I've never used a gps trekking before, always map and compass.

Although: I do have a gps, a highly accurate 'WAAS' enabled gps;
GPSmap60
It has a blessing in disguise: Very poor memory & small monochrome screen (totally unreadable whilst riding), you can load topography but a very limited amount, as I attempted to load the whole of Dartmoor National Park, it failed, you get a basic outline of the world, with the topography for your back garden.

The reason why this is a blessing? Well, it removes the temptation to rely on it for the never ending torrent of 'info' the more expensive gps' deliver, and so it becomes a backup, if i've hopelessly turned myself around in featureless terrain it can be used to retrieve a long&lat to plot on paper and it's game on, sling back in the bag!

They can do that, BUT, they need the right maps loaded and the right settings and .....

The last conference I attended related to emergency vehicles was interesting. They were fitting GPS because local "yoof" often think it's funny to send the police the wrong way or will simply want to pick a fight with anyone in uniform while others want paying for directions or send everyone past their brothers shop. Then there are the people who live in the village but work fifty miles away and couldn't actualy find the pub themselves, but won't admit it, old people who want to chat for an hour...etc etc. Then there were the local councils who assumed everyone had GPS, so didn't maintain road signs and companies who don't put signs up to reduce the number of cold callers. All in all, the world is becoming set up for GPS at the expense of other ways of navigating. I'd hate to try and find anything in a UK city without GPS these days.

In the desert I loved playing with the sun compass etc., but give me a nasty sand storm and a vehicle short of fuel and a nice simple GPS that doesn't require me to be 10m away would be a real bonus.

One I do find useful is Google maps. Get basically a satelitte photo to help you in the last few miles. Up to you if you memorise it, print it or get it sent to a PDA thingy.

Andy

I think it all depends on where you want to travel, no we never had one when we was living in Australia, but after 5 months in Indonesia where if you stopped and asked 5 locals for directions you would end up with same amount of different answers, so for us it was money well spent.

Now we wouldn't be without it.

Ann

I agree with the google maps... But the whole idea of the gps is to be able to navigate without paper maps.

Regarding the gps though, I had the best maps that were available. Sadly They have misspelt my home so no one can find it, including any delivery driver using a garmin. Via michelin and Tom tom are fine. Unfortunately I now cannot use Amazon.com because their delivery service uses Garmin GPS :( The only way I could use it was to navigate to somewhere near where I wanted to be and guess that last 10 miles or so. Exactly what I didn't want because I can easily find somewhere near just by looking at signposts. It is the last few miles to teh door I cant do easily for places I havent been before. The other way that worked was to input the waypoint. Sadly I couldn't find the waypoints very often until after I had visited the place.

In the UK post codes worked well, but not so anywhere else. My post code is a 10 mile radius circle. and a Garmin will drop you 13 miles away if you input my address. Just imagine if they had coded London as Losdon. a small mistake but virtually unfathonable.

Garmin is American. In North London it used to say:

"Turn North onto the Great North Road"

No one has called the A-1 the "Great North Road" since the Romans went home, UK road signs use place names and road numbers and the junction is a roundabout with five lanes and traffic lights.

The correct instructions would be something like "get in the third lane to take the fourth exit, following A-1 Welwyn/St. Albans".

In the USA "Highway 1 North" is on the signs, but that's not much use anywhere else.

Andy

Last time I heard of the Great north road was in the "Leather boys" film :) Great to see the old bikes in action.

Yes it used to irritate me when my Garmin pisspronounced names of streets. Who cares if the road is general de gaulle avenue or general le Clerc boulevard ?
If you dont Know the town, street names are meaningless. If you do know the town you dont need the gps.

,

This is not how my Garmin (550 Zumo) works, it'll say, turn left or turn right onto the (named) road, or if a roundabout 'take the 1st, or 2nd, or 3rd exit etc. it never gives a compass type direction...

A sat-nav is more important in a busy town than out in the wilds where you can stop easily and look at the map, assuming you know where you are. I have a Garmin Map60 and would not be without it now. It does not talk to me, so I can ignore it if I wish.

My reason for buying it was that I had become too old to be able to read a map on my tankbag without reading glasses. The GPS map is hard to read on the handlebars too, but the little pop up pictures of a junction are easy. Or, without turn by turn instructions it points you in the right direction and you choose which road you take.

You still need maps to see the big picture, and must look for signs as the maps become out of date as the roads change.

Sounds confusing
 

However, once over the learning curve, and its properly integrated into navigating for purpose, it can save tons of time and resources - both for the individual and society. When you think about it, it's an amazing amount of technology and infrastructure that runs that little box.

It could help with some inconvenient situations.

I was once asked by a leather clad harley type biker with the loud exhaust what my GPS was and what it was for. I had initially thought he was just ignorant...but his simple question was sort of an ephinay for me. I always knew where I was, how far I was from a place and how soon I would get there. There was no doubt. The next day I pulled it off and have not used it since while actively riding. It is fun heading in the general direction you wish to go and seeing how out of the way you go. The ride, even on familiar roads is an adventure again.
When my wife and I travel, we have a GPSMAP 60CSX and a Spot, they both live in the tank bag with the maps. If I want to know where I am and can't determine by landmarks, I'll pull out the gps. Occasionally for fun, I'll cross ref the Lat and Long.

If I want to get to place X without any messing about, I'll use the SatNav. Especially if it's in a town that I don't know, but only if it works of course.

However, if I'm in adventure mode and I'm exploring that's a different matter, so why bother... its all about getting lost.

Hi

I use a tomtom rider edition 1 but with no voice, I use it as a rough guide and its a godsend when looking for campsites.

I still and always will take paper maps for rough planning on the next days leg of the route.

Cheers
Geordie

a different perspective
 

Just putting it out there but no one has mentioned the use and benefit of paper maps for planning purposes. I find a big scale paper map say 1:1,000,000 or 2,000,000 execllent for laying out on the ground and looking at the route options. You just can't get the feel for terrain, density of population and touch and feel of a country with a GPS, plus you can't the same way with a GPS over a few beers in hand with fellow travellers.

I know GPS's and have used them extensively but choose not to because I like paper. I also like getting lost and discovering uncharted (in my mind's eye) territory. Antiquidated thought, yes but never the less I spend less time charging GPS batteries and more time drinking beer with paper maps, so I don't think it'll change anytime soon.

Here's to meeting fellow travellers on the road and sharing a few beerbeer's with them over a well worn map.

I think some confuse SatNav with GPS. SatNav being the dumbed down way to get from A to B using guiding commands.

GPS is more the aviation and marine model.
The point you wish to get to is only designated by a waypoint on your basemap, none routable map or map with guidance turned off.

I used a combination of GPS with the Smelly Biker worldmap, paper maps, for the big picture and local knowledge to confirm the former methods.

I think they are a great tool and its good to overlay your track (breadcrumb trail), over a map after the trip.

John

I agree with you Redboots but this is the fault of marketing idiots not understanding the technology so some markets like in Australia refer only to GPS for all devices that use GPS for navigation or not whereas in the UK you will hear SatNav meaning Satellite Navigation using GPS.

It's also worth noting that with most SatNav devices Tomtom, Garmin, or other they will provide you with GPS coordinates so you can obtain your exact position and use it as reference on other maps... but that's another discussion.