Garmin et al - an ignorant question

[Dogtrousers]

Not that @dellzeqq will give a hoot, and indeed nor do I, but the latest magnet-less cadence sensors from Garmin are very picky about which Garmin device they'll connect to. They won't connect to the Oregon.

 

[martint235]

As for mounts, RAM Mounts are the way forward. This quick relase thingy works a treat. http://www.rammount.com/part/RAP-274-1U

I just drilled a couple of extra holes in the bottom of the cage part and then cable tied it to the stem over a bit of inner tube. It's one less thing to break.

 

[mmmmartin]

@dellzeqq - a few things:

• I'd be very happy to spend a day out on the bike running through what I know and how I use it.
  
• i use a Garmin 64, AA batteries are obtainable everywhere, you need a pair every couple of days if it is on all day, rechargeable internal batteries are the pits.
• use the lanyard, shorten it to 8 inches - they give you one designed for hanging round the neck while walking, this is far too long for a bike - the unit can fall and be entangled in the front spokes. This is important.
• i use Garmin maps, City Navigator, but it is expensive and Open Street Maps are free and excellent.
• BUT by far the most important thing is to buy it ages before and use it, practice, practice, practice, until it becomes second nature. It took me a couple of years to master my Etrex Vista HcX. These things have all sorts of tweaks - you can find the closest bike shop/hotel/restaurant/train station etc, change the way it routes (pedestrian/walk/delivery/emergency etc), and set the grid reference for the different systems (eg British Grid OS, Dutch Grid, etc). All these things are useful on a tour - sometimes a hotel will give you a grid ref on its website, and the grid ref system can vary between countries. Perhaps the most useful on a tour is setting a point and telling it to route to that point. Putting in addresses (hotels etc) is a bit tricky as they have a different format in various countries. On a long trip, even with a pre-planned route, you will change your plans. In rural areas, on long country roads, nav is easier (obvs), but in towns it is trickier, obvs, and you can set the GPS to route you to a spot just outside the town and it'll take you the straightest line through the town, this is really very useful. When on a day off, you can set your accommodation as a waymark and use the GPS to get you to museums etc, and back again. But all this needs practice.
• I prefer to use routes for the beeps and arrows, others prefer tracks. If you set a destination the unit will work out a route - so you get beeps and arrows - but if you design a track and put it in the unit: no beeps and arrows, merely a pink line on the map.
• I suppose what I'm saying in a longwinded way is that the actual unit itself is less important than lots of other things. It's a bit like a bike: which one you buy matters less than how you use it.

Again - happy to spend a day showing what you can do.

 

[StuAff]

@dellzeqq - a few things:

• I'd be very happy to spend a day out on the bike running through what I know and how I use it.
  
• i use a Garmin 64, AA batteries are obtainable everywhere, you need a pair every couple of days if it is on all day, rechargeable internal batteries are the pits.
• use the lanyard, shorten it to 8 inches - they give you one designed for hanging round the neck while walking, this is far too long for a bike - the unit can fall and be entangled in the front spokes. This is important.
• i use Garmin maps, City Navigator, but it is expensive and Open Street Maps are free and excellent.
• BUT by far the most important thing is to buy it ages before and use it, practice, practice, practice, until it becomes second nature. It took me a couple of years to master my Etrex Vista HcX. These things have all sorts of tweaks - you can find the closest bike shop/hotel/restaurant/train station etc, change the way it routes (pedestrian/walk/delivery/emergency etc), and set the grid reference for the different systems (eg British Grid OS, Dutch Grid, etc). All these things are useful on a tour - sometimes a hotel will give you a grid ref on its website, and the grid ref system can vary between countries. Perhaps the most useful on a tour is setting a point and telling it to route to that point. Putting in addresses (hotels etc) is a bit tricky as they have a different format in various countries. On a long trip, even with a pre-planned route, you will change your plans. In rural areas, on long country roads, nav is easier (obvs), but in towns it is trickier, obvs, and you can set the GPS to route you to a spot just outside the town and it'll take you the straightest line through the town, this is really very useful. When on a day off, you can set your accommodation as a waymark and use the GPS to get you to museums etc, and back again. But all this needs practice.
• I prefer to use routes for the beeps and arrows, others prefer tracks. If you set a destination the unit will work out a route - so you get beeps and arrows - but if you design a track and put it in the unit: no beeps and arrows, merely a pink line on the map.
• I suppose what I'm saying in a longwinded way is that the actual unit itself is less important than lots of other things. It's a bit like a bike: which one you buy matters less than how you use it.

Again - happy to spend a day showing what you can do.

Nail hit on head. Whatever you go for- and despite all the previous discussions/arguments about Edge vs outdoor Garmins, any of these devices our little IT Crowd are using are perfectly capable of doing everything you'll need it to- practice will make less imperfect.

 

[dellzeqq]

thankyou all for our advice - and Martin, I'll be in touch.

I will be taking paper maps, (I confess to being a bit of a mapboy - who sets off for Whitby with 17, yes, seventeen, Landranger maps in his bar bag?), which, given that the route follows the Trois Règles de Grand Tourisme (1. Simplify. 2. Simplify. 3. Simplify), will suffice for the long stretches between towns, but I wanted a back-up for the bits within towns.

I will (naturally) have gone through the entire route on Streetview and I will (naturally) have printed route sheets for every day, showing the tricky bits at different scales together with screengrabs from Streetview, but that didn't stop me getting lost in some industrial estate in Bera.

So...while I'm reasonably confident about Paris from the northwest, the route out toward Auxerre involves some not so obvious turns and some forest paths. Turin looks complicated. There are minor roads in Piedmont without road signs, lots of small towns without a hint of a route marker, and the Italian IGN maps are 1 to 200000 scale. And.....stopping for map reading breaks up the ride, which is more strength sapping than one might think.

I'll give the Etrex thing a go, and then make a decision. The phone may suffice, but if the Garthingy can save just one bit of messing about on a 100+ mile day it will be worthwhile.

 

[Blue Hills]

With some decent planning, an Etrex 20 will easily get you through a 100+ ride.

Ah, Italian roads and maps - lots of roads display numbers you cannot find on the map, or your map tells you you need a certain number and you will search in vain for it used at road level.

I do have a sooty method for route marking on an Etrex 20 which I formulated by "mistake" - seems slightly involved but not with practice - can outline it here if you like. With it I can confiudently set off on a longish ride and just breeze along.

 

[Blue Hills]

You have the wrong avatar

thank you Soo

Cover blown.

sooty method - edited post above.