Agreed, never rely solely on a GPS. But if you cannot place yourself on the paper map for any reason, GPS is great. Coordinates are enough in that situation, so I'd use a small non-mapping device with b/w display. Cheaper, less weight, less battery drain. Only switch it on when needed - although that means I'd have to wait for maybe a couple of minutes for the location info.

As pointed out already, GPS cell phone will not be able to download required maps, if there's no coverage (most such devices download map data on the fly). In addition, if you're outside your own cell phone company coverage, data transmission fees may be astronomical. Using cell phone GPS requires a bit of planning, IMO.

--J

Um... OK... how do I say this without offending you... that question is kind of sad, really. You seriously can't imagine navigating without a GPS?

Ive never had a gps while touring.
and yes, occasionally I do get lost, but, as long as you keep a reasonably good track on where you are on the map you can't get TOO far wrong.
if you need / want to be sure where you are?
Just use a compass and 'shoot' two or more objects you can recognize both on the map and in real life.
It's far easier then it looks, just use common sense.

And for me the plain fun in doing it without electronics is worth something too.

However: if you want to use a gps... sure, go right ahead.
the touring is important (you know, meeting people, seeing sights, exercising etc.), not what materials / tools you use.

I am a big GPS user in other activities, I never run without my Garmin, I take it when hiking, and I always use it when sailing using charts and visual cues as a reality check. That said I sent the GPS home the first week on the Trans America. I found it completely unnecessary. The AC maps have both turn by turn directions and maps and both are good, but I just used the maps 99.9% of the time. In 73 days and 4244 miles I was never lost once. There was one spot where I had misplaced the addenda sheet for that one map and there was a road that had been removed and something built where it had been. That was confusing, but the GPS would have shown the same non existent road.

Never used a GPS. Never been lost.
Never used a compass. Never been lost.

GPS is far from essential. A good map is all you need.....and the skills to interpret one....and interpreting one isn't rocket science. Follow Road A, turn left onto Road B. Road B T-intersects with Road C. Turn right. Repeat as directed until you reach campground. Campground entrance is on the left. Enjoy your evening.

For US travel, I've found DeLorme atlases to be plenty sufficient (photocopy the pages you need, don't take the entire atlas. If you impulsively decide to significantly change your course, you can find local maps along the way.) I also get any bicycle specific maps that may be available for a particular state (or region, such as the Mississippi River Trail).

I know we all have our preferences and none is necessarily any better than the other. But I'd rather be hit in the head with a hammer than carry a GPS. The fewer battery operated things I can get away with, the better.

I carried a compass on the TA and never used it a single time. Generally I can point N, S, E, or W within 10-15 degrees without the need for one at least in daylight hours cloudy or not or at night with a clear sky. That is typically good enough, so if you have a reasonable sense of direction a compass may not be necessary. It is light enough to not matter much weight-wise though, so if in doubt...

I've never used GPS but I'm curious whether GPS coverage extend to third world countries. I could have used a better map when I was approaching the Sukkothai area in Thailand because there were lots of wonderful little lanes that I hadn't encountered further north in Thailand. I got by with what I had and by occasionally asking locals. In northern Laos, there were so few roads that my map was quite sufficient for navigating. While my map had topographic information, I could have used additional contour lines. Does GPS currently provide topographic information, contour lines, or detailed altitude information for places where there is coverage?

In France, I love the IGN 1:100,000 series maps. It's easy and quite enjoyable for me to devise a nice route with the wealth of information these maps have. For example, there are symbols for castles, ruins, orchards, vineyards, caves, viewpoints, detailed contour lines, steep grades, etc. Does GPS provide that sort of information at present?

especially on a bike tour, i prefer to carry as few items that people would want to steal as possible, so pretty much my only electronic devices will be a camera, very simple bike computer (not always), and a watch. i've used gps extensively for work, motorcycling, driving, and hiking, but on a tour where i have plenty of time, i just go with maps. i would consider gps great for navigation but absolute crap for route planning/research due to the small screen size, so i would end up carrying maps either way. while touring without gps, i usually just do a quickie map check about every 45 min or so to check my progress and confirm what's coming up. a little more often when things are more complicated. sure, it adds a few minutes to the day, but my butt can often use a quick break and i prefer to not be hurried on a tour with the additional benefit of not worrying about batteries and reception. if you were pressed for time, a gps would be helpful in that regard. pondering a map outside a shop/cafe often results in interaction with helpful locals, who can give you their opinions on your options, too.

i recently got a suunto watch with heart rate monitor, electronic compass, and altimeter, and look forward to geeking out with that on my next tour.

How did Columbus sail westwards?
How did the Polynesians sail eastwards?
How did Lewis & Clark reach the Pacific?
How did Lindbergh fly to Europe?

Hint - they all did it without GPS.

So I assume you ride a penny-farthing?

The G in GPS stands for Global. GPS will work anywhere in the world. What might be lacking is a nice coordinated set of maps. With GPS you can know, in latitude, longitude and altitude, exactly where you are. GPS provides your location. You need paper maps, or maps integrated in your device, or some other form of electronic map to do something useful with the location.

Speedo

Gotta love expressions of Luddism transmitted via the Internet...


Most of the great explorers traveled with the best available navigational tools where possible - compass, sextant, local guide. Few sailors today would skip on the GPS. More critically, their journeys were extremely dangerous -- e.g. many men died in their attempts to complete the first solo New York-to-Paris flight. There is little doubt that many lives have been lost due to primitive and/or insufficient navigational tools or aides.


You might need something a little higher-end for topo information, like a Garmin Edge 605. Coverage can be a bit spotty; for example, here's Garmin's coverage for SE Asia. That map is extra for US residents, but might be the "base" map in SE Asia.

+1

The sun and stars will generally tell you what you need to know. Landmarks and a good idea of how fast you generally ride can fill in the rest of the details.

ACA Maps are good, but I can be a space case. I missed a couple of things on my last tour using ACA maps - a turnoff onto a nicer road (off the busy highway with no shoulder), and a campground.

What I'm planning on doing next time is "syncing" my bike computer with the maps - figuring out how far the turns, campsites, etc. are from my starting point in the morning and writing down those numbers on some sort of journal or triplog. They I'll watch my bike computer and look for the waypoints as I get close to those numbers.

I've thought about a gps. It would be nice, but I might rather put those dollars into upgrading my train seat to a sleeper, or allowing myself an extra night or two in a motel.

This thread makes me laugh. I have no, zero, zilch, nada, sense of direction. I could get lost in a paper bag with one end open. I get frantic trying to read a map, I can see and understand where I am and where I'm supposed to be going, but if I look away for a second, I'm lost again. I think that people who have a good sense of direction have no comprehension of what it's like NOT to be able to figure it all out. Kind of like how you can't comprehend dyslexia if you don't have it.

I think that GPS is a gift of the technology gods for people like me. So I use mine whenever I can. On the other hand, you're on a bike tour. Accept that you will get lost, and you will get found again.

Oh, I should mention that you don't always know exactly where you are with a GPS. In parts of Mississippi I would be on a road and the little arrow would have me in the middle of a large green field with no roads. Ooops.

Don't you reset your computer every morning? Have a look over your map, determine your approximate destination, reset your computer, and go. Then when you start getting close to your destination, pay attention to the road signs. Campgrounds, etc. usually have signs posted.

I navigated on bike tours for years with just a map, no computer no compass.
The place I was completely bamboozled was the Netherlands. It is dead flat, it was cloudy, and none of the bike routes were straight they meandered all over the place, which was fun for riding but hard for navigation.

The bike paths are impeccably signed but the signposts sometimes pointed to the next little village or sometimes the next bigger town. So I had to stop and get my map out and see if I could find the name on the map. Sometimes I couldn't. Some days I spent as much time stopped pondering my map as I did riding.

A GPS would have been very useful.

Six of one, half dozen of another. A GPS is great to have, make no mistake, but it's a lot of fun looking at a map. Even if you don't need it. Even if you aren't going anywhere.

In my opinion, a GPS is a luxury, rather than a necessity. You should always have real paper maps, and know how to read them, even if they are just a backup to the GPS. I used my Garmin eTrex Vista HCx on a tour in 2008 within the USA, and I found it to be extremely useful for reassuring me that I was on the right road in the middle of nowhere. It just makes routing very easy, and I don't have to worry about missing a turn. Frequently the automatic routing function would take me on the same road that I wanted to go anyway - put it into 'bicycle' mode and it'll avoid highways for you. I didn't need to define routes on a PC and then download them to the GPS; much of the time I could simply pick the nearest small town on my route, and click "Go there". The GPS would work out a good route just about all the time, and mostly (especially in rural areas) the route was very similar to what I had planned out previously on a "real" map. Also, the routing function was useful for getting me across strange towns when I had to go off-route to get to a motel.

Speaking of motels, the POI (points of interest) database was also useful for looking to see if towns had lodging, groceries or other services. However, the POI database on GPS is currently nowhere near complete - there were a few small rural towns where it had no motels, but a quick call to my wife at home revealed something via Google. Often these were little mom-and-pop places that had been around for decades, so I don't know why they weren't included. Hopefully in coming years they will make these databases more comprehensive for the things travelers care about, and omit the things that seem to be completely useless (knitting supplies, lumber companies etc). You also need to be aware that for Garmin, you often have to purchase the City Navigator software (which has the POI database and street-level maps for the USA) separately - though some newer models are coming with it bundled.

Another useful aspect of the GPS was its ability to generate GPX trackpoint files. These were conveniently saved on the SD card with one file per day, named with the date. I could then use these to plot my route that day on Google maps. This might not be so compelling if you are simply using the pre-determined Adventure Cycling maps, but I think it's nice anyway for people to see exactly where you went that day.

GPS is, like I said, a luxury. It should be seen as a convenience, and appreciated as such if you choose to use it. I know how to read a map, and I carry maps, and there's nothing at all wrong with maps (or compass). But truth be told, GPS is just really easy to use - especially in well-served areas like the USA, where the maps are detailed. As long as you view it in this light, as being something that is to be appreciated as an added convenience rather than something you're relying on with your life hanging in the balance, then I don't see any problem with it.

You should probably get a "real" GPS (i.e. one that uses the satellites) rather than the cellphone system, since there are quite a few rural places where there is no cell reception. And bicycle tours tend to take you to rural areas.

I like the Energizer Lithium batteries - using the eTrex all day for trackpoints, a pair of those batteries lasted a couple of weeks as I recall. Obviously you want to avoid the backlight as much as possible, but that's usually unecessary in broad daylight.

I like maps, but now I have used the eTrex, I'll be taking it (or its successors) on any future tours in the US. It's a really neat toy that is maturing into a really useful tool. But, again - always have paper maps as backup, and know how to use them. Electronic gear does malfunction, and you don't want to be out in the middle of nowhere with no idea how to navigate.

Neil

I do reset my computer every morning. But the campgrounds aren't usually on the matchlines on ACA maps, and the mileages are figured from the matchlines. Like I said, all I'd need to do would be a little simple math in the morning, and jotting down the numbers. But I've tended to blithely set off in the morning without doing this - just reset the computer and off I go. And like I said, I'm a bit of a space case.

My impression of Montana was that they do a very poor job of posting signs for their campgrounds, among other things. Sometimes when I was very much on the lookout for the signs, there was still some confusion. My IQ is higher than 100, not lower, but if you factor in the space-case-ness, I guess my performance is understandable.

Exactly. I do have a GPS that I carry as a backup when I will be pedaling into unchartered waters for me. It came in handy a few weeks ago when I had to make a left turn into a town with a pop of about 20,000. I didn't want to pass my turn so I pulled into a Walmart parking lot and fired up my GPS. My turn was in 600 feet according to the GPS and it was absolutely correct. The funny thing was there was NOT a street sign identifying the road at all. I would have been searching for the road if I had not had the GPS. I of course could have turned south and ran into the next highway I needed to be on.

I think there are 2 types of drivers/bike riders when going to a new destination. Those who do not want to miss a single turn and fear getting lost and those who could care less and look at missed turns as an opportunity for adventure. I do like the adventure of new roads and routes, but sometimes I am riding on a time line.

If you're going to be doing the 500+ miles Illinois portion of the Mississippi River trail, these maps are your friends. They can't get much easier as they point out everything, campgrounds, motels, bike repair along with phone numbers and such with excellent milage calculations and it's free. Have a great ride.

https://www.bikelib.org/mrt/index.htm

https://www.bikelib.org/mrt/booklet.pdf

I realize that, but having a cellphone that works in other places might be a good middle ground between no GPS and a whole GPS unit. I'm always going to tour with a cell phone, even though I know I lose coverage in mountains as close as a few miles up Canyon Rd in Boulder, CO. It may prove invalueable in the middle of Nebraska or Kansas.

I'm a cartographer by trade, so I know a little something about maps

I would not rely on a cell phone for navigation in Nebraska. I often lose cell service for miles just outside of Omaha on my rides.

Low blow! You put words in his mouth that he didn't say (and didn't even say anything similar), and then you criticize the words that you yourself put in his mouth.