Navigating what do you use, watch or nav?

[mak]

Honestly its not often I need to navigate, I ride places I no but those places I 1st discovered by either Kamoot or letting the Garmin app give me and adventure.

Some of my best adventures have been letting the Garmin app sort me a route out with my determined mileage so I need to start letting it dictate me more instead of the known as opposed to the unknown.

For an unknown adventure I always used my Garmin edge 830 but it suffers with off course and re routing, I end up riding up and down off course for a few miles before entering the route only to find its knocked 10 miles off my course.
I totally get this is probable user error but I find once you can be bothered to understand the Fenix 6 watch even in compass off course mode for me it is so much nicer to use.
So I guess I'm asking does anyone else find the watch better ?

 

[Beekeeper]

Old iPhone with Outdoors GPS app. I pay a few quid a year subscription and have fIne detail offline OS maps of U.K. allows you to plot routes also.

 

[Mikerb]

phone running Komoot plus bluetooth mini ear phones or buds depending on what helmet I am wearing. I dont like the distration of a display preferring just audio direction prompts. The track is visible on the phone if there is a problem or confusion but I have to say Komoot is pretty amazing given clear instrcutions even on heathland where there are rabbit trails going in every direction. If you take a wrong turn the audio immediately tells you that you have left the "tour" and to do a U turn. I paid a one time payment for online maps worldwide so no ongoing subscription and I can plan and navigate rides right a cross the UK, throughout Europe.......in fact worldwide!!
I like the fact that Komoot gives you a planned rides section plus a completed rides section. I usually source rides for new areas using Trailforks and export the gpx to Komoot so it goes into my planned section. If I want to plan my own ride/tour I do that on Komoot on my PC which auto syncs with my phone.
Komoot also gives you navigation to the starting point of a planned ride. So a typical scenario for me is a camping trip to the Brecons, or the Peak Distrcit or Afan. I will search Trailforks for some good rides and export the GPX to Komoot. The campsite could be miles away from the beginning of the ride but I just need to select one of my planned rides, press navigate and whilst driving in the van it gives me directions to my chosen ride start point.

 

[Paul Mac]

Honestly its not often I need to navigate, I ride places I no but those places I 1st discovered by either Kamoot or letting the Garmin app give me and adventure.

Some of my best adventures have been letting the Garmin app sort me a route out with my determined mileage so I need to start letting it dictate me more instead of the known as opposed to the unknown.

For an unknown adventure I always used my Garmin edge 830 but it suffers with off course and re routing, I end up riding up and down off course for a few miles before entering the route only to find its knocked 10 miles off my course.
I totally get this is probable user error but I find once you can be bothered to understand the Fenix 6 watch even in compass off course mode for me it is so much nicer to use.
So I guess I'm asking does anyone else find the watch better ?

On the 830 for mountian biking, turn everything off.
No turn by turn and no rerouting.
Just follow the line, the new firmware even has direction arrows now.
That's what I always do and it works perfectly ?

 

[The Hodge]

Viewranger / Outdoor Active on my phone ..Full O.S Mapping and route plotting ..
Gps location as you move ..
Cant fault it ..£ 20 per year for full UK mapping .

 

[Dashfield]

Anyone worked out how to link their Komoot route to their Kiox display? I’ve read the theory but can’t seem to make it work. Will it only work if you have a premium subscription Komoot account?

 

[Jackware]

Just installed the OMN Android app and paid the £24 annual subscription to download all the OS 1:25000 maps. Looks easy to add / create GPX routes. Use a s/h phone on a Quadlock handlebar mount.
I used to have the official OS Maps app but it was just too buggy.

 

[Tim1023]

Gotta love OS maps and the free access to them!
Nothing quite like them here in Germany.

 

[The Hodge]

Just installed the OMN Android app and paid the £24 annual subscription to download all the OS 1:25000 maps. Looks easy to add / create GPX routes. Use a s/h phone on a Quadlock handlebar mount.
I used to have the official OS Maps app but it was just too buggy.

View attachment 66166

That looks like an interesting location ...?

 

[mak]

On the 830 for mountian biking, turn everything off.
No turn by turn and no rerouting.
Just follow the line, the new firmware even has direction arrows now.
That's what I always do and it works perfectly ?

That's interesting, when you say the new firmware has direction arrows do you mean arrows on the route line that show the direction of the route ? This has been a major problem for me not knowing if the line is going or coming back from a route.
I will turn off the items you mentions and give it a go.

 

[Paul Mac]

That's interesting, when you say the new firmware has direction arrows do you mean arrows on the route line that show the direction of the route ? This has been a major problem for me not knowing if the line is going or coming back from a route.
I will turn off the items you mentions and give it a go.

Yes exactly that, no more confusion as to which way you should be going on a route ?

 

[H.E.]

I use OsmAnd on my mobile phone, it offers quite some options for the map view
from Standard Osm to winter and Ski with options like hill-shades etc. Has Offline Navigation but you can also simply
upload a gpx file. I personally only use this rarely ehen i have to navigate across a city or village
i dont know thats much easier when you have a map. Its available for free from F-Droid not sure
if this changes since its now being sold on the other App Stores.

For everything else i use a Garmin watch without map.
Back-country this works for biking but i mostly use it mostly for mountaineering or
back-country skiing where things like track back are super useful.
Only buy Garmin when you are ok with beeing a beta tester every, update is like a russian roulette.