Firstly am presuming this is the device to get. Want a GPS/computer, mostly for road bike use but sometimes to take on the trails. If I get the Garmin (is this the one to get?), do I need to buy BOTH the UK Topo card and the City Navigator? Does Topo cover roads and towns in detail or do I need to shell out for both?

Id do some more sniffing if I were you

You are right in saying its a roadie bit of kit
If you plan to use it off road it is weaker

I have the Garmin Topo loaded onto an Etrex
Its shockingly bad for over a hundred quid
Nice idea – poorly executed
The mapping of footpaths and bridleways is just not good enough – they are often just not there

And Im not the only one to think so

Cheers!

I've got Topo and City NavTopo is better for offroad stuff (but not as good as OS mapping, but you can't install that on the Garmin). City Nav is probably more up to date when it comes to roads.
Whatever you buy go for the DVD version, you can then just transfer the maps to a Micro SD card and stick it in the 705. If you copy both to the SD card you can choose which map you want to use by ticking a box.
The latest firmware update for the 705 allows the use of SD cards larger than 2gb which means that I can have City Nav covering all of Europe and Topo covering all of GB on one micro SD card.

I've recently bought a GPS

I looked at the higher end Garmins and decided it wasn't worth the money as you are loading the same GB topo maps onto the high end machines as the lower end ones – with limited additional benefits.

I chose to buy the Etrex Vista HCx (the HCx is important as that additional memory card is essential for mapping) and the GB topo.

As iamsporticus says the topo mapping isn't great – but neither are any of the competitors.

So I'd save the money on the edge 705 and buy the Etrex Vista HCx, a 4gb micro SD card, the gb topo maps and then invest in Memory map and use that to plan routes etc. – you can use OS 1:25K maps on your computer and plan your routes then use the GPS to ride them. Also you can take the GPS out when you ride with your mates so you can record your route for future reference and then download it into memory map.

The Etrex will give you speed and heading without and do you really want to record cadence and heart rate? if not why bother with the edge 705?

Finally you should check out http://www.geocaching.com (warning it's adictive).

Hope that helps

Badger

Yep, all that cadence and HR malarky is not what I am after at all. I want a bullett proof GPS for on and off road that I can download other peoples trails onto. Sounds like there is nowhere that does OS style mapping on a GPS?

mcboo

No unfortunately not – I had a hunt as that was what I was after as well, hence the combo mentioned above.

I looked at the Vista HCx and the Summit HCx and the difference is the Vista has a barometric pressure altimeter so you can see height gain as well on it – which for us MTBers is worth it I guess.

Badger

The eTrex Vista Hcx looks like about £180 I think? Presume I need to buy both Topo and City Nav maps on top of that? Will def take a look at it…..I get carried away with these things always end up byuing things I dont need. 90% its going to be for the road……main point is does the Topo pack cover roads? Sounds like it doesnt…..

I paid less than that – try Handtec.co.uk
I got good service, fast delivery and they dealt with a problem I had with no quibbles and sorted it very fast (the issue was my doing not theirs!)

Badger

My topo maps have roads on. Just had a quick look and it has the road names down to even the little tidly ones and the Etrex Vista does have road navigation (just no voice nav) on it.
I'd try it with just the topo and see how it goes – you can always add the city navigator in later.

Oh and if you havce Vista 64 drop me an email and I'll let you have the secret to getting the damn topo maps to install (it doesn't like vista but its easy to solve if you know how!)

Badger

Great Badger thanks, will give it a spin.

The 705 can be a bit of a pain but with GB Topo and a couple of other bits of free software (GPS to CRS converter, GPS Babel, TCX converter) you can download other peoples' GPX files and have a foolproof route to follow.

Last Sunday Mrs BigJohn & I wanted to do a ride over Dartmoor. I put up a post here, some kind guys emailed me a few routes, I imported them into Garmin (after some stupid faffing because Garmins own maps don't support the courses the GPS unit needs!) 10 mins total faff time and we had 4 faultless circuits to ride.

Memory Map now supports Edge 705, as does Tracklogs but you can't send the OS detail map over (I think). But GB Topo is fairly detailed.

Think Amazon had the Etrex at a similar price to Handtec as well.

Badger

sent you a mail Badger….

Just landed on my desk is a Galmin Legend HcX which I got off Ebay business. Brand new with GB topo maps loaded and postage for about £190. Its an offer of the month so may be more available. After a thread last week decided to buy Legend rather than Vista as seemed minimal difference. (Also inclined to buy things better than I need…)

I got a 705 and really quite like it, I managed to get it through work expenses though, not sure I'd have one otherwise.

Anyway – has anyone tried any open source mapping on there GPS (particularly the 705). I havent got round to it yet but there is quite a lot of stuff out there Free maps

I recently replaced my dying Edge 205 with a 605 and it's blummin' brilliant, I should have done it ages ago. It gives OS map references! I assumed it would be the same as my 205 which didn't. I've put the contours and maps from this chap that come from NASA elevation data and OpenStreetmap mapping. It's great to be able to see instantly on the map where you are in relation to the nearby hills, roads and trails.

Openstreetmap isn't as complete as "proper" commercial maps like Google and whatnot but it's not far off; it also has the advantage that you can add your own data such as missing roads, trails, paths, fireroads or other features that no commercial mapping will have.