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Mio Cyclo Sat Nav
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This unit has a battery that last a good ten hours which should be a decent days cycling even for an enthusiast, after ten minutes of inactivity the screen blanks and that saves power as well. The main difference between a car sat nav and one for a bicycle is no voice just beeps.
As I do with all Sat Navs I take it on a bus and sometimes even a train to get to know what it shows and how it shows it.
This dedicated cyclist – or runner as it has a mode for them as well – sat nav covers paths (tracks) as well as roads and the settings can even give you a route to avoid main roads, in fact it will often take you further to try to avoid busy roads.
What fascinated me was the number of paths on even an urban journey and I am not talking bridleways just cut through routes that can save miles. My first journey was one involving walking and catching a couple of buses but I let it think I was cycling. Right from my front door it wanted me to go in the opposite direction as it was shorter and safer but as I was going by bus so not for me.
When you first switch on you are given the choice of miles or kilometres.
The main screen has six icons, Dashboard which shows up to eight different measurements that can be of use to anyone training. Navigate has six icons Home, Address, Stop, Tracks, POI and Back to Start. Next is History which can record your journeys the front edge has a place for you to insert a Micro SD card to store these recordings. Surprise Me gives three different routes to achieve a goal. Tracks is a special section that can be downloaded from the Mio site. Finally Settings that has six icons for Profiles, Where Am I, Routing, Maps, Dashboard and Manage.
When you select an address it plans a route which depending on the distance can take a number of seconds after pressing Go when nothing appears to happen. However a lot is including telling you about any significant climbs or descents as well as the total distance.
After a few seconds of inactivity the screen locks (padlock shows) and you need to press the on/off button at the base of the screen to be able to access things, around ten minutes of inactivity will blank the screen but again a press of the on/off button brings the screen back up.
Even if you switch off your journey is not lost and there is a screen of previous journeys to save entering data for a regular trip.
The unit is 11x6.5x1.5cm with a twist fitting that lets you mount it easily on your handlebars with a pair fitment provided.
There is a large fold out multi language sheet Quick Start Guide that should be enough to get you going.
While the screen has good information all you really need to glance at is the top left that shows the direction of your next turn and in what distance. There is of course no voice guidance and the series of either three of four beeps were more distracting than helpful and certainly would be drowned out on a noisy road.
The tracks feature together with paths can save you miles and even if you think you know an area you will be surprised by this feature.
The Mio Cyclo 200 is available from the link below for £149.99 where you select the town nearest you that has a reseller of the Mio 200.
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