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

That's a really clever piece of design there ain't it!? Is that the case for all of them? Seems like a useful feature when in a jam.

benanza That's a really clever piece of design there ain't it!?

I believe so. It makes sense in terms of making the unit waterproof, but is a bit of a pain otherwise. (qv: iPods.)

GPS devices don't take into account the difference between your pushbike and a truck

mine does....and has a different setting for peds too....don't get too excited...it only works on mapped paths and footpaths (like in parks) as well as roads of course so cannot be used "off road" but will still give you your gps coordinates to check against a map...doesn't do elevation, doesn't record trips....but in the car is excellent and small enough to fit in your pocket....includes the michelin hotel and restaurant guide and the green guide too.....100 quid from Maplins...not waterproof and as far as I'm aware no bike specific clamp availbale yet...has earphone socket though...

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Search.aspx?criteria=viamichelin&source=15&SD=Y

if touring, would be good in the pocket if you ever get lost...has europe upgrade available and like I said, small and cheap...plus you can set it to alert you as you go past points of interest....from the michelin guide..

'swunhundredandtwenty now ....was only 99.99 last week...

• 20 quid for the charger which I guess you need if you don't have it pluged into a car.
  

charges from a usb socket....

I was really after one that would record trips, average speed, max speed, that sort of thing. Looks good though.

I have a brand new Garmin 205 going spare.

I only used it on this years London to Brighton - my bike (cranks/BB) died a couple of days later and my Garmin has been back in the box since.

My favorite thing about it is the ability to connect your 205 to your Mac or PC (comes with a USB lead) and upload your latest adventure to the Garmin online website data analyzer thingy - but the good bit is you can then save off a KML file (or KMZ file) and then download this back to your Mac/PC and open it in Google Earth so you can see your days cycling in Google Earth !!!!

It's fucking great ! :)

Here is a screen capture of my shameful 8 hour London to Brighton, you can see me winding my way through the English country side - in the first picture below on the left you can see Ditchling in the far distance - it even tracked the bit where I went for a piss in the bushes :) (bottom picture)

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/102/garmincd7.jpg

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/2929/weeweexl8.jpg

. . . and my other favorite bit is getting Google Earth to 'fly' you along the route, I might do next years London to Brighton this way, much easier ! ;P

Like I said surplus to needs right now, brand new mint condition not a spot of dust on the thing, boxed, leads, power supply, CDs, manual + all the usual crap as new - they are £144.99 on sale at chainreactioncycles (usually £169.99) - if anyone is interested I will sling you mine for £90 - I would prefer to drop it off somewhere in London rather than post it - I want to see the whites of your eyes as you cross my palm with silver.

Email me if interested.

I followed someone for about an hour on D Dynamo who told me he had the most state of the art gps blah blah thing, untill I realised that we were going completely the wrong way. It was super annoying in the pissing rain in the middle of nowhere in pitch black. Thats when I got out my trusty map and photocopied directions and sorted out the right way. The guy refused to doubt his superior technology and kept on into the darkness. I saw him arrive at the beach on his own about 2hrs after everyone elese. We didn't speak but he looked slightly sheepish.

Got a Garmin 205 as well, and love it, my only complaint with it is the lack of space to save routes on. Am defo looking forward to the 605 with the SD card slot and proper mapping,

The Garmin Etrex is £70 from amazon.

I use it all the time over Dartmoor, it tells me everything. Distance travelled, Time taken, time still, average speed, fastest speed, height, sunset etc etc. No mapping with it though, you have to use it with mapping software if you want it to tell you where to go. Memory map for me

height? do you mean "elevation" or how tall you are?

As usual written in a hurry.

Height above sea level, elevation. The Etrex is rugged and water resistant, it is also not to expensive, so when you fall off and break it you can just buy another without hurting your pocket too much & it works in very Great Links Tor Loop on Flickr - Photo Sharing!conditions.

i have been cycling in the malvern hills this weekend. the gps thingy sounds great, however, i did enjoy, in a luddite fashion, the stuck together gmap-pedometer printoff and took some odd lanes and country routes.

OT - it's so good to get out of london for a bit. yesterday went out at 7am, came back around 12, only saw two other cyclists the whole time, bit of a surprise. weather was beautiful, even the cars were fairly polite. it was amazing. plenty of roadkill to look at too. it all got quite existential and zen. and the hills were amazing, huge, lengthy climbs, swooping descents. what a blast.

(obligatory bike shot, next to pool hall)

nice shots PJ ! :)

So I've just got hold of my Edge 605 and tis lovely, managed to get hold of some (slightly dodgy) maps as well, so if anyone has one and needs European mapsource maps for nowt, let me know.

I just got "gps tuner" for my smartphone, seems to be able to do everything most gps units can do, including real time maps, digi compass, follow routes on map or with compass pointer, all the usual dater recorded, it can even download google maps and google sat images as you move! or unbelievably you can create your own maps with the free software that comes with it....from gmaps, g-sat, xpedia or even maps that you scan yourself! can a garmin do that? ...creates google earth file direct from the phone too...all for the princely sum of 17 QUID!!!!!!

Was watching the Gadget Show earlier this week and they were testing some GPS units. I have an Edge 305 but find it a bit limited.

The one that won on the show (by a mile) was this - http://www.satmap.com/about.php

Also has a cycle specific bracket you can use

I just got "gps tuner" for my smartphone, seems to be able to do everything most gps units can do, including real time maps, digi compass, follow routes on map or with compass pointer, all the usual dater recorded, it can even download google maps and google sat images as you move! or unbelievably you can create your own maps with the free software that comes with it....from gmaps, g-sat, xpedia or even maps that you scan yourself! can a garmin do that? ...creates google earth file direct from the phone too...all for the princely sum of 17 QUID!!!!!!

Sounds awesome Winston but surely you're paying the price for downloading all that data via GPRS?

Was watching the Gadget Show earlier this week and they were testing some GPS units. I have an Edge 305 but find it a bit limited.

The one that won on the show (by a mile) was this - http://www.satmap.com/about.php

Also has a cycle specific bracket you can use

Yeh i've seen those, they look good, whats the battery life on em tho, looks like they use a lot of juice. Although I would imagine it should be decent seeing as its aimed at running around the countryside with.

er yeah, my latest deal with orange is £6.50 for 250mb!! plus from what I can tell once they've been downloaded, they'll never need to be downloaded again....stored on the memory card for future use, so my local area ia already covered.

But like I said, you can create the maps and upload them to your phone / device before you set off.....all for free.

Clefty, 605 looks very nice !!

My 205 is still for sale if anyone is interested in finding out where they have been . . . .

So how do those who have been playing with the 605 and 705 find them?

And did anyone buy a satmap?

the 605 is good, but as with some TomTom's sometimes the map is a bit on the random side. I have been caught out by a couple of random routes.
Also the route calculation is SLOW if you're on the go, apart from that its a winner. I find the most use I get out of it, is if I'm heading somewhere I havent been before or for seeing where you are if you're a bit lost and want to get to a main road or something (I always get lost in soho its a talent of mine)

What I also like is that you can find things like the local cashpoints and useful shit like that on it as well

I have a 605. Very useful for rocking up in a new area and finding your way about. Upload to pc is v.easy. Did this on sunday Eddy's L2P training ride (Selborne) I am a convert, might be tempted to sell my 605 to upgrade to a 705 though............