[DVBC] Features for a GPS for a bike

Thu Dec 13 18:20:32 EST 2007

Dreamy,

Here's a somewhat dated article from Mario Nappa, prior president of White
Clay, on biking with a GPS that is still a good starting point to help you
decide whether to take the plunge. Then, I suggest you talk to Len
or Doug or Edward or one of the other current users to get up on prices and
ease-of-use and useful features. There's definitely a learning curve and a
daunting selection out there that may or may not make GPSing worthwhile to
you.

*Navigating On a Bicycle By GPS*
------------------------------

If you ride the same route over and over again, you don't need a GPS; for
that matter you don't need a cue sheet or a paper map either. On the other
hand, if you are adventurous and you like to explore new roads on a bicycle,
a GPS is for you. Inspired by Bill Cotton's talk at the WCBC meeting last
Spring, I purchased a GPS unit and have been using it for cycling ever
since. I personally love to ride on new roads and I rarely repeat the same
ride in a given year. With a GPS unit, you have no fear of getting lost, and
you have the confidence to go in areas you are unfamiliar with. It takes
away the guesswork and the concentration of following a cue sheet when
riding on back country roads. It doesn't matter if the roads are marked,
since the turns are marked by coordinates beamed down from satellites.

GPS stands for Global Positioning System. Without getting into the details,
your GPS receiver attached to the handlebar of your bicycle tries to receive
signals from at least 12 satellites in geosynchronous orbit above North
America. Rarely can you lock onto all 12, although I did on the top of Mt.
Greylock in New Hampshire, because you need a direct line of sight from each
of the satellites to your receiver. Signals are blocked by buildings, heavy
foliage, and even your body. Luckily, you only need to lock onto three to
get location and speed, four if you want altitude as well. The Emap by
Garmin is the model that I use, shown in the photo below. It has a moving
map that will move you along as you make your way down the road. When you
load the software into the GPS that comes with it, the GPS will also alert
you with the name of the crossroad that is approaching. This is a handy
feature if you don't program a route into it ahead of time.

There are a number of ways to use a GPS unit. The first is to use it to
track your progress showing all the roads in the area that you areriding in
on the moving map. A snapshot of the display shows what a typical map looks
like.

You can have the Emap in tracking mode or navigation mode. The above photo
shows the display in tracking mode. In addition to a map, you are shown a
compass, the speed, trip distance, and the time. You can use the full screen
for the map and remove the data fields as shown below.

When you are done your trip, you can upload the track from your GPS receiver
to your computer and a line will appear on the computer map showing where
you have been. You can either use the Mapsource software that comes with the
Emap or your upload the track to one of Delorme's mapping packages. If you
get the track into Topo USA, it will even tell you how many feet you
climbed, your distance traveled, etc. In navigation mode, you can mark your
starting location (or a destination) by putting a waypoint in for that
location and the unit will always point to it and tell you how many miles
you are from it by direct line of sight. If you marked your starting
location, the Emap will always point you back to it and tell you how far you
have traveled from the start. This feature is used by a lot of mountain
bikers to prevent them from getting lost in the woods since they always know
the direction to their car. Most GPS units also have a track back feature,
where you can go a certain distance and reverse your track to show you the
way out by reversing your steps, essentially electronic bread crumbs. This
is probably a better feature for mountain biking or hiking than for road
riding.

The real benefit of the Emap for me is the navigation feature where you
create a route ahead of time on your computer and download it to the Emap. I
usually use Topo USA 4.0 or Street Atlas Deluxe from Delorme to create a
route. This is what I normally do anyway to create a cue sheet using
SAD2CUE<http://mywebpages.comcast.net/ibikealot>.
Once this route is created, I transfer the route directions to the Emap. I
can then start to navigate on this route when on the road, and the Emap will
beep at me before every turn, tell me how many miles or feet and the amount
of time before the turn, and it will also point in the direction that I have
to turn in. The photo below shows what the display looks like when I
activated a route starting at Octoraro School. The displays shows that I am
11 miles from the start and I have to head NW to get to it. If I were
moving, the NW would be replaced by an arrow showing the direction I'd have
to go in. Also, if moving, the display would show how long it will take to
get there based on your average speed.

It doesn't get any easier than this!

One limitation of the Emap is that it will only hold 50 turns per route, so
if your route has more than that you have to break it down into multiple
routes. The amount of waypoints in your route depends on the software used
to generate the route, the number of turns and street name changes, etc. I
did a test and the 35 mile ride from Chadds Ford to Valley Forge used about
41 turns in both Street Atlas Deluxe and Topo USA, but about 200 (estimated)
using Mapsource. Mapsource is less efficient than the Delorme products in
the number of waypoints it uses. It put a waypoint in whenever the road
changed directions. This year I did the Tour of Mt. Greylock and I was able
to program every turn for 825 miles into the Emap. I used 498 turns out of
the 500 total so I just made it under that limit. In addition to the 50
waypoints per route limit, there is a maximum of 20 routes and 500
waypoints. These numbers are not expandable by adding additional memory.
Bill Cotton figured out that f you have a route with 50 to 100 waypoints in
SA2003, SA Deluxe, or Topo 4.0, you can use the same route and double
reverse it to give you two routes on the Emap. Click here for
details.<http://mywebpages.comcast.net/ibikealot/doublingwaypoints.htm>

Another nice feature of the Emap and the Mapsource program that comes with
it are the Points of Interest. You can be riding and then query the Emap for
the closest deli, restaurant, motel, bagel shop, etc. and it will list them
from closest to furthest and it will also map it for you and tell you what
direction it is in and how far it is. This is especially useful if you are
in unfamiliar territory. You can also punch in an address and the Emap will
direct you to it as well.

The Emap has a window called Trip Info which gives you your average moving
speed, trip distance, odometer (total distance), total average, and maximum
speed. There is also a display that will give you your altitude at any given
time. I use the GPS reading to set my Cateye altimeter at the beginning of a
ride.

There are many other things you can do with a GPS, and I am constantly
finding new ways to use it. For example, you can do a ride and let the GPS
track it for you. You then upload it to the computer, convert it to a route,
and then automatically generate a cue sheet for the ride with little to no
typing. You can do this with software and hardware available today. If you
want details on this particular use,c lick here for more
details<http://mywebpages.comcast.net/ibikealot/drawlayertoroute.htm>
.

Okay, so how much does all this technology cost. It's not cheap, but it is
getting cheaper every day. I bought the Emap Deluxe, which comes with the
Mapsource software, an 8MB memory chip, PC interface cable, and lanyard for
$215 from www.tvnav.com, the cheapest place on the internet. This plus a
bike mount for $5 is all you need to get you going. The 8 MB memory chip is
barely enough memory to load maps from the surrounding area into the Emap.
There is a basemap of the continental US in the unit which has all the
primary roads, but if you want to load all the back roads (even driveways at
times) you need to select the areas on your computer mapping program (the
Mapsource that comes with it) and load that into the Emap. You can load in
any area in the US that you are interested in. Mapsource is also available
for parts of Europe and other foreign countries. If you want to load in a
large area, you have to buy additional memory. I bought the 64 MB card for
$115 so that I can have all the secondary roads for the entire trip to
Vermont. While this was costly, it was worth every penny since it was my
primary navigational aid for my tour. I have the entire northeast area
loaded in so now I don't have to change the loaded maps in the Emap unless I
travel to another part of the country. I did just that when I cycled in
Chicago this summer, and for that I loaded the Chicago area and used my Emap
to cycle all the way from the south side of town up to Evanston, Illinois.
Again, I just used the Emap to navigate in unfamiliar territory without any
fear of getting lost. On this trip we took a ferry ride on Lake Michigan and
the captain saw me with my GPS unit in my hand and asked me what speed we
were going. He correctly guessed about 15 miles per hour. I also took the
Emap on a trip to Alabama and sat it next to the window on a Southwestern
Airlines flight. I punched in Tuscaloosa as my destination and it showed me
how long before we landed, how fast we were going and our altitude.
Southwest is one of the few airlines that allows GPS receivers on board.

Is a GPS for you? That is entirely up to you and your wallet. It depends on
how much you like to explore unknown territories and how much your budget
will allow. What I described above is probably the middle of the road in
terms of price. There are more basic units without the moving map, but they
can still be used for routing. Personally, I find it a joy to ride with the
Emap. I find myself often leaving club rides when I see a new road to just
try it out. I can usually find my way back to the group, but if I don't I
can find my way back to the car for sure.

On 12/13/07, Jake L. <redallez at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Deb,
>
> I've looked at all the GPS units recently and picked the Garmin Edge 705
> as the unit to buy. It is the top of the line unit from Garmin specifically
> designed for cyclists. It comes with US Base maps unlike the 205 or 305 and
> has a microSD card port for adding more maps/memory. The 205 and 305 series
> are not designed for Navigation because neither has the capability or even
> the option of displaying US Base map. Makes you wonder what is the purpose
> of the GPS if you can't see a map of where you're at! The 705 has Garmins
> excellent City Navigator maps that you can *add* to this unit. I've used
> City Navigator on another Garmin unit and found it very accurate. There is
> lots more info you can find here: https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=160&pID=10885
>
>
> If you do splurge for the 705 make sure you get the model with cadence.
> There is also the 605 which is almost identical to the 705 but does not have
> the cadence option, and no altimeter, but costs $100-150 less than 705.
>
> Btw 705 or 605 unit can also be used as an hand held unit if you go hiking
> or use it in the car for navigation, something neither the 205 or 305 can
> do.
>
> hope this helps,
>
> Jake
>
> p.s. I'm saving my pennies for the 705 as it is pretty expensive.
>
>
>
> On Dec 13, 2007 6:15 AM, Frank Jackson <cyclingfrankrides at hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Yes definitely the right way to go. If not for those skills I'd probably
> > be still be pedaling in circles somewhere in South Jersey.
> > Frank
> >
> > > Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 19:43:54 -0500
> > > Subject: Re: [DVBC] Features for a GPS for a bike
> > > From: dreamer at craftech.com
> > > To: dvbc-list at dvbc.org
> >
> > >
> > > Good answer Sven.
> > >
> > > Save your money use your eyes, brain, the sun, your compass and enjoy
> > > > the adventure of getting lost.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Dave Hartrum
> > > > dhartrum at mac.com
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On Dec 12, 2007, at 2:48 PM, dreamer at craftech.com wrote:
> > > >
> > > >> Okay, here I go again. I'm thinking of maybe getting a GPS for my
> > > >> bike.
> > > >> I'm not saying I'm really going to do it since I've got issues with
> >
> > > >> having
> > > >> all that crap on my bike. Besides, when we were kinda of lost in
> > the
> > > >> Pines Barrens in NJ on ToPA, one of the GPSs people had only showed
> > > >> a line
> > > >> with another line crossing it which was no help whatsoever in
> > > >> figuring out
> > > >> where we should go. I just used my compass and said, hey, we're
> > > >> going due
> > > >> east, we're in NJ, so eventually we'll hit the ocean and we can
> > > >> turn right
> > > >> to get to Atlantic City.
> > > >>
> > > >> Getting back to the point though, what would be a good one of these
> >
> > > >> things
> > > >> for a bike that isn't too big or heavy. What tool would you call
> > > >> it that
> > > >> would let me set up a ride and save it and edit while riding if I
> > > >> need to
> > > >> change the route. Something like how bikely works. Can anyone out
> > > >> there
> > > >> answer that question? If so, can you explain it in a language I'll
> > > >> understand and not be too technical.
> > > >>
> > > >> Thanks.
> > > >> Debbie
> > > >>
> > > >>
> > > >>
> > > >> _______________________________________________
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> > > >
> > > >
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