mulveyr 

Ah, interesting! I hadn't even thought about the effect of being in Airplane mode, since I always kept my phone connected during my last tour. It appears that if you set the My Map layer and then go into Airplane mode, the route will remain cached, though that's obviously a bit of a pain if someone is planning on going for several days without being in range of a cell network.

But anyhow, I found the Google Map and Navigation apps to be invaluable when I was touring across NY with my young son last summer. Much handier than carrying a stand-alone GPS.

fishman473

Can you explain to me how you keep the battery from going dead? I have a 3Gs and with Motion X running it will go for less than 3 hours before the battery is dead. If I just check it every now and then, it seems to last the day, but I am sure it would be useless on a multi-day tour.

djb

(the cranky old bas...rd in me says, buy yourself a map and be aware of where you are)

;-)

slaani

I borrowed a Garmin 60csx (backpacking-oriented gps) for a long tour and found it exceedingly useful in the american Southeast. Poor signage, endlessly branching roads, and locals who can't give you directions further than the gas station nearest their house made it indispensable. However by the time I made it from the coastal South to Missouri and the TA route, navigation became trivial. It still could be okay for some, for entertainment purposes (like obsessing over elevation change), but for me became just more clutter and battery expense. I also found it emotionally taxing to cart around for a variety of reasons, contrary to my thoughts that it would feel like a safety blanket.

Most bike-specific GPS strikes me as fragile and "bling"-y, whereas the 60csx is virtually indestructable and looks like a radio unit from Vietnam. I haven't seen any bike GPS with adequate routing software, so I fail to see the practical advantage offered by any GPS but the most rugged in a touring setting. Regardless, I agree with the cranky old dude above unless some gamechanging features I can't even imagine are introduced in the future.

djb

my smartass comments aside, being a visual person I enjoy looking at maps and knowing where I am etc, that said when I biked down the west coast, I used that book Biking down the West Coast as a reference for campgrounds etc and what was so valuable was the detailed directions for approaching the Golden Gate Bridge. How to avoid the busy roads etc that would have been tricky just looking at a map and not being able to judge how routes are in that sort of urban setting.
So I could see how a gps could be very handy for these sort of situations--IF the info is bike centric, not just car centric, and that I still see as a tricky spot. Mind you, I see how on forums like this, people show their exact routes on googlemap type maps, and so the sharing of this sort of thing could be very useful for situations like slaani descrbed above, as routes are truly from a cyclist pt of view.
It does bug me however reading of how fast these things eat batteries, throw in the factor now of having digital cameras, perhaps laptops or ipods, iphones etc, there definately more "stuff" to schlepp, chargers, etc that we didnt before. (mind you , my tent was heavy in my long trip days, so a lighter tent would mean a charger or two wouldnt be the end of the world)

sehsuan

remember this - i just started my CGOAB journal, and the ability to parse GPX files from tracklogs and posting them online is a massive boon - especially when we might want to retrace a certain section of another rider's journey.

fietsbob

Im with DJB .. I like Maps, I have a box full from my various travels,
a little highlighter pen following my past routes.
Can't imagine way-points as souvenirs?.
But I'm not an IT guy for my day job,
some people take their work on vacation with them.

Northwestrider

Garmin 60CSx which I like for all outdoor uses without a car, however for biking, I find a gps just an interesting device. My bike computer ( cateye ) does well enough for me.

sehsuan

interesting, your cateye is a navigator too?

just pulling your leg

djb, the 60csx can last a good 12 to 18 hours on one set of AA alkalines without the backlight turned up. i usually carry about 16 AAs on tours, because almost everything of mine uses them!

benajah

I am a huge fan of GPS for convenience and for fun, but this last trip I found myself becoming way too reliant on it. I left home without adequate maps because hey, I had GPS right? I found the out of the way places I wanted to find and had a blast, but I was constantly worried about the system failing and getting lost, and it did end up failing in a sense and I had to find a creative way to get home. I have several units but was using a garmin 705 and I guess if you search for an address that has more than 15 or 20 turns it has trouble finishing calculating. I wanted to get from China Camp, CA to a particular train station in San Francisco and it could just not figure out the route and I did not have detailed maps on me. Big mistake on my part.