Originally Posted by
njkayaker
It's not exactly hard but you have to do it. So it becomes a normal part of riding (something you really don't have to think about). This isn't going to take the same amount of effort for everybody (it's going to be easier for some and harder for others).
I know many people who have GPS's who aren't that good at using them. There is some issue, generally, getting there (which isn't helped with the somewhat-dismissive "it doesn't take a lot").
That qualifies as encouragement in my book. It is not hard, it just takes a little time and watching a couple youtubes. I am old and I figured it out.
Of course, I do not use any of the fancy features like identification of Strava segments, location of other riders, crash detection, connection to my cell phone for texts, etc. I need battery life, a big screen, and simplicity. For Randonneuring, the main challenge I had was learning how to create free maps when travelling outside the area, how to create or copy a GPS file from RIDEWITHGPS and where to drop the new files onto the Garmin. There are youtubes showing you. You can also purchase maps. Then, you just select the ride in Navigation and push Ride. But the bread and butter navigation for a rando is not hard to learn. My next challenge was getting the one screen that I liked and there was a youtube video showing how to do that. The one aspect of the navigation that is always perplexing is when you miss a turn, it seems garmin has dyslexia, it does not mirror the turns. On the way back, if it tells you to make a left, make a right. I just just the map and moving arrow in that situtation. Connecting different sensors like a heart rate monitor, power meter, radar unit, etc, is downright simple. Turning the screen down or using powersave on longer rides is more subtle and take experimentation to learn how to coax a long ride out of it.
It took me a lot longer to get comfortable with my older Garmin (a few weeks) but the 1030 layout is easier. Frankly, I cannot imagine doing a brevet without my Garmin but I always have the cuesheet and sometimes, I take photos of them as a backup to the backup.
Randos tend to stick to simple, durable, and tried and true. Garmins and Wahoos are ubiquitous out there nowaways although a few oldtimers still use paper to navigate.