Garmin

[Ming the Merciless]

Whether Garmin or Wahoo the easiest way to plan a route is on a PC / Mac with a keyboard. Ride with gps is particularly good if planning a tour as you can pull up street view to get a sense of a road you are thinking of using. It can also show you the National cycle routes and where bed and breakfasts / pubs are. I wouldn’t just click on start and end as no route planner will pick something perfectly aligned to your preferences. I usually click along the outline route I fancy, checking roads with street view (within RWGPS) to see if they match what I think the mapping is telling me about them.

The screenshot below is RWGPS from some tour planning I was doing earlier. The resultant route will be sent to my Garmin, from my phone, nearer the time. Planned on PC, once happy, export and import to Garmin Connect which auto syncs to phone app, then send to GPS just before starting tour. Any mid tour edits are done on the phone. Once tour finished I delete them off the GPS.

 

[lazybloke]

I'm quite happy with my Explore 2 (a Garmin product) for for a while I followed the development of the "Beeline" GPS, which has a very simply display on the handlebars looking like this:

It's all setup by a companion Beeline app on a phone, but the interesting thing is you can just use the companion app on its own to try out the interface and functionality. So anyone dabbling in the idea of a bike GPS could try the app and see if they like the concept.
IF they do, then they can consider an actual headunit, either from Garmin, Wahoo, Beeline, Hammerhead, or any of the others.

Or just stick with a phone in a case on the handlebars and use Beeline or anyone of a gazillion apps.

 

[wiggydiggy]

Well colour me impressed, just took it out on a walk to the post office (yes Ive still got one lol) and as soon as I finished the ride it synced up autmatically to the Garmin Connect App and RWGPS.

 

[bobzmyunkle]

no route planner will pick something perfectly aligned to your preferences.

Cycletravel is quite good with a few quirks. More quirks in urban areas. I usually use RWGPS on a PC when planning. But for an ad-hoc route when I have no PC access, Cycletravel is pretty good. Just remember to set it to 'paved' or your route might get a bit adventurous.

 

[PaulSB]

I wonder how far we are from an app on your phone + quadlock.

I think the Karoo runs an android os - if everyone starts doing that and the price of head unit is mobile phone territory it seems the logical next step. A high end app.

For my money we are already there. I wouldn't use my phone for navigation attached to the bars. It isn't designed for this purpose, is vulnerable to weather and crashes.

Having said that I recently used it, handle bar mounted and navigating for two short rides. I was holidaying Croatia, and had the opportunity to use a bike supplied by the holiday company.

I was impressed by how secure the mount was on the bars. The holiday company supplied +/- 20 routes on Strava. I chose a different route for each ride and used the Strava app for navigation and recording.

The recording was fine. The navigation was absolutely diabolical and didn't even come close to the standards offered by Garmin or Wahoo. I'd have to have exhausted every other option before I use the Strava app to navigate again.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Cycletravel is quite good with a few quirks.

It often jumps onto a convoluted route along a National cycle route when I’d prefer a more direct B road. Plus it absolutely hates A roads even if I’m deliberately trying to plot along them, because I know it fine.

 

[Mike_P]

If planning a route somewhere you are unfamiliar with I find it helps to follow it on Google Streetscene. Then if theres a section of road you do not like the look of you can see at tweaking the routing.

 

[kingrollo]

5 pages in and no one has suggested using an os map yet !!! What's going on cyclechatters !!!

 

[Mike_P]

5 pages in and no one has suggested using an os map yet !!! What's going on cyclechatters !!!

I have the app on my mobile with the free if you buy a printed map mapping on it.

 

[kingrollo]

I have the app on my mobile with the free if you buy a printed map mapping on it.

I don't understand?

 

[Ming the Merciless]

5 pages in and no one has suggested using an os map yet !!! What's going on cyclechatters !!!

The OP has likely already been using that option already. No need to suggest and you can use both at same time if touring.

 

[Mike_P]

I don't understand?

Buy a paper or laminated OS map and you can download via their app on your mobile the same map free of charge.

 

[Always Cross]

On the os paper map you buy, on the back is a grey patch you scratch this off which reveals a code you go on the os app/web site I can’t remember that bit put in the code from the map and that map is put on your phone for you to use.

 

[rualexander]

I usually plan routes in OutdoorActive app on phone (or tablet if at home) as I can do it on Ordnance Survey mapping which I prefer, particularly for off-road routes.
Luckily I have access to whole of UK OS mapping on OurdoorActive as legacy mapping from my Viewranger account.
A route planned in OutdoorActive can be set to automatically appear in Garmin Connect from where it can be transferred to my Garmin Edge Explore.

 

[Always Cross]

How do you get on with outdoor active. I miss viewranger as I could set it to show me all the tracks I’d ridden on the map the same as a heatmap