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Navigation - Maps, Compass, GPS How to find your way - traditional map, compass and road signs, or GPS and more
Photo by Marc Gibaud, Clouds on Tres Cerros and Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia

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Photo by Marc Gibaud,
Clouds on Tres Cerros and
Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia




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  #1  
Old 8 Jun 2013
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Thanks Bertrand, I want it for touring in Europe. I'm an excellent map reader, but terrible with IT. All help very gratefully appreciated.
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  #2  
Old 8 Jun 2013
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I love paper maps too and can spend hours looking over them.

To give you an idea of how I use a GPS.
I use a Garmin Zūmo 550, mounted in a cradle and mounted to bike with a RAM mount.

What I found is I like is to be able to hear the directions from the GPS as this allows me to keep my eyes where they should be and not distracted on the GPS. I have a stereo headset with mic in the helmet to hear.

I did this last year while traversing larger cities just to get through and out to the other side and was so much more pleasurable to ride than having to watch busy traffic and watch a GPS screen.

I am techy, (read: way too techy) and what I am doing over these past weeks is to look over the OSM maps rather than the maps Garmin maps as I prefer to support open source where I can, plus the OSM maps, I find fantastic. I am downloading the latest OSM maps for the areas I will travel this year. So this year I will set it up for both, visual and audio navigation. Plus the Zūmo will be connected to the Android phone via Bluethooth.

Some people have taken to trying out using a smartphone for navigation, is this something that attracts you?
I use the smartypantsphone as a backup, not for primary navigation as the GPS electronics is not as good as what you will get in a dedicated GPS unit, though still, it does work, albeit with less speed and sensitivity.

So, in addition to what Bertrand says, have you had any experience with GPS navigation before? Would you be prepared to to spend a few hours to learn their capabilities to gain the maximum benefit out of using a GPS.

I don't know anything on TomTom, just Garmin and navigation apps on Android, which Bertrand is also playing around with I believe.

The Montana is a newer unit and I believe can store multiple maps on it, whereas the Zūmo 550 and 660 series can only store one map in their internal memory plus one additional map on the SD card. If you buy Garmin, I guess you will get the European maps pre-installed. Garmin charges a fee for map updates. A reason I have moved to using OSM maps. The map for Europe/UK from Garmin is one map.
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Old 8 Jun 2013
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Originally Posted by finecitygirl View Post
Sat nav novice here and rubbish at tech stuff. Which is easiest for me to set up and use, montana, garmin 660, tom tom rider? Don't want endless hours downloading and trying to sort complicated set up problems. Thanks
Quote:
Originally Posted by finecitygirl View Post
Thanks Bertrand, I want it for touring in Europe. I'm an excellent map reader, but terrible with IT. All help very gratefully appreciated.
For touring about within western Europe, set up instantly without all the interfacing with OSM or whatever, I have found my second hand, ancient Tom Tom to be more user friendly than my second hand Nuvi Garmin. It is also faster at doing its work.

However, I was brought up on map reading so all this electronic gadgetry doesn't really do much for me - sometimes I use a gps to find a place in a new-to-me city/town/other location over the last leg of the journey - maybe the last few 100 metres, or thereabouts.
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Old 9 Jun 2013
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Smile Same problems

Hi folks, new to the community,have found a lot of info on nav from chris Scott and his books. We are visiting Morocco and would like to use cheap car based garmin and load it up with Olaf system but am worried about glitchy interface problems were not bothered by voice commands and ithe ability to see when your chewing gum will expire. Can you guys confirm that phone systems are not up to the job(pity) we want to reduce the theft risk as well. We have ordered the Michelin map and I will laminate it. All help appreciated. We are in south London so maybe an educational visit would be possible if any of you guys are near?
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  #5  
Old 10 Jun 2013
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Originally Posted by Professor pipebender View Post
Hi folks, new to the community,have found a lot of info on nav from chris Scott and his books. We are visiting Morocco and would like to use cheap car based garmin and load it up with Olaf system but am worried about glitchy interface problems were not bothered by voice commands and ithe ability to see when your chewing gum will expire. Can you guys confirm that phone systems are not up to the job(pity) we want to reduce the theft risk as well. We have ordered the Michelin map and I will laminate it. All help appreciated. We are in south London so maybe an educational visit would be possible if any of you guys are near?
Your header of "same problem" is not exactly the case; the OP refers to western Europe as the geographic area of interest.
You will be aware that Chris S has used more than one Garmin in Morocco, including a Nuvi.

For your general statement about phone systems, there are earlier threads in here about that subject - both the hardware and software considerations - such as this one:-
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...armin-et-63191
Opinions vary, but there are plenty of people navigating by use of smartphones,

to the HUBB with your first post by the way.
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