I’m interested in buying a GPS for mountain biking. Mostly for navigating, perhaps downloading routes to follow and occasionally logging what I do as a stick to beat the “if it’s not on strava it didn’t happen” people up with.
It seems bloody expensive but it comes with 1:50k OS maps.
Can you folks share positive or negative experiences please?

I have an active 10 with 1:50k of the UK and 1:25k of the local area.

I use it to follow routes and find 1:25k maps zoomed to 1:3k really useful, the 1:50k maps just don’t have enough detail.

the normal bar mount is solid but makes it stick up high from the bars, and it is a fairly big unit anyway.

I now use a barfly outfront mount which allow me to mount it in front of the bar so it doesn’t look so clunky and is also easier to see when trying to follow.

The buttons are good for navigation, no muddy fingers on the screen, etc.

It is not properly weather resistant though – they do a cover but that makes it a little larger.

It is a serious piece of navigational kit which you can use for biking, as opposed to some of the garmins. Hence it has a different set of priorities.

I’ve had an Active 10 for 6 years, still going strong although it’s been back for a couple of services in that time.

Excellent tool for navigating, especially with 1:25k mapping. 1:50k is not quite so detailed for off-road but not bad, and perfect for road-riding.

As TurnerGuy says, buttons are much better than touch-screen for muddy fingers. The silicon case does make it quite bulky but also pretty much bullet-proof as well as weather-proof.

Plenty of battery power for big rides. If you’re doing multi-day stuff, you can get a spare battery, and also there’s a caddy that lets you use standard AA batteries instead.

I’m not sure the Active 12 is a massive advance on the 10 although it has higher-res maps and some wireless connectivity – wasn’t enough to tempt me to upgrade. And both the 10 and the 12 are pretty much purely navigational tools rather than having any training functionality.

But if that’s what you’re after (and its what I’m after) then it really is a great bit of kit.

An alternative to a new 12, might be buying a second-hand or old stock 10, and spending the difference on 1:25k mapping. The maps are still expensive, but vastly cheaper than they used to since Ordnance Survey’s licencing rates got slashed a couple of years back.

Good stuff.
I didn’t like the look of the stock bar mount so was interested to hear that the Barfly outfront mount fits. I couldn’t find any mention of the Barfly being suitable, is it a standard Garmin type mount on the Satmap 12?

No idea about the Barfly mount, for what it’s worth I really like the stock bar mount.

I was wrong when I said the 12 doesn’t have any training functionality, unlike the 10 it supports HRM and cadence. My bad. The 10 doesn’t though.

The bar mount was this one :

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/tate-labs-the-bar-fly-universal-mount/

the bar mount is not a garmin one – you have a different battery case with a bit that attaches to a mount (it some sort of standard one but I cannot remember the brand) – it is solid but puts the satmap high up from the bars, more than the garmin.

you can see it here :

https://satmap.com/bike-mount.html

With that mount though you can bring it down level. and just in front.

Sat map 10
GPs works well and I use with mm

Sat map mount strap wears smooth and slips
Sat map to deal with
Hi my joystick nodule has gone awol and the lead hole cover flap has only 1 of the four rubber hinges left, can I get some spares please
We don’t do spares – send it in for a service with 45 pounds please

Oh and you can rip the face cover off and break the fixing lugs when you go over the bars

I’ve had a 10 for years (since they first came out, maybe 7-8 years?), used for walking and biking, and mine refuses to die. Mine looks battered, has some minor screen damage, a couple of buttons have been glued back on, and I needed to buy a replacement rechargeable battery last year….but it stubbornly refuses to get to the stage that warrants buying a new one.

Only downsides are that screen resolution isn’t fantastic (12 is better) and it is a big chunky unit on the bars (as above, the std bike mount doesn’t help here).

I’ve been using mine for the last 18 months or so and my only complaint is the screen is damaged to easy even with the cover on dirt still seems to get to it. Apart from that it’s worth the money.

and also try and not crash with it mounted to the bars it’s the first thing that will get hit.