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Interested to know what people use over a week or so ? If you use gadgets - Garmins/ Sat Maps - how do you manage with charging if camping ? Also does anyone use the OS mapping thing where you pay £20 for the year and print your own maps ?
Just trying to avoid taking too many paper maps - I'm sure things have moved on
powermonkey and the like for charging, also stop at coffee shops and recharge normally.
Garmin 1000 comes with all the mapping you need, no paper required
Depends on what sort of touring - on or off road, and following a planned route, or making it up as you go along?
I have Memory Map on my computer, so I can print out A4 sheets for just the area I need.
For on-road, I think the OS 1:250K maps are good, a few sheets should cover a big distance. For off-road, the OS 1:50K are usually best.
For GPS, I have a Garmin Etrex, with OpenStreetMap loaded. It uses AA batteries, so easy to carry enough spares for a week or two.
Garmin screens are so small when it comes to route finding I find them next to useless
OS maps, sustrans maps if following a non, GPS is useful for turn by turn but no good for overview. You can post maps to yourself at post offices if you want to reduce his I many maps to carry but I've never had the opportunity to go on a long enough tour to need this.
I used OS 1:250'00 maps for my Lands End - John O Groats. Only got lost briefly in Bristol. If I was doing it again probably use the same maps again but carry a smart phone for going through cities
Paper maps for me. usually 1:50 000
Garmin etrex 10, open source UK maps and aa batteries (good for 2 days a set).
I Use memory maps on phone for route changes in the evening (aa battery pack to recharge that but usually a plug can be found at a pub).
Thanks all - some interesting variations - i have always traditionally used paper maps but there seem to be better options out there now.
Last long tour I used a dyne hub, with a USB charger for my iPhone.
Normally I buy a road atlas and pull out the pages I want to use. A good scale, pretty cheap and easily foldable for the bar bag.
Depends what you're doing. Long distance on-road tours, I'd cut out the relevant pages from a road map and use them. You gave to be a bit careful with buying a road atlas for on-road touring though, some are just filled with useless crap like expanded motorway junctions and speed camera locations.
For touring from a fixed base - multiple one day circular rides - I'd go with OS 1:50000.
Can combine those with a GPS for turn by turn but I never rely solely on GPS and as mentioned, they're almost useless for an area overview.
Smartphone for local area stuff, especially finding a campsite/hotel etc in an unfamiliar town.
Garmin Oregon. Full OS 1:50K. Takes AAs so easy to get spare batteries. Add a regulator and you can even keep it topped up from your dynamo.
I have the whole of the UK in 1:25000 and 1:50000. I like it I can print out the area required etc. Oh the software is mapyx quo