I have a Garmin 200 that you can upload and loosely follow GPX files on but I let my mate laid them on his as I can’t be bothered at the moment, I rely on past visits/pigeon sense. However I am wanting to do some exploring or routes during the week day times and am thinking it would be good rather than having to buy a load of £15 waterproof OS maps to have a GPS with the greater detail OS or similar mapping that I could use off road and on road rides. I noted on another thread that Garmin don’t come with some maps etc etc but also the size of those units…they’re huge and I’m sure quite lose able smash able by a clumsy so and so like me.
What other GPS units come with OS mapping or similar that show paths/ bridleways/ roads and off road detail or do I need to start looking at those big walkers GPS units….I’m not bothered about cadence, HR but obviously trip mileage would help, but in general I’m clueless on them.
And whilst I could use my iPhone I prefer to keep it tucked away for using battery life as a phone.
Thanks for any suggestions

Garmin 800 or newer 810 would be the obvious bike options. And there’s the Garmin Touring too, which is aimed towards more casual cyclists, rather than loaded with loads of training functions.

If you plot a route beforehand though, the 200 should get you by on most road rides. It’s not as good as having visible maps, but the maps are mostly used purely for a point of reference on the plotted route you’re following. For example, say there’s a fork in the road, without maps it can be difficult to determine which one to follow…usually (in my experience) until you’ve followed the wrong one. Maps make it obvious straight away. You wouldn’t want to use it in the way you’d use a map though, navigating on the fly. You’d be better off with a map…

Cheers for that Butcher, I’ll take a look at the Touring model, may fit the bill better for me than performance monitoring g models.

Etrex series has mapping but am finding that the display is not easy to read. Mine’s a few years old though.

Tried a basic Eurex and like you say was difficult to read plus it ran on normal batteries which it ate so I sold it on after two wlks using it to get used to it 😆

The Etrex is pretty decent in my opinion. It will last way longer than most others on a decent set of batteries. Up to 25 hours. And you also have the advantage of being able to change them when they do run out. But definitely bulky.