Looking to buy a good GPS for natural riding but also to use for walking in the hills etc. Want to get something with OS mapping available, good battery life and fairly robust. Not fussed about HR and such like, just want it to be good for navigating and stats (distance, altitude etc).

Looked at Garmin but can’t work out which will be suitable, but then the SatMap Active 12 looks like a reasonable bet. Any recommendations?!

Oregon 600

OS mapping – tick
Walking – tick
Riding – tick
Good battery life – tick (and uses AAs so easily extended)
Robust – tick
Navigating – tick
Stats – tick (and upload to Garmin Connect/Strava/Endomondo etc for more stats)

I have a Garmin GPS60CSX

I was given it as a Birthday present and it was intended for off road riding and wild stuff. It does everything you want apart from OS mapping – you have to buy maps from Garmin.

On top of that it’s waterproof, has an amplified antennae (so doesn’t lose signal) and does all sorts of other stuff.

It also uses AA batteries so you can keep going as long as you have batteries.

Garmin eTrex series? Seems to do the above but at a much lower price point.

I use my Edge 810 (and previous 800) with OS mapping for hiking and riding.

Never got lost.

I bought a second hand Motorola Moto G for about £60 off ebay, a protective case for about £5 and then bonded a gopro mount to the back. It runs Viewranger perfectly which has os maps and a range of free ones. Can easily run Strava etc on it too.

touchscreen – oregon/montana
joystick – etrex
buttons – gpsmap 6*

I think. You really need a budget, as they get very spendy very quickly

I have an Oregon 550t for years, it’s great

I have an etrex 20. It’s not fancy but it’s pretty good as a multi-use gps. AAs mean battery life isn’t an issue (get probably around 24 hours out of a pair, if not more). It’s chunky and looks pretty unfashionable on a bike compared to the more fancy biking ones. The bike mount isn’t that great (I use a cable tie to make sure it doesn’t come off!). Usability isn’t the best (e.g. panning and zooming are very slow) – certainly compared to smart phone map apps. Don’t know how it compares to the Oregon model. Navigating in the hills isn’t easy on any thing with a small screen as inevitably you can’t see the detail and the bigger picture at the same time. I normally load a gpx before I set out and follow the coloured line. If I’m in the mountains I’ll have a paper map too.

Despite all those caveats, I think it’s great. The tart in me still wants a fancy slim model for my road bike though!

Bosch nyon 😈

samej – Member

I have an etrex 20. It’s not fancy but it’s pretty good as a multi-use gps. AAs mean battery life isn’t an issue (get probably around 24 hours out of a pair, if not more). It’s chunky and looks pretty unfashionable on a bike compared to the more fancy biking ones. The bike mount isn’t that great (I use a cable tie to make sure it doesn’t come off!). Usability isn’t the best (e.g. panning and zooming are very slow) – certainly compared to smart phone map apps. Don’t know how it compares to the Oregon model. Navigating in the hills isn’t easy on any thing with a small screen as inevitably you can’t see the detail and the bigger picture at the same time. I normally load a gpx before I set out and follow the coloured line. If I’m in the mountains I’ll have a paper map too.

Despite all those caveats, I think it’s great. The tart in me still wants a fancy slim model for my road bike though!

I agree, even with its downfalls its still a fantastic device for the price.

Use a bryton 60 which comes with uk os maps loaded and you can add additional maps. Really good little system and on sale at crc at the moment

Satmap is awesome for navigation but the default bike mount is awkward and adds to its presence on the bars, so I use a barfly mount which puts it further in front (useful for glancing at whilst riding and following a route) and keeps it lower :

http://www.barflybike.com/shop/bar-fly-universal-mount/