The Two Bicycles of Varonha.

What, my thread retitle idea?

Grrr. New page fail!!!!!!!!!

I should what? Buy a phone and not bother with a computer? Rename my thread? Foetal position in a corner?
HELP!

Well, one of those things has come to pass.

I get on well with my Garmin 530.

Oh sweet fuckin jesus mary and joseph, I can't take anymore!
Thank you all for your input, I love you all, off to find a corner, or may just go to bed.
Further indecision to be continued tomorrow.
Peace, out.x

Sorry :)

Saw your @, here's a belated response: I've got a Bolt and Etrex 20. I have mixed feelings about them in general.

I've been using the Bolt a lot recently and it's ok. Being able to pair with phone is handy for adhoc drastic route changes, just draw a line on your routing app of choice and beam it over. Other pre-planned rides with sync and stuff either on pairing and maybe wifi too? It will beep a lot if you're on track, regardless of if you send the right thing over to it to notify you on each turn. It's not amazing if you go massively off course though and it gives up after a while. You don't have a lot of detail when you zoom out on the maps, only good for major roads/general northsouth direction and such. I got it mostly for turn-by-turn after dark. I use RidewithGPS, the auto trace (might be paid for) and do some manual checking of cues. It'll then beep at these and flash and light up and stuff. Then I did basically no riding over winter or in the dark, but whatever. It still beeps and flashes a lot.

Etrex 20 is old but v. reliable. Sending routes over is all cables, just like a big USB stick. You have to worry a bit about file size and the number of points. Maybe they've changed that on newer models. I have never figured out if it does turn-by-turn notification, assumed it doesn't. Newer models do if I understand correctly. I just use it to follow a line on the map. Fine during the day, but gets a bit tedious having to hit a button every so often to get a backlight in the dark. Very annoying when you miss a turn and don't realise for a while, or have to go slower than usual to figure out if there's one coming. Plus points are swapping AA batteries for long, long rides are cheap, light and easily available vs. taking a battery pack + cable for the Bolt. I've got contour maps on it and zoom/move has got me out of a few silly situations before. It's also orange, which is good.

There's things I'd change about both. I have no experience with other Garmin or the other options. I've used paper cue sheets and maps before. That's always the cheap, easy, reliable option (assuming you don't lose a sheet). Sometimes it's fun to follow the computer, other times it's a total drag. Guess it depends what you want to get out of it really!

My vote is still poncho, especially given the current weather here. Failing that, just build the bike up, then worry about where you're going with it.

Start a poll, I meant.

But I am enjoying the new thread title, despite being slightly worried that you might have entered into a genuine state of mania. Are you okay, John?!

I'll add that the Garmin doesn't need to be connected to a phone in order to get you from A to B; it's basically just a sat nav with a few other bikey things thrown in. You can search for villages, towns or cities; or addresses (but you have to know the house number and post code so it's not always easy); or intersections. Then it figures out a route in a few seconds, from wherever you are, and you follow a little line all the way to wherever you want to go. If you miss a turn it re-routes like a car sat nav... which is cool if you happen not to like the road you're on and you fancy exploring one that looks nicer. You can set it to 'road', 'gravel' or 'mtb', and you can choose 'avoidance' options like less hills, no main roads, etc.

Once or twice it has tried to convince me that motorways are okay for cycling on.
It also steadfastly refused to let me leave the bumpy, pedestrian-heavy 'Cuckoo Trail' en route to Eastbourne, and once even took me through a field on Road Cyling mode. But these have been rare problems (and all part of the adventure, I guess)... annoying as they were at the time.

Mostly it's been pretty well-behaved; I've done 5k km since I got it for xmas and I've used it for a bunch of all-day rides that would previously have taken me hours of route-planning.

You can get an app that stores all your rides and keeps track of loads of stats, if that's your thing. I use it to save particularly scenic routes, and to count how many kilometres I've done over the weeks, months, years.

It also guesses how many calories I've burned as I ride, which I'm sure is wildly inaccurate but has nonetheless done wonders for my cake habit.

Batteries last for a good long time per day; I always charge to 100% before a long ride and have never reached less than 35% by the end of play, usually 6-8 hours riding (so not epic epic audaxes but enough for me). You can get extra battery life by using an external battery that attaches to the underside of the mount. I guess that way that internal battery would last a lot longer too. Not cheap though.

So there you go - I got a bit carried away writing this but hopefully it's all helpful : )

Wahoo relies on you having yer sp in a pocket

Not necessarily, can ride without.

but I think it requires a smart phone to press "go".

Also nope, route are automatically uploaded via house wifi (if connected to ridewithgps, Komoot, strava etc), or send via phone.

I got the Roam, quite like it, it’s a dumbed down gps with a nice turn by nav feature and decent battery.

Also @jontea stop fannying about and build the Winston into the best bike ever.

Also @jontea stop fannying about and build the Winston into the best bike ever.

Can't argue with that!

Any components on the Varonha will do. I'm not sure I agree that posh shiny components are necessary but if it pleases you then all good! The wisdom I know but often fail to heed myself is that they're just bikes, so when the washing machine cycle of a "project" becomes something that doesn't serve you, it's good to put it down and walk away. All will be well in time.

Yeah exactly. The wheels that makes the forum go round!

Thanks atk and .gaz. for your in-depth replies to Wahoo Vs Garmin.
Not slipped into mania, but trying my very best to (it would seem).
Got so indecisive last night I couldn't even decide which corner to curl up in!
Ed, I have stopped fannying about, I can't build it til the parts arrive, but cheers for the moral support.
Cups, I think the battered, scratched parts I put on it originally didn't do me any favours, but selling bits off and replacing has given me a new enthusiasm for it (I know that will wane as they become less new, but life).

I think if you build the Winston frame up with the right bits and get out for some good long rides, then your enthusiasm levels will stay high forever : )

You can search for villages, towns or cities; or addresses (but you have to know the house number and post code so it's not always easy);

It depends on which map is installed. The current models supplied with TopoActive Europe maps don't provide searchable UK addresses, only Belgium, Germany, Luxemburg and Poland appear in the menu. I have the eTrex 32x. It only offers visual route prompts as the audible Early Turn and Final Turn tone warnings are not activated for routes calculated with the TopoActive maps -- which is a pain as the display needs to be kept activated, using up the batteries more quickly.

Quite a minefield these GPS puters, found my old Samsung galaxy S3 in a box under my bed, gonna spend £10 on a new battery, install strava app to track ride distance etc, and navigate using google maps for now. But please all feel free to keep your GPS unit advice coming, I'm making a mental tally of votes cast, and the Congleton judge's decision is final.

You're probably right,next on the shopping list, brakes!

Actually, it might be easier just to use your phone as a GPS sometime, I do when I don't want to use it to navigate and battery isn't too bad once you turn it on airplane mode (as it only use the GPS to track it, abet more effectively if you have wifi and cellular data).

a GPS is useful mainly for one reason, not just nagivating but also drawing route you want to explore/create and put it on the GPS, the eTrex is the best one but not the easiest to work with, modern Garmin/Wahoo/etc. are way better than in the past as they used to rely on computer connection, having a smartphone simplified it more.

personally the best app to create route is ridewithgps on account of having dozen of maps type that includes cycle one normally not show up in google maps.

I'd never seen ridewithgps Ed, thanks for that, will have a proper look/play around with it over the weekend, it may well be the best fit for me at the moment.

I'm using the Edge Explore... No idea what map system it has but it definitely came with searchable UK addresses.
It beeps 200m before each turn (I think even in battery save mode, but not sure).
Although sometimes it gets confused about what is a turning and what isn't, so I tend to keep the display on anyway.

It would be ace if someone collaborated with Google Maps to make a cycling-specific head unit. I guess that's just a phone though, isn't it?!

I'm using the Edge Explore... No idea what map system it has but it definitely came with searchable UK addresses.

According to Garmin the Edge Explore "Includes preloaded Garmin Cycle Map with turn-by-turn navigation"
Source: https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/p/611996

In contrast the eTrex 22x and 32x come with TopoActive maps where Garmin compromise the search facility: "While there are many points of interest searchable with the installed TopoActive mapping, there is no address search function."
Source: https://support.garmin.com/en-GB/?faq=IgBPZ9DlHE5zaIWuSuwCS8&partNumber=010-02257-01&tab=topics&topicTag=region_maps

On the 32x address searching seems to work for Belgium, Germany, Luxemburg and Poland, but not UK. Correctly formatted latitude and longitude coordinates are the most direct way of searching for a specific location with the unit (not all GPS coordinate formats are accepted).

Really hope Specialized sort some bartape out soon, can only find Roubaix in pink, it may well brighten up the muted Winston bike.
Anyone know of a decent alternative available in black?