Riding with or without technology

[pjclinch]

I have no use for following predetermined routes so maps are the way to go and make it up on the move. Ok, the GPS or Smartphone offer maps but not at a scale at which it is easy to follow - I know because I've tried navigating my way across a city using just a map on an Edge 800 and simple could not see anything like far enough ahead, unlike with a paper map.

On the whole I'm with you, but back in September I was out for a ride on a day that turned out nicer than expected so I extended beyond the usual route and the 'phone was all I needed to put in an extra few miles along routes I'd never travelled before, zooming out giving enough for strategy and zooming in for tactics. And navigating across a city with just a paper map is just as much as a pain in its own way IME.

Didn't answer the poll, it would have been all of them except the whizzy GPS, but I couldn't select that.

Pete.

[pjclinch]

In those circumstances, I don't really want a GPS telling me to take the next right turn, so it can put me back on my path

Though you can have a GPS do that, you don't have to in order for it to be any use. It's a box of navigational tools to use (or not) as you see fit. I've never used one cycling, but I've used one ski-touring and a little bit of geocaching, and I've never used it it to tell me to turn R/L at a certain place. Being able to show you a zoomable map with you precisely located is a useful thing in itself.

Pete.

[eileithyia]

Like Vorpal, Map, signs, sense of direction, sense of advantage and a dose of experience with commonsense. I might use a garmin to record my ride for later review, not to navigate.

[bigjim]

I have never gone down a road because it looks interesting. I use a Garmin Legend [ancient now] and I cut out my propsed route out of my map with a 50 mile leeway each side as backup. I then stick it back in when I return home. I'm probably a bit more Autistic than most, as I like to know where I am going to end up each night with preplanned accommadation and I like to stick to a preplanned route on the Garmin. However it does not always end up that way. I tour with a guy who just likes to stop at the end of the day and then starts looking for acccommadation. We have often struggled to find something and I've had to break out the emergency tent. It sometimes leads to some "interesting" conversations. Drives me crazy.
I did a Scottish tour this year with a group with all overnights and routes preplanned. It was brilliant. For me that is.

[pwa]

I have never gone down a road because it looks interesting. I use a Garmin Legend [ancient now] and I cut out my propsed route out of my map with a 50 mile leeway each side as backup. I then stick it back in when I return home. I'm probably a bit more Autistic than most, as I like to know where I am going to end up each night with preplanned accommadation and I like to stick to a preplanned route on the Garmin. However it does not always end up that way. I tour with a guy who just likes to stop at the end of the day and then starts looking for acccommadation. We have often struggled to find something and I've had to break out the emergency tent. It sometimes leads to some "interesting" conversations. Drives me crazy.
I did a Scottish tour this year with a group with all overnights and routes preplanned. It was brilliant. For me that is.

Mostly I agree with you that it is nice to feel that you know where you are going to be sleeping. But I often change my mind about the route as I am going along. If I feel tired I will try to cut out some hills. If I am getting low on provisions I may decide to divert to a small town. Or a road may turn out to be busier than I anticipated and I start to look for convenient alternatives. A bit of flexibility is good. I take some pleasure out of making up new bits of route as I am going along. Using a paper map on the bar bag, I can memorise the next couple of junctions and, usually, keep topping up this knowledge without stopping too much. But my mobile map studies have to be done at the right moment, with no passing traffic and a straight bit of road.

I confess to a loathing of GPS / smartphones / tablets in the context of cycle touring. For me the latter is partly about getting away from the former.

[foxyrider]

I voted for maps as that is what i use for planning a ride. Might be paper or digital

Out on the road i may use memory (my internal mapping system!), paper map, road/route signs, my nose and occasionally the phone to pinpoint where i am if everything else has failed!

Across the Channel its so much easier with plenty of signposted routes to follow. I tend to pick out places along my route as way points, heading for each in turn only resorting to a map when i am thinking of heading off the route i have in my head.

When i had, out of neccesity, to navigate across 300km of Austria in two days without a map or even a clever phone (they didn't exist back then) i managed it without getting totally lost - an experience that took me out of my comfort zone of the time. Now i tend to look at the maps much less often and use my internal route finder much more, i don't often go far wrong!

[Psamathe]

I can't really answer as I'd want to check several. (Not touring, just finding my way round the maze of local lanes).

Often I'll use mapping on my smartphone, just because it's round my neck and quicker to get out than opening my pannier to get my OS map out. Sometimes I'll just look at the Sun (with the rough time of day) to get rough south and head appropriately. Sometimes there is a road sign, often there is a road sign but they don't all point in the direction they are signposting to. With the maze of lanes that keep sharp left, sharp right bend right, back left a bit I quickly lose my sense of which direction I'm heading in. Sometimes I'll use the wind direction knowing its rough bearing when I set out.

So whilst smartphone probably gets a fair amount of use compared to printed map, I think it's more because it's round my neck. Other sun/wind/etc. techniques are just as I'm riding along so don't really appreciate how often I use them.

Ian

[NUKe]

I use a Garmin etrex 20 form most things. Like all electronic devices it tells you where you are and is clever enough to suggest a route, if required, but there is one disadvantage that all electronic devices suffer and that is the size of the screen I can only see at any point a small area of map around me. If I zoom out to get the bigger picture I lose the detail. you may miss that little interesting feature that is just outside your screen, AN ancient monument a small village that isn't quite on your route but had you being pondering a map you may just have thought that's worth a detour.

[horizon]

I just do wonder whether there there is something just something different about cycling around not being connected to an American satellite . . .

Maybe it (the something) is there, maybe not . . .

[al_yrpal]

I just do wonder whether there there is something just something different about cycling around not being connected to an American satellite . . .

Maybe it (the something) is there, maybe not . . .

What about the Russian ones?

Al

[bigjim]

connected to an American satellite . . .

Or a Korean, Tiawanese, Chinese bike. Choose your poison.

[horizon]

I thought GPS was an American (military) system and that we don't yet use the Chinese or Russian?

[axel_knutt]

I use the pages from a road atlas, maps are too large scale and anything as small as a GPS screen is hopeless. In town centres I use road signs because I don't want to be stopping at every junction to check the map.

[al_yrpal]

I thought GPS was an American (military) system and that we don't yet use the Chinese or Russian?

Anyone for Glonass! Guardian readers especially welcome. https://support.garmin.com/support/sear ... 0000000%7D.

Al

[beardy]

The newer Etrex like the 30 support Glonass just as the Vista C's were the first to support WAAS.

I have never had a WAAS satellite show up on my GPS (though after looking at the WAAS areas, I disabled it because I just dont go anywhere with them).

How wide is the satellite coverage with Glonass?