Sat nav on a bike

[Dr Murdoch]

Ive been given a route (gpx file), can i use this so that i can get directions through my phone?

The route is not direct and goes all over the place, so simply typing in a destination doesnt work.

[anonymous-user]

AIUI that depends on the phone and the app you buy

Ride with gps is mentioned often

[frisbee]

Ride with GPS won't convert a GPX route to turn by turn unless you pay for it.

[Simond S]

Having had a route loaded onto strava (for iphone) that costs nothing, i cannot see the relevance for products like Garmin anymore.

I'd build your route onto that platform, it shows a clear blue line to follow on the map. a 2 hour ride used 27% of my battery.

[Some Gump]

Simond S said:

Having had a route loaded onto strava (for iphone) that costs nothing, i cannot see the relevance for products like Garmin anymore.

I'd build your route onto that platform, it shows a clear blue line to follow on the map. a 2 hour ride used 27% of my battery.

Garmin just does a better job. IPhone GPS tracks come out quite inaccurate at times, and if your 2hr ride took 27%, the iPhone would run out of power before the end of a decent day out.
Horses for courses though - the garmin is a really useless phone

[Dimski]

Some Gump said:

Garmin just does a better job. IPhone GPS tracks come out quite inaccurate at times, and if your 2hr ride took 27%, the iPhone would run out of power before the end of a decent day out.
Horses for courses though - the garmin is a really useless phone

True. I exhausted my phone battery about 6 hours into a 7 hour ride, so for last year bought a Garmin Edge Touring Plus.

It's targeted at tourers rather than racers, so although the Plus spec means it can connect with Speed/Cadence/Heart rate it's not as technical (power etc) as the Edge 1000 etc, It had a claimed 17 hour battery life, and was substantially cheaper.

Perhaps the battery life may be true if simply recording rather than directing, but when used for a route with directions, and inspite of turing the brightness down and screen light up time for instructions to a minimum 15 seconds, mine usually dies at about the 10 hour mark, less if it's a complicated route.

Still, it's allowed me to plan and do some great fairly long rides in unknown areas, so I think it's a pretty good piece of kit. Plus, a Poundland phone boost charger got it back to about a 70% charge from empty while still in use, so it can be extended easily.

[TwistingMyMelon]

buy a usb power bank re - battery

Strava routes on Iphone is great for occasional use, if want it quite often buy a dedicated device