So here's how my first ride relying on this for navigation went, and seeing as I'd just moved to a new area, I really was relying on it.
Oddly, there's no way to create anything other than a random route either via the device itself or the app . You can import .gpx files, though, which is more useful. Though I use Strava I thought RouteYou, which also gets a big button on this Mio, seemed more fitting for the casual cyclist. So I gave that a try.It's free and easy to use, and while it too only does auto-generated routes , it will output them as .gpx files and you can download any .gpx at all via the Mio app.
There's a lot of technology involved here for the audience of casual, touring cyclists, and you're relying quite heavily on your phone and other services you must link. The 35-second startup time is unlikely to please anyone, either, though the battery life – an hour's use doesn't make a visible dent in the meter, and you can ride all week with it – is at least a lot more suitable.Under navigation the unit beeps once and then twice to alert you to upcoming turnings.
– I pressed the little forward-arrow 'play' button, which looked likely, and also the tick button next to it, which also looked likely. Then on the next screen I pressed the 'Go' button because... well, guess. Despite this, after perhaps 30 seconds I got a message about movement being detected, and did I want to record? Yes.
Slightly confusingly, the app's main page kept recommending the Hague while showing me at my old address in Powys, instead of where I was – I moved house halfway through the test, and like my cat it seemed rather unwilling to accept it. On the upside, the Mio Cyclo has not bitten me yet.So you actually manage a ride and want to see it in the app. You might expect that pairing your phone with the GPS via Bluetooth and refreshing the activities list would work. But no.