Hi folks,

I'm taking on a 1200 mile tour next spring (my first longer than a day's riding) and bought a Lezyene Super GPS to help with training and navigation. Annoyingly I've found out that I bought one of their first year models (it was 2nd hand) and it doesn't do navigation at all. Back to square one.

I'd still like turn by turn GPS for the trip, and the currently I'm training with heart rate. I wondered which of my options is the best bet, or if you have any other suggestions that I should consider?


. I could pick up something like a Wahoo Elemnt new. That would definitely do the mapping and heart rate data. Battery life is apparently good compared to Garmin alternatives, but it would take a serious chunk out of the trips budget. I'd have to compromise elsewhere to compensate.

.I could get a 2nd hand Garmin, but I'm unsure which models will fit my needs? 520 & 820 used are about the price of a new Wahoo.... 810? 510? I don't know.

.I can borrow a Garmin eTrex from a walker I know. That gets me mapping for free, but not HR. Given that's how I'm training, I'll end up using the Leyzene too. I'm not keen on having 2 devices on the bike, 2x the charging problems.

.I could use my phone, though I worry about having my only communication device doing the mapping too - if it runs flat I'll be in double trouble! Maybe I could pick up a used smartphone to double up as GPS?

I'd like it to pair with my Polar HR monitor and preferably upload to Strava without too much faff - the Leyzene is a bit fiddly and frequently unpairs with my phone.
Above all, I want unit I can rely on for navigation over a decent tour!

Any ideas?

What is the reason for needing the HR monitor? We have a Garmin 800 with all the extras but since we are touring all the extras stay home.

Yeah...riding every day with an HR strap on me...not sure the reason or benefit?

I get it for those who train hard to compete on the road.
I dont get it for someone thatll tour.

Whatever floats your boat and all, it just seems like an extra gadget that isnt necessary. Are you really looking to stay within a target heart rate while riding with your gear?...and for what reason?


Anyways- as for GPS i have a Super GPS, but the newer version. Its great for what I need, but i wouldnt want it for actual mapping as it isnt made for that. I havent found a GPS bike computer thats as good as google maps for displaying map information.
Download maps of your ride as you can thru the trip and use them to complement a GPS unit.

Just use your phone and buy a large rechargeable battery. No GPS gadget I know has a bigger and better screen than the phone you already own.

Thanks for the thoughts.
I'm training with heart rate and I intend to ride with heart rate because I'm notoriously bad at pacing myself. Training with the Leyzene, I've found it really helpful to get a consistent effort. It bleeps at me if I'm pushing too hard and move out of my intended zones. I just really struggle when I ride on feeling.

If you're using your phone, do you mount it to the bars and have it exposed, or do you keep stopping and getting it out of your pocket to check?

If you want to use what you have, use your phone and a spare USB charger if it can't handle a full day of use (mine can, but I still keep the USB charger just in case). I use both my phone in my pocket for backup navigation/tracking, a map pouch on the front, and a regular cyclecomputer on the handlebars for speed, distance, etc. You could run a HR meter through a regular computer pretty easy.

Agree with others that a HR monitor is rather unnecessary for touring, though. It isn't too hard to just dial it back a bit, if you feel yourself getting winded just kick it down a gear or two.

I make paper cue sheets even though I have an iPhone 7. (Work gave it to me.) I keep the phone in my back pocket since I don't consult it often. However, a friend of mine bought me a LIFEPROOF case for the phone along with the optional handlebar mount. Haven't tried the mount yet, but it's something you might want to look into.


This is the one I have:


Waterproof FRE iPhone 7 Case | LifeProof


Here is the mount:


iPhone Bike Handlebar Mount | LifeActiv from LifeProof | LifeProof


They make cases for other phones as well.

My 2 cents:
Wahoo Bolt is $250 but I've never used it touring. I've had one for about 3 months and it's great.

The 2d-generation Lezyne does navigation and HR as is about $150. I had a first year version and it was OK but I had some issues with dropping sensors. No idea how good its navigation is. But it's about the cheapest dedicated cycling computer with navigation abilities out there.

Thanks Ksryder - is there anything that would put you off using the Bolt for touring?

I use a phone, and I'm mostly happy with it. The thing I like best about it is that it costs less than a bike GPS if you take the cost of the phone as a given. (In other words, with or without a bike GPS, I would still have the phone.) I spent ~$80 on a handlebar mount and case (Quad Lock). I pay for the ridewithgps subscription service.

The thing I don't like about it is that it's difficult to operate when the bike is in motion. It's hard to touch the screen without making an accidental swipe. Bike computers have hardware buttons that you just push down or in.

But overall, the setup works well for me. The Quad Lock mount is very positive and safe. It's fairly easy to move from bike to bike.

On long rides, I lash an external battery for powering the phone. On a six-hour ride, it keeps the phone at 100% charged without discharging to empty, even with the screen on 100% of the time.

No, I've just never toured much so I don't know what I would or wouldn't prefer. Maybe the bigger screen of the ELMNT would be better suited for touring, but it's also more expensive.

Hi Nightshade
Elemnt user here....

The screen is easy to read in even the brightest sunshine.
Screens can be modified & personalised so whatever info you need is on display or a touch of a button away.
It operates in conjunction with a phone, not a p.c.
Basic (and I mean basic!) world maps are included with purchase.
Battery life is as advertised, unlike other brands.
Turn by Turn is available (I've used it once, I prefer the chevrons)
I wouldn't know how to use hear rate monitors etc, but these are all available and leds inform you when you're in/out of range.

But....
The one disadvantage for navigation is that once you go off route, because "you" are at the bottom of the screen, it is easy to lose the route behind you. If you go further off route, the chevrons disappear, but the route is still marked in a slightly different shade. Can be a bit difficult to figure out, especially if there are lots of roads in an area. It makes forced detours interesting! :-). I understand that this is a ticket item that will be improved in the future.

I have never used a gps until earlier this year and what swung me to the Wahoo is the usability on the road.
Because it works though an app, once you have your phone you can plan, load and ride routes on the fly.
Currently you need a wifi/data connection to load a route into the app (not the unit - the app), even if the route is already on your phone. Wahoo have assured me that this will be eliminated in an update. When that happens, if you have a maps app on your phone with downloaded maps (eg OSMand), you will have a fully offline ability to plan and then ride a route. The only other unit with this capability that I am aware of is the Garmin Touring - I tried it and it is, as Neil Young sang, a Piece of Crap!

Another thing I'll say is that they customer service is top notch.

If you do a search on these forums you'll quickly find lots of threads discussing the merits of different units. For navigation and hear rate monitoring you're looking at top dollar prices.

Best of luck in your research!

Frank

I gave up on my Garmin (eTrex) three years ago and switched exclusively my iPhone GPS, for my last three tours (4,500 US touring miles). The only advantage the Garmin provided was great battery-life. With the advent of relatively cheap supplemental battery cells for the iPhone I've left the Garmin behind and have no regrets.

Just curious..... seems iPhone is getting good reviews as a gps, if accompanied with an external battery. So, is there an external battery that is smaller/lighter/stronger than most, or pretty much all the same? Thanks....,,

Most of those batteries will make you happy, but the most popular one these days seems to be the Anker. I have two Anker E1's because I like them so much. They seem to hold a lot of capacity, and they're light, and they haven't failed in any way. I bungie it to my stem or frame, next to the phone, and I have a 30-cm cord to it.

Note on the Wahoo Elemnt and Bolt. They require a smartphone app for initial setup, but after that, they operate standalone and do not require a smartphone unless you are desiring to download routes, or upload ride activity to a 3rd party online app such as Strava or RideWithGPS. If you want to upload ride activity, you can wait until you have cell service or WiFi for that. You can as well create a whole lot of daily routes at one time and download them to store on the unit.

I do like my Bolt, it's a seemingly more reliable unit then my older Garmin 810 and does have very good service and support. I would have no qualms about using one for a cross country trip. I get about 10 hrs of use when using navigation a lot and will continue to operate when being powered by a pin external USB battery, not all units will do that.

IME & reading turn-by-turn navigation (esp pre-programmed routes) often doesn't work well. Handlebar cue-sheet holder + reg bike computer is pretty simple & convenient with GPS (dedicated or phone) as backup to check location. That way one can keep GPS/phone turned off most of the time & avoid need for frequent charging.

For long tour where route flexibility is required, tablet might be handy for route planning, perhaps obviating need to carry many map pages.

Or second hand or a new one eBay for a saving. I just got mine (replaces a Garmin Edge 810) brand new on eBay for a nice discount. Okay no warranty but I can live with that.

Fantastic Frank - that's really helpful.
Although it's a significant outlay, I'm heading towards the Elemnt being the choice I'll be most happy with.... Looking at used units on eBay, there's about a £30 saving by getting 2nd hand - I think I'd rather take the warranty from somewhere like Wiggle for that difference.

I got both of mine at MicroCenter, just cheap generic ones, but no issues with either. I keep a larger ~15,000MAh one for charging at the end of the day or in restaurants and such (i.e., off bike), and a smaller one ~2600MAh if I need to charge in a handlebar bag or a jersey pocket. The small one is enough to charge my phone once and a half or so, and the big one enough to charge about 8-9 times. I also charge my GoPro off it.

Inland 15,600mAh Power Bank Battery Charger & LED Flashlight for Mobile Devices - Silver AFD15600-P-S - Micro Center
Inland 2,600mAh Power Bank Battery Charger for Mobile Devices - Red 668020 - Micro Center

I found using an HR during a heatwave on tour was convenient for keeping an eye on my exertion levels, I liked having a number to look at instead of just relying on my own perception. I have been using a garmin edge 500 and it's good for 15-18 hours so I don't need to charge it every day if I end up someplace without electricity. It's useless for navigation though it can follow a breadcrumb course to some extent I've found it can't even do that with any reliability and will often lose the course and just display an arrow on a blank screen.

I plan on buying a wahoo bolt soon, being able to upload my rides via wifi is a nice perk for me, plus it has basic maps built in. I usually do rough plans of a trip on RWGPS so having those routes all seamlessly transfered to the bolt really sold me on the unit. It also apparently lasts for approx. 15 hours which is enough for a good day or even two shorter days of riding.

I take a lot of pictures with my phone and also take it into restaurants to use wifi if needed so having to unhook it from the bars constantly isn't really something I wanna bother doing. I keep the maps.me app on my phone if I need to adjust any of my planned routes on the fly since I don't have mobile data.

In terms of battery life, the USB power-bank manufacturers aren't making their own cells, and performance will be dependent on the underlying cells and (to some extent) the internal circuitry. I haven't seen power-bank makers advertising where they get their cells from, but Aukey and Anker are well-known makers that you can probably rely on. I've bought cheap power banks that work, but take forever to recharge. There are also some that advertise weatherproofing, which sounds like a good idea, although I don't know if they're weatherproof when your phone is plugged in.

If you're relying on the phone for turn-by-turn navigation, be aware that not all apps offer this, or offer it only for an added fee (like Ride with GPS). I'd always recommend having a printed route-map as a backup.

Sorry for dragging up an old thread, but I wanted to update some info.
Last year I was assured that the need to have a data/Wifi connection to process aroute in the App would be dropped.
In fact, the ticket item was dropped!
Currently a data/Wifi signal is still needed to ping the cloud.
I have been told that the ticket has been reopened, but this is not a priority.

It would help if other users who see the advantage of this would contact Wahoo and ask for the same.

So the situation is that (currently) to create/import a new route you must have a data/wifi signal.

Just wanted to update the information.

Oh, I'm a little less impressed with the customer service too ;-)

Frank