Mio Cyclo 200

Mio claims its Cyclo GPS range to be the 'best experience in bicycle navigation', which they may or may not be, but for £149.99 the Cyclo 200 offers everything you would want. It also has a really big screen which is good for quick glances, though the audio prompts can be annoying and not that useful.

One of my favourite aspects of cycling is that I can cycle out to somewhere I have never been before and explore while exercising. I have used several cycle computers that have included satellite navigation, but the Mio Cyclo 200 is a pure sat nav for your bike, enabling you to travel out and back without being too worried about getting too lost.

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The first thing you notice about it is the size. Compared with regular bike computers it is much larger, coming in at around 114x70mm and with a screen of around 73x48mm. It makes it very easy to see where you are going and the turns ahead, which is really useful for quick glancing when you're going along. It's about the same size as a deck of playing cards.

To fit it to the bike it comes with a bracket that can be attached to either the stem or the handlebar. This comes with two separate rubber beds, suited to stem or bar, and it's then attached with zip ties. This is okay, but I would prefer to have rubber bands so it can be moved easily from one bike to another. It is easy to fit, though, with holes through which the zip ties run. The unit fits to the bracket through a quarter turn technique, similar to a Garmin mount.

Using the unit is also simple, with a touchscreen interface that has six basic functions: Dashboard, Navigate, History, Surprise Me, Settings and Tracks.

Dashboard shows your basic information: speed, distance to next turn, gradient and the like. I found the speed and gradients were relatively consistent compared to my Garmin Edge 810. It doesn't use any ANT+ or Bluetooth sensors so it won't always be as accurate, especially when the overhead view to satellites is obstructed. That most likely won't be an issue for you, though: most data on portals such as Strava is direct from GPS, either from a phone or a GPS head unit. If you did want to add those sensors at a later date, though, you're out of luck here.

Planning routes can be done through Navigate, Surprise Me or Tracks. Navigate allows you to navigate to a particular place like a regular sat nav, and it is easy to input either a postcode or a specific address. Tracks are predetermined routes that you have ridden previously or tracks you've planned through the Mio website and app. (This is also where you can upload routes and your history, which can then be uploaded to third party applications.)

Surprise Me is perhaps the most interesting feature. It allows the unit to build a route for you, based on either time or distance, and gives you three routes: one flatter, one with some climbing, and one with the most climbing. It works well for the most part and is certainly one of my favourite parts of the Cyclo 200.

The actual routes themselves have some of the same issues that regular car sat navs have, in that they're reliant on the mapping being completely accurate. For instance, when trying to get through High Barnet it tried to send me through a private school rugby field, which had a locked gate stopping me. Recalculating wasn't straightforward either: the Mio tried to send me 10km off route, when in reality I just needed to take a turning 200m further down.

The audio announcements aren't much help, given that they are just beeps that don't seem to make much sense when you are riding. Handily, they can be turned off in the settings. Here you can also change units, details and how you navigate (avoiding major roads and suchlike).

>> Find road.cc reviews of other GPS units here

Coming in with an rrp of £149.99, it is a decent price for a unit that, by and large, works well. It also sits on the road.cc scales of truth at 146g, which isn't too bad when you consider its size, although the similar size Garmin Edge 1000 is 115g, which is a fair bit lighter. But the Garmin will also make your wallet lighter by about £400...

Overall, I was impressed with the Mio Cyclo 200. There are certainly things that could be improved, such as the audio announcement and some of the routing. It is broadly accurate and I would say that 95 per cent of the time it works very well, but that 5 per cent when you are out in an area you don't know can be frustrating. It's decent value for money and is hardly a major extra weight to be carrying, plus the large screen and easy interface make for simple use and ease of navigation on the go.

Verdict

A decent pure navigation unit that I enjoyed using, despite the beeps