GPS mapping for Android

@Dammit, Of course, I bought mine without maps - so the map I have put on it isnt quite 'ahem' legitimate if that bothers you at all, it is up to date though.

Bon, and the provenance of the maps bothers me not at all- full UK I presume?

I would very much like to borrow it and see where it may take me, would it be possible to pick it up this week?

Yep, I'll grab the mount of the Rourke tonight and you can pick it up tomorrow if you want from my work.

Rocking, see you tomorrow.

@Daccordi, what site do you use to map your rides?

^^^ See VeeVee it is a faulty unit. Send it back and get me a nice new saddle, some bars and a stem (for my birthday)...

The one way streets were not on a preplanned route. I suppose the map is out of date. Can you download up-to-date maps from anywhere?

The Garmin has not crashed since I've upgraded.

if anyone still has one for sale pm me as i may well be interested

Just bought a 205 and loving it so far apart from the tiny screen. Clefty did you ever use CourseMapper? The idea of self drawn maps seems like a good idea but is fiddly.

Back when I had a 205, there wasnt much out there - so I used to use bikely/google earth/gps babel to get stuff on there, was a right nightmare - now there's lots of nice apps to use. That coursemapper looks rather nice but a little fiddly. When I had the 205 I primarily used to use the big compass point feature when riding, which pointed in the direction I should still be going, it was easy to glance at and very obvious if I went wrong.

^^^ See VeeVee it is a faulty unit. Send it back and get me a nice new saddle, some bars and a stem (for my birthday)...

The one way streets were not on a preplanned route. I suppose the map is out of date. Can you download up-to-date maps from anywhere?

bitorrent FTW

That is illegal! Shame on you.

Surely as you have to pay an arm, two legs and some pink squishy bits for the damn things, they should offer an upgrade service.

Yeh I think you have to pay for map upgrades afaik

hence my shameful illegal practices

Hmm...trying to find the big compass pointy thing.

Yeh I think you have to pay for map upgrades afaik

hence my shameful illegal practices

Thought so. Probably have to pay in kidneys.

I have a TomTom which one has to update by plugging it in and going to their website- I had presumed that Garmin would do a similar thing.

It's a bit rubbish to make you pay for them.

Clefty- if I purchase your device might I be given a quick "how to" on this slightly less than legal update method?

I wish TomTom did a cycle version. TomToms rock!

is anyone going to come up with a decent GPS unit any time soon?

I think the issue is that a cycle GPS has to be a mashup of a walking GPS and a motor GPS. Both categories have some great units, but there is not a big enough market to justify development costs for a decent useable hybrid.

@Daccordi, what site do you use to map your rides?

mainly www.bikehike.co.uk and sometimes www.bikeroutetoaster.com

I normally don't export straight to the gps I'll save the file then copy it on manually. Also its a good idea to only have the courses on you need as the device only takes the first 100 course points or track points, always get confused. So if you already have 60 on one saved track then load another with 100 you will only get the first 40. Thats why I try and be sparing with them as you can run out especially if you get the program to put them in automatically.

I wish TomTom did a cycle version. TomToms rock!

I have the basic unit- picked it up in Aberdeen airport when I picked up the Volvo, it got me all the way back to London without missing a beat, and the warnings for speed camera's are handy.

However it will always choose the shortest distance between two points- i.e. it's half seven on a Monday morning, you want to get to Winchester from Greenwich.

It will then say to go straight through the middle of London.

If you ignore it and go out to the M25 then it does re-calculate pretty fast, but you need to know when it is talking rubbish.

All of that said a more expensive version might have more brains, and avoid this situation.

Hmm...trying to find the big compass pointy thing.

You can only get it when you are actually navigating a route, cycle throught the modes and you should come to it.

@Dammit I have the maps somewhere as an ISO so can show you how to do it, will only work on PC though, not Mac friendly - but once you have it one you dont have to worry about it. I have the whole of Europe although it all wont fit on the unit (but you can put relevant areas on), the cover for the mini sd card slot has disappeared off of mine, so I never use it - although I'm sure its nothing that a bit of sparky tape couldnt fix.

I may persevere with it for a bit, mainly as I have a trip to Holland coming up in Aug and it will prob be useful. However you're certainly welcome to try it until then.

That would be an ideal test period Clefty- I would like to take a couple of long rides at weekends to see how it goes.

Just give me a shout when you need it back.

gimmie a bell tomorrow, lunchtime is prob best for pickup as have meetings morning and afternoon.

I have the successor of the G1 (marketed as HTC Magic in the UK and, I think, G2 in the US). I really like the GPS features. You can draw your route on bikely, gmap-pedometer or Google Maps itself. Then you need to import them into your Google Maps and they will be automatically downloaded to your phone and shows you where you are in relation to the route.

It does eat your battery though, if you leave the GPS app open all the time. You can send it to sleep in between junctions and that conserves battery power enormously. If you do that you can get a good days worth of navigation out of it.

I used it on holiday in Switzerland and didn't want to shell out for data roaming and hence found an app that pre-loads and saves your maps, which saved me a fortune.

I have been using one of these for last year or so...

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=8701&ra=true

you can get a handlebar mount for about £10 and I bought the unit new from an ebay seller for £125.

I think it is said to be a bit more reliable than the bike specific ones as these hiking specific units have been around longer and run a different OS.

Still gives me all the stats I need - doesn't do heart rate, cadence etc - i just use it to tell me where to go.

It is quite a bit bigger than the bike ones but once on the bars doesn't get in the way at all, still handheld size.

Never had any problems with it and it lasts for ages on a set of AA's

You do need to erm, 'acquire', the maps from somewhere - I have full Ordnance Survey maps for the entire UK installed on mine so you can see all the elevation markings, public footpaths, bike tracks etc - the basic garmin maps don't show as much detail.

I use bikeroutetoaster.com to make my routes, then export them as gpx and load them into the garmin with the software that comes with it. Bike route toaster has a pretty good autorouting system that is based around bikes rather than cars so it seems to avoid big roads as much as possible.

I quite like the look of that Dan, my other half has an etrex for hiking and its great - never been any trouble, what sort of stats do you get from it? miles travelled/speed/ave speed? I'm not that fussed about them but wondered what it covered. I like the fact that is can be easily used off the bike as well.
Can you add the City Navigator maps on there as well as the OS ones?