Originally Posted by
unterhausen
OTOH, I did dnf a 200k a couple of years ago because the 830 gps doesn't have a loud warning about being off route, it was windy, and my hearing isn't the best. The off-route warning doesn't stay on the screen long either. I got confused because the road I was looking for showed up in multiple places. Nice road, I just took the wrong branch. Turns out that rwgps isn't great at getting you back on track either.
The best way to use these for navigation is to look at the map regularly (as part of your normal process of scanning).
You'll often know about upcoming turns well before the notification and, if you miss a turn, you'll generally see you are no longer following the track. It's fairly common to miss the turn notifications and, sometimes, some turns won't even have an associated notification.
Paying attention to the map is the only way to handle this.
Another thing to try to do is look at the map after turns to verify that you are still following the track. If the device is set-up properly and you are paying attention, you shouldn't get that far off-course before knowing about it. Of course, scanning the map is harder to do at night.
The Garmins have an option to use your phone to announce turns. This requires Garmin Connect Mobile to be running on the phone. It will consume more of the phone battery but, maybe, not that much. This might be something one could use at night (when the Garmin is harder to look at).
Originally Posted by
unterhausen
If you get lost with a cue sheet, it can be awful to get back on route.
Cuesheets are objectively bad for navigation. The advantage they have is that they are very cheap and don't require power. (It's fine if people want to use them.)
It's not easy to keep of the "active" line of the cuesheet and you have to (often) keep track of your distance (typically using a computer anyway). And you have to look for street signs (which might not match, be in a standard location, or even exist). Outside of at turns, you have no confirmation that you are on the track.
As long as it's basically working and you are paying attention to it, you can't really get "lost" with a GPS since you can see where you are relative to the track you are supposed to be on.
The GPS puts all the stuff you need to know for navigation in one small place that works the same for every ride and it provides continual confirmation that you are on track (you just have to look at it).
With cuesheets, you basically have one chance to make the turn. With a GPS, you have at least four: before (observation), at (observation and notification), after (observation), and off-course warning (notification)..
If one gets confused by the GPS, one trick is to slow down.
The principle downside of GPS units is that they require power. (They are also kind-of expensive.)