gps with turn notification

[Big Fat Biker]

I'm looking for a replacement gps and I'm hoping to get something with a decent turn notification option. I currently have a very, very old Garmin etrex which can only take a very limited amount of waypoints and the turn notification is pretty poor. It does say approaching turn on the screen but if I blink or I'm tired/concentrating then I often miss it.

What options do I have? I don't have stupid amounts of money to blow so I expect to be going down the second hand/ebay route but from what I've been reading there don't seem to be many devices that offer turn notification.

Any help will be greatly appreciated

[composite]

Well depending upon exactly what you want the Garmin Edge 800 works well under specific conditions.

If you are doing a road ride and turn on "turn guidance" (I think it might be called that) then it works like a car sat nav. I like it and have used it a descent amount when doing road rides with my dad or when I just can't be arsed getting covered in mud in the winter. If however your route is a mixture of road and off road then it doesn't really work. It recalculates the off road bits and messes with the route etc. In all honesty though I find that turn by turn isn't really needed for off road anyway.

A word of warning though if you aren't very close to the start of the route (within about 1mile) when you hit go it can give some odd results. Some times it completely recalculates the route, other times it asks you if you want it to get you to the start point.

[Sussex Paul]

I've got a Garmin edge 500, and it wont give you turn by turn notifications in the way a car would, but it does give you and audible and visual indication that a turn is coming up if you are using TCX format routes.

I've only ever used it for road routes created using Bike Route Toaster, which automatically adds in the turn notifications if you are using the snap to road feature. I'm not sure how you would go about adding the turn notifications if you were plotting a route manually which you would have to do off-road, but I'm sure it can be done.

On the road bike it works well with the breadcrumb trail, I've missed one or two turns, but it makes it obvious you are off course within about 25 meters after you've missed the turn.

[composite]

I've got a Garmin edge 500, and it wont give you turn by turn notifications in the way a car would, but it does give you and audible and visual indication that a turn is coming up if you are using TCX format routes.

I've only ever used it for road routes created using Bike Route Toaster, which automatically adds in the turn notifications if you are using the snap to road feature. I'm not sure how you would go about adding the turn notifications if you were plotting a route manually which you would have to do off-road, but I'm sure it can be done.

On the road bike it works well with the breadcrumb trail, I've missed one or two turns, but it makes it obvious you are off course within about 25 meters after you've missed the turn.

I think it would be any editor that allows for custom cue sheets. So on RideWithGPS for instance it creates a cue sheet automatically as you drag your routes on the roads, but you can click a spot on the line and create a cue sheet entry. I think that bikehike does this as well?

EDIt: I did this for the BB200 route. I had a couple of extra cues on the points where the route went closest to a bothy or pub.

[mountainbaker]

Yeah, ridewithgps cuepoints are pretty good, I use it all the time for road rides. Also for the BB200, I added a cuepoint at every turn, and I didn't go wrong much as a result. Also, I'm using a Garmin 800, and I have used Turn Guidance a few times, and it's really useful. I had it on when I rode up to London non-stop (170 miles) and it gives a forewarning of a turn (which ridewithgps cuepoints do not, they are on the actual turn itself), which really helped when I was exhausted! Hope that helps!

[Sussex Paul]

Thanks guys, that's helpful to know, especially as bikerouttoaster is now offline at the moment.

[Big Fat Biker]

I actually want it for the wildcat 100. I usually plot a basic route in my Garmin etrex and back it up with a paper map. I wanted something to offer turn navigation as I think by the 50/60 mile mark I will be getting pretty tired and I want to minimise my input to the navigation to avoid getting lost

[Chew]

Don't think there is a GPS which will automatically do this for you offroad.

Road based maps will have nodes within them to indicate junctions turnings etc, but these wont exist for bridleways. Sounds like you'll have to input these yourself into what ever map/devise you have.

[99percentchimp]

You could add in waypoints with L or R in the name and most GPSs will give a proximity warning on approach... that works well offroad on the Etrex I use sometimes. I also use an 800 and follow a track - it will warn you if you are off track by 10 - 20m or so which in practice means taking a fork for a few yards before the worning pops up if you are offroute. Can be made audible too and works well with a tired brain.

[composite]

You could add in waypoints with L or R in the name and most GPSs will give a proximity warning on approach... that works well offroad on the Etrex I use sometimes. I also use an 800 and follow a track - it will warn you if you are off track by 10 - 20m or so which in practice means taking a fork for a few yards before the worning pops up if you are offroute. Can be made audible too and works well with a tired brain.

I generally rely on the second option of it just beeping when off course. I only use custom entries when its something specific I want to remind myself of. You don't want to be putting L/R in for a 100 mile route for every left and right turn that's a total pain in the arse.

Something else I only just thought of is that on RidewithGPS I think it uses google maps, which has a lot of fire roads marked and so a lot of the roads that will be in the wildcat. By using the follow roads feature to drag the line onto the roads, at turns it will create the cue sheet entries for you. The thing you have to be very careful about though is that there will be some bits where the marked line of the route is not marked on the map and the follow roads feature will try to take you else where. You have to mark control points at these sections so they don't move. If you aren't 100% familiar with what you are doing and careful about doing it, the risk of screwing the route up is very high.