BCTTT Forum

Having always done most of my rides to new places using the old school method of writing a list of names of towns and sellotaping them to my top tube, or writing them on my arm/hand, I have started doing more rides through unfamiliar terrain and am beginning to run out of space. This leads me to the decision that I *need* some sort of computer that I can upload a map to and follow. So, who uses one, and which one shall i get? doesn;t need fancy bells and whistles, I just need to be able to get from A to B.

I usually have a route in mind, especially for "unexplored" areas.

At the moment I am quite happy with the garmin 500 and it's "route" feature. No turn by turn sat nav. But a beep if you go off course. This works pretty well for me. I have os maps on the phone as a backup (but only for yorkshire). It's a while since I bothered with a paper map.


Anyway, this combination works well for me, so I don't feel the need to upgrade.

the one i've used is edge 400 i think...i still have it in a drawer somewhere.....its good you can add a GPS file from other peoples routes on strava etc....and it has a home feature (and wont take you down motorways) if you get lost.....i think its probably updated now cause its a few years old but they are good...just found i didnt really need it much but with IM weymouth on its way and a recce weekend it might well get the dust blown off it.....or not.

I generally just go out with a vague idea and try to remember the names of a few towns / villages, or road names / important junction points - often with google maps for backup (I have a Garmin 910xt which is far as I know is bugger all use at helping with navigation)
Occasionally, I do plot a route in Strava, and refer back to this on my phone if I am feeling lost.

I did buy the BAT a Garmin 810 (how is it that he has a better Garmin than me, but rides much less?) - and we did upload some routes from Strava into this when we went exploring Normandy on our bikes, and that worked pretty well (although there might have been a slight issue with me not knowing the exact location of the gite we rented when planning the routes, so there was a bit of a random section at the start of every ride with an annoying Garmin constantly beeping to tell us we were off route, until we got ourselves onto the planned route). Overall, it worked pretty well though for navigating us round completely unfamiliar territory...

Depends on how long your rides are going to be. I've just had a Garmin 520 for my birthday to replace my out of date 705. Have been holding out for a successor to the 810 but it hasn't come and the 1000 doesn't have the battery life for longer rides apparently (but ask Ben as I think he got one). First ride with the 520 was great and probably just the replacement I want. Memory is a bit small for maps and not expandable, so can only fit a handful of counties on at once.

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