First timer here. Probably will "settle" for the 89 miler, as the Heroic route, would make for a really long day on these ancient bones. Question is, how do you navigate for the folks that have done it before? Is course extremely well marked? Using hidden GPS's? C'mon give me your advice.

My plan is to follow all the people in front of me.

It’s Eroica, don’t need no stinking GPS!

I found the coastal route very well marked last year and I did not use any electronic navigation.

If you "neglect" to switch of your index shifter, no one will bother you. But if you have a garmin on your bars, you will have to turn in your number. And if they catch you with it out on the road, someone will likely run you into the ditch.
(The course is well marked. Don't worry.)

I'm using a vintage precursor of the Garmin. It has an ultralight, solar-illuminated display constructed using a super-thin layer of bleached wood pulp and utilizing a GUI created using petroleum and vegetable pigments.

Isn't GPS not period correct? Pen on paper write up a cue sheet, saying distance to a turn and which way to turn there...

I thought they issue everyone a sextant and a compass at the start?

The road card that you'll have stamped at all the checkpoints has a map on it. And the course is really well marked.
When in doubt turn left and go uphill.

Great that's what I needed to know. Having done Dirty Kanza a couple of times there are periods where no one is in visual range and the course markers on the 200 mile course were rearranged by local folks or the weather. You can be out there for a long time without GPS. I'm not a map or cue card kinda guy but I guess I can regress.

I used my Garmin on my '64 Legnano last time, mainly to keep an eye on heart rate data, while pushing my 42/28 best gear. I have a "mild" heart condition that I have to keep an eye on. I'm riding much friendlier gears this time. I'm keeping the Garmin. Nobody said a word about it last time. Its a fun ride, ride your ride and don't worry about what somebody else is using. I saw an old guy (I'm 68) pushing a carbon Focus up hill with an Eroica number plate. I asked him what was the deal and he told me that carbon was easier to push uphill, as we walked along side by side. The course was very well marked, I had no navigation issues with or without Garmin. If the sight of my Garmin bothers you, dont look at it.

Works for PBP!

With that cool Legnano, you could have an electric motor in the seat tube, no one's gonna care.

And no one's gonna stop you for carrying a medically approved device.

I used my Garmin 500 last year, no one complained. But no difficulties following the course anyway, I just wanted the ride recorded. I was going so slow while climbing the steepest parts of Cypress Mountain that my Garmin went into auto pause a few times.

Just hide the thing in your pocket.

That's what she said.

Is that a Garmin in your pocket or are you happy to know where you're going?

I will be stealthily tracking my miles with my Garmin watch, but that won’t help for navigation. Sounds like it won’t be an issue. I’ll just follow the empty bottles of wine that [MENTION=381793]gugie[/MENTION] discards as he makes his way onward.

GPS?

Heathens.

Wayfind the l'eroica way. Drink a lot of wine. Don't care if you make a wrong turn. Problem solved.

Leather handlebar bag with a window cut in the top, hide the Garmin inside?

I believe the organizers provide maps and cue sheets hand scribed by monks on calfskin vellum. Gutenberg is off-topic technology.

I'll be good to follow after the first bottle, maybe the second, but if you're following me after the third, you'll be as lost as I am.

I only got lost twice on my first Eroica CA. The first wrong turn took me up a steep hill to a locked gate. The second took me back to Paso Robles about 100 miles too soon. So it was easy to figure out where I went wrong and get back on track. The next time I didn't make any wrong turns.

'Life is one big map problem. Learn to read the map, no problem'.
Ranger School, 1977.

Top

Road signage is adequate at worst and pretty darn good at best.

Nobody hassled me about my Garmin 305. (1) It's getting to be pretty "vintage" in its own right and (2) it doesn't provide navigational support. Of course, the fact that I'm 6'3" and weigh 260 may have something to do with it . . . .