Out next month, looks competitive VFM, anyone seen one on the flesh? robust as satmap alternative? Showing at bike show in london. Still not sure I would stump up £250 on top of buying digital maps, but interesting to see the trickle down of GPS technology that re-sellers can buy and re-brand into unique products.

Looks good!

I was considering the Satmap, but it just looked too bulky and easy to trash.

I'm a big fan of the etrex legend/vista in that they're compact, simple and rugged, but they're looking a rather old now (though reception is still excellent) in terms of maps and display.

If this the memory map offers the same basic rugged form factor, with a solid bike mount but with OS mapping and a high res display, then they could be on to a winner!

Looks good in theory but I've e-mailed Memory Map for more info about things like waterproof-ness, rugged-ness and battery type/life etc

Saw this at cycleworld. They reckon it's waterproof but would give a me a figure – "might not be ok if you drop it in the river" was one comment!.

Battery life is 6-8 hours on a charge.

It does look v nice – quick to scroll/update. Next clear screen. Basically everything the (shockingly bad) road angle one should've been. Time will tell how durable it is though I suppose.

6-8 hours isn't great. is it a special battery? any options of external power source?

Its a Lithium Polymer rechargeable battery. You can use it on the external power AC or car charger included i believe.

Going to find out if you can buy additional batteries because i am sure the MM sales rep at the Earl Court bike show said the microSD card was behind the battery which means it must be removable?!

Really impressive refresh rate, literally no load time what-so-ever! You can scroll, scale or zoom on the map and it moves seamlessly. Full review on what we thought is available on links below for anyone interested.

Memory Map Adventurer 2800 and Review

Has anyone seen the new Memory Map Adventurer 3500 GPS, it is a huge improvement on what was already pretty decent GPS

Memory Map Adventurer 3500 Review

Memory Map Adventurer 3500 More Info

Spam with everything

They are all basically old windows mobile PDAs that have been ruggedised for use outdoors. As such you have to use the incredibly fiddly stylus thing, which really doesn’t suit mountain biking well.

i’d look at garmins edge 800.

i bought a 2800 last x-mas – it was terrible 🙁 compared to a garmin – as has already been said its an old pda stuffed into a waterproof case

I’ve just bought a Garmin Orgeon 450 as an upgrade from my Vista Hcx and its great !! – you can get loads of maps for it free off the web – you can even download ariel sat maps onto it – Plus it takes 2 AA batterys – so you can always carry a few spares and never worry about running out of battery power on the trail 🙂

The Memory Map 3500 is awful. Old technology, badly tested and deeply flawed. Within months of launch its being deeply discounted by the retailers, which says a lot. Memory Maps own tech support forum is full of complaints – and thats after they have deleted a lot of really adverse comment ! Mine broke on day 2 and had a dud car charger. Got a refund and bought a garmin 450 – Hugely better bit of kit with far more features and properly tested !

Perhaps the previous posters reply was written more out of rage and anger at memorymaps alledged treatment of its customer base.
It must be said that memorymap have upgraded this unit on the 5th may 2011 and this unit is now a serious bit of kit, most if not all complaints aired on the forum have been fixed.
If you own memorymap maps v5,i would ask you to check out the forum since 5th may and check the forums response to the update, you may well save a lot of money.
One last point, it would be fair to state all gps manufacturers are now embroiled in a discount war, check satmap and garmin, thats good news for us the buying public,

john

C’mon John, come clean! How long have you owned/ worked for memory map!!!
Five posts in the last nine months all praising the virtues of Memory Map GPS units 😉
I’ve got a 2800 by the way – great bit of kit.

People keep saying that the Satmap is easy to trash but I have knocked mine about, left it on the car roof and had it bounce across the large roundabout at Swinley, etc and it is still going fine. It’s only non-owners that seem to say it, I haven’t yet seen an owner complain.

Hi flapjack,
I,m not getting into a debate on wheather i work for memorymap, but i can assure you i don,t, check my status on memorymaps forum, username the same, i don,t use this forum that often because its not that busy and you can wait days if not weeks to get replies.
Check memorymaps forum and you will find my posts are not always supportive of memorymap, over 220 posts.
At no time did i suggest anyone buy the ad3500, i simply pointed them to the memorymap ad3500 forum, and yes i tell those who visit the forum, that in my opinion the ad3500 is now a better unit since the upgrade, and if you own memorymap mapping, please check it out.

Its a bit dissapointed you feel that my advice can only be genuine if my post count is higher, remember a forum is a tool for giving honest advice to potential purchasers, and i think owning both the ad2800 and ad3500 gives me the right to do that irrelavent of post count

john

There is a review of the 3500 in the next issue (66) of the mag.

Calm down John! It was meant in good humour, I really couldn’t give a toss if you work for Memorymap or not although 220 posts on their forum does indeed sound like you know your stuff about Sat Nav 😯

You should be happy in the knowledge that you’re never going to get lost!

Fair enough,

Did a 15 mile walk today and the ad3500 was a pleasure to use, not like it was in the past, no bells and whistles, just good honest route guiding.
I take your point on postings and like memorymap forum i will try and get a little more involved on this forum.

thanks john.