I’m getting sick of my phone dying when recording rides so I was thinking about getting something solely for GPS use. I only want something to record my ride, nothing else. And as cheap as possible really.

Is there nothing cheaper than the Garmin Edge 200 or Bryton Rider 20, because the Garmin is £90 and the Bryon £75.

Has anybody used anything like this?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/CONRAD-GT-730FL-S-GPS-Data-Logger/dp/B005OJUKAW/ref=pd_cp_ce_0

Thanks all.

Why is your phone dying?

If it is just a battery capacity issue then your cheapest solution is probably an external battery.

Battery and the GPS being inaccurate and cutting randomly out.

How long are your rides? It may be that the cheapest solution is something along the lines of what we’re discussing in this thread:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/home-made-gps-with-mapping-and-tracking

eg buy a cheap second hand phone but rather than mounting it to the bike as in that thread, just use it with wifi/bluetooth/data/brightness/etc all turned off which considerably extends the run time of the phone.

I suppose it could be an option but £30 cheap like the one I linked to? ^^^

I’m currently using my phone in airplane mode (so no data, bluetooth or wifi) with brightness turned down and it’s still shocking in every way possible.

it’s still shocking in every way possible.

What phone? Not all phones are equal when it comes to GPS etc.

Some early ‘droids in particular are a bit flaky. I get a pretty reliable GPS tracks on my iPhone 4 and the thread above mentions some reliable ‘droids to use.

I did a three day trip a couple of weeks ago and happily recorded 160 miles of track over 11 hours by just adding an external battery (no messing about with airplane mode etc)

(so no data, bluetooth or wifi) with brightness turned down

Why have the screen on at all? it is by far the biggest drain.

I bought a defy mini for £33.

The item you linked to looks pretty small so I’d be concerned that its reception wouldn’t be any better than a phone, maybe worse even.

Another solution is just to buy the cheapest proper GPS you can find – like a Garmin Etrex H which should be cheap but records very well and has very good battery life.

A SH Bryton would be your best bet. Having said that Garmin Edge’s are going for around £50 on ebay.

I use a Garmin 200 and its great for what I want. The breadcrumb trails are much better than people credit and are easy to follow. Battery life is pretty good, easily enough for 10 hours on the bike, doesnt lose its signal in forests and they have two brackets so you can swop between bikes.

Garmin 200 +1. Definitely worth the money. Might has never missed a beat whereas my phone often would especially where there are lots of trees. I also find it great for navigating on road rides.

I use my galaxy note, with its big battery and the screen off in my camelbak it will do about 7-8 hours using endomondo and it has been very good accuracy wise

How about the seldom mentioned Holux GPSport 260 ?

Absolute bargain – several friends have bought them, after seeing mine.