Bike Computer that uses Google Maps
 

Does anyone make a bike GPS that reads Google Maps.

I have a Garmin 710 and it only sees the roads. I end up using my smart phone to find the best bike route via Google maps and then use the Garmin unit.

I have heard the the Edge 1000 has lots of bugs and thinking about just using my smart phone with a water proof case and extra battery. I am also hoping that the I Phone 6 will have better battery life so I would just use a water proof case.

For now I will charge my Garmin 710 every night since the batter is getting old and hope that someone will make a better bike GPS.

I plan on using my iphone with waterproof case and carry this Amazon.com: Anker® 2nd Gen Astro E3 10000mAh Dual-Port Ultra Compact External Battery Portable USB Charger Power Bank - PowerIQ™ Broad Compatibility, Fast Charging, High Capacity - For iPhone 5s 5c 5, iPad Air mini, Galaxy S5 S4, Tab 2, Note 3
along with me in case I need it.

How long are your rides? I find using the Wahoo Fitness app open uses about 20% battery life per hour.

Google maps for iOS still works with the screen off and will show up with notifications on the lock screen.

Once I start riding longer, I will probably get a similar Anker external battery like Cheese Head mentioned.

With a smartphone you can generally upload pretty much any formate of a ride you want (.kml, .gpx, etc...). I use Cyclemeter on my iPhone and you can do it with this one. I just came back from a cycling vacation and we loaded 10 different rides onto the phones before we left.

Cyclemeter provides at least the functionality of most bike specific computers. It can also use other Google Maps or Apple Maps and it can do topo maps too.

J.

What do you mean "it only sees the roads" anyway?

I have an 800 and the only navigation I do with it is to preplan the route on ridewithGPS and then dump it onto my garmin. I have a terrible time reading the map display anyway.

I have heard good things about magellan's new bike computer - I think it's called the cycle 505. It's about time there was some competition for garmin in the cycling world!

I ride up to 100 miles in a day and my old 705 when the battery was new could run for a very long time.


My Garmin does not see bike paths and bike lanes.

My etrex vista hcx with the right osm basemap installed sees all the paths, bike lanes, alleys, and general goat tracks everywhere. No elevation data available from the map, but thats ok. I get a hill graphic and that tells me I'm likely to be going up and the bariometric altimeter does the rest. I set it show elevation in one of the data fields. Phone gets used for nothing but taking pictures. The routing funcion will even find addresses and direct me there.

It's not your garmin, it's the maps you have loaded. Consider updating them, or get some open source maps and try that out. I ended up sticking with garmin maps (and they do have bike paths) but the OSM are free. The ridewithgps website has a link to where and how you can get them.

Go here: Garmin Edge 800 | Ride With GPS Help

and look at option 2 down the page some.

It's worth a try. :)