I just Dont have enough time to ride off road much so I’m finding myself on the road bike more. Problem is I keep having to take a map with me everywhere. What garmin GPS is best that has visible mapping on. I haven’t got a clue as just use a map and compass whenever I head into the hills.

Cheers boys and girls

eTrex 20 on bars (or in bag) – with OS maps loaded, but if you’re road only, maybe some detuned mapping set would work equally well.

Nowt wrong with maps.

Nowt wrong with maps.

on the road a reasonable sense of direction, the ability to read signs and an ordered list of the villages on your route taped to the top tube is probably enough.

Any cheap tomtom off ebay?

Do you want to plan a route ahead of time or just go out, get lost and then find your way home?

Either way, the cheapest would be to take a pen and paper with you.

Get an app like Strava or Maverick where you can track how you got somewhere and then can help you plan to get home.

A £1.99 road atlas and a pair of scissors will do you just as well. The scissors are optional if you can tear straight lines.

The tears don’t even have to be straight to be fair.

I’ve got a simple Garmin 200 and planned a 70 mile road ride on Garmin connect and up loaded it to the 200. It’s only a basic line but it got me round on roads that 70% i’ve never ridden before with only one missed turn as it was at the bottom of a fast decent but the Garmin did a loud beep and said turn around on the screen.

A map & a map board like in the ‘olden days’?

Make sure your bed is orientated north/south.

Android phone?

UK atlas. its a 1;50k and 1:25k OS map app. only downer is the fact yo cant download them. but if you open the app at home and/or somewhere with 3g, find your starting point you can keep it open until you reach your starting point. (screen can go off, thats fine) then you have a nice little red dot showing you where you are. Helped me loads of times.
far far cheaper than the official OS maps app.

link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mooksoft.osatlas&hl=en

Forgive me for the apparent sarcasm , it’s really not meant that way, but how about looking at a map before you go out and town/ village names and go out and ride and use those giant roadside signs that tell you towns and villages and ride a loop, use the sun or your trusty compass in your pocket. It’s what I do on road rides yeah, some may end up 10 miles more than planned give or take some almost perfect circles when played back on the Garmin 200 download and that’s without a compass. I must admit I was well travelled nationally and geographically know where all the cities/towns are and major motorways and which way they run ie north /south.

What you need is a woman.

You’ll still be lost, but at least you’ll be lost with absolute confidence that you aren’t.

viewranger app with full OS maps on your iphone so when unsure get it out then turn round, thats what I’ve been doing as previously I just followed the OH.

Man asks for advice on navigation device as he would rather that than use his compass and map…cue 7 posts telling him to use a map 🙄

I’m with you OP, I know this goes against the soul of cycling or some bollocks but I I’ve never seen the joy in getting lost or found my inner child by discovering a great descent when I take a wrong turn.

For me, I’m only really interested in plotting a route and then riding it as fast as I can. It’s pretty easy to navigate using an OS map but it’s clearly much more convenient to use a GPS device rather than having to suffer turgid stop-a-thons every 20mins to fish a map out your back pocket.

What’s wrong with Google maps?

Alternatively:

tinribz – Member
What’s wrong with Google maps?

They either need a network which requires data, or you have to remember to cache a section of map before you go, whereas a Garmin, or a smartphone loaded with something like UK Map or Viewranger already have the maps loaded so you don’t need any network connection.
Plus you get all the tiny lanes, and footpaths and byways in case you might be forced into a shortcut.
As happened to the son of a work collegue, who rode all the way down Lyneham Banks, only to find the bridge over the railway in Dauntcey was closed for rebuilding. He had Strava on his phone, but nothing else, so he slogged all the way back up, and took the (very) long way back, whereas if he’d had OS maps he’d have seen there were a couple of lanes, closed to motorised traffic, that he could have used, or, even shorter, a footpath that would have taken him back around to the main road for a few minutes walking.

Once again the stw massive have delivered their usual useful mix of sarcasm.
So after 23 responses my choices are

Take a map
Take an enormous ball of string
Fill every pocket and crevice with crumbs
Use my phone.

And one really useful post of “read the large road signs ”

Thanks guys. I may not be an wiser on bar mounted gps devices but on my next ride but I will take all your valuable wisdom with me.

Sorry my post wasn’t helpful 🙁

How much do you want to spend?
I have a Mio 505 GPS unit, the Mioshare website is easy to use and links to Strava etc. The unit has WiFi so no need to connect it to your PC to upload recorded routes/download route files etc.

On the map front, the Ordnance Survey offer their maps as free downloads.
https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/opendatadownload/products.html
One of the first two works best for road, second one down iirc?

So you can print to your hearts content, combine that with a laminator or A4 sealey bag and your sorted.

Maverick maps do a half decent, free to use OS mapping APP. Just make sure you’ve downloaded the correct map tiles(for free) And if you get really REALLY lost you can send your location via text message(recipient gets a google maps link and lat/long) for which only they need internet access, you just need a phone signal.

Second the use of an etrex 20. No need to buy maps, use openstreetmap. (I have a UK OS style map I have produced from OSM you can have if I can get it on a disk!).

Can also be used for walking. Download routes from tracklogs etc.
Good bit of kit.

Rich.

To be fair Kuco has a point my mate did 120 odd mile road ride using his Garmin 200 having pre made the course on mapping. And what’s wrong with remembering town/ village names and using road sins, how do you think folk went on rides before the advent of mobile phones and electronic devices.

I have gone down the route of cheap phone and oryxmaps but have yet to mount it on road bike but tbh I quite like going out with just a list of villages to visit and then following the road signs. I have always gotten lost but found my way home again – good way to get to know the lay of the land

If you want a map to follow. Garmin 800 is a good bet or the Garmin Touring which is v similar

As Kuco suggests you can do far worse than getting a Garmin Edge 200 or 500.
I use gpsies.com to do the routes and just follow the trace.

If you wanna just ride and follow an on screen map you’ll need something more advanced…

I said Maverick, but I meant Backcountry app

garmin 800 is prob the best cycling gps with great OS maps and is good for off road to

And one really useful post of “read the large road signs ”

If the OP considers this useful advice, I dispair for him. Just how did he get to adulthood? 🙄

Irony not your strong point? 🙂

I picked up a Garmin E-trex 20 in the Amazon sales at Christmas.

Not got round to using it yet (need to download the free maps and get a bike mount) but I went for it as it was cheap and saves killing my phone battery and stopping to get my fragile smart phone out of my backpack. Couldnt justify spending £100s on one of their more fancy models.

+1 Garmin 800.

From Garmin,if you want to pre-plan a route, then a Garmin Edge 200 or 500 allows you to follow a breadcrumb trail. I find this fine and navigate to new areas using it. But if you just want to ride and view a map then you will need the 800 or higher.

There are also gps geared more to navigation without the cycle and training features of the edge units.

There are also alternatives to Garmin. I love my Garmin but use it more for the training features and post ride analysis rather than maps.

Another vote for a Garmin 800 (or 810, I guess – I’m sure it’ll work the same but I’ve never used one).

When I’m heading out on unknown roads – I plot the route on Garmin Connect (surprisingly good interface and works well) and download to the Garmin. Then you can enable turn-by-turn directions and it’ll give you 10s warning and a beep when you need to turn. It’ll beep at you if you go off course and does useful things like distance to finish etc. if you want that.

It also draws the route on the map – though the screen isn’t great for map reading while cycling along (a wee bit too small) but useful to work out what’s going on and you can zoom/scroll easily enough.