Hi. I'm thinking of getting a Garmin Dakota 20.

It would be my first foray into GPS – for off-road and road riding and maybe some multi-day trips. Like the idea of AA batteries for convenience, good size screen and the usual trip functions and journey planning/recording possibilities.

Is it a good choice? And do I need to buy the expensive mapping software or can I get on with OpenStreetMap and the like?

I'm a long-time forum reader but first-time poster, so I'd be grateful for any pointers.
Thanks.

Hi, I've just bought a Dakota 20 with gbdiscoverer map of the South East and Wales (1:50,000 – same as OS Landranger).

For the route planning, I'm trying Quo by Mapyx(www.mapyx.com). The software is free, you have to pay a nominal sum for paper maps, and then you get the e-maps free. I'm finding Quo is a bit slow and glitchy, but it is very cheap and the support is good. It may well be that it's me who is bad at Quo, rather than Quo being at fault.

I haven't tried OpenStreetMap, or any of the others. I've only had it all a couple of days and I'm going to give Mapyx a longer trial because, as I say, it may well be that it's me whose rubbish rather than the software!

Hi,
The Mapyx route planning software looks interesting. As a newbie to GPS I imagine I'd be quite bad at it too but have to learn sometime.

How is the gbdiscoverer? There seems to be some discussion on other threads about whether it is possible to use other maps on the Garmin.

Thanks,
Rob.

Havem't had a proper go at gbdiscoverer yet. Garmin support and Mapyx support tell me it is not possible to load other maps onto a Garmin. When you do your route (in some other format) your Garmin OVERLAYS it onto a Garmin map.

You do need a Garmin map but you can use Discoverer, Topo or any other Garmin map
You can even load multiple maps & choose which one to use for what purpose
i.e Discoverer for the trails & City Navigator in the car

For routes you can use anything the outputs a gpx file such as
http://wtp2.appspot.com/wheresthepath.htm [You can even upload to the Dakota from that one] then simply save the gpx file in the gpx folder on the unit.
I've only had the thing since yesterday but it's looking good so far

Yes, sorry, I wasn't clear. You can use other maps besides gb discoverer BUT as long as the other maps are Garmin maps. I was trying to say that you can't load another maker's map onto it.

I'm going to have a look at wheresthepath too.

You can put other maps on as long as they're Garmin compatible

look at http://sites.google.com/site/talkytoasteruk/ukmaps for some free options
If you already have an extra map on the unit or card it will be called gmapsupp.img if you want to put another one on, make sure you rename it to something like gmapsup2.img before loading it as the new one will [obviously] attempt to over-write the 1st one.
You can then just go into the map selection option & disable or enable which one you want to use

If I get chance this weekend I'll play some more & see what else it can do