missing a few turns before I got more than 50 yards from the turn.

djb

ya, I am in fact very open to technology, but I guess I have seen with drivers that some people rely on a gps so much that they have no idea of teh lay of the land, or would be totally lost if it stopped working. I have always wanted to have at least a general idea of my direction and keep map details in my head, and am a visual person, so its important to me that I use "me" to know where I am. Of course, although I havent used a gps very many times, they are a neat bit of kit. I just dont have a big urge to use one on a bike yet.

sehsuan

i've the good fortune of a bike shop owner who is Japanese, and is willing to loan me his 60CSx-J (Japanese version). i've posted a little information about it on my CGOAB journal, along with the discovery of the Japanese-ONLY keyboard... i'll be bringing my standard 60CSx as an on-foot navigator, with the 60CSx-J functioning as the route navigator.

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/p...id=178239&v=1n

luckily i know my chinese language, being one of the languages i was schooled in as a kid - but Japanese is a NEW level altogether for me!

ullearn

Sorry to cross-post saw this thread after the other one, but I am also trying to find a Android based application that lets you load GPX files and view maps offline, know of one?

I tried MyTrails as it says it supports offline maps and GPX files, but can't get the ACA GPX files to load.

gpsblake

The Garmin Oregon's and Dakota's have options where you can tell it never to use freeways, tollways etc when auto-routing along with a bicycle routing option.. But it's not perfect by any means and as others have posted, you need to review the route you use before relying on them completely.

mulveyr 

Sure - Google Maps. :-)

Well, indirectly.

What I've done is used the https://www.ridewithgps.com website to upload a GPX file, tweak it to my satisfaction, and then export the route as a KML file.

Then, on the desktop browser of Google Maps, I use "My Maps" to import the KML, while logged into the account I've associated with the phone.

On my phone, I can then use the My Maps layer to view the route. Since Google updates the Maps app to version 5 last month, the maps will be cached on the phone, so you can use them offline when necessary.

Let me know if you want more details.

- Rich

It's worked great for me.

ullearn

Thanks Rich, this worked great! Only issue I ran into was while testing on airplane the "my maps" layer wouldn't show up, the cached maps still did though.