Done Sustrans, now want to load routes,like Cairngorms loop. Should I buy the Garmin Touring Plus as my first sat nav?

I wouldnt/ didnt.

Got an edge 500 , have done for a number of years – had an edge 200 since 2005 , things that frustrate me- short battery life , the non replaceable on the fly battery, useless nav.

I bought an etrex 30x for 147 for nav duties .

Basil, do you intend using OS type maps?

Etrex 30x (or 20x), looking at one OR an 810 edge.
Trail_Rat, any reason for the 30x in particular?

Cheers.

I find the touring generally good for nav esp. Sustrans type routes. I didn’t want to spend loads, it’s simple, battery life is good for a whole day

I’m after a GPS for navigating duties in the hills.
Don’t need/want cadence/hrm just the ability to plug in an OS map sd card and download gpx files.
Handlebar mounted as I’m sick of stopping to read a paper map.

Edge 810 seems to be popular but walking GPS’ such as Etrex 20/30 get good ratings.

Was looking at the 20 but decided the electronic compass , bump share(for when out with my mate we can both have the same route showing) and barometric altimete was worth the extra.

The deal breaker for the etrex for me was the 25 hour battery life and easy change batteries.

Got caught out on a skye- montrose coast to coast this year waiting for my gps to charge at fort augustus so i could carry on.

Can you bar mount an Etrex?

Yeah , they sell a bar mount for about 8quid. Harder to stem mount although i hear a rolled up bit of inner tube und the mount does good .

Interested in a 30x in that case,cheers!

Berg fruend in germany were the cheapest i found at 148 for the unit.

Just waiting on mine being delivered,

The dakota is also worth a look , slightly less battery life , slightly more cost but touch screen and bigger screen more pricey

Thanks T_R
Battery life is important but I now carry a powerpack on multiday routes for my phone so an Edge 810 would be okay too.
I only need a GPS for cycling so an ‘out front’ mount would be preferred.

I’ll look at 20/30 x as I need one soon.

Can you bar mount an Etrex?

yes but IME it kills them. Have to take to bits and push stuff back together. Edge seems to put up with it.

I have an Etrex H for walking/canoeing (as I only need a grid ref from a paper map at those speeds) and I’ve bought a bike mount for it but as flap jack says, it looks like it’ll pull the back off.
I’ll have to check the 20/30x for mounting.

Thanks flap jack, I never thought about that.

Edit; suppose I could always rubberband mount an etrex onto a bar mount.

Amusingly I was after some consensus from Singletrack!!
Don’t need any performance functions.
What I want is not to keep checking a map and get further off the beaten track.
Load up a route for a weeks bike packing (I carry a battery pack) and off I go,
Which one would be recommended for that brief?

Basil, I have the same needs/wants as you.
I’ve been googling and reading STW threads and decided it’s between an Edge 810 (now that it’s replaced the 800) or an Etrex 20/30 X.
X being an updated version.
People are put off the 810 because of the inbuilt battery, but I take a powerpack whilst camping anyway.

Also, for a larger (touch) screen, the Garmin Oregon or Montana have been suggested.

I’ve got the Oregon 600. Bigger/better screen was what sold it to me over the etrex. I’m using it for skitouring and hill walking as well as biking. Battery life isn’t brilliant, sometimes conks out at the end of a long day – more like a ten hour day than a 16 hour day.

I don’t know how different the bike mount is to the etrex, but it also mounts by the removable back. The removable back feels very secure, it coming off is not something I’ve ever worried about.

Has the edge 810 sorted this issue .

“My edge 800 was fine on the BB200, with an external battery pack to keep it going for more than 10 hours. I have had it lock up though twice; the first time was on a 200 mile ride and it locked up at 180 miles when the activity file got too big – this is a well documented failure on the forums and needs a hard reset to recover it (meaning you lose all data and it reverts to factory settings). ”

I’ve usd the edge touring for Audax and touring for about a year and a half.

The bad

Battery life isn’t amazing, won’t last a 12hour/200km day, but it’s easy it keep that topped up with a external battery pack.

Biggest frustration is that you can’t turn off the auto-reroute, at least with this model, which is just annoying. Only real disaster was when I’d just got it and was riding the last part of a long day, and I didn’t realise that I was following the auto route, not the Audax route and wasted 50km. In November. In the dark. With four people following me.

The good

Got me from Oslo to Malmo this summer. Had some routes loaded into it (NSCR1/Kattegatleden), and occasional free map from tourist offices, but the Garmin also worked as a map on the go.

Don’t need to load maps onto it. All already on there in OSM form.

Pretty secure on the out front mount, less so on the bar mounted one for some reason. But only time it actually fell off, was when throwing bike up some stairs in a cross race.

Obviously, this is on roads no trails. But don’t see any reason why it won’t do for that as well.

I’ve got one. It’s pretty good and does everything I need (loading GPX on from Strava etc. ). I’ve got the OS maps on there but find i use the built in map most of the time – it’s surprisingly detailed.

Annoying things –
1. as above, when you load a route on, it links together the waypoints using it’s own routing algorithm and maps, so you end up with two routes sort of overlayed on top of each other.
2. when scrolling around the map I find if very easy to accidentally add a waypoint, which is quite irritating.

Does the eTrex 30x come with OpenStreetMap or can you load them onto the MicroSD card?

does not come with it it has garmins topo on it.

its easy to download and stick on an SD card though.

Unfortunantly for where i ride the detail just isnt there on OSM – landy tracks and single tracks missing – and yes i can “add it” but i didnt buy a mapping device to draw my own maps. i bought it to follow a line when i wanted a nice flowing ride not interupted by map stops…..

so i stuck the OS maps on as well.

Worked well when i used it for the first time in anger to follow cairngorm loop on tuesday self orientates so its clear which way your turning very little stopping involved – makes night time nav much quicker

couple of annoying features of the 30x – you cant “pause it” its either on and tracking or off and not tracking. Even when i reset all tracks and data – i still get an annoying point or 2 prior to starting my ride… easily sorted in stravas crop function.

Ok cheers.
What scale OS maps are you using & any pointers on cheapest place to get them if needed?

I’ve an 800, I wouldn’t buy it again.

If I wanted decent mapping I’d figure out how to get it on a smartphone as the 800’s screen is just too small, too dark to read in anything other than the woods without killing the battery and the resolution is pants.

A better solution would be to print/photocopy maps and laminate them, it’s that irritating.

As for power, have you considered a dynamo?

“A better solution would be to print/photocopy maps and laminate them”

Been through this in my head. based on previous rides with maps – and then the ride i did with my etrex 30 on tuesday. There is absolutely no way that what you suggest can be considered a better solution.

laminated printed maps are what go in the pack as a back up for emergencies….however still preferable than using my phone for navigation as ive yet to see one last a decent length of time while performing useful navigating.

As for os – i got the 1:50k scale maps from a friend who has gone to OSM as he lives and rides in a more populous area where OSM has better mapping detail he prefers.