Having spent last weekend doing an Audax round a maze of back lanes, plus hiking pathless mountains in a thick cloud, I'm contemplating dragging myself into the modern age and getting a GPS. I know there's been lots of threads on here, but I get easily confused, so hoping someone would have some advice for what I would want:
- useable for both road cycling (anything from short rides to audax's to touring) and hillwalking. Currently use either road maps or OS 1:50,000 for road cycling, and 1:25000 for hill walking. Are the maps on a GPS functional at a range of different geographical scales?
- waterproof, robust, and with a handlebar mount
- long battery life (up to 12 hrs)
- easy and straightforward to use: ie large buttons, not too many options etc
- uses a mapping software that's compatible with mac and pc
Not sure if you generally buy the GPS unit and mapping together?
Any recommended makes / models?
Dakota 20 with OS 1:50k
I have a Garmin Etrex 20 with a Ram Mount.
[url= http://www.ram-mount.co.uk/garmin-etrex-10-20-30-holder-p-1667-c-449.html ]Ram Mount[/url]
Great [url= http://www.aukadia.net/gps/ ]Audax GPS info here[/url]
I have a Garmin GPSMAP 62s with the HR Monitor and Cadence sensor...
Great for hill walking / geocaching works well with gloves and in bright sunlight.
Great for the XC bike with the bar mounts.
Great for throwing in the bag when out on the AM bike.
Lasts forever on some good 2700 rechargeable batteries i have done 7+ hour rides and its still registered a full battery.
1:50k explorer maps with the 1:25k peaks maps for me, Garmin connect is good as well.
Tom
Prob is the hillwalking. You want a proper device with a big screen for navigation. The Dakota or 60 series garmins would be great for that but certainly overkill for road cycling and quite bulky. A garmin 800 would be great for road cycling a pain to navigate with in the hills as the screen is too small. I'd suggest 2 devices which is what I use. A device with a large screen for hill walking (Dakota or 60 series) and a smaller device without mapping on the road bike like a 305, 500 etc.
I use Oregon 450 on road, MTB and walking. Good size screen, very robust and mapping is changed by micro card. 2 x AA rather than rechargeable as they are easy to get around the world. I use 1:50k OS mapping.
On road it operates just like a car sat nav, shows turns on screen. No buttons all touch screen. Used it in europe as well.