Sat/Nav on the bike

Does anybody use anything other than Garmin for turn by turn directions? After 3 failed Garmins I have given up and tried to use iphone apps with varying levels of success, main problem being battery life. After a hard day at work I like to just get on my bike and ride and ride until the days frustrations are gone, trouble is I live out in the sticks and get myself lost. I love it if I have some means of pressing HOME and following directions. I finally think I might have found the solution, I have just bought a 8400mAh Juice Pack which I am going to use to power TomTom, and my iphone, on which I've installed Cyclemeter. 2 bits of kit, well 3 with the juice pack, but which fit neatly into my bag and I'd have the pone with me anyway.
If anyone has any neater solutions I would love to hear them, apart from Garmin Edge, the 605, 705 and 800 all had to go back after a few weeks, thankfully Wiggle gave me my money back in full.
Tour of Britain starts on Sunday, riding out to watch, can't wait.

I have a Garmin 450, but don't use it I use a Delorme PN-60W - a bit overkill, but it pairs with an inReach that allows me to send text messages via satellite when out of cell range (which I lose as soon as I enter the valley down the end of the dirt road). It also has an SOS button which transmits my GPS coordinates to rescue services on a schedule. It gives you choices for turn by turn directions: driving or hiking.

Well, I do occassionally use a Garmin, but it is not bike specific, it is an eTrex 30. It's worked out pretty well both on the bike and in the car.

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Originally Posted by Dizzie

Does anybody use anything other than Garmin for turn by turn directions? After 3 failed Garmins I have given up and tried to use iphone apps with varying levels of success, main problem being battery life. After a hard day at work I like to just get on my bike and ride and ride until the days frustrations are gone, trouble is I live out in the sticks and get myself lost. I love it if I have some means of pressing HOME and following directions. I finally think I might have found the solution, I have just bought a 8400mAh Juice Pack which I am going to use to power TomTom, and my iphone, on which I've installed Cyclemeter. 2 bits of kit, well 3 with the juice pack, but which fit neatly into my bag and I'd have the pone with me anyway.
If anyone has any neater solutions I would love to hear them, apart from Garmin Edge, the 605, 705 and 800 all had to go back after a few weeks, thankfully Wiggle gave me my money back in full.
Tour of Britain starts on Sunday, riding out to watch, can't wait.

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Would you be so kind as to tell me the problems that you had with the Garmin 705 and the Garmin 800 because I was thinking of buying a Garmin with Navi?
Thanks.
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2012 Specialized Amira Elite, upgraded carbon handle bars, Jett saddle 143mm switched to 145mm 2012 Selle Italia Max SLR Gel Flow saddle

2011 Specialized Ariel Sport,suspension post,Serfas Rx Women's Microfiber saddle

Hi Tigermom. They just stopped talking to the computer. The 605 was iffy from the start, sometimes the computer recognised it sometimes not, the company I purchased it from sent me a 705 in replacement, which was great for a couple of months then that just stopped being recognised. I sent back the 705 and paid extra then to upgrade to the 800 but with the same result. It did seem to be a major problem with them as there was a lot of talk on google and I don't know anyone now who is still using one. I thought at first it was because of being a Mac user but I had the 705 on my office PC. The routing was also odd, if we had a trip anywhere I would take my bike and Garmin with us and cycle home. I did some great trips but checking Garmin mileage with the car's Tomtom gave some large differences a ride from my brothers to home was 45 miles with stretches on major roads but it was only 30 to drive it with the TomTom and on much nicer roads. Pretty pleased with myself today the TomTom worked great and the juice pack lasted all day.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dizzie

Hi Tigermom. They just stopped talking to the computer. The 605 was iffy from the start, sometimes the computer recognised it sometimes not, the company I purchased it from sent me a 705 in replacement, which was great for a couple of months then that just stopped being recognised. I sent back the 705 and paid extra then to upgrade to the 800 but with the same result. It did seem to be a major problem with them as there was a lot of talk on google and I don't know anyone now who is still using one. I thought at first it was because of being a Mac user but I had the 705 on my office PC. The routing was also odd, if we had a trip anywhere I would take my bike and Garmin with us and cycle home. I did some great trips but checking Garmin mileage with the car's Tomtom gave some large differences a ride from my brothers to home was 45 miles with stretches on major roads but it was only 30 to drive it with the TomTom and on much nicer roads. Pretty pleased with myself today the TomTom worked great and the juice pack lasted all day.

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Can you plug in routes on your Tom Tom the day before so that the Tom Tom can direct you on your pre-planned bike route the next day? If planning routes ahead of time on your TomTom works, I think that I might start doing research into the Tom Tom also.

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2012 Specialized Amira Elite, upgraded carbon handle bars, Jett saddle 143mm switched to 145mm 2012 Selle Italia Max SLR Gel Flow saddle

2011 Specialized Ariel Sport,suspension post,Serfas Rx Women's Microfiber saddle

The TomTom I'm using is my spare car one, so I had to botch together a holder but it worked perfectly yesterday. It only does direct route though, so yesterday we were going to watch the Tour of Britain so I put in our destination and it gave turn by turn directions to there. Great for those sort of journeys but not for GPX routes that I make and want to upload. However the exciting bit was the Juice pack, it ran Tom Tom and my iphone for a 4.5 hour ride and was still showing half charge. Now I know I've got enough power for the phone I'm gong to try some more apps. there is also a brilliant (IMO) one over there called Ride with GPS, the guys there are super helpful and it can do multiple points. With the map war about to explode I have high hopes of a neat and not expensive solution in the very near future, it was just battery power that stopped smart phones from being perfect (again IMO). Sorry I am probably making it more confusing rather than helpful, getting a working sat nav on a bike is proving harder than putting components together to build a bike.
Happy to keep letting you know how it's going if it is of interest. If not good luck with putting your system together I would be interested in how you go about it.