GPS unit or iPhone with an app such as Map my Ride

[ChaleJake]

I am contemplating purchasing a GPS unit and have been looking at the Magellan 315 which you can get from Amazon for about 100$. I am a basic touring cyclist. I go out and ride and do not want to get lost. Places that I ride in Ky, at times, there is no cell phone service. I only use basic cyclometer functions such as odometer, mph, distance and time.

I want to be able to ride and if I get turned around I want to be able to "return to start" and be able to find my house or car again. I am concerned that if I use my phone I can easily drain the battery. I think the Magellan model will do that for me. Has anyone used a Magellan?

I have looked at the Garmin 1000 and 800 but they have way more features than I need and are more expensive. I also want the unit to fit nicely on my S30. Is there a GPS that most folks use with the S30?

 

[Mark B]

Interested to see what others say as I have been researching the same.

I fine electronics to be a double edged sword. One more thing to charge and fuss about. I run hot and cold on just a regular old bike computer. On my last ride, I was so fixated on maintaining such and such speed that I forgot to enjoy the ride. I came to this conclusion as I was thinking about the "need" to train with a heart rate monitor. One more thing to fixate on rather than just smelling the roses and enjoying the ride.

I guess there is a time for both.

Mark

 

[DavidCH]

Buying an external battery for your phone might be cheaper and give you the greater flexibility

 

[Mark B]

Buying an external battery for your phone might be cheaper and give you the greater flexibility

Yes, thought about that. On the other hand, I have read that the GPS chip in the designated gear is more accurate than that in your run of the mill cell phone. I can't say if that's based on fact, of just sales gibberish, but I lean toward the latter.

Mark

 

[hurri47]

Another point in favor of the phone: GPS by itself doesn't eat a lot of battery. As long as you leave it in your pocket with the screen off it will last all day, and when you get lost you can pull it out to see where you are (and where you've been). A $30 wired cyclometer can give you the rest. Just make sure you download your map area before leaving cell coverage. I use a Garmin 810 on my handlebars (sorry, I never tried a Magellan), but I run RideWithGPS on my phone as a backup that also uploads my mileage to the Apple Health app automatically.

The external battery is a good suggestion too. I use one that's only slightly bigger than my phone that would give my old iPhone 6 four full charges. With that I could probably leave the screen on all day. There is one downside to mounting your phone on your handlebars and it's this: your phone is on your handlebars! My Garmin has been in one pretty good scrape, and it shows. I doubt the phone would have survived.

About phone GPS accuracy - sometimes my iPhone GPS traces show me running several yards (gasp) off the pavement! Unless you are geocaching it seems like a non-issue.

-Dan

 

[ratz]

For entry level it's pretty much game over now; see the Whaoo Bolt..... (hide your wallet)......

 

[super slim]

I am contemplating purchasing a GPS unit and have been looking at the Magellan 315 which you can get from Amazon for about 100$. I am a basic touring cyclist. I go out and ride and do not want to get lost. Places that I ride in Ky, at times, there is no cell phone service. I only use basic cyclometer functions such as odometer, mph, distance and time.

I want to be able to ride and if I get turned around I want to be able to "return to start" and be able to find my house or car again. I am concerned that if I use my phone I can easily drain the battery. I think the Magellan model will do that for me. Has anyone used a Magellan?

I have looked at the Garmin 1000 and 800 but they have way more features than I need and are more expensive. I also want the unit to fit nicely on my S30. Is there a GPS that most folks use with the S30?

Chale I thank you for your question, as I am also looking for a Touring bicycle GPS, that is easy to read, and I can import routes and not loose everything if I take a wrong turn, as has happened to my Edge 705 and 800! I also looked at the 1000, but I am waiting for the next model to see if they improve it a LOT for touring!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KT7DOU...de_a_smtd&showDetailTechData=1#technical-data
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LMJW5FQ?tag=ttr_bike_gps-20&ascsubtag=[site|ttr[cat|823[art|NA[pid|59498[tid|NA[bbc|NA&th=1

315 with heart rate and cadence+ speed sensor suitable for a Silvio with a 100 mm chainstay extension $110, 315 wth no sensors $95
505 with heart rate and cadence+ speed sensor suitable for a Silvio with a 100 mm chainstay extension $170, 315 wth no sensors $110,
The 505 is the same as 315+ bluetooth + WiFi+ Indoor trainer control.
The cadence+ speed sensor looks identical to my Wahoo Fitness Ant+ sensor!

https://forums.garmin.com/archive/index.php/t-90554.html
Chale, I have looked at reviews, and the Magellan 505, because it has Bluetooth for phone support, instead of the 315, is rated as better than the Garmin Edge 1000, as it has the same 3" screen, with a 400*240 colour resolution.
From the review above when the Edge 1000 first came out in April 2014, there were a LOT of screen freeze up problems that Garim took 3 months to fix, so users had to buy something else !

I think that the mapping on an edge 705 and 800 are both very poor, as if you go off a course, you loose all data after that, and it will only direct you to the end point, NOT to get you back on the planned bike route!!! The 315 and 505 do direct you back to the course, and have better turn indication, distance to the turn, and beep warnings!

Also as the maps are Raster images, but with turn by turn, and with a Garmin 2.2" and 2.6" screen at 240*160 resolution, it is EXTREMELY hard to find and read the name of the two roads of the intersection you are at! The 3" screen at 400*240 resolution will make that a lot easier!

The Magellan web site is very poor and hard to navigate, but once set up is OK!
The 315 and 505 ONLY comes with the map of the country it is purchased in and other country maps can not be installed! (Garmin charges an extra $180 for Topo map, and it is LOCKED to that Garmin, so if it fails within 1 year(due to riding the Three Peaks race in very wet cold conditions), and you need to buy a new one, the maps can not be transferred to the new Garmin Edge, even by Garmin, so you just wasted $360!!!)

This is a killer for me, as if cycling next year in USA and Canada, I would need to buy two 505s, but I suppose $160 each is still cheaper than Garmin's $180 per map!!!!!!

 

[ChaleJake]

Chale I thank you for your question, as I am also looking for a Touring bicycle GPS, that is easy to read, and I can import routes and not loose everything if I take a wrong turn, as has happened to my Edge 705 and 800! I also looked at the 1000, but I am waiting for the next model to see if they improve it a LOT for touring!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KT7DOU...de_a_smtd&showDetailTechData=1#technical-data
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LMJW5FQ?tag=ttr_bike_gps-20&ascsubtag=[site|ttr[cat|823[art|NA[pid|59498[tid|NA[bbc|NA&th=1

315 with heart rate and cadence+ speed sensor suitable for a Silvio with a 100 mm chainstay extension $110, 315 wth no sensors $95
505 with heart rate and cadence+ speed sensor suitable for a Silvio with a 100 mm chainstay extension $170, 315 wth no sensors $110,
The 505 is the same as 315+ bluetooth + WiFi+ Indoor trainer control.
The cadence+ speed sensor looks identical to my Wahoo Fitness Ant+ sensor!

https://forums.garmin.com/archive/index.php/t-90554.html
Chale, I have looked at reviews, and the Magellan 505, because it has Bluetooth for phone support, instead of the 315, is rated as better than the Garmin Edge 1000, as it has the same 3" screen, with a 400*240 colour resolution.
From the review above when the Edge 1000 first came out in April 2014, there were a LOT of screen freeze up problems that Garim took 3 months to fix, so users had to buy something else !

I think that the mapping on an edge 705 and 800 are both very poor, as if you go off a course, you loose all data after that, and it will only direct you to the end point, NOT to get you back on the planned bike route!!! The 315 and 505 do direct you back to the course, and have better turn indication, distance to the turn, and beep warnings!

Also as the maps are Raster images, but with turn by turn, and with a Garmin 2.2" and 2.6" screen at 240*160 resolution, it is EXTREMELY hard to find and read the name of the two roads of the intersection you are at! The 3" screen at 400*240 resolution will make that a lot easier!

The Magellan web site is very poor and hard to navigate, but once set up is OK!
The 315 and 505 ONLY comes with the map of the country it is purchased in and other country maps can not be installed! (Garmin charges an extra $180 for Topo map, and it is LOCKED to that Garmin, so if it fails within 1 year(due to riding the Three Peaks race in very wet cold conditions), and you need to buy a new one, the maps can not be transferred to the new Garmin Edge, even by Garmin, so you just wasted $360!!!)

This is a killer for me, as if cycling next year in USA and Canada, I would need to buy two 505s, but I suppose $160 each is still cheaper than Garmin's $180 per map!!!!!!

Thanks for that info and the Bluetooth catch. I'll check out the 505. I am only cycling in the US so I have no issues at the moment with only that map. You make some excellent points with explaining the differences.

 

[ratz]

I also looked at the 1000, but I am waiting for the next model to see if they improve it a LOT for touring!

The 820 about you pinnacle for routed touring right now; the trick is having the settings right for what you want to do. While I'd hate to have to write a complete guide for how to set it for the 3 different major scenarios I can point you nose at the guides if you wind up with one. Sadly you need different setup for Cycling a Route, Point to Point auto-navigation, and adhoc routing. As long as your course doesn't cross itself stuff is very reliable we have two season of it working well. Problem with waiting for next gen and garmin is that next gen means release date+ 8 months were 8 months is how many months it take them to get the new bugs solve.

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2016/07/garmin-edge-820.html

then again I know someone that will shortly have two mint condition Garmin 1000s for sale

 

[super slim]

The 820 about you pinnacle for routed touring right now; the trick is having the settings right for what you want to do. While I'd hate to have to write a complete guide for how to set it for the 3 different major scenarios I can point you nose at the guides if you wind up with one. Sadly you need different setup for Cycling a Route, Point to Point auto-navigation, and adhoc routing. As long as your course doesn't cross itself stuff is very reliable we have two season of it working well. Problem with waiting for next gen and garmin is that next gen means release date+ 8 months were 8 months is how many months it take them to get the new bugs solve.

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2016/07/garmin-edge-820.html

then again I know someone that will shortly have two mint condition Garmin 1000s for sale

The Edge 1000 had a lot of major bugs, that pissed off a lot of users, and swung cycling Tourers to the Magellan Cyclo 505!
I do not think that Edge have fixed the going off course, and getting you back on course yet, as per dcrainmaker, which is why I no longer use that option when on tours!

With the prices for the 505 dropping, I hope that a new model is coming out, that has downloadable maps for us multi continent cyclists!

 

[ratz]

The Edge 1000 had a lot of major bugs, that pissed off a lot of users,

While correct; I followed that period closely on the Garmin forums because I needed/wanted it to work.; and I would attribute that to poorly named options, user in ability to understand a gigantic number of options, and a lot of forum blow hards.

getting you back on course yet,

It can do that just fine; it's just that mode has other side effects that most cyclists don't want or fail to understand. Where Garmin has potentially failed is that they need a "recover to nearest course point" mode that kicks in temporarily and then goes back to normal. It does seem that their engineers may not actually be cyclists (a challenge inside many industries, good math/programmer types in the geo sciences are often not athletic people, imagine that).

So back to the huge problem being the way routing works and people not understanding it. With the 800/1000 series; in your route planner you can enter course points that are miles apart and the routing software will pick a the way there. If the route computed by the planning tool looks good the user moves on to the next point on the course. This makes route planning fast and easy. Click as few a points as possible and let the software figure it out. But that limited set of point has on the road ramifications.

So on a Garmin 1000/800 a course file might look like this: (where x=data point and > equals auto calculated route.

x >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>x>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>x>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>x

Where as on the old bread crumb routes you have to put in every turn and nuance from your cue -sheet

x>>>>>x>>>>>x>>>>>>>x>>>>>>x>>>>>>>x>>>>>>x>>>>>>>x>>>>>>>>x>>>>>>>x>>>>>>>x>>>x

So if you get off course on route 1 the navigation back to route might take miles and miles of bad roads even though the human knows the closest way back is 50 ft to the left. Why? well.... To "recalculate" the Garmin has to throw away the route and recalculate the shortest way to the next "X". Meanwhile the return to route works much better with data file 2 because there are more X's and they are closer to you your off course location.

So the secret is; when planning a route: click-and-create a route data point right before each turn and right after each turn. Never let the software auto route a turn. Mark your map the same way they paint route arrows on social tours, one before the turn and one after.

Now the the real way to fix this would be to have RideWithGPS, Strava, and GarminConnect modify their route planning software. After you draw your route there should be an option to insert "implied" turn data points; 1 before each turn and 1 after. Call it "lock in the course turns" This takes the burden off the head unit from calculating those on the fly, which defeats the coolness of what technology but actually gets the cyclist what they need. I probably should email RideWtihGPS team they are amazingly responsive if they haven't thought of this they might add it to the software.

In short turn-by-turn routing is completely different from cue-sheet routing; to do turn-by-turn you need a start and a destination point. To do cue-sheet routing you need a cue-sheet that has every turn documented before and after. The core problem is that many people create a route the is only suitable for turn-by-turn and they expect it to function as cue-sheet routing. I make my routes the correct way for my needs as cue-sheets; it takes longer; but 99 out of 100 times the Garmin works correctly and it is able to get me back on on route correctly. (as long as the route doesn't cross itself).

Not a solution to your delimea but maybe that helps some of the thread followers.

In the end as I said I'm getting rid of the Garmin 1000's if the Bolt pans out. But that is 100% because I absolutely hate the touch screen and I hate building the data screens on the device itself. I'll take the Bolt's bread crumb based routing and live with it; and enjoy the ability to program the unit on the smart phone...

reviews to follow of course

 

[RAR]

Here's another to add to the mix....https://www.bikerumor.com/2017/04/0...-rounds-digital-drive-hand-pumps/#more-156592