Reasonably priced bike computers?

[HobbesOnTour]

Btw when i use google map to plan the route

That there is your main problem.
Google maps is a very far cry from a decent route planner for bikes. Now I understand the A roads question!

Komoot, RWGPS, Strava and especially Osmand will allow you to plan a route, save it and navigate it. As I said above, cycle.travel is an excellent planner. Use it to plan a route (at home) and then follow it (using one of the apps) on your phone on your bike.

While I agree 100% with @PaulSB above I strongly suggest you familiarise yourself with route planning before investing in a unit.

YouTube is your friend. There is no shortage of video tutorials for different apps and online planners.

There's "navigation" and there's navigation.
Do you want turn by turn directions? Breadcrumb trail? Voice instructions? Sounds? Route recalculation? On device planning? Favourite locations? Time/Distance/Climbing remaining? Search options (Postcode, Points of Interest etc.)

Any dedicated cycling computer (of this type) will sync with Strava etc. so recording should be easy.

Bike computers can be great for helping us spread out wings - they can also be bloody frustrating. Take the time to figure out the right one - for you.

 

[fossyant]

Garmin Connect is pretty good for route planning, especially if you have a Garmin Unit. One advantage is the route mapping has heatmaps, like strava (but free), so when you are plotting a route, you can see if other riders have used it - especially useful off road to hopefully avoid footpaths, and also road when picking little back lanes - I wouldn't have found a handy 'cattle bridge' that crosses the A55 in North Wales, avoiding busy roundabouts (although it didn't warn about not using it in the wet - cow slurry = very grim bike).

 

[HobbesOnTour]

you needed the app to plan anything on the fly

I know the Elemnt is discontinued but it was (and is) possible to plan a route on the fly in something like Osmand (offline) and send to the unit. Far superior to Wahoo's own planning options. A real boon for touring.

with Garmin you can route on the device.

Not to be picky but "Garmin" covers a whole lot of models. Not all of them allow routing on the device.
The thing with on device routing in my experience is that it's fine in an emergency just to get from A to B. For planning a "nice" recreational ride? No thanks.

you should should try them out and see what you prefer

Absolutely this! If at all possible try before you buy.
I think a lot of folks think a bike GPS is like a car's SatNav - just switch it on and go.
There are so many variations between models, never mind brands that it can be very confusing. Screen size is smaller, colours can have an impact, touch screen v button and on and on. And some work differently to others.

If spending that kind of money I'd also consider the customer service afterwards too.

 

[vickster]

I know the Elemnt is discontinued but it was (and is) possible to plan a route on the fly in something like Osmand (offline) and send to the unit. Far superior to Wahoo's own planning options. A real boon for touring.



Not to be picky but "Garmin" covers a whole lot of models. Not all of them allow routing on the device.
The thing with on device routing in my experience is that it's fine in an emergency just to get from A to B. For planning a "nice" recreational ride? No thanks.



Absolutely this! If at all possible try before you buy.
I think a lot of folks think a bike GPS is like a car's SatNav - just switch it on and go.
There are so many variations between models, never mind brands that it can be very confusing. Screen size is smaller, colours can have an impact, touch screen v button and on and on. And some work differently to others.

If spending that kind of money I'd also consider the customer service afterwards too.

Fair enough, I meant the Edge bike computers, I have the 830. I assume this can be done on the 530 and 1030 and the touring models?

I don't want to have to faff around in an app or on a website while unsure/lost on the road, I just want to route somewhere be it a town, POI or postcode Clearly pre-planning a day trip or a tour is rather different!

I used the 830 successfully yesterday for a sportive, route uploaded from RWGPS (I'll admit being crap with gadgets and techie stuff a friend had to help me). Yes there were arrows to follow but the Garmin gave me the directions before we could see the signs

 

[Alex321]

If i get the wahoo does it help in navigation? Will i still have to check google maps in my phone to check for routes. Btw when i use google map to plan the route using the cycling icon does it show routes where cycling is allowed i mean the A roads they show

You generally plan your routes on PC or phone, then transfer them to the Wahoo (very easy to do). The Wahoo will recalculate the route if you deviate from the plan, and also has options to do things like "take me back to the start" built in to the device.

I usually use either Strav or RidewithGPS to plan my routes (when I am not just riding the same ones I have ridden before). I find the map screen with the route is much easier to see and follow than it was on my phone (Android) that I used before I got the Wahoo.

You can see a bit of an example of it in use in the screenshot in this post. The black line is where you have been, the chevrons are where you are going (they will be blue if you are off the planned route and it is re-routing you).

 

[HobbesOnTour]

I don't want to have to faff around in an app or on a website while unsure/lost on the road, I just want to route somewhere be it a town, POI or postcode Clearly pre-planning a day trip or a tour is rather different!

On the POI thing.....
I once tried out a Garmin Touring unit and had the bizarre experience of standing on a low hill able to see three distinct campsites and the Garmin told me the nearest one was over 50km away!
The unit worked - just not very well.

Personally I prefer the map on my phone to let me see a bigger picture than that possible on the device.
That's why I suggest the OP has a good think about what they want and how they want to use their phone or device. You weren't impressed with your Elemnt whereas I loved mine!

 

[vickster]

You can see a bit of an example of it in use in the screenshot in this post. The black line is where you have been, the chevrons are where you are going (they will be blue if you are off the planned route and it is re-routing you).

I couldn’t get my head around how to follow routes in that way at all! I need something that looks like a map.
I’ve never followed a route on my phone, it lives in the rack or saddle pack when on the bike not handlebars

 

[HobbesOnTour]

The Wahoo will recalculate the route if you deviate from the plan, and also has options to do things like "take me back to the start" built in to the device.

I really, really don't want to be "that guy" but not all Wahoos operate like that.
There are still some original Elemnts out there and I think the older Bolts are the same.
(The option can also be deactivated in settings).

It's really important, I think, for the OP to verify these kinds of details before committing.

 

[Alex321]

I couldn’t get my head around how to follow routes in that way at all! I need something that looks like a map.
I’ve never followed a route on my phone, it lives in the rack or saddle pack when on the bike not handlebars

It is a map, in the bottom half of the screen - the bit with the chevrons. I have it set so that below that it shows the upcoming elevation profile. You can adjust the settings so that the map takes up more of the screen.

You then have the black bar which comes up whenever you are getting close to a cue point, telling you how far and what direction you will be turning.

 

[Alex321]

I really, really don't want to be "that guy" but not all Wahoos operate like that.
There are still some original Elemnts out there and I think the older Bolts are the same.
(The option can also be deactivated in settings).

It's really important, I think, for the OP to verify these kinds of details before committing.

That is a good point. You are right that the older Bolt didn't have the re-route feature, and if buying second hand, neither did the original Elemnt (pretty sure that isn't available new anywhere now).

It is only the Roam and the new Bolt which have the full-featured navigation.

 

[vickster]

It is a map, in the bottom half of the screen - the bit with the chevrons. I have it set so that below that it shows the upcoming elevation profile. You can adjust the settings so that the map takes up more of the screen.

You then have the black bar which comes up whenever you are getting close to a cue point, telling you how far and what direction you will be turning.

It was tiny and not clear at all to me as the black chevrons were just distracting and made everything unclear to me. Just didn't like it at all (I would be the same with the basic Garmin models that only have a breadcrumb trail). I did try the on the fly routing (as annoying from the start as had to do on the map and then wait for it to sync to the device), set to road and the first thing it tried to do was direct me down a hidden bridleway They may have improved, but that put me right off so I won't buy a Wahoo device again (I moved to it from a Garmin 800 because I wanted to have blue tooth syncing and it was the new thing to try instead of an updated Garmin). Luckily I didn't lose more than a £100 or so when I sold it on after while (99% of the time I ride where I know and use the device for ride recording for Strava only). For something that cost £250 it was pretty crap IME (and it only came with outfront mounts which I don't have room for on my bars and stem mounts were about £25 each and not compatible with the Garmin ones without modification )!

The OP needs to look at the options and see what suits her

 

[Bhitucyclist]

Thanks all for so generously responding to my questions. After reading all your comments - i have understood the following.
I have to creat a route in sites like cycle.travel first.
Then download it in my phone ?
From the phone then send it to the bike computer ?
Then follow that route - looking at the bike comp screen while riding ?
Does that mean i still have to use strava on my phone to capture my ride ? Or that can be downloaded on the bike comp and captured there ?
Can i get like a idiots guide - step by step please .
Or should i search you tube with something like how to use a bike computer ?

 

[T4tomo]

plan route on 3rd party app / website
download to bike computer - a lot do this wirelessly nowadays
bike computer records ride
and often wirelessly uploads to strava or whatever you have set it up to do.

Or should i search you tube with something like how to use a bike computer ?

yes - do this for the models you may be interested in. there will be guides on the manufacturers websites.

 

[vickster]

DC Rainmaker has reviews but they're long and fairly technical although there's a pros and cons type summary IIRC

 

[Alex321]

Thanks all for so generously responding to my questions. After reading all your comments - i have understood the following.
I have to creat a route in sites like cycle.travel first.
Then download it in my phone ?
From the phone then send it to the bike computer ?
Then follow that route - looking at the bike comp screen while riding ?
Does that mean i still have to use strava on my phone to capture my ride ? Or that can be downloaded on the bike comp and captured there ?
Can i get like a idiots guide - step by step please .
Or should i search you tube with something like how to use a bike computer ?

Create a route in cycle.travel or RidewithGPS or Strava or something similar. Yes.

Download to your phone then from your phone to the device? Sort of. With the latest Wahoo devices (not sure how it works with Garmin or others), it will synch automatically to the device the next time you have the app open on your phone and the device turned on. You don'tr actually have to click any buttons to synch it.

You don't need Strava on to capture the ride, it can be captured on the device, then automatically uploaded to Strava (and to other sites if you choose). In fact if you have Strava capturing it and the device on, you will probably end up with it duplicated unless you set the device to NOT upload.

With the Wahoo devices, you do need to have the app on your phone (you can't set up the device properly otherwise). And you do need to at least sometimes have the app open at the same time as the device is turned on, so that they can synch. But when you do that, transfer of data between phone app and device is automatic, as is the upload to Strava or other apps and download of routes from them.

I normally tend to keep the app open (in the background) whenever I'm riding, and I find then that when I get home, the ride will usually be uploaded to Strava and ready to view before I even have my shoes off. But I could just as well only open the app when I get home (before the device powers off), and it would upload within a few seconds.