I am interested in getting a GPS unit for navigation. I want it mainly for offroad navigation bit will also use it on road. Contemplating the Mio 505 or 315 units. Reviews seem a little mixed on the Web some saying they are excellent others saying they are dreadful.

Not dead set against Garmin but having seen a friends Edge Touring Plus in action I think the navigation is not as good as it could be.

Real world feedback welcomed.

I had a Mio 105, unit was great, software was shit.

GF has a – checks unit – Mio 305 and loves it, but it seems better for road-based navigation than trails. She particularly raves about it’s ability to generate random routes using the ‘Surprise Me’ feature, though my take is that the ‘surprise’ isn’t always a positive one – our random tour of Mallorcan back lanes was a little annoying for example.

Seems reasonably easy to transfer data back and forth and upload to Strava etc, though I’ve not used it a lot for either of those.

The hardware seems decent, but I find the user interface hard to get on with, she loves it. For reference I hate Garmin’s user interface with a cold and mostly reasonable passion. I like the Satmap Active 12 for its ability to give you a clear Ordnance Survey map with your position and route on it, ditto ViewRanger on a smartphone.

I don’t know how the 305 compares to later models however, so some of that may have changed.

I’ve got a 505.

Great for on the road, I did have a garmin 810 but that would crash or freeze every ride. Got fed up of all the ‘fixes’.

The 505 is far more stable, its never frozen. The UI can be a little annoying and when its recording a ride it is rather slow to react to inputs, usually up to a 2 second lag in response to button presses. Wierdly its far more responsive when its not recording, I wonder if the processor in it is a little under specced.

There was a very dry spell for firmware updates, its just had one and now has live strava segments if thats something you’re after. Other than that I didn’t notice any differences. I’ve not tried the live segments so don’t know how well it works.

It uses OSM mapping, great for on the road. No experience of using it off road as I used a garmin etrex 20 for that.

I don’t think you can load custom maps onto the mio, so don’t think you’d be able to get OS maps onto it.

TLDR; Mio for on the road, garmin etrex for off road. 🙂

I use mine for road riding (as its more or less all the riding I do these days), I’m seriously impressed with my 505hc, never had a garmin but loads of others in the club do, many grumble about garmins and their software- mines great

I’ve got a 305, it’s fantastic for sub 60 mile cycles following it’s guidance with cadence, speed, heart rate sensors feeding into it.

Beyond 60 miles while following guidance it seems to crash at some point during the ride, losing some of the data – the latest being 60 miles into a 80 mile ride. I believe this stems from it needing more processing power/memory (based on the length of time it takes to process the route at the beginning and how sluggish it performs during the ride) and so issues may be ironed out on the 315.

Regarding the software I’m not sure what more you’d want? I plug it into the computer it downloads the latest rides I’ve saved, uploads them to the MIO site, sends them to endomondo and strava and checks to see if there are any updates.

If I want to create a new non surprise me route – I use strava or another route maker, download the GPX and place it in the correct folder on the MIO. Select it on the device and go pedal.

have a mio 500 – couple of years old now – good points are OSM preloaded as this shows shared paths ( I live in Aus) and the turn by turn instructions are very good

nice screen customisation stuff pick stuff you want

the surprise me function is actually good

like that can set up different bike profiles so mrs antigee’s never ride gravel can be catered for using the road bike profile whilst my ubercool cx/gravel racer/adventure bike is covered by calling it a townbike 🙁 and it will find gravel roads away from main roads when generating a route

bad stuff – uploading a route to it can be pain 0k via wifi but rarely works connected with a cable (only a problem on cheap skate holidays)

occasionally demands to restart mid route – takes 5 minutes+ but doesn’t lose data – though I’ve lost the will to live if happens when I need some input

unlike garmin not any really active support forums – magellan answer queries promptly but i never had an answer that was actually useful

battery life seems much lower than claimed – can’t get a 6hr plus ride out of it and had it die at 4 hours a few times when I reckon i’d fully charged it – turned off cadence and HR as that is supposed to help but only marginally improved – so can’t rely on it 100%

conclusion OKish but nothing to get excited about and a bit of a pain not money well spent is my conclusion mainly down to not being reliable enough

Yeah given the option again I think I’d go for a Garmin 810/1000.

Alongside my 305, I actually take a Mio 105 (halfords were doing them for £20) and endomondo running on my phone as backup devices.

Regarding battery life, I find if I charge via the PC it doesn’t ever get to 100% charged. But using the supplied plug charger it gets to 100% charged and seems to last a lot longer. But for long rides I take a small rechargeable battery out with me.

Many thanks for the comments. I had an edge 305 which I found good for ride monitoring and performance dara. Battery life was good but it finally died.

Fancy something with navigation and less interested in performance data now I am no longer racing. May try a refurbished Mio and see how it goes. Seems like most of the options get mixed reviews.

Got a Mio 505 bought s/h off here.
Great little unit but used on the road.
The only bugbear is a slight intolerance of water.
When it rained heavy couldn’t activate any of the functions.
Got me home but took a couple of days to dry out.
Use a Topeak waterproof case when I know it’s gonna be wet!
My mate is getting fed up with his Garmin 805.
Stopping and starting with its recording.
Thanks,
Max

“nathb …..Regarding battery life, I find if I charge via the PC it doesn’t ever get to 100% charged. But using the supplied plug charger it gets to 100% charged and seems to last a lot longer….”

fair comment I normally charge from laptop or whatever usb charger is available so maybe should try this

for longer rides i take a battery charger and have charged on cafe stops but I wouldn’t expect to have to do this based on claimed battery life

Many thanks for the comments very helpful.

Fancy something with navigation and less interested in performance data now I am no longer racing. May try a refurbished Mio and see how it goes. Seems like most of the options get mixed reviews.