GPS navigation for a bike - Germany

Hey all,

I am looking for a GPS navigation system for a bike, I plan to give it to someone as a gift. I am not exactly sure what to go for. I personally use a TomTom ONE for my car since couple of years now and I am extremely pleased. I have never used a TomTom Rider though, which is not that cheap either from what I see (minimum 400 euros or so).

What other choices are there, anyone has any experience with them ? As features it should have some sort of hookup system so I can attach it to the bike. Cycling routes would be a plus. It would only be used in Germany so maps for lots of other countries would not help much.

Any info is appreciated.

www.gps24.de

These are the boys. Under the Outdoor section they have 'em for pushbikes.

Thanks for the link, I'll have a look. However, I was kinda looking for personal experiences from TT users

Well if you are a little patient, you might get that as well 'cos the thread has only been open about 12 seconds. Sheesh. Can't help people round here sometimes.

Hey, "Patience" is my middle name

Must have been hard though going through school with "Lackov" as a christian name...

Don't derail my thread

hey Sylaan, that was pretty witty though, made me smile anyway!

in response to your Q, actually I cant help, but I use a GPS Garmin 305 edge (???) but it doesn't have a base map, so it is more for info logging, sort of a posh bike computor. However I have to say I find it really robust and easy to use, so I would recommend the Garmin Brand...
G'luck

I've always been a TomTom fan but people seem to be pleased with Garmin. I've been looking at that site Johnny English posted and the Garmin Edge 605 GPS looks kinda nice.

Actually you are right, this made me a bit pissed because this was released only a few months after I got mine... mind you mine was a steal as I got it during a trip to USA, so saved a boatload of cash. As I said, only have good things to say about the Garmin brand.

I have a TomTom One XL and it has bicycle navigation on it, but I haven't tried it yet. First I have to figure out how to mount the thing to my bike. But when I do, you'll be the first to know.
However, I must say I'm not expecting much since the walking navigation leaves much to be desired. I got lost near the Dom in Köln, had a fit, freaked out like a crazy person (in English) and broke one of the 2 bottles of beer I bought as a result. Man, I was pissed that night.

That's bad Please let me know how the TomTom thing goes.

I was looking at that Garmin Edge 605 but, if I understood that site correctly, it comes without a map. You can either buy a card with the german map (which is about 39 euros) or you can get a DVD for well above 100 euros (southern, northern or whole Germany). Still unsure what the difference is.

I have used the TomTom Software for bike rides.. It works just fine. Make sure you set the correct preff.
before you start navigating and picking routes.

To mount it to your bike, you will need a Ram-mount system. With over 1500
different pieces you can build just about any mounting system.

Excellent. Thanks!

And a Direct Link to what you need - Link

OK - so I'm already ducking for cover . . . but what's the problem with a map?

I'm a very keen cyclist - in fact, was cycling down the Rheintal just last week - and since I've lived in D I've been bowled over with the range and standard of German bike route maps - there's hundreds of them to be found - often for free from your local Rathaus or tourist office. Having a GPS on a bike seems to me to be, well, overkill?

A GPS when you're hiking in the wilderness is for sure a reasonable safety measure (as you can easily get very badly lost, very quickly, in - say - the Pyrenees, Alps or even the English Lake District - especially when the weather closes in) - and in a car, SatNav is more-or-less indispensable these days (remember - it's not a good idea to read a map while you're driving at 130kph+ ) - but on a bike, in Germany, with its amazing network of signposted and waymarked cycle routes? Sorry - I just don't get it.

<gets down off soapbox>

K

Nothing wrong with a map. I just want a navi Besides, not all routes are marked.

Nothing at all. It's just the entitlement community acting as if everything should be given to them. Go out and find some things for yourself! Okay, okay, so I'm a geographer by trade and prefer maps as I actually know how to read them - and make them for areas I go to. The art has been lost recently. The proliferation of GPS has created a lot of 'experts' who don't know jack shit. Luckily, most are in Germany, a place that is safe when the batteries die and they are screwed without their modern equipment.

Just sayin'

My review: Garmins are the best. I've snowmachined with one strapped on back in -30C temps for over 250kms and it recorded every piece of data needed - and got us to where we needed to go. This was a Garmin 60CS. They have better now. A Tom tom would have broken after the first 2km.

That is hardware. Your GPS doesn't mean shit unless it has the most up-to-date data and software. Navteq is trying and not doing too bad. I know what goes in to it and it's not as easy as you'd think. most people that complain haven't updated their data. Sometimes Navteq is just a bit behind. Be patient.

As for biking? Get a fucking map. Jeezus, you're not going that far.

Well, go use your fucking map then, what do you care what I use ?

Thanks for the Garmin review though.

I was in a bit of pissy mood last night. Apologies.

Personally, I LOVE the Garmin 60CSx but it may be a bit overkill for most people. I like to record my bike rides and download them in to Google Earth. I also have some high end GIS software at home for making nice maps from the data. That's probably beyond the average user and shows what a geek I am. Any automobile type of GPS is going to work fine for you as long as you have the most current data downloaded. Be forewarned, however - if you do a lot of off-road biking, many trails won't be on there. They just don't go in to that much detail. This is why I GPS my own trails.

Here's a great site for GPS tracks. It takes some time to get used to the navigation on the site, but it's worth it: http://www.gps-tour.info/

I could go on about GPS and recreational pursuits for some time. If you have any questions, let me know and I'll try to help.

Will do, thanks

A map will not tell you where you are. And you also have to look at it. A satnav will whisper in your ear "in 200m please turn right"
I put The Navigon maps on my Nokia Phone and use the earphone to hear the directions. Indispensible on the bike or on foot. It makes a map look like a great big sheet of paper!

However, a map and compass will tell you where to go

And, a map is a big sheet of paper.

I've been with too many dumbshits who get lost using a GPS - most notably in Munich and while navigating to destinations in Austria. They trust the GPS more than first-hand directions. "Dude, I've been here. Don't take a right! Ahh, fuck, you screwed us now" Happens almost every weekend I head south so basically every weekend except for this one. My buddy from NZ who I ski with all the time is so reliant on GPS that he couldn't find the Esso in Holzkirchen when we were heading to Kitzsteinhorn a few weeks ago. We've been that way 20 times but without the GPS, he's lost. It makes people dumb. I love the dumbing down of the world via technology though. Makes me feel superior

My most favoritest experience - in Berchtesgaden heading towards our Guesthouse which I'd been to a few times. "Hey man, take a left here." Him - "but the GPS says to go straight" Me - "dude, take a friggin' left!" Him " But... the GPS says" He finally takes a left and we end up on a 1.5km bike path. We ended up forcing 3 bike riders, two nordic walkers and some douche on roller blades off the path. I was really embarrassed. Hey, but we made it to our destination after going back down to Berchtesgaden and following the route I'd previously suggested!

If you can't read a map, you shouldn't be allowed to own a GPS navigation unit. And European units suck balls. The Swiss may have invented pretty maps, but it doesn't mean they are worth shit for navigation. Stick with NA firms when buying.

I have a love/hate relationship with GPS

I'm not going to comment on the negative things, but I know a thing or two about navigation. I have a Garmin Etrex, and it is amazing. I use it on my mountain bike all the time as I use it to help me find my way home from distant trails.

Rather than discuss what is "smart" or not, I assure you that this Garmin unit will do everything you want and much more, and not nearly as awkward as the tomtom photo earlier in the thread. The main limitiation with the Etrex is that the reciever is not very sensitive, so when in the middle of these narrow streets with concrete buildings, the signal may come and go, but then you still have a streetmap loaded into the system to refer to the same as a 'paper map' the 'experts' above comment on so often.

I for one see no reason to carry a paper map when the map in my handheld GPS is 100 times more detailed and informative, including addresses and phone numbers for most business.

PM me and I'll take a photo tomorrow to show you how nicely it fits on my mountain bike.

I wish you luck in the purchase. If you buy them a poor unit, they may not think much of it, but if you buy them something with great software like the Garmin systems, they'll appreciate the thought for a long time.

G.

I've been using the Garmin Quest for the past 4 years in both the car and bike mounts. Works brilliantly, even when all muddied up on wet rides. Though if I were to buy a new one I'd get the colour Edge, with the heart rate monitor built in. I would never get a softkey unit like the TomToms, or the Garmin nuvi's. They don't work reliably with gloves, and they suck up more battery juice.

Of course I always take a map and real compass as backup. To the old-schoolers, maps don't let you take electronic trackpoints which you can upload to Google Earth and share with friends and family. Technology rocks - as long as you're not stupid.

Consider this a public pm. Please post your pic here, I'd like to see it.

And while your being geeky with GPS on your bike, don't forget one of these to capture the trip/memories.

I've got the Sony version of a bullet cam that I used to record my hot laps when racing GT autos in the US. A little too geeky on a bike I admit, but the hardcore love it... The only reason I thought of mounting a helmet cam while biking was to record the cicrumstances surrounding my death when trying to show the dirt jumpers at Olympic Park how to get big air after actually pedalling up the hill, not pathetically pushing their bikes up... I'd say something stupid like 'watch this', and those would be the last words out of my mouth. At least the helicopter ride to the Schwabing Krankenhouse would be short.

Here's a U-tube video of some guys I'd like to run across while riding around Munich, I think they did a great job (at least I was entertained) with a few of the camera angles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX8rud7DBU4

I'll try to post a photo of my GPS setup next week.

G.

GPS Setup: If you look closely, you can see the Isar in blue, with the unit tracking my progress as the black dotted line. That day I found a nice hill about 5k North of the English Gardens. Some jumps and crazy drop-offs that my bike couldn't handle. I hope to be back next Saturday to see who has the guts to ride off a platform with a 5 meter drop.

This is using Garmin's handlebar mount. I think 2AA batteries last about 30 hours if you don't use the backlight.