Morning all,

Heading to Mongolia in a couple of weeks for a motorbike trip round the Gobi and steppes.

Will be unsupported, so looking at navigation options. Intend to use an iPhone but won’t have data so looking at offline maps. Have found ViewRanger which allows you to save offline maps but wondering if anyone has other suggestions?

Anyone who’s done similar – any other tips and tricks would be welcome!

Arguably wrong section due to involving an engine – looks like I can’t move it though…

I take it you’ll have some form of navigation backup other than the iPhone? Anyway, Sounds an amazing trip! I think you can save areas off googlemaps to your phone to use offline, might be handy for satellite imagery?

Open mtb maps downloaded to a micro sd card, then plugged in to a Garmin sat nav ?

Met this guy last year when I was mountain biking across Scotland. He’s just back from Mongolia and has some tips on his blog.

A pretty amazing outing!

Long tours are usually best served with a rolling roadbook, some sort of GPS for coordinates and a paper map.

If you’re just going to be going from town to town and don’t care much about the route or getting lost, you could just get a offline maps app like this and take your chances.
But I’d still back it up with a paper map, if for nothing else, but to give you the ‘big picture’

It might be worth taking along a Spot device (http://findmespot.com) then at least other people will know where you are, even if you don’t…

Rachel

There’s a lot of stuff here
http://advrider.com/forums/search.php?searchid=35771911
And here
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/northern-asia/

Cheers for the link Gareth and the other tips everyone else.

We will have a paper map, but have been advised that we’ll rely on GPS as there’s often a lack of defined roads.. 🙂

I’ve found google maps and OpenStreetMap (on a laptop with a GPS receiver running some software called Quantum GIS) useful in the past for this sort of thing. But, as others have said, I’ve always mainly relied on a paper map (or 2). Much easier to use and more reliable.
Some of the ‘roads’ I’ve encountered have been barely passable, so if it’s not marked as a road on a map it’s probably not worth trying.

take a good compass for when your electrical stuff breaks down.

advrider and HUBB, a hundred times over.

are you taking your own bike?

Pictures… we will need pictures. If i win the lottery this weekend can I come?

Lyndon Poskitt has just finished the Mongolia rally have a look at his blog for some great photos and adventures

http://www.lyndonposkittracing.com/blog/

ooops that seems to be just his Dakar blog, have a search on the web for the Mongolia stuff.

Hiring a bike… Probably a DRZ-650. I shall endeavour to take lots of photos and report back.

anagallis_arvensis – you are more than welcome to join!

I’m too chicken 🙁

But good luck for you!

Hi Ben,

Like Gareth said, I just got back from Mongolia. I’m more into technical enduro, so we were making our way between the northern and central route, through the mountains, west to east. Gobi and the south is apparently more flat.

I was using OSM maps. They are fairly accurate but need a little creative navigation here and there. Some roads were way off from their location on the map or just completely impassable, as we found out the hard way 🙂

You definately need a good paper map to back up any electrical navigation. Also take dust into account, as it’s….bountiful. I was using a Garmin Montana 600, which performed well in the dry and dusty conditions of Mongolia as well as the super wet in Siberia. I guess the iPhone might work if you get it sealed properly. I would recommend getting a proper GPS unit though. I’ve yet to see a phone that actually works consistently in navigation for several days.

Like konabunny said ADVRider and HUBB are the best resources for all info. I also have a bunch of .gpx, POI:s as well as general info on fuel, food etc. Feel free to drop me a line if you need the info.

It’ll be an epic journey for sure. Mongolia is incredible.

contacts: http://therollinghobo.com/the-hobo

Those photos you have of Finland are awesome…