Why is cycle navigation so complicated?

[cougie uk]

Are you new to the area Sloth? Surely you have some local knowledge ?

I do find plotting routes on Garmin and using Strava heat map and Google Street view works pretty well for new areas.

If you have a smartphone you're good to go.

 

[MontyVeda]

Forget the tech and just wing it.

I tend to plot a vague route beforehand, either up the Lune valley, up to Arnside and beyond, down beyond Pilling or into the Bowland foothills. I never get lost despite not really knowing where a road/lane might lead me and if it does take me to the sodding A6, i'll do a u-turn and find a more pleasant route home. Never felt any need take a map, despite having many OS maps. There's always a landmark to get vague bearings from, such as the hills, the sea, the M6, the river... etc.

 

[Oldhippy]

Seems so few of us can read a map now sadly as it is a good skill to know in my opinion.

 

[presta]

Stopping to navigate every verse end is a drudge, which is why I do it as little as possible. I try to pick roads that progress in a useful direction rather than areas with a rat's nest of junctions every few hundred yards. If I have a lot of miles to cover I tend to use classified roads that I can follow using road signs, if there's plenty of time I might just point my nose in roughly the right direction and see where the roads take me. Often I'll start off with the former, then switch to the latter if time permits.

I don't have any truck with GPS, programming routes, rain in the electronics, sunlight washing out the screen, batteries going flat etc., I use maps. As someone said, OS maps that you can cycle from one side of to the other in less than half a day are useless for touring, although I have been known to take my old 1" tourist sheets of the national parks once or twice. Barts 1:100k maps were a bit better, as long as you're not going far, but they're not available anyway now. Either way, I don't want a map that you have to unfold, and then stow away again - another PITA. I once totted up the map requirement for one of my tours, and it would have taken about thirty 1:50k OS sheets, occupying most of a pannier and cost half as much as the tour.

I use a 1:253440 (1":4m) road atlas. It shows the smallest lanes, and covers a reasonable area. With the spine cut off I can easily stow the entire atlas in my luggage, and with the overlap areas around the edge trimmed off and folded into quarters, the pages will fit into the mapholder on the bars, made from a tupperware CD case. It holds more than enough pages for one day stowed underneath the top one. The mapholder's drizzle proof, but in heavy rain I put the maps in a ziplock sandwich bag.

A tip: don't ask for directions unless you want a motorist sending you down the nearest dual carriageway.

 

[BoldonLad]

Sorry if this is in the wrong sub-forum.

As I await my new bike I’ve been doing some online ‘research’ into a few extras.
One is for some form of navigation.
I know there are three basic options here, 1: Human nav app. Know where you’re going at all times, 2: Use an app on your phone, or 3: Use a specialised cycling nav computer such as a Garmin.
From reading a little it seems that it’s too much to ask for a nav tool that has accurate pre-loaded maps, options to avoid main roads (that actually works!) and an intuitive and easy to use interface.
I’m not interested in pre-loading routes, nor do I want to become a software engineer in order to use the darn thing.
I’d like to disappear into the local countryside and use the in built maps and nav to get home (or to anywhere) should I get lost or just wish to go somewhere but don’t know the way.
I’d like to just set it like I do my car nav, but for it to be cycle friendly and not send me onto dangerous and busy roads (for example just sticking to B roads or country lanes but to also avoid any off-roading).
Why is this such a big ask and why is it seemingly necessary to mess around on complicated settings to even try?
I read so much about so called road avoidance settings simply not working or not being available. This should be a standard and reliable feature of the device or app is sold as for cycling.
I fear for any astronauts being sent to Mars if we can’t even provide a reliable navigation tool for a cycle?
Perhaps I’ve totally missed something here but willingly await education on the subject.
Thanks.

I agree 100%. How come you can buy a good named brand satnav for £100, but, a Garmin edge for three times the price cannot recalculate a route in a few minutes.

 

[fossyant]

I can't see the kitchen sink there @presta

 

[Jameshow]

Stopping to navigate every verse end is a drudge, which is why I do it as little as possible. I try to pick roads that progress in a useful direction rather than areas with a rat's nest of junctions every few hundred yards. If I have a lot of miles to cover I tend to use classified roads that I can follow using road signs, if there's plenty of time I might just point my nose in roughly the right direction and see where the roads take me. Often I'll start off with the former, then switch to the latter if time permits.

I don't have any truck with GPS, programming routes, rain in the electronics, sunlight washing out the screen, batteries going flat etc., I use maps. As someone said, OS maps that you can cycle from one side of to the other in less than half a day are useless for touring, although I have been known to take my old 1" tourist sheets of the national parks once or twice. Barts 1:100k maps were a bit better, as long as you're not going far, but they're not available anyway now. Either way, I don't want a map that you have to unfold, and then stow away again - another PITA. I once totted up the map requirement for one of my tours, and it would have taken about thirty 1:50k OS sheets, occupying most of a pannier and cost half as much as the tour.

I use a 1:253440 (1":4m) road atlas. It shows the smallest lanes, and covers a reasonable area. With the spine cut off I can easily stow the entire atlas in my luggage, and with the overlap areas around the edge trimmed off and folded into quarters, the pages will fit into the mapholder on the bars, made from a tupperware CD case. It holds more than enough pages for one day stowed underneath the top one. The mapholder's drizzle proof, but in heavy rain I put the maps in a ziplock sandwich bag.

View attachment 663837

A tip: don't ask for directions unless you want a motorist sending you down the nearest dual carriageway.

Looks ace what size is it btw.

Might have a tinker later!

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

There's an OS app that gets round the cycling off the sheet problem. This is a 1:50,000 screenshot. If you zoom in, it snaps to 1:25,000, etc

 

[chris-suffolk]

I know the OP said they didn't want to get into uploading routes, but the cycle.travel website really is excellent at avoiding main roads. It's algorithm even has built in weighting for scenic routes. Creating a .gpx file takes a few seconds, and 1 or 2 clicks of the mouse, and then downloading to your chosen GPS device is only a couple of clicks more.

Splitting the creation and route following aspects gives major advantages over expecting one device to do both IMO

 

[oldwheels]

Like Sharky I started with the old Barts maps and sometimes just had an Esso road map from a filling station. I once lost that and just continued with no map as I had a reasonable idea where I was headed anyway.
Nowadays I use Memory Map which is adequate for my needs and does show you where you are. This is on an old mobile phone with no sim card.

 

[JtB]

When driving, you’re interested in optimised routes (from A to B) and my Garmin Edge also calculates optimised routes. But as a leisure cyclist I’m more interested in rides than optimised routes. My rides often start and end in the same place and clearly an optimised route would simply be a dot (zero km). I like to plan my rides on the computer and they are always interesting, convoluted and often circular. Sometimes I do get it wrong and end up on a dual carriageway or a dirt track, but I then just tweak that section of my ride on the computer and update it on my Garmin Edge. I think it’s this difference between planning simple routes (from A to B) and the ability to plan rides which is the fundamental difference between car and cycling satnavs. Of course there are other differences too regarding size, display, battery life etc.

 

[steveindenmark]

Cycle navigation is easy with Ride with GPS and a Wahoo Bolt. Really easy. I have a Garmin 1030 and a Wahoo Bolt. Wahoo is far easier to use and Wahoo does not fail.

 

[Hebe]

There is a simple device that just points you in the direction you need to go. I'd imagine having "home" as a set place it may well do what you seek. Can't for the life of me remember the name Buzz? Bumble? It's mentioned on a few threads here.

Beeline! Velo2. I can never remember the name either. I keep thinking about putting it on my Christmas list, in the meantime I carry a map and a list of directions. I’ve found some great places when getting lost though. I have the OS map app for walking and it is an absolute game changer for someone who can get lost getting out of bed. I don’t know how I feel about technology on the bike though. I don’t have anything attached to the handlebars except a bell.

 

[biggs682]

The only navigation i use is in my head , never let me down yet
Very rarely start off with a particular route or destination in mind

 

[Sloth]

I once got lost in the maze of lanes and tiny hamlets in the local countryside.
I didn’t have my phone either and a 12 mile ride turned into 25 miles by the time I found myself somewhere familiar!
At the time it was an adventure but if I was needing to be somewhere it would’ve ruined my day.
I’d like to lose myself like that again but with the ‘get out of jail’ option of a reliable ‘take me home’ navigation, one that didn’t take me on busy A roads or try to take me across fields!