GPS tech (Garmin, Hammerhead, Wahoo, RWGPS, etc)

Agreed. Lot's of after-market 3d printed products but they all come in at around £35 which seems massively excessive for a tiny button. A key/pen or will be fine for the immediate and I will try to fashion a DIY bodge.

A new GPS unit would be nice but it is well down the shopping list pecking order.

Can anyone check my thinking on this?

I'm planning a bicycle tour, and was thinking of just making one big course (2000k). The new 8.x Garmin software update allows you to only have to calculate a course once, and then it's stored locally.

If I understand it correctly, you can then load it any time without the device having to (re)calculate the course. Then every day, I just load the course, and the device picks up I'm on course and shows me the way.

Any holes in this logic? Should I just break down the tour into separate courses (say, one for each day)?

New Garmin feature? I'd test it on a small course first so you know how (if) it works.

New Garmin feature?

Yep:

Course Routing
[...]
- Added automatic course route caching.

Just tested it on my 530, and it seems to work like advertised. A previously calculated/ridden course was available for navigation right away, without having to calculate it again.

That might finally get around their stuff crashing or it will make it impossible to get the route to work if the broken one is cached and can't be overwritten. Hmmm

You can manually remove the cached calculation on an individual course basis.

Perfect!

Though I wonder if it will cache the whole chunk again still? So, if you have a routing error that it can't deal with and it goes a bit funny, normally I just wait until I've ridden past the issue and then restart the route so it's sorted itself out. If it goes and caches the whole route each time though, it's never going to get rid of that routing issue (at least until that file is completed)

I'd recommend allowing an extra day at the start of the tour for the Garmin to calculate 2000 km of routing.

I'd recommend allowing an extra day at the start of the tour for the Garmin to calculate 2000 km of routing.

Let it calculate 2000k yesterday for fun and giggles; don't think it's going to happen. Device crashed at 39% after a couple of hours (?) of calculating. Might try it again later.

Split the route into three courses of +/-700k, and then there was no problem.

Just had the firmware update on the Garmin 830.
I had to use the maps today and was pleased to see the popularity routing on the maps was excellent and easy to see.
Also did a ‘route back to start’ for the last 10 miles. Delighted by the direction arrows on the map to show you are going on the right direction.
Two very useful improvements.

I am looking for a clamp-on forward accessory mount for 25.4mm diameter drop handlebars, to fit the Garmin Etrex 32x via their own Bike Mount. I was thinking of the Minoura SGS-400EB, are there any others to recommend?

I'm selling one of these. Not for the bars, per se, but achieves similar thing.

Thanks, that looks like the larger diameter version (28-35mm), I would prefer to try and get one that fits 25.4mm without the need for a shim.

Yeah, I think the point of this one is to go around the stem, not the bars so it depends on stem diam.

Anyone use Komoot much? They've pinged me their 'lifetime world maps for £19.99' offer, which I assume everyone gets after they register, and I wondered of it was worth it.

Why not just use ridewithgps, its free.

Komoot charging people for open source maps is a joke

Komoot charging people for open source maps is a joke

It's a different charging model for sure but as far as charging goes, it's a one off payment, you don't need to subscribe to use features like the mobile app (no idea if rwgps is nice on a mobile web browser, komoot is terrible but the app is decent).

How does course transfer/syncing work with services like RwGPS?

For me the mini Komoot app you can install on your Garmin is invaluable. Create a course with Komoot on your computer/phone, connect your Garmin with WiFi, and the course is on there. No manual transfer needed, it just syncs automatically. That feature alone is worth the twenty bucks to me personally.

https://ridewithgps.com/help/garmin-courses

Personally I find Komoot dreadful. As someone whose job involves a lot of route planning nothing comes close to Ride With GPS in terms of functionality and ease of use, it's the best by miles.

I hate all mapping. Stupid maps and stupid planning and stupid GPX.

But I've got both Komoot and RWGPS and RWGPS is what I use. Stealing routes off Komoot is good but plotting routes, not so good.

But they don't have "search route by where it ends" field in route finder, which is so sad :(

I only use them for route planning not finding pre existing routes so that's no problem for me.

Cheers. I’m basically using the Komoot app on an old mobile phone for navigation. It’s been ok so far. I looked at rwgps but couldn’t find how to upload gpx files. Maybe I’ll have another look.

yea it;s weird. you upload it as a ride, then copy it to routes

https://ridewithgps.com/help/uploading-rides

if you have somethign that works and are happy just stick with it