We're planning a 3-4 day bike tour later this month. Some road, some off-road and to save stopping and checking the maps every 5 minutes (or possibly watching a soggy unreadable map blow away over the horizon in a gale force wind) we're tempted to join the 21st century.
So, what's out there that is cheap, bombproof and will last for multiple days' riding? I'm guessing that something which takes bog standard replaceable batteries is my best bet?
Do you need maps on the GPS or will you upload a pre-defined route?
Upload a pre-defined route I think. To get one that does mapping on the hoof you need to spend quite a bit more don't you?
Doesn't fit your "cheap" criteria but I've been very impressed with the Satmap Active 10 system a mate's got. Rugged, waterproof GPS device with OS mapping. Used to good effect the other week when a group of us rode the Wessex Way from Weston Super-mare to Eastbourne 🙂 Saved our navigational bacon a few times.
Garmin Etrex would fit the bill
Not sure which one will have enough memory to hold 3 or 4 days tracklogs [they use less memory than waymarked routes - or something like that] the Vista would do it but there may be a lesser model that will suffice
mapping on the hoof will set you back £200+
For following a predefined route, you could try one of the cheapo Garmins preloaded with a memory map derived route say.
I have a foretrex 101 - uses alkaline AAA batteries ratehr than a charger.
Easy to use and you can get them for about £100 (although miune came from the US a few years ago where thanks to the £:$ it was mor elike £50)
I've got a Garmin Geko 301, very simple gps- pretty much fits the bill for what you're looking for. You can pick them up fairly cheap on ebay.
BTW - I could probably lend you an Etrex Vista [after the 16th] if you wanted to try one
Uplink, that's very kind of you, but the tour is planned for about then, and it'd be good to get familiar with the gadget before we head off.