I've got a multiday ride with limited access to recharging coming up. Have the route all planned on komoot. I have usually just used my phone and battery packs but I'm concerned this may not give me enough for the 4-5 days. I've never gone this long before. I have supplemented with a small solar panel but have found this can charge a 20000mah battery by about 25% a day at best in the UK. One 20000mah battery should provide about 3 phone charges but I find it does 2 at best. I'm not convinced a dynamo will work brilliantly and they're a but expensive. Any thought on garmin bikecomputer or one of the other brands? I'm reticent as I suspect it will not get frequent use outside this trip to make it a good financial investment.
I will have a paper map and compass too but they're a bit of a pain when riding. Much easier when hillwalking!!
I use a Garmin, it just works. It takes a while to learn it's foibles and all the features though, so I'd be wary of buying one immediately before a trip and then relying on it. I recently used my Edge Explore 2 on a 4 day bikepacking trip and the battery did the whole trip. I did however have to use battery saver mode, disable the phone link etc. to eke it out. I also had a battery pack in case, and OS maps on my phone with all the local maps downloaded for more granular detail and as a back up.
I've trashed a supposedly waterproof phone in a downpour before and if you are riding off road it's vulnerable if you take a tumble, so personally I wouldn't like to use one as my main nav device. It might work however if you download the maps beforehand, dim the screen and switch off all connectivity other than GPS to conserve battery. Maybe even switch the phone off completely when kipping to eke out the power. Also, at every cafe or pub stop plug it in, even for half an hour. All these things cumulatively, plus a powerbank might get you through!
I use a dedicated waterproof phone for navigation (definitely waterproof, I use it for paddling too). Pretty much anyone I've met who uses a Garmin has had it go wrong at some inopportune moment.
Your phone will probably be fine if you don't use it too much for other stuff, and hopefully you'll be too busy enjoying the riding etc. to worry about social media, emails, etc. Flight mode is your friend. I always think my battery life is terrible when it barely gets me through a day at work, but then I'll have a day where I'm not needing to constantly distract myself from the drudgery and realise that it sitting in my pocket and sending the occasional message only uses about 20% a day.
If you generally use Strava or similar to record your rides or just want to keep tabs on how far you ride, a GPS will get regular use as it will replace your phone. Better battery life and more use friendly when riding.
I would recommend Wahoo for ease of use and simplicity, but my second unit is now coming to end of line and they cannot be repaired by Wahoo or fixed DIY, (this unit has failing battery and delaminating screen) so I'm thinking of jumping ship to Garmin. My wife has just got one and its got great features but navigating the device is more cumbersome and we've had to Google how to do a couple of things. Once that's overcome I think it will be easy to use.
Pretty much anyone I've met who uses a Garmin has had it go wrong at some inopportune moment.
I've never had any major problems with them.
For bikepacking things, I charge mine with a dynamo - runs basically indefinitely like that. Slightly tempted by one of the new solar versions though.
if you have a dedicated head unit for your navigation you have the option of using your phone as a fallback nav device and you’ve always got a way of summoning assistance to hand.
Probably not so important but phones can have issues in warmer climates with overheating and nav head units not, also your terrain, having the phone attached to the handlebars , if you exit the bike unexpectedly your phone may not be where you can get to it 🙂
I love my Karoo 2 and use it to change my route on the fly if there’s something interesting.
The climb feature is great as on the hills/mountains it shows the distance to the top and splits the hill into sections so you can pace accordingly.
(If you go the bike computer route don’t leave it to your ride to learn how to use it .)
I’ve used various Garmins and a wahoo in the past but now on the sram/Hammerhead Karo that I really like.
