# sat nav for pushbike



## Sale Madrid (20 Jun 2012)

I wonder if anyone can suggest a good sat nav for my bike. I currently struggle to motivate myself to ride and I'm new to the area where I live. I'd like to set a destination on a sat nav and ride there. I have a tom tom for my car and I think it's great so I'd like a similar format for my bike, if such a format exists for a bike. Someone briefly showed me a Garmin Edge 800 but it looked a bit fiddly, the map was a bit rubbish and he said it was £300, surely there is a better, cheaper alternative that's more like a Tom Tom in ease of use and price. Thanks


----------



## ColinJ (20 Jun 2012)

Whatever you buy, from what you've been posting in the 'other' thread I reckon your Tom Tom will be getting far more use ...


----------



## Sale Madrid (20 Jun 2012)

ColinJ said:


> Whatever you buy, from what you've been posting in the 'other' thread I reckon your Tom Tom will be getting far more use ...


----------



## ColinJ (20 Jun 2012)

Use some cable ties to attach your Tom Tom to your handlebars?


----------



## Sale Madrid (20 Jun 2012)

I've just done that but the wife says she's not prepared to drive next to me just so I can plug it into her cars 12v power supply.


----------



## NotthatJasonKenny (20 Jun 2012)

iPhone plus satnav app and waterproof holder. I'll be doing that for my 100 mile ride in August, can't afford to get lost and do even more miles! Gulp!


----------



## Sale Madrid (20 Jun 2012)

NotthatJasonKenny said:


> iPhone plus satnav app and waterproof holder. I'll be doing that for my 100 mile ride in August, can't afford to get lost and do even more miles! Gulp!


Cool. I've got a samsung galaxy but I've only just worked out how to answer a call. maybe i can get a sat nav for that....and a waterproof cover


----------



## HovR (21 Jun 2012)

Sale Madrid said:


> Cool. I've got a samsung galaxy but I've only just worked out how to answer a call. maybe i can get a sat nav for that....and a waterproof cover


 
Samsung Galaxy should have both the "Maps" app (Google Maps) and "Navigation" (Sat Nav style thing) installed by default. I wouldn't worry about rain. Somehow I don't think your first instinct upon seeing it pouring down would be to go out for a cycle ride.


----------



## Mr Haematocrit (21 Jun 2012)

One of the biggest advantages of the Edge over many other sat nav's on a bike is the ability to configure the device so that it does not utilize main routes such as motorways etc. A generic sat nav will in many cases take you directly towards these.


----------



## Sale Madrid (21 Jun 2012)

So maps/apps on an android phone will give motorways as an option. That wouldn't be any good.


HovR said:


> Samsung Galaxy should have both the "Maps" app (Google Maps) and "Navigation" (Sat Nav style thing) installed by default. I wouldn't worry about rain. Somehow I don't think your first instinct upon seeing it pouring down would be to go out for a cycle ride.


I've decided going forward, the best way is to throw hundreds and hundreds of pounds at it to see if that motivates me. And Jason, if you happen to see a bloke with a smart carbon bike, garmin edge 800 and sky kit pedalling along, crying and cussing, don't even think about speaking to him


----------



## defy-one (21 Jun 2012)

I hope your joking!
Cycling isn't about spending lots of money. Get out a ride whatever you have before upgrading to expensive equipment


----------



## sheddy (21 Jun 2012)

Its all about the battery (our tom tom is rubbish, but it is rather old)


----------



## SquareDaff (21 Jun 2012)

I'm wondering the same thing. Considering either the Edge 800 or the Bryton Rider 50. Anyone have any opinions on either?


----------



## NotthatJasonKenny (21 Jun 2012)

Sale Madrid said:


> So maps/apps on an android phone will give motorways as an option. That wouldn't be any good.
> I've decided going forward, the best way is to throw hundreds and hundreds of pounds at it to see if that motivates me. And Jason, if you happen to see a bloke with a smart carbon bike, garmin edge 800 and sky kit pedalling along, crying and cussing, don't even think about speaking to him



I'll try not to! Where in Chorley do you live? I'm in Adlington on the fairview.


----------



## Sale Madrid (21 Jun 2012)

I'm in the process of moving - living with my mate in Tyldesley while I sort out my Chorley move - Buckshaw village. I know Adlington - Mr Fredricks ice cream shop


----------



## black'n'yellow (21 Jun 2012)

530kam said:


> Cycling isn't about spending lots of money. Get out a ride whatever you have before upgrading to expensive equipment


 
he's already tried that - he can't do it.


----------



## ColinJ (21 Jun 2012)

I have the perfect answer - you could throw the hundreds of pounds at me to be your cycling partner - I always fancied being a pro cyclist!


----------



## martint235 (21 Jun 2012)

Garmin Etrex is the way to go. Not as stupidly expensive as the Edge and if you find yourself on a particularly long ride you're able to change the batteries (standard AAs) unlike the Edge series. Believe me there are few things worse than being 50 miles from home in unfamiliar country and getting the "beep" that says your sat nav is giving up.


----------



## Flyingfox (21 Jun 2012)

I've got a Garmin and love it, phone Apps are good but be prepared to drain your battery!


----------



## defy-one (21 Jun 2012)

Garmin Extrex over a edge 200?


----------



## martint235 (21 Jun 2012)

530kam said:


> Garmin Extrex over a edge 200?


For me yes. If you plan to ride for more than 15 hours away from a plug eg LEL then etrex is better than Edge 

Sent from my MID using Tapatalk 2


----------



## Sale Madrid (22 Jun 2012)

Does the etrex tell you where to go, you know, arrows pointing the way, left and right and straight on etc just like a tom tom, cos that's what I need.....type in lancaster and it guides me there...


----------



## defy-one (22 Jun 2012)

Only the Garmin 705 and 800 can give you that


----------



## Sale Madrid (22 Jun 2012)

I've looked at the 800 on Amazon. Why is it 3 times dearer than a tom tom, just because it's bike specific ?


----------



## defy-one (22 Jun 2012)

Tomtom is in the car market which has many competitors. How many are bike specific?


----------



## jowwy (22 Jun 2012)

Sale Madrid said:


> I've looked at the 800 on Amazon. Why is it 3 times dearer than a tom tom, just because it's bike specific ?


seriously now - why dont you just stick to swinging your raquets and having a pims on the lawn when you've finished


----------



## Sale Madrid (22 Jun 2012)

jowwy said:


> seriously now - why dont you just stick to swinging your raquets and having a pims on the lawn when you've finished


Jowwy, dude, if you're going to slag racquets off, at least get the spelling right son. By the way, I understand you've reduced the Raleigh Sprint Road to turbo trainer duties...how does it feel about that, is it happy ?


----------



## Sale Madrid (22 Jun 2012)

defy-one said:


> Tomtom is in the car market which has many competitors. How many are bike specific?


Yeah, I guess so. Have you got one and are they worth it ?


----------



## defy-one (22 Jun 2012)

I want a 800, but can't justify the cost after new bike,pedals,shoes,lights,pump etc etc

I will get the Garmin edge 200 for stats and being able to upload my rides. That will have to do for now. I always carry my phone which has sat nav on it, so no fear of getting lost


----------



## Sale Madrid (22 Jun 2012)

defy-one said:


> I want a 800, but can't justify the cost after new bike,pedals,shoes,lights,pump etc etc
> 
> I will get the Garmin edge 200 for stats and being able to upload my rides. That will have to do for now. I always carry my phone which has sat nav on it, so no fear of getting lost


Cool. I can understand that but I'm not terribly tekky, I just want directions to my destination without thinking/looking at a map. You'd think with the thousands of cyclists there'd be a gap in the market for a user friendly sat nav at a reasonable price.


----------



## ColinJ (22 Jun 2012)

Sale Madrid said:


> Cool. I can understand that but I'm not terribly tekky, I just want directions to my destination without thinking/looking at a map. You'd think with the thousands of cyclists there'd be a gap in the market for a user friendly sat nav at a reasonable price.


I prefer to decide where I go rather than being told where to go by a machine so I use a plain old GPS rather than a 'sat nav'. I work out my route at home and upload it to the GPS. All it does is show me where to turn to follow my own route. There are numerous cycling GPS models available for under £100 which do the job really well.


----------



## Sale Madrid (22 Jun 2012)

ColinJ said:


> I prefer to decide where I go rather than being told where to go by a machine so I use a plain old GPS rather than a 'sat nav'. I work out my route at home and upload it to the GPS. All it does is show me where to turn to follow my own route. There are numerous cycling GPS models available for under £100 which do the job really well.


So all I do is find a destination on-line - plug the cycling GPS in and it downloads the route - I put the GPS on the bike and then it gives me directions. Is that right ?


----------



## theloafer (22 Jun 2012)

have the edge 800 ... dam fine bit of kit clever as eggs .. instructions are crap though you just have to fiddle with it to learn yourself .. battery life is ok even when used for 10+ hours you just have to turn things of that you do not use  i just bought the base model and got the mapping else where.


----------



## ColinJ (23 Jun 2012)

Sale Madrid said:


> So all I do is find a destination on-line - plug the cycling GPS in and it downloads the route - I put the GPS on the bike and then it gives me directions. Is that right ?


Yes, if someone happens to have plotted that particular journey already. If not, plot it yourself and share it online.


----------



## defy-one (23 Jun 2012)

Colin - will the edge 200 do that?


----------



## ColinJ (23 Jun 2012)

defy-one said:


> Colin - will the edge 200 do that?


A quick search online suggests that it would.

I'm still using a very old yellow Garmin Etrex, the bottom of the range model which was replaced by the Etrex H. They have been replaced by new models but you can still pick them up if you shop around and you can get them very cheap.

They are waterproof and very rugged, though a little old-fashioned-looking.

They use AA batteries and a decent pair of NiMH cells will last 24+ hours.

They don't have mapping capability so you are limited to following pre-planned routes, which suits me fine 99% of the time. Only once was that a problem when my route over Snake Pass was not possible due to a road closure. I improvised a detour before rejoining my original route further on.

My biggest gripes: you need to connect via a special cable and an old-fashioned RS232 serial port or buy an extra RS232-to-USB converter; you need to buy a separate handlebar mount which is expensive for a couple of bits of plastic, and my Etrex rattles a bit in the mount.

Total price of that lot would be about £70-75 if you shopped around.


----------



## Svendo (23 Jun 2012)

defy-one said:


> Tomtom is in the car market which has many competitors. How many are bike specific?


It also has much more functionality (ant+, cadence, etc. virtual partner and training stuff) much more battery life (as mentioned above) and is properly waterproof (there's youtube video of bike satnavs being put in the bath for 5 minutes and working fine throughout). My Garmin Edge 705 has also come off the bars (user related causes!) at speed, bounced down the road and survived. It's also been in many crashes and faithfully records the frightening deceleration! I reckon car satnavs wouldn't manage that. Or smart phones come to that.


----------



## yello (23 Jun 2012)

Sale Madrid said:


> the best way is to throw hundreds and hundreds of pounds at it to see if that motivates me


 
It won't. And I'm sure there are owners of multi-thousand quid bikes up and down the land that'd agree with me.

As to which sat-nav, from what you've stated as your purpose, I'd suggest the Garmin Edge 705. It looks better with dust on it.


----------



## tincaman (23 Jun 2012)

Handtec has a NOH Garmin Edge 705 for £192
http://www.handtec.co.uk/product.php/6383/garmin-edge-705-heart-rate-monitor---speed-cadence---noh


----------



## NotthatJasonKenny (23 Jun 2012)

Cycling is about whatever you want it to be, don't feel the pressure to ride three times per week if you don't want to, if you want to spend £2k on kit and ride it twice a month then if that's what you enjoy it's fine!

All sat nav give you the option of avoiding motorways on a journey so just use whatever you are happy with/can afford. I use my iPhone and copilot which has car, cycle or walk journey settings. It does drain the battery tho, especially with cyclemeter running too! With just cyclemeter running my 1yr old iPhone managed for 6 hours during last years cat&fiddle.


----------



## Sale Madrid (23 Jun 2012)

tincaman said:


> Handtec has a NOH Garmin Edge 705 for £192
> http://www.handtec.co.uk/product.php/6383/garmin-edge-705-heart-rate-monitor---speed-cadence---noh


Handtec also have the 800 for £245.99. Not knowing much about these things, is it worth paying an extra £50 for the 800 over the 705 or am I just being anal....again !


----------



## antnee (24 Nov 2012)

Hello all
Just in case I missed it somewhere on the forum. I am looking to buy a budget sat nav which I can upload my route from bikehike or opencyclemap.org which will just show me the OS map or the NCR's in some detail. though I would take a large scale map perhaps as well so I can look some considerable milage ahead
I think perhjaps this may have been covered before but I can't seem to find it now, and buy budget i really mean about £100
Many thanks for any replies. Cheers Antnee

Spelling is not my forte


----------



## compo (24 Nov 2012)

I have a slightly dated Binatone sat-nav in my rack pack. It runs for about 2.5 hours on it's battery and if I am going to need extended time I have an external battery pack I can plug into it which will give me another 4 hours. Mostly a sat-nav is only needed for the last mile or so of a journey when looking for the final destination. I can fix the unit to my bar extender as it is very small but mostly I just set it off and put it in my pocket and just use the voice directions.

It was useful once when I came on a nasty accident in an area where I wasn't familiar and I was able to give the emergency services a precise location. Maps are OK if you know where you are or have good identifiable landmarks but sat-navs come into their own if you don't know where you are.


----------



## Cyclopathic (24 Nov 2012)

Just get a local a to z and stick it to the handlebars. If you like you can draw a route on it in red pen and follow that. And give me hundreds of pounds...for motivation and the like.


----------



## SomethingLikeThat (24 Nov 2012)

I'd rather just use my phone.


----------



## Cyclopathic (25 Nov 2012)

SomethingLikeThat said:


> I'd rather just use my phone.


How do you mean? Ring some one and ask them the way.


----------



## SomethingLikeThat (26 Nov 2012)

Cyclopathic said:


> How do you mean? Ring some one and ask them the way.


No, I mean using a maps app or GPS.


----------



## betty swollocks (26 Nov 2012)

Sorry, but what's wrong with a map?
With an os map, you get and idea of context ie where you are to everything else and and indication of the terrain.
Plus you are the sole arbiter of where you go and sudden changes of route on a whim are possible and a delight


----------



## Cyclopathic (26 Nov 2012)

SomethingLikeThat said:


> No, I mean using a maps app or GPS.


Really? Phones can do that now? Mine can barely text!


----------



## bigjim (30 Nov 2012)

My Garmin Etrex legend has a goto feature that will give you turn by turn directions and a nice pink line to follow. You can pick one up for about £60.


----------



## antnee (30 Nov 2012)

So Your Garmin etrex Legend has a go to feature on it but can you load the opencyclemap.org on to it with cycle routes on it ok I see you have to buy the download and its about £15.00 I think As I would take a map with me anyway (for a bigger view) but it would be good to see the minor roads to avoid the main lot of traffic even if it takes a little longer, surely more scenic too. Thanks for your input I will go and see if I can find one and perhaps a review of it too.
Regards Antnee


----------



## mrandmrspoves (30 Nov 2012)

Sale Madrid said:


> Handtec also have the 800 for £245.99. Not knowing much about these things, is it worth paying an extra £50 for the 800 over the 705 or am I just being anal....again !


 
If you have a Galaxy you have all you need. Have a look at www.cyclestreets.net - you can plan a route and follow it very easily. The app is free for Android and easy to use.


----------



## mrandmrspoves (30 Nov 2012)

http://www.cyclestreets.net/mobile/android/


----------



## antnee (30 Nov 2012)

So I have been and done abit more research and found that I can't use opencyclemap.org with the basic Garmin etrex legend its has to have an SD card slot ( which the etrex Legend cx appears to have) so you can download the whole of the UK and whatever european country you want on to it. But I can't make out if I can use the cyclestreets.net with it to download to it as the webpage is a bit dauting to an older person like me I have used cyclestreets.net and copied the route out so I know its a pretty good site.


----------



## bigjim (30 Nov 2012)

I have all of europe on a disc that came with my garmin. Does not have to have the card slot, but worth having. You can just plot your routes using , I think any site, and download it to the directly to the Garmin. You can use opencyclemap and save to the garmin. I would save as a GPX file to Mapsource which comes with the Garmin and download from there. I use Bikeroute toaster but you can create your routes in Mapsource. It's IMO not hard. I am sure there are lots of members on here and other sites [type Garmin Legend into this one, http://cycleseven.org] using the Legend with more knowledge than me. I've used mine in France, germany, Austria, Czech Rep. Would not be without it.


----------



## JoeyB (30 Nov 2012)

I have the Edge 800 and love it. Touch screen is very responsive and even works with my super think gloves on!


----------

