Hi new to this forum – just looking for some advice for the best gps system for biking and hiking (1 that will do both)

Garmin Geko 301

Thanks – and come again

He asked what was the best, which is without question the Satmap Active 10. It doesn’t have any kind of heart rate/cadence monitor etc but does have full OS maps and is very simple to use. Can be fairly costly though but is a brilliant, rugged unit.

http://www.satmap.com/

Sorry meant to say that if you do want heart rate, cadence al that stuff then the Garmin Edge 705 is probably the one to go for.
Take it easy and welcome!

yeah was looking at the garmin 705 and the satmap but wondered how good they were for hiking as well – can you downloads routes on both and with a mac

Mobile phone with 3G and GPS look at multimap OS maps on-line 😆 well thats what i do 🙄

The Garmin Oregon might be worth a look too.

Nah, you’ve all got it wrong 😛

The best for biking and hill walking is the basic yellow Garmin Etrex H. ~£70, normal batteries and 20 routes, 125 waypoints. Do buy Memory Map (or similar) for a plottin an a plannin and take a map printout with you.

If you want to measure all the other stuff, that’s a training GPS that is.

I have an Etrex H which is brill for what you’ve described, simple to use, cheap and reliable. I also have a Garmin 705 which is expensive (especially as you need to buy mapping), highly complex and not as reliable as the Etrex. It’s also got a mind of it’s own as it’s the bastard child of a Satnav and a cycle computer.

Yes there are Oregon’s, Satmap’s, PDA’s and countless phones. Expensive, complex, fragile, battery hungry etc.

When out and about, you need to know current direction and when to turn. An Etrex will do this. KISS is the way forward.

Sorry just spotted your Mac caveat. Memory Map, Tracklogs etc do apps for PC.

You’ll need to check on their websites to see if they do Mac versions (can’t you use a PC emulator?). I’m not ba graphic designer or work in the fashion industry so I use PC’s 😆

I use Memory Map and it’s pretty good.

“take a map printout with you”
Doesn’t that defeat the point?

ooOOoo – Member

“take a map printout with you”
Doesn’t that defeat the point?

Nope. Depends what you want the GPS for.

Anyway, it’s pretty stupid to go anywhere which relies on the GPS and not have a map, compass and the skills to use them.

like druid ses! geko 201+map+compass+memory map works fine for me. Better ones use maps on the gps, but you pay extra for these, and you can never rely solely on gps.

Oh yeah keep a map as backup, but if you have maps on the GPS then it’s just more efficient and quicker. Stopping to unfold maps, check position etc. just ruins your flow

Oh yeah keep a map as backup, but if you have maps on the GPS then it’s just more efficient and quicker. Stopping to unfold maps, check position etc. just ruins your flow

Indeed, your flow could be ruined. If you don’t take a back up (and know how to use em), it could be more than your flow being ruined…

My point is, A GPS with a big arrow and distance count down to turn, followed by a pointer in the new direction is really all you need (most of the time).

Yeah you can squint at yer tiny little screen to see the detail, but mostly a nice big arrow does the job. GPS’s that are limited to this are cheaper, more robust/reliable and less heavy on batteries. The Etrex also takes standard AA batteries so if you do spunk yer juice (uuuugh) on the hill, just swap for more AA’a. Try that with your inbuilt Li-Ions….

I’m not suggesting you use the paper map (or in fact a screen based map) as a primary nav aid. Use the pointer and nav is quick and easy. You should, however, always know where you are and be ready to nav by map (and compass if neccesary) in case the GPS goes pop. They often lose signal and do go wrong from time to time.