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Been looking into getting one of these for the road bike so I can follow routes around areas I'm not familiar with and maybe for some natural stuff on the MTB.
Is there any point in paying the extra £40 to get the 800 bundled with the discovery OS maps or are the maps from talkytoaster good enough for road navigation with a little bit of offroad?
Mine came with UK road mapping, but for overseas stuff I've found the maps from openstreetmap.org (or rather the downloadable country tiles from one of their wiki-linked sites) have been superb. And free. A bit of faffing to upload to the device, but nothing so complicated that there aren't a good number of how-to articles about it.
Personally I would go for the OS Map bundle as such good value against buying separately, but lots of people also find the free maps ok too.
I find the OSM (talkytoaster) maps to generally be excellent. I'm led to believe it does depend to some extent on where you live/ride though so it's worth checking out those areas before hand to see.
OSM is excellent for road rides, OS GB 50k is marginally better for [i]wilderness[/i] stuff.
Ah, cheers for the info.
Is it possible to have both types of map on one memory card and switch between the two depending on what map I wanted to use at the time?
Also, would people recommend the 800 for what I want to use it for?
I have a 310xt for running and tracking bike rides but could really do with a GPS to give me directions now I am trying to push the road miles.
sounds ideal for you, it does turn by turn directions on the road as well. I'd get the OS mapping as I hate faffing about if I know there's an easy way.
Offroad 1:50k is fine in the middle of nowhere to stop you climbing up the wrong mountain, less use in the South East of England where there's too much detail to use clearly. If I was riding somewhere like the Lakes regulalry I'd probably get the 1:25k.
It's £300 at halfords, then get 6% cashback through quidco.
The 800 sounds ideal for you, or even the new 810.
+1I find the OSM (talkytoaster) maps to generally be excellent
Is it possible to have both types of map on one memory card and switch between the two depending on what map I wanted to use at the time
given my pikey Etrex 20 allows me to choose maps I would have thought so. I'm running the pseudo OS map from talky toaster and, well, so far its like using an OS map on a GPS... (OS meaning ordnance Survey not Open Source, confusing using the same initials for different terms, by rights a talky toaster is a OSM pseudo OS map...)
The OS 50k bundle is excellent value and much cheaper than you'd be able to buy on its own later on.
The directions and mapping are perfect for what you describe. I bought mine for a John O'Groats to Lands End trip last year and it was extremely useful (check my previous posts for more detailed write-up).
Just an interjection here to ask those who used the openstreetmap maps,
How do you deal with all the icons that come up in urban areas (eg. ped crossing triangles)? these seem to obliterate a lot of the map at the scale I use-
is this a problem for you or can you turn them off in the settings?
Thanks
It's £300 at halfords, then get 6% cashback through quidco.
Or 10% off with British Cycling membership (if you have it).
OSM is only as good as the data that was put into it - which is rarely as comprehensive as the OS. I'd not be going any distance off-road and relying on it.
DenDennis - Member
Just an interjection here to ask those who used the openstreetmap maps,How do you deal with all the icons that come up in urban areas (eg. ped crossing triangles)? these seem to obliterate a lot of the map at the scale I use-
is this a problem for you or can you turn them off in the settings?
You can set level of detail (or at least, you can on my 605)
druidh - Member
OSM is only as good as the data that was put into it - which is rarely as comprehensive as the OS. I'd not be going any distance off-road and relying on it.
As I said, it can vary but I've found that in some instances, OSM actually has better detail of what's actually on the ground than OS (in that people have put mtb trails, etc in even if they're not officially there)