Going back to absolute basics, here’s the core functionality/use I make out of my gps:
I got a geko 201 to save time on our Sat morning exploration rides. It’s meant we spend less time messing with maps in unfamiliar places and more time out riding. Rides are first pre-planned on memory map, which also tells you accurately how much distance/climbing is involved, and you can configure it to estimate time taken. V handy.
When you’ve done your planning, you connect the gps to the pc with a cable you buy separately, and load up the details. Then you clip it to your handlebars (handlebar mount also costs separately). Tends to take a couple of mins to first connect to satellites when you switch it on.
You basically have 2 navigation specific screens on a geko – one which shows your planned route as a thick black line and you can see whether you’re on it or not because you can see the track you’ve actually followed as a thin dotted line. I tend to stay on that screen most of the time. And then there’s a compass screen with a direction arrow on it and you can simply follow the direction of the arrow to navigate too.
There is loads of other info, and you can do things like re-trace your route etc but the stuff I use most when on a ride other than the 2 screens above is trip distance, altitude, and grid refs. If in doubt you’d still need to get out a proper map. The gps will tell you the grid ref you’re at to 6 figures and if you couple that with altitude it’s easy to work out where you are on the map.
There is a “mark” facility – you press it for eg if you pass something that looks an interesting spot you might want to look at on the map for another time. Perhaps a new potential downhill you don’t know where it goes to?
You can plot a route or changes to the route on a geko if you’re Einstein and have 36 hours to play with. It involves manually adding waypoint grid refs which you pick up from a map and interpret accurately. Don’t even go there in practice.
Signal accuracy is v good, but I have found the gps unable to pick up a location twice on 2 particularly cloudy/rainy/foggy rides in the lakes & dales. On both occasions this was in an exposed position – no trees around to interfere with the signal. Also occasionally happens in thick tree cover. I ride at least once a week, and have been using the gps for years – only had this type of issue 3 or 4 times, but it shows you can’t absolutely depend on it in isolation. You still need maps/compass in case you lose the signal, the device gets bust, or you need to plan a bail out in an emergency.
Then when you get home, you load the track and marks you’ve just followed on your PC and bingo, you have it stored for ever, along with how long it took, what speed you were going at any particular point, altitude gained, and so on. You can then print it off, send it as a pdf, send it to others with memory map, plonk it onto google earth or whatever.
Battery life tends to be about 6-8 hours – it runs on 2x AAAs. Re-chargeables give a longer battery life, and if I’m on a long ride I always carry spares. Cold weather affects battery life.
To use it abroad you re-configure it to say, dsiplay in the French equivalent to ur OS grid refs.
The Geko is now ancient, and the more modern GPS kit carries a map in colour on the device, as does the phone option. But no doubt there’s other stuff they’re better at too – at a price. So maybe peeps with the more modern stuff could tell you what you get over and above this for the extra to help you make your decision?
Phew!
