POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
Our GPS Units

Unit Hardware • Using the GPS Unit on Your Handlebars • Overall GPS Unit Operation • The Map Page
The Route • Navigating Via the GPS Unit • Limitations

					Most of the GPS units we own are the Garmin eTrex Legend Cx GPS unit. We also own a couple Garmin eTrex Vista Cx, Garmin eTrex Venture Cx, Garmin eTrex Legend HCx, and Garmin eTrex Vista HCx units as well. All of these units are the same externally (as shown on the Garmin eTrex Legend HCx at left) and operate almost identically. When we initially did our research into the best GPS units to use for cycling touring these units absolutely came out on top. We have been using them extremely extensively since 2006 and are intimately familiar with every aspect of them. We have directly navigated using them on our own handlebars ourselves first hand and also used them for various other outdoor activities including canoeing and hiking.
Garmin eTrex Legend HCx Click Here for more information

Unit Hardware
All units have a color display that shows both your exact real-time position within about 20 feet and the route itself overlaid on a base map, so it's very easy to see your progress along the route. Each unit uses 2 AA standard batteries and is waterproof in case of rain. They are also very rugged and resistant against shocks and impacts - in fact a couple units have accidentally fallen off the bike while riding and other than a few cosmetic scratches they were not damaged at all. All units have a clip type mount on the back to secure it to a handlebar mount and can be easily attached and removed from the handlebar mount.

Using the GPS Unit on Your Handlebars

Attaching and Removing the GPS Unit from the Handlebar Mount

To attach the GPS unit to the handlebar mount, line up the handlebar mount and the mount on the back of the GPS and slide the GPS down onto the handlebar mount until it locks in place. To remove the GPS unit from the handlebar mount press up on the release tab on the back of the GPS unit and slide the GPS out of the handlebar mount.

Overall GPS Unit Operation

To open the back cover and replace the batteries, turn the metal ring on the back cover 1/4 turn counterclockwise and pull the cover away. Replace the old batteries, put the cover back on, and turn the metal ring 1/4 turn clockwise to lock it back in place.

Turning the Unit On and Off
To turn the GPS on, press and hold down the Power/Backlight key (the lower button on the right side of the unit) until a tone sounds and the welcome screen appears. To turn the unit off, press and hold down the Power/Backlight key until a tone sounds and the unit's screen goes blank. You will need to turn the unit off when not in use because it does not turn off automatically and because we will only support cycling during daylight, you will not need to use the unit's backlight function.

Welcome Screen
After the unit is initially turned on, a welcome screen and a welcome message similar to this will appear:

Bicycle Illinois eTrex Unit 01
Reward if found
(877) 868-7455
(312) 342-5514

We will assign a specific GPS unit to each participant so make sure you have the correct unit whenever you turn it on. Each unit will also be indentified with a large number written in permanent marker on its back as well.

Satellite Signal Acquisition
The GPS units must be operated outside and will not work indoors because they need a clear view of the sky in order to acquire the satellite signals and the satellite signals are blocked by buildings.

The welcome screen will disappear after a few seconds and then go to the satellite acquisition page. This page shows the status of the unit acquiring and locking into the reception of different satellite signals. The bars are empty as the unit is acquiring the satellite signal and turn solid once the unit is locked into that satellite signal. Once the unit has acquired at least three satellite signals it can determine its location. Once this happens, the accuracy of your current position will be displayed in the upper left hand corner of the page and your specific latitude and longitude coordinates will be displayed in the upper right hand corner.

The Map Page

After the unit has acquired enough satellite signals to determine your specific location, you will need to press the Quit key (the upper button on the right side of the unit) to go to the map page. Geographic features such as roads, parks, railroads, and bodies of water and their names are indicated on the map (depending on the current map zoom level) and the map scale is indicated in the lower left corner of the map. You should consider the map page to be your "home" page.

Your Current Location
Your exact current position will be indicated at all times by a black diamond overlaid on top of the map. If you go to the map page before the unit has fully acquired enough satellite signals, a red question mark will blink over the black diamond until the unit determines your specific location.

Zooming In and Out and Panning
You can use the zoom out and in keys (the upper and middle buttons on the left side of the unit) to view a smaller area with greater detail or a larger area with less detail on the map. You can also use the little joystick on the front of the unit to pan (move) the map up, down, left and right from your current position. When you are panning the map, a white arrow will appear as a cursor. To get back to the home map page when panning, press the Quit key. If you zoom in or out quickly or pan far away from your current location, it may take a little while for the map data to load.

Battery Power Status
To see how much battery power is remaining, briefly press and release the Power/Backlight key and a status bar will come up on the bottom of the map page. A battery status indicator will be at the far left of the status bar. When the battery is full there will be four bars and as the battery wears out these bars will progressively disappear. When the batteries are almost empty no bars will remain. In addition, when the batteries are almost empty a warning message will appear and the unit will beep. You should definitely replace the batteries at this point because the unit will not operate for very much longer past this point. The status bar will automatically disappear after a few seconds.

Lost Satellite Reception
If for some reason the unit temporarily loses the satellite signal, a message will come up on the screen that says "Lost Satellite Reception [ENTR]". To clear this message, press down on the middle of the joystick (the "Enter" button).

Getting Back to the Map Page
If you hit a button by accident or don't know what happened, press the Quit key until the original view on the map page reappears. If for some reason pressing the Quit or Enter (in case of lost satellite reception) buttons doesn't fix the problem please DO NOT JUST PUSH BUTTONS because this may make the problem worse! Instead, please call us and we will be happy to instruct you on what to do.

The Route

The Route
The route is indicated by a dark blue dotted line.

Waypoints and Waypoint Nomenclature
All important locations on the route, such as rest stops, main lodging sites, supported hotels, starting and ending locations, etc. will be indicated with a waypoint.

Waypoints will be indicated by the number of that location on the route followed by the name of that location so that they are displayed on the GPS unit in the order they actually ridden. The starting location(s) of the ride will be indicated by a "0" and the starting town. For example the waypoint "0Moline" is the location of the start of the ride in Moline and the waypoint "2Amboy" is the second stop of the day at Amboy. Main lodging sites will be followed by the letters "ML" and supported hotels will be followed by the letters SH when necessary. For example the waypoint "7ChicagoSH" is the supported hotel in Chicago.

On single day rides, waypoints will only have one number. On multi-day rides, waypoints will also be indicated by two numbers – the first one is the riding day and the second one is the number of that location on the route. For example the waypoint "41Neoga" is the first rest stop on the fourth riding day at Neoga and is before "42Mattoon", the next rest stop that day. When a location is both the ending point for the previous day's ride and also the starting point for the next day's ride it will be indicated by the number of the next day's ride and a "0". For example the waypoint "30CentraliaML" (the Centralia main lodging site) is both an ending location for riding day 2 and a starting location for riding day 3.

Navigating Via the GPS Unit

Seeing Your Movement
When you are moving, the black diamond will point in the direction in which you are travelling. Generally, it is much easier to navigate using the GPS units when you are moving than when you are stopped. This is because when you are moving you can actually see what direction you are going by the direction the diamond is pointing but when you are stopped the triangle tends to bounce around a little because of the varying satellite signals. So if you need to get your bearings you should start moving in one direction to see which direction you are actually travelling. You don't need to ride to do this however, normal pace walking works just fine.

Following the Route
In order to follow the route, you simply need to ride so that your black diamond follows the dotted line indicating the route – it's that easy. If it seems like the route is going off a road it probably is going onto a bike path so keep your eyes open for one.

The diamond may not necessary be exactly right on top of the dotted line at all times, it may be off by a few feet due to varying satellite signals, but it will never be off by more than twenty feet at most with proper satellite reception. As you ride, the map will automatically adjust itself to always be centered on your location at all times (unless you are panning the map, in which case the map will stay locked on the position of the white arrow).

When using the GPS unit to follow the route, you still do have to use a little bit of common sense. We recommend frequently zooming in and out and panning around in order to get a better idea of your location in relation to other route locations (rest stops, starting and ending location, etc.) This includes how far you have to ride until next thing you need to do (such as turning), what's coming up down the road, and also how far you have ridden from the previous rest stop and how far it is until the next one. We also strongly recommend watching the GPS scale and watching the names of cross streets.

Supplementary Road Markings and Orange Flags
We will still paint road markings and put orange flags up at a limited number of places on the route where it can be tricky and confusing to follow on the GPS, such as at triple points where the route does not proceed in only one direction and can become confusing to follow, such as at the start/end of options and doublebacks or where the route crosses over itself. So when you reach one of these points look on the ground for our road markings to get more information about how to properly proceed.

Limitations

Even though our GPS units work fantastically for on road cycling navigation they still do have few limitations.

It will still be entirely your responsibility to watch the screen and pay attention to the route and to not "sleep at the wheel". By far the biggest misconception people have about these GPS units is that they will "tell" you when to turn, such as a beep, having a box flash up, some lady's voice saying "right turn in half a mile", or anything else like that. While this may be the case if travelling in a car, these units can not and WILL NOT TELL EVER you when to turn.

• Click Here for the technical reasons why these units will not indicate upcoming turns or actions.

In addition, these GPS units cannot tell you on route distances. For example, they cannot tell you how far you have already ridden or how much longer you still need to ride on the route from your current location either to the next rest stop or to the end of the ride. You will still need to rely on your cycle computer and the on road cue sheets and maps for that information.