Standalone GPS units vs phones with app

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Standalone GPS units vs phones with app

47 posts & 24 voices | Started 1 year ago by btonbelle | Latest reply from kennyp

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druidh - Member

BadlyWiredDog - Member
It's still clunky on the device itself, you really need to use with a map and it's still not ideal, but the SatSynch software for PC and Mac now works fine, so online route planning and transfer a GPX file over is the way to go.
Ah - SatSynch was the bit that was missing.

Is the OS mapping actually necessary?
There are definitely times when it's useful. Having been weaned on a Garmin Geko (sans mapping) I can think of situation where a number of tracks have all split out from one junction and it can be difficult to determine just which left track one is to travel along, sometimes necessitating a retreat. Reference to a map can resolve this PDQ. My old Geko has seen better days and I'm considering the alternatives.

The other point to make is that navigational errors made while cycling tend to escalate fairly rapidly. Discovering you've gone up the wrong path while walking, you're unlikely to have to retreat more than 100metres or so. On a bike, with the head down and going down a nice descent, it's a bit dis-heartening to find you're gonna have to push/ride back up again

Posted 1 year ago #
Clong - Member

Paper maps, hah, i use a sextant and navigate by the stars!!!!

Personally id use a standalone gps, over a phone app. If your considering buying a iphone or a motorola defy, just for the purpose of navigating id say they were a bit compromised. If you have the phone already and want a GPS, just buy teh software and your away, but if you need to buy a phone and the software your nearly up to the cost of a standalone GPS that will have a better battery life and be a bit more up to the job in terms of durability. One thing in defence of the phone GPS, the sataletlie lock is a lot quicker the the garmin unit, even with AGPS turn off.

Posted 1 year ago #
cruzheckler - Member

My advice (for what its worth) - try writing up route cards and using a bike computer. Surely the easiest and most precise way of navigating without a gps etc? Also has the benefit of having a good look at the map before riding.

Essentially measure distances until "decisions" and mark these on the route card with l/r/2nd fork etc. The route card will be small and can be taped onto your top tube

Posted 1 year ago #
BadlyWiredDog - Member

The other nice thing about the phone option is that you can - connection allowing - download mapping from, say, ViewRanger on the fly.

Posted 1 year ago #
clubber - Member

One other and cheaper for many option is to have a cheap GPS, black&white, no mapping with a trail to follow and then a smartphone with app to look at OS/OSM maps only if you need to - apps like EveryTrail Pro (£3 on iphone and I think there's an android version) allow you to download maps to your phone too so you don't even need a signal.

Posted 1 year ago #
DavidB - Member

The map and compass brigade are the same lot who will be leaning on their horns when their advice is taken by motorists in front of them who stop at roundabouts to get the map out.

For sure use the map and compass as a safety device but the OP clearly stated he/she was after GPS advice. A paper map doesn't beep at you when you are veering off course. It doesn't tell you when you've reached a waypoint you have marked. It is tedious to judge distance with a map measurer and it goes out of date and cannot be updated.

I still maintain that battery life kills the smartphone option. But am wondering why you need 1:25 scale mapping? I would heartily recommend the Edge 605 which can be had to close to £150 if you look hard. You can download openstreet map to it for free, or shell out for Garmin topo. You'll get close to 12 hours from the 605. I don't reckon the Edge 800 adds enough value for the money. I have both, luckily I was given the 800 for some work I did for a friend. Glad I never shelled out for it.

Plan routes back at base on Tracklogs, print map (happy paper boys?) and then download route to GPS as a course and follow using either OSM or Topo on screen. If a path is not visible on OSM when you are out there..then use the paper map as backup and when you get home contribute back to the OSM effort.

Posted 1 year ago #
cruzheckler - Member

the gps or phone is rather vulnerable on the bars in a crash tho

Posted 1 year ago #
stilltortoise - Member

As BWD said, there's room for both. I like planning and following a route on a map, but there's a lot of riding out there that isn't on bridleways, RUPPs, BOATs etc or for that matter footpaths. Where I live there is very little (legal) doorstep riding that can be plotted on a map, but I'm sure there's plenty of people with a GPX file of a good "secret" route that can be downloaded in a jiffy. This is especially true of woodland trails. I'd bet most if not all of the man-made trails aren't that well marked on the map.

When I've ridden abroad I certainly wouldn't want to rely on a (usually poor) map to help me find and ride good routes.

Posted 1 year ago #
superfli - Member

Something that flashes at you or makes a sound at each junction would be great. I know on the road a Garmin Edge 506 was good for this. Not sure if you can get OS 25k maps for it though.
Its prob not worth buying a phone just for this, but I've been using viewranger for about a year or so and its great. So many functions that yuo dont realise it can do, but might prove useful in the future! You can plot GPX route files on a PC, upload them to it and follow the route - it'll flash/vibrate/beep at you as you pass waypoints or go offline. Its used by a lot of search and rescue teams now, so thats got to give you confidence http://www.viewranger.com/other/search-and-rescue

Posted 1 year ago #
btonbelle - Member

sorry everyone...that will teach me to not log on when im at work!!

Thanks to all for some very interesting stuff here. i will no doubt be spending most of the weekend researching all of this...will report back with the results and what i decide. All of this is so useful and i want to let you know that i am very grateful for the time you have all taken to write this for me.

happy riding and hope you all get out this weekend to take advantage of the early (and no doubt non-lasting!) summer sun!

Posted 1 year ago #
kennyp - Member

Great sweeping statement there. No, maps aren't 'better' they just have advantages and disadvantages.

It's no more sweeping a statement than someone saying GPS is better. What it is, in fact, is an opinion. My opinion. And as regards the other part of your statement, in my opinion (again the crucial bit) maps have more advantages than disadvantages when compared with GPS. So therefore I'm quite entitled to say maps are better. Other folk obviously think differently. Fair enough.

And as regards the "Luddite" accusation that rather lazily, and tediously, crops up every time this topic gets debated, most of the folk I know that hillwalk or mountain bike do actually carry a GPS. However they very rarely use it. They prefer the old way as they figure it's still the best. We've mountain biked all over the Highlands of Scotland and have a few times tried out the GPS as a mapping tool. However we still go back to map and compass as it's quicker, more reliable, safer and more useful for finding new trails.

I do, as it happens, use a GPS when I'm on the road bike. However it's just a bike computer rather than a mapping tool. It's a Garmin Edge 500 and is a great wee bit of kit; I love it.

Posted 1 year ago #
kennyp - Member

The map and compass brigade are the same lot who will be leaning on their horns when their advice is taken by motorists in front of them who stop at roundabouts to get the map out.

More likely we'll be the ones driving safely when the "I must have the latest technology at all costs" brigade are driving the wrong way up a one-way street because their sat-nav told them to go that way and they've long since lost the ability to think for themselves!

Posted 1 year ago #

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