Cycling navigation the Garmin way

Garmin expert Joe Jackson from Loving Outdoors www.lovingoutdoors.co.uk tells us all about his recent Garmin revelation.

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For those of you who haven’t heard about the new Garmin range of all-singing all-dancing handheld GPS devices, you’re in for a treat. For those of you who have, you’ll know what I’m talking about when I say this is a ground-breaking product in the industry.
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After a day’s training up in the picturesque village of Mungrisdale in the Lake District with the new Oregon 450, this opened up my inexperienced mind to the potential of GPS. Forget bulky maps, magnifying glasses and wavering compasses, the Oregon 450 is far more accurate than your navigation skills will probably ever be (unless you’re a Royal Marine! – though they still use GPS anyway.)

However, the main point of the training day was not just to get a feel for the new devices, but to explore the array of new functions and opportunities not only for walkers, but all outdoor enthusiasts alike. As Ed Leigh states, part of the British Ski Team, Garmin’s have uses on and off the mountain!

First of all, a quick look at the new models and what it is exactly they do…

The Dakota Series	The Oregon 450 Series	The Oregon 550 Series
Dakota 10: The benchmark of the new range. Includes a sunlight readable screen, WORLDWIDE base map (1:100), USB and Lanyard. Dakota 20: Encompasses all the features of the Dakota 10 PLUS the new Barometric altimeter providing altitude using air pressure. A 3-axis compass (so you don’t have to hold it level to get a reading,) and High sensitivity GPS with HotFix technology to find a signal faster and maintain it.	Oregon 450: Includes ALL the features of the Dakota 20 but with a LARGER screen for easier readings. Oregon 450T: Comes complete with the additional European 3D TOPO map.	Oregon 550: Exactly the same as the Oregon 450 but with a new built in CAMERA. Handy for taking photos of the dent that car next to you left in your door, photographing new Geocaches for Geotagging or just simply great times in the outdoors with the location saved for next time. Oregon 550T: Comes complete with the additional European 3D TOPO map.

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During our visit in the Lake District we were introduced to Garmin’s new GB Discoverer All of Great Britain Mapping that covers the whole of the UK in 1:50K. Previously if you wanted the whole of the UK you needed to buy three regions each priced at over £120 and on three separate MicroSD cards. Now you can get the full UK mapping, with all regions, in 1:50K for less than £200; on one MicroSD card – Including all the National Parks, of course, but also the Navteq road map data. This means that aside from saving me my pub lunch money for months to come, I could easily use this to navigate the major roads and tracks whilst on the move on my bike in the forst place. For those who don’t know, the Navteq maps enable pinpoint street level navigation on all UK roads, similar to that of a car sat-nav. So enter a post code and let your Dakota or Oregon take you straight to your door. Also, not forgetting that the new map includes 200,000 points of interest with phone numbers. Finding KFC has never been easier!

Being a cyclist myself, I was keen to see how I could use Garmin’s so called “handheld walking GPS devices” on my bike too; so I looked at a typically unplanned Sunday bike ride. Essentially I could load up the bikes in the van, and using nothing bu the device, navigate my way to a nice looking destination, plan a route, clip the device to my bike and set-off, stop for lunch, and ride back home. It’s that simple. Bike clip mounts fit all Dakota/Oregon models too.

Other new features included ‘Click & Go’, whereby users can simply drop a pin using your finger on the touch screen on the map, and immediately navigate to that destination. A simple concept that makes you question, “Why isn’t this standard on all models?”

Furthermore, users often upload coordinates showing places of interest. As a biker, this opened up the possibility of finding secret dirt jump spots (always tricky to find), great descents or pieces of fast winding single-track! The great thing about coordinates is that anyone can upload/download them, and they’re free!

For the fitness fanatics out there, a wireless heart rate monitor is also available. This clips round your body like a normal heart monitor and the GPS device picks it up automatically and displays it on the screen. You can then download your route to your computer and view your heart levels throughout a journey. Ideal for runners or riders alike to get a better picture of how and where you’re performing.

Another option is the wireless speed/cadence sensor for bikes (essentially a speedo that connects wirelessly to your GPS!) Why do you need this if you have a GPS enabled device I hear you cry? Well if you travel through a tunnel, under very thick forests or similar you may lose the signal so this is a good feature to help reduce gaps in your cycling data. However, this also increases pinpoint accuracy in measuring top speeds achieved say on rapid descents, so you and your mates can see who’s really hitting the fastest speeds, and who’s the one not pushing the limits!

These features then, amongst the vast array of others not even mentioned here, led me to question why are people (like myself) still using bulky maps, and why aren’t people using these devices in other disciplines? Why do we view handheld devices just for walking when their larger screens, longer battery lives, additional features and mapping capacity have potential elsewhere? And with Garmin’s Oregon and Dakota set up for cyclist (cycling dashboard features, cycling accessory compatible etc…), maybe it is time to start looking at these devices for your bike… Let’s face it there are not many GPS devices for bikes that can be used on foot, in the car, on the bike so easily. Come to think of it, you could use them for kayaking, running, skiing, hang gliding or anything else that comes to your imagination! So why not?

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