As a life long outdoorsy type, I’ve never felt the need to get one. My map reading is up to speed..

BUT, I seem to have entered the Bearbones 200 in a moment of madness this October. The route is all on a GPX file, so I guess I need to bite the bullet and get one.

Questions. Do I “need”to spend £3-400?
Does it need to come with OS software insatlled?
Are they fool-proof at 11.00 at night in the middle of Mid Wales?!

very briefly
two types

Full OS mapping

Topo/Breadcrum/ Toasty or other free mapping

IMHO they all do the same thing let you add a route and then follow a trail

The simpler ones dont have any real mapping as such [ topo] but let you follow a bread crumb trail which is good enough – certainly lets you know when wrong!] My old etrex anything not a road is basically a grey square but it is good enough though I have not done night time navigation with it

Others allow full Memory map tyoe routing with a zoomable OS map on your screen usually accurate to about 20 foot.
Better ones allow you to add mapping and the Free stuff is getting much better- not quite OS standard but good enough – not tried for a while so Assume its better now and near comparable to OS??

OS mapping is the best but can be expensive for the maps Internet “copies” do exist though

Etrex 20 is the best cheap budget one IMHO though the bike mount is pretty dire and you need to make sure you secure the unit to the mount

Personally I would not venture out with only GPS as my only navigational tool but it has never let me down yet

I prefer one that uses AA batteries as you get 20 + hours from them and its easy to carry spares.

Thanks for that, really helps!

Any one got any recommendations for bike mountable units?