Garmin Etrex 10… is it good enough to be able to..

Download a GPX file of, say Brechfa,and use the unit on the bars to navigate the trails..

I have one. And if have the patience you can upload maps to it..
But yes, You can navigate by it.

Would you recommend it?

Depends. For what I use it for, Yes.
If you was going to rely on it heavily for navigation, then no probably not.
I use mine more as a backup in case I get a bit lost / side tracked on a new route.
For the price, can’t fault it.

Have a squint at the Dakota 10 instead, it has much more memory storage and is more versatile.
I believe the Dakota is the replacement for the etrex series.

If you’re thinking about purchasing, I can recommend the 20 rather than the 10 – Colour, better screen resolution… It works pretty well. Easy to load maps to, and you can then load a GPX and ‘View on Map’ and then simply follow the highlighted route on the map. I’ve used it up in the Cairngorms (and on the road bike).

I’ll take a look. Its gonna be for 90% off-road.

The etrex 20 works pretty well on the bike for navigation and as a general bike computer. The interface is a little clumsy out of the box, but this page gives good info on setting it up to work well on the bike. The setup allows you to flip between the map page and the trip computer page by just pressing the back button.

Is this any good?

Is this any good?

Yes.

I have the Etrex 30 with full UK 1:50 OS maps on it. Plot a route (or grab a GPX file from the net). Download it to your GPS and follow the line overlaid over the OS map. Dead simple.

If you don’t want OS mapping then any Garmin unit (as far as I know) will let you upload a GPX file and follow the route – it will be overlaid over a basic map though. If that’s all you need I’d just buy an old model off the ‘Bay’.

Hth
Marko

it has much more memory storage

my etrex 20 takes a micro SD card, doesnt the ’10?

Nope, the 10 is super basic, it doesn’t even have a proper map on it, apart from the Garmin Base map which is sh*te. Now the 20 can be had cheap I’d get that it’s much better value IMO.

samjgeorge86 how did you get that map on your 10? I’m sure mine doesn’t have that, mind I could be doing something wrong.

Nope, no external storage on the 10. Think the free internal memory is about 5 megabytes too!

The 10 doesn’t take an sd card so OS mapping isn’t possible. I’d suggest the Dakota 20 or eTrex 20 depending on whether you want a touch screen or joystick. Don’t expect iphone resolution and be aware that you’ll need to either buy a ‘bundle’ or a seperate sd card if you want OS mapping.

In my link the etrex 20 is bundled with TOPO UK and Ireland…do I need this bundle?

If you want to plan a route on the ‘puter at home, then have something tell you how much of it you’ve done and how fast, tell you when a turn is coming up, and warn you if you’ve gone off track, the Garmin Edge 200 will do that.

In my link the etrex 20 is bundled with TOPO UK and Ireland…do I need this bundle?

TOPO isn’t the same as OS. If you want the detail of OS you’ll need a Discoverer sd card which will give you 1:50k OS mapping.

Or cheap/free open source mapping, given how much Garmin charge for OS maps.

Can you put cheap/ open-source mapping on the etrex?

@newspaper…that’s exactly what I’m after but wanting to do it on a budget ( new bike purchased ). Are there any videos showing the 200 ‘ guiding’ ?

My thoughts to having a device that shows the lay-o-the-land is that if you need to, say in an emetgency, you could form a plan b.

Thoughts…

tym, exactly why I’ve just got myself something with maps on!

The 200 is great when everything’s exactly as expected, but sometimes a little more info can be very handy indeed!

Google image search for “garmin edge 200 screenshots” to see what it gives you. I bought mine for a SDW in a day ride. Only really wanted a computer to show progress, av. speed, but discounts and a summer cashback meant the 200 was only £70. Very handy indeed to have a check on the bars and not to keep stopping, getting the map out to make sure you’ve not missed a sign post.

Another thought is that it depends what you want out of a GPS. If you want to leave the map in the bag and just ride, then it will do that. It depends on how big the route and how much extra navigation you need to do if you modify your route.

You can always print a picture of the route, or even take a picture of the map on your phone. If you need too cut a slice of the route off, you can figure out where you are, based on how far you’ve come, the little map on the 200 will zoom out when you stop to show you roughly where you are on it, and then you can strike off east, west whatever.

+1 dakota 20

Look at the talkytoaster website for free OS style mapping, it’s. Very usable and can be installed on the e.trex

Got OS style open source UK and France on micro SD card in my Etrex20, check out talky toaster, openmtbmap or search STW for “free maps”, an STWer has made some.

here

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/free-garmin-edge-os-style-maps

I have an Etrex20 and base map going spare, if you decide that is what you want. My wife bought me an edge 800 so it does not get used.

I used it to follow the 60k route for the Isle of White on here, very easy to use. Slightly bulky on the bars but not significant.

Chris

Sandman- I’d be interested..got any pics and a price in mind please…where are you based?

My email is in my profile..

You can put OS maps on the Etrex 10. See my picture above. Once you start zooming in more features will show, (paths, bridleways etc).
Common misconception that you are not able to use maps with it.
They are just very primitive on the 10. But acceptable.

Dragon; They don’t come mapped like that, you have to add them yourself. It’s very easy, just need to find a gmapp file of the right size for the area you want and upload it.
I have Cumbria loaded to mine, as that’s where I live / ride mostly.

@SJG86….gmapp?? Aren’t gpx files the common format/ trail data to download to a device to be able to follow a route someone else has already done?

Yeah GPX is the file type used to route / track.
But the “map” file for the Garmin Etrex is called “gmapbmap.img”. To put OS / Topo maps on the Etrex 10, you download a “gmapbmap.img” file that you want and overwrite the standard basemap on the Extrex 10 root.

I knew you’d say that.
Thanks.
I can see this is going to be fun..
Do you have any pictures of the etrex 10 zoomed in on a route?

🙂 I do yeah.
This shows a route that I have loaded on to it. And you can see the tracks surrounding it etc.

And this is what it looks like zoomed in without a route.