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#11
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GPS Recommendations
Steve B. wrote: "Jason Settles" wrote in message . Does anyone use a GPS while cycling? I'm looking for recommendations/suggestions for usage. I would like something small that will upload/download to a computer. Something that will also track altitude and/or grade changes will riding. I have experience with a Garmin III Plus as well as considerable software background so I am open to high tech suggestions. Thanks in advance for any assistance. *Jason. in Indy I have used the original Garmin Vista, and did experience the auto-shut-off issue related to loose Lithium batteries, but also had luck with a rubber shim. The Lithiums do extend battery life, are expensive, but are almost a required item as the Vista eats alkalines. NiMH are cheaper than lithiums and work great. I have 2500 maH ones that I am using now, but have been using 2100 maH NiMH batteries in my Legend and Vista for the past 5 years and they work fine with sufficient life. The software does allow an up-load of a track to PC as well as download of a map, but does not allow routes to be complied on a PC and downloaded, or I've never been able to do it ! Geez, I guess all those routes I compiled for my tour down the west coast and my tours in Italy, Switzerland, France, and Spain are all figments of my imagination. Not! It is trivial in the Garmin software to create routes and download to the unit. though I think you can download routes from Delorme products - never bothered though. Only sort of; DeLorme takes its route and creates a series of waypoints that get downloaded. OK, but not as useful as a route. The built in tracklog is good for about a 22 mile ride, or one way track, before it "wraps around" the log of waypoints it writes. I did 300 miles in France in May all in the Active Log of my Vista with no wrap around. You need to work more with the unit and find out how the setting affect things. Lower the sampling rater; a high sampling rate is fine if you are flying an aircraft or driving at 80 MPH, but on a bike it is useless. You also want to set it to the finest resolution so it will write a lot of waypoints on a track log, Semantic correction; it writes track points, not waypoints. Waypoints are a much different thing. else it cuts corners on twisty roads and the ride log reads short. It will still do this even at the highest sampling rate. Thus a regular $25 bike computer can be more accurate, No, if calibrated correctly the cyclocomputer will always be more accurate. Accuracy of distance travelled is not the reason one rides with a GPS. It is to help navigate and provide a track that can be analyzed later. especially in the woods, where any GPS may lose a signal. Bottom line is it's an expensive gadget for everyday riding, but useful if you are riding in an area where you might get lost, and/or are creating a cue sheet. Better ways to get a cue sheet. Again, the main purposes to ride with a GPS are to navigate, to find items, and to provide a track log for later analysis. We have, for example, been caught in a sudden thunderstorm in Italy and queried the GPS to locate a train station to make it back to the town in which we were staying. We have used it to locate nearest hotel, nearest Mexican food restaurant, the location of specific museums, rental car agencies, etc. Those are the reasons I tour and ride with my Vista. - rick |
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#12
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GPS Recommendations
Rick, thanks for the info.
"Rick" wrote in message "Jason Settles" I have used the original Garmin Vista, and did experience the auto-shut-off issue related to loose Lithium batteries, but also had luck with a rubber shim. The Lithiums do extend battery life, are expensive, but are almost a required item as the Vista eats alkalines. NiMH are cheaper than lithiums and work great. I have 2500 maH ones that I am using now, but have been using 2100 maH NiMH batteries in my Legend and Vista for the past 5 years and they work fine with sufficient life. I suspect I had not heard of NiMh in AA size 3 years ago, thus went to Lithiums. I'll try the NiMh The software does allow an up-load of a track to PC as well as download of a map, but does not allow routes to be complied on a PC and downloaded, or I've never been able to do it ! Geez, I guess all those routes I compiled for my tour down the west coast and my tours in Italy, Switzerland, France, and Spain are all figments of my imagination. Not! It is trivial in the Garmin software to create routes and download to the unit. though I think you can download routes from Delorme products - never bothered though. Well, I did say that I had never been able to do it !, not that it wasn't possible, but having not used the unit as much in the past 2 years ( I have a 2610 in the car - which I love !), I'll delve back into it. Only sort of; DeLorme takes its route and creates a series of waypoints that get downloaded. OK, but not as useful as a route. The built in tracklog is good for about a 22 mile ride, or one way track, before it "wraps around" the log of waypoints it writes. I did 300 miles in France in May all in the Active Log of my Vista with no wrap around. You need to work more with the unit and find out how the setting affect things. Lower the sampling rater; a high sampling rate is fine if you are flying an aircraft or driving at 80 MPH, but on a bike it is useless. Semantic correction; it writes track points, not waypoints. Waypoints are a much different thing. Are you using the same unit ?. What I remember on my unit was the limitation of something like 1000 trackpoints (which I should have called something like internal waypoints, or some such to avoid confusion) - which I seem to recall could be adjusted as to how far apart in distance, which according to info I read ended up as something like 20 some odd miles at highest resolution. Remember that I was creating cuesheets, not using to navigate, thus I needed better resolution. else it cuts corners on twisty roads and the ride log reads short. It will still do this even at the highest sampling rate. True, but with less error Thus a regular $25 bike computer can be more accurate, No, if calibrated correctly the cyclocomputer will always be more accurate. Accuracy of distance travelled is not the reason one rides with a GPS. It is to help navigate and provide a track that can be analyzed later. Do you mean Yes, the bike computer is more accurate ?. One issue with bike computers though, is that from manufacturer to manufacturer, the measuring differs, and even with correctly calibrated computers, the measurements differ. This was the primary reason I got the Garmin, to help me get a different measurement system as I create cue sheets for my area. At this point I essentially average out what the GPS and the bike computer tell me. Again, the main purposes to ride with a GPS are to navigate, to find items, and to provide a track log for later analysis. Which is what I missed my Garmin on a trip to Vermont 3 weeks ago when I decided to detour without a map. Thanks again SB |
#13
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GPS Recommendations
Steve B. wrote: Rick, thanks for the info. "Rick" wrote in message "Jason Settles" I have used the original Garmin Vista, and did experience the auto-shut-off issue related to loose Lithium batteries, but also had luck with a rubber shim. The Lithiums do extend battery life, are expensive, but are almost a required item as the Vista eats alkalines. NiMH are cheaper than lithiums and work great. I have 2500 maH ones that I am using now, but have been using 2100 maH NiMH batteries in my Legend and Vista for the past 5 years and they work fine with sufficient life. I suspect I had not heard of NiMh in AA size 3 years ago, thus went to Lithiums. I'll try the NiMh The software does allow an up-load of a track to PC as well as download of a map, but does not allow routes to be complied on a PC and downloaded, or I've never been able to do it ! Geez, I guess all those routes I compiled for my tour down the west coast and my tours in Italy, Switzerland, France, and Spain are all figments of my imagination. Not! It is trivial in the Garmin software to create routes and download to the unit. though I think you can download routes from Delorme products - never bothered though. Well, I did say that I had never been able to do it !, not that it wasn't possible, but having not used the unit as much in the past 2 years ( I have a 2610 in the car - which I love !), I'll delve back into it. Only sort of; DeLorme takes its route and creates a series of waypoints that get downloaded. OK, but not as useful as a route. The built in tracklog is good for about a 22 mile ride, or one way track, before it "wraps around" the log of waypoints it writes. I did 300 miles in France in May all in the Active Log of my Vista with no wrap around. You need to work more with the unit and find out how the setting affect things. Lower the sampling rater; a high sampling rate is fine if you are flying an aircraft or driving at 80 MPH, but on a bike it is useless. Semantic correction; it writes track points, not waypoints. Waypoints are a much different thing. Are you using the same unit ?. What I remember on my unit was the limitation of something like 1000 trackpoints (which I should have called something like internal waypoints, or some such to avoid confusion) - which I seem to recall could be adjusted as to how far apart in distance, which according to info I read ended up as something like 20 some odd miles at highest resolution. Remember that I was creating cuesheets, not using to navigate, thus I needed better resolution. Yes, I am using an eTrex Vista. You seem to confuse trackpoints and waypoints. The Vista, and many of the Garmin units, can store up to 1000 waypoints, only. But a waypoint is a marker and is quite different from a trackpoint. I have tracks with 6000+ trackpoints in them. else it cuts corners on twisty roads and the ride log reads short. It will still do this even at the highest sampling rate. True, but with less error Thus a regular $25 bike computer can be more accurate, No, if calibrated correctly the cyclocomputer will always be more accurate. Accuracy of distance travelled is not the reason one rides with a GPS. It is to help navigate and provide a track that can be analyzed later. Do you mean Yes, the bike computer is more accurate ?. One issue with bike computers though, is that from manufacturer to manufacturer, the measuring differs, and even with correctly calibrated computers, the measurements differ. This was the primary reason I got the Garmin, to help me get a different measurement system as I create cue sheets for my area. At this point I essentially average out what the GPS and the bike computer tell me. Yes, the cyclocomputer will be more accurate. The difference in measurement systems is relatively inconsequential. The main difference is whether they use cm or mm. Since my wheels are all over 200cm in circumference, the maximum error is less than 0.25% (5mm on a 200cm circumference wheel) if it uses cm for calibration rather than mm. A difference of a 1/4 mile on a 100 mile ride does not matter. Again, the main purposes to ride with a GPS are to navigate, to find items, and to provide a track log for later analysis. Which is what I missed my Garmin on a trip to Vermont 3 weeks ago when I decided to detour without a map. Use it more often, then you will become more accustomed to its uses, capabilities, and limitations. And if you move to NiMH, the rechargable aspect will help with the cost of running it. BTW, here are some GPSVisualizer processed tracks from my recent trip (all tracks recorded on an eTrex Vista): http://www.cycle-tours.com/images/fr..._2005_tour.jpg http://www.cycle-tours.com/images/fr...map_May_24.jpg http://www.cycle-tours.com/images/fr...map_May_25.jpg http://www.cycle-tours.com/images/fr...map_May_26.jpg http://www.cycle-tours.com/images/fr...map_May_27.jpg http://www.cycle-tours.com/images/fr...map_May_28.jpg http://www.cycle-tours.com/images/fr...map_May_29.jpg http://www.cycle-tours.com/images/fr...map_May_30.jpg http://www.cycle-tours.com/images/fr...map_May_31.jpg http://www.cycle-tours.com/images/fr.../map_Jun_1.jpg http://www.cycle-tours.com/images/fr.../map_Jun_2.jpg - rick |
#14
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GPS Recommendations
Jason Settles wrote: Does anyone use a GPS while cycling? I'm looking for recommendations/suggestions for usage. I would like something small that will upload/download to a computer. Something that will also track altitude and/or grade changes will riding. I have experience with a Garmin III Plus as well as considerable software background so I am open to high tech suggestions. I use one all the time. Both road biike and off-road. There are lots of factors depending on what you would hope to actually do, but ultimately the GPS unit you choose may be less significant than software that you use in conjunction with it. Check out Topofusion.com for truly excellent mapping/training log software. (Written by bikers, well written at that) It's got about every nifty feature that a biker might want. (tracks, profiles, 3D mapping, Training log, virtual racing with scaled time tracks, route planning, average speed, climbing ....) Take a look at the Garmin ForeTREX. It's hard to beat for basic usefulness (essentially the same as a Geko 201) and compactness (very small) unless you decide you need a "mapping" unit. (and even the fortrex will let you display a track that you have created while showing where you are) My biggest complaint ( a minor one at that) is that the batteries are not removable which means that once they're dead, the unit has to be recharged unless you rig up some sort of external power pack (which I have done). I've used a Garmin Legend extensively too. It's excellent and I suspect the newr color version is even better. I have never seen any real need for a unit with a barometric altimeter built in, since the GPS altimeter is quite accurate any time you are getting a decent satellite fix. A unit with a Barometeric altimer will also go through batteries a bit quicker. DR |
#15
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GPS Recommendations
Ted wrote: [re Etrex] ...The problem with the unit is that if you leave it on while you ride it will turn its self off. I think the problem has to do with the batteries losing contact when you hit bumps. I asked Garmin about this problem and they said it was designed for alkaline batteries and that rechargeable batteries weren't the same physical dimensions. I tried the alkalines but they had the same problem. Other have described similar solutions but here's mine: http://www.members.aol.com/dirtroadi.../etrexshim.jpg The two tiny strips (1cm) are thin closed cell weatherstripping which fills just enough space to keep the batteries from being able to move but compresses without creating any stress on the case cover. Battery size can definitely be an issue but I have not had any recent problems with rechargeables. In fact my only experience with loose batteries was with some old 1300 mAH AA's. I'll bet almost all batteries made today are much "snugger" since they have to pack the "juice" in somehow. DR |
#16
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GPS Recommendations
"Jason Settles" wrote in message . .. Does anyone use a GPS while cycling? I'm looking for recommendations/suggestions for usage. I would like something small that will upload/download to a computer. Something that will also track altitude and/or grade changes will riding. I have experience with a Garmin III Plus as well as considerable software background so I am open to high tech suggestions. Thanks in advance for any assistance. *Jason. in Indy I have been using a Garmin Forerunner 201. http://www.garmin.com/products/forerunner201/ It is inexpensive (~ $150) and seems very accurate. It records distances to within a fraction of a percent of what my cycle computer records (Ciclosport 436M). It will display current speed, elevation, distance, time, etc. The 201 downloads to computer and the software will export a data file (*.xml) of Lat/Long & Elev that can be loaded into Excel, etc. you can also overlay data on maps: http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/map?form=forerunner My main gripe with the 201 was the data capacity which was something like 8 hours even though the rechargeable battery runs for about 15 hours. New software updates may have fixed this but I haven't been on any 15 hour rides to check. I did a 10 hour ride this year and it worked fine. Dan |
#17
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GPS Recommendations
I got a Garmin 60CS in June and I'm very happy with it. Although slightly
larger thant the Vista or Legend it has a larger color screen that is easy to read and has more memory so it can hold more map data. I use it with the handlebar mount which works great and it is easy to read while biking during the daytime. I use Alkaline AA batteries which seem to last quite awhile and haven't had any problem with it at all. I find the odometer very accurate and I also use it in my car when I'm not biking. It also includes a compass and altimeter. I highly recommend it. Chuck "Jason Settles" wrote in message . .. Does anyone use a GPS while cycling? I'm looking for recommendations/suggestions for usage. I would like something small that will upload/download to a computer. Something that will also track altitude and/or grade changes will riding. I have experience with a Garmin III Plus as well as considerable software background so I am open to high tech suggestions. Thanks in advance for any assistance. *Jason. in Indy |
#18
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GPS Recommendations
Ted wrote:
I can recommend against one model, the Garmin etrek Vista. It has 24 meg of memory and and upload maps of sections of the USA which is all very nice. You can download track logs of your routes which is also nice. The problem with the unit is that if you leave it on while you ride it will turn its self off. I think the problem has to do with the batteries losing contact when you hit bumps. I asked Garmin about this problem and they said it was designed for alkaline batteries and that rechargeable batteries weren't the same physical dimensions. I tried the alkalines but they had the same problem. I haven't found any solution. Ted ============================================== I had the same problem with my Garmin eMap. Solved it by mounting it on foam rubber. I glued some Velcro to the foam rubber, and put Velcro on the back of the GPS. A safety strap loops over my odometer/computer thingy, which saved this GPS one time from flying away when I hit a big bump. |
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GPS Recommendations
Dirtroadie makes a lot of sense. I've used several GPS receivers since 1998. Over the last 16 months my favorite is a Garmin Foretrex for biking, hiking, even driving. IMO any paper map is almost always better than an electronic map on a small screen. That said, if you really want a mapping GPSR, look closely at the Legend C / Vista C. The 60C is also good, but designed to be held more vertical. Garmin's website has a good viewer app for their software. Anyone considering a mapping GPSR should spend a lot of time reviewing the *content* of the maps. See http://www.gpsinformation.org and sci.geo.satellite-nav |
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GPS Recommendations
Bob Wheeler wrote:
I have a GPSmap 60CS. Would the new Garmin Quest be too big and cumbersome for biking and outdoor use? John |
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