I’ve been considering buying a GPS for use on the trails, have looked at the Edge 1000 but the reviews are mixed to say the least and my experience of Garmin Connect isn’t great.

I think part of the problem is that compared to a modern smartphone they’re clunky and the tech seems dated.

I always carry my iPhone (7+) in my pocket or pack but there’s no way I’d strap it to the bars.

Which got me thinking……is there a navigation app that you could run on your phone but use an apple watch for voice commands / follow arrows / view a map?

TIA

I considered Suunto watches for this but decided that having navigation on your wrist is impractical when riding a bike…

vincienup

I strap my suunto round the bars with a sort big rubber fake wrist. It works well

I believe the viewranger app has this functionality, I’ve not  yet tried it myself though.

http://www.viewranger.com/en-gb

A friend uses the standard Apple maps function with his Apple Watch for navigation around town on foot.  It works well for that.  Not sure about how easy to read n your wrist whilst riding or if there are better maps for riding off road.

I think the cellular Apple Watch has huge potential for taking on shorter rides without bothering with a phone.  I’d have one tomorrow just for that if Vodafone (company contract is with them and I don’t want two numbers) wake up to the simless technology.

@ampthill, yep I can see that and there are mounts available for this sort of thing.  It’s not really the answer here though.  A Suunto can reasonably be expected to cope with bring on the bars in a crash.  If the OP doesn’t want his iPhone on the bars in case of damage, then an iWatch on the bars is going to make no more sense for the same reason.

A gps watch worn on a wrist is unlikely to work well for bicycle navigation is perhaps what I should have written…

RunGo app gives haptic and audio prompts, so might be applicable – https://www.rungoapp.com/apple-watch/