Ive been using my iPhone with maps.me. It worked great on a big Africa trip because there's limited route choice (so it went where i wanted it to), but badly on a European tour this year as it routes using its own mind and not my loaded track. I also had charging issues once the iPhone got hot and loss of mapping when the phone rang! The time has come i think to get a dedicated unit.

I know absolutely nothing about bike sat navs, but want to be able to load a route that the nav follows if i ask it to, both on road and off road. I also want to able to put charging mounts on my road bike and my dirt bike.

What should i consider (features and model options)?


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First decide on the available maps. This varies by manufacture.

maps me is based on Open Street Map (OSM) data. That data is readily available for Garmin GPS units free. If your happy with the basic OSM data than you can use it on a Garmin GPS. Garmin also have their own map data too. Go look at the map data in your local area and see what it is like. You should be able to do this at a shop selling GPS units.

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Then decide on a model.

What do you need in a GPS unit?
Waterproof.
Readable in the sun.
Battery charging.

What do you want in a GPS?
ability to have a map?
colour display of map?
ability to record your track (you past path) so you can back track?
ability to follow a pre-set route?
ability to recalculate a route if you go off course?
ability to warn of speed/red light cameras?
a flash memory card storage so you can swap maps without a pc?
Portable - so you can use it while walking?

What else?

Thanks Warin, that's really helpful and I will go and have a look at some Garmin maps aa you suggest. In principle I am happy with OSM.

The question list is also really helpful and here's my thoughts:

What do you need in a GPS unit?

Waterproof.
Readable in the sun.
Battery charging. (Assume this means i can charge the battery on the bike)

YES, DEFINITELY FOR ALL

What do you want in a GPS?

ability to have a map? YES

colour display of map? PREFER

ability to record your track (you past path) so you can back track? NO

ability to follow a pre-set route? YES

ability to recalculate a route if you go off course? YES

ability to warn of speed/red light cameras? NOT NEEDED BUT OK

a flash memory card storage so you can swap maps without a pc? NOT SURE - YES IF NEED TO CHANGE MAPS

Portable - so you can use it while walking? NO

What else?
Don't need voice/blue tooth
On bike charging mount that's rugged and works (and option to buy two to cover both bikes)
Ease of use, especially on the IT

If you had a shortlist of 2 or 3 what would be on it?

Cheers
Andy

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It is unlikely that you will find a GPS unit nowadays that does not have a slot for flash memory.
Maps are always expanding so you can never have enough memory space - always double up on the amount of storage space that you think might be sufficient (I bought a 16 Gb card initially and now use a 32 Gb).

Slightly off your topic, but I continue to use a "water resistant" mobile phone that does everything that I want from a navigation system - I navigate and it assists me.
"It" is this software:-
https://www.mapfactor.com/en/

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Dave

Ive been using the garmin montana 610 all through western europe, balkans, and eastward through Turkey, Georgia and Armenia. Ive added an sd flash card (8gb) and downloaded open street maps and the tet maps as well. Great little unit, water proof, rugged, and you can wire up a powered ram mount for charging. And easy enough to plot routes either using the unit itself or using the free garmin software.

Quick update and plea for guidance:

In the end I opted for the Gamin Montana 610. Got a new one, including GB OS 1:50,000 mapping for £391 from Blacks.

I spent a slightly frustrating Saturday trying to get my head around how to make it all work.

So far I have loaded Garmin Express and BaseCamp, and then added in OSM mapping into BaseCamp to compliment the OS map.

I tend to plan routes in Google maps. I have exported these as .kmz files and loaded them directly into BaseCamp and also used GPSvisualizer to covert them to .gpx files before loading to BaseCamp. I also looked at loading the .gpx files directly but was not sure where to put them on the Garmin folder.

I can open the .kmz and .gpx files no problem in BaseCamp, when they show as a track.

I gather I need to covert these to a route to get route guidance. When I double click the track and select "create route" it gives me an error message. I am using streets in the middle of Bristol - so not sure why it is erroring.

I can create a route by changing the BaseCamp profile to direct routing - it then does not error, which seems odd. However if I then change this profile back to "motorcycle" it takes the route all over the place.

Essentially I want to do two things:
1. Create a purely 'on road' route in Google maps for a typical week tour (split by days) and make it a route on the Montana where I can get route guidance on my selected route
2. Create a trail riding route (mixture of on and off road routes) that does the same

Any tips on where I am going wrong?

Cheers
Andy

Nice chatting Andy- I hope you are now on the right track.
Do get in touch as and when you get [] moments!! and I'll try to help.
atb

Thanks Bertrand, appreciate the time and insights. Will report back on how i get on.

Cheers
Andy


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Glad to help you Andy- Email me direct when you wish to- it is quicker-
I'll send you some more .gpx files and when you feel you'd like to create larger databases which use a .csv format, I'll send you examples of those with info. on how to set these up. It sounds harder than it is!
The benefit of .csv files is that they are small in comparison to .gpx for the amount of data they contain but the downside is that you cannot edit them once on your Montana. ATB
Another benefit is that each.csv file can be for a specific kind of waypoint (like BMW dealerships etc) which would have an matching icon which would display on your screen as you move along (depending on your zoom levels [which are customizable on your 610])- useful stuff.

You can also take screenshot of, for example, GE and use that image in your Montana- that image will need a little processing but it can be handy for trails etc - the downside of those is that each image does take up a lot memory space so for long distance, it is not practical- unless you store these on a hard disk/memory stick and keep updating the Montana which then require a computer and yet another job to do on the trail.

I use a Garmin Montana 600 and my phone also to compare!

If you ask me personal the Montana is better for someone that needs something "more" from a GPS in his trip.

With Montana:
Battery life better.
In full sun (YES!!) you can see the screen!!!!!
Route/track recording.
Map source..
You can load tracks from others and ride the same exactly route.
Waterproof(some phones also)

With the phone(mapsme,heremaps etc) :
Free maps with no need to get a pc to load them.(only wifi).
Only one device to carry on you.
More simple menu in searching!
For Europe i think is better if you dont go off-tracks.

I am not write for the negatives...


The choice is yours!!

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3mountainsadventure

Over the years I have bought two Garmins. Both are really good in the UK but not much use in France where I live.

set for fastest time and to avoid toll roads the old one (Nuivi) insists on using tiny roads less than six feet wide when they can be found. It is the least bad of the two

The other one (drive 60) cannot be trusted at all. For instance from my place to Antwerp is 761 KM without tolls in actual fact.. using Viamichelin. but the Garmin plots a route and claims tolls cannot be avoided. To put me on the toll roads it sends me the long way around just to get me on the toll roads, adding and extra 200 KM. I cannot put in a destination and drive because I have no idea (nor does it) of where it will take me.