Garmin 60CSX any good ?

Hi,

I've lurked for awhile but first post, be gentle eh

I've put off getting a satnav until recently, I used a Tom Tom to get across London and am now convinced of their usefulness, and I'm gonna buy a unit very soon and was wondering if anyone knows much about the 60csx, versus others?

It's main purpose (order of priority) would be mainly for exploring trail rides(uk & maybe eur), but also will be used for motorbike touring(uk & europe), in car use(uk) and occassional mountain bike(uk) / walking(uk & eur).

I've done quite a bit of surfing/research and thought of the 60csx because of it's ability to save routes (inc altitude etc) with lots of waypoints, poi's, etc onto cheap sd micro cards (<=2gb), it's high sensitivity receiver, ipx7 waterproof, color display, electronic compass, it's also a good size for use on bike, car, mtb/walking and uses aa batteries (rechargable ok?) or 12v motorbike/car battery via a choice of cables, and its now at a reasonable price ~ £200 new (fleabay).

Am I right in thinking that 60csx will not display offroad type OS maps (large detail of minor roads) without buying garmin topo maps or memory map software? Also I get the feeling the TOPO maps are not worth the money and I should use memory map - is this right, are there alternatives?

It appears you get Mapsource software with the 60csx - will that enable you to download normal/smaller detail maps that you see on other sat navs (tom tom etc) for general day to day use in travelling normal roads? I dont mind that it doesn't have voice commands etc but I'd like it to give me visual directions?

60csx vs ? - are there better/cheaper alternatives to this bearing in mind the comments above?

Also apart from mounting the unit to the bike and the need for an atlantic basemap (not american basmap) is there anything else I need to think about?

Ta

good unit, but small, fairly dim display.

would be a great sat nav for a trail bike, small, light, very rugged.

won't display memory map. needs garmin topo, which i find rather poor, or city navigator, neither of which are supplied with the unit, though mapsource and trip manager are. i use my for touring ok, but like i say, the display is not the best and good eyesight would be an advantage.

the atlantic basemap is very easily available on the internet (geodude website), and is equally easly installed in addition to the US basemap.

'... won't display memory map. needs garmin topo, which i find rather poor, or city navigator, neither of which are supplied with the unit, though mapsource and trip manager are. i use my for touring ok, but like i say, the display is not the best and good eyesight would be an advantage.'
ah so i need topo - no other options then ...

'the atlantic basemap is very easily available on the internet (geodude website), and is equally easly installed in addition to the US basemap.'
ok good to know.

cookie thnx for above

anyone suggest other comments or useful info ... before i buy?

cheers

See my other post on the Oregon 400t but I think I have come to the same conclusions as you and decided to get a 60CSx. Once you factor in any sort of outdoor use the battery life on the other units and the dim display wrote off the Oregon and the Colorado.

I'm researching prices as we speak...

If displaying Memory map is important to you look at the Road Angel and the Road Angel Adventure and these units will have the OS map style display.

I have used the Garmin Legend CX for trail riding, it's much smaller than the 60 but the screen size looks the same. It's loaded with City navigator so it will route find if necessary but for trail riding I draw a track in Memory map and upload it to the unit. It runs all day on 2 x aa batteries which is great as my bikes do not have a battery. This has been 100% reliable for the last 18 months of rough trail riding.

If I was buying again I would have a good look at the Road Angel range because of the OS display but don't know which I would buy.

I use a 60csx for bike, car walking.

Battery life using rechargable batteries is good you could go walking for a couple of days with the same set of batteries, using the like of Duracell improves this considerabily

The Memory Map thing isn't really an issue, I use memory map to plan a walk and transfer the route to the 60Csx using it in conjuction with the paer map that you can print off from MM I find this a good combination, I have tried using MM on a PDA for walking and I find the amount of info on the PDA screen is too much and isn't as clear as I would like when out walking.

Also the Garmin TOPO version 2 maps are a hugh improvement over V1 maps, but at the end of the day they show the contour lines and some other basic stuff, which I find is all you need.

As a road based GPS I think it's very good, the lack of voice directions is sometimes annoying but not that often.

I find the screen to be okay, though there is a wee hack you can do to the mapping programmes that can improve this. (do a search on this forum to find it)

I find the 60Csx to be a cracking wee bit of kit, it feels well made and robust, and with the ability to change the batteries with standard AA the flexability of the unit is fantastic.

HTH

I've had mine a couple of years now and love it.
I use it for walking, cycling and trail riding in conjunction with memory map and it does everything I want with the added bonus of being very, very robust.
It's been launched into bogs, bounced down the road at 40mph and was attached to the bars of a bike that went through a drystone wall. It's survived all unscathed which is more than can be said for me
You can actually get the topo type maps free from the scottish mountaineering website, there should be a link on here.
I also have a streetpilot with mapsource so have downloaded the european maps onto the 60 which makes it very handy to stuff in a pocket for use on holiday in Europe.
If you use Lithium batteries they last for ages too.
Should also add that no gps is a substitute for a map, you should always have both and the 60 will allow you to find your exact position on a map via grid ref's if you're really lost.

Thanks rico, Hew, roddy & PIGGLET for comments, I'll checkout the Road Angel to see if it offers any benefits, if not it's a 60csx for me ...

Ta

Got my 60CSX yesterday (from PentagonGPS as they had a City Navigator Europe 2009 bundle going, other accessories from GPS Warehouse).

Looks pretty good so far. Piece of advice - if you are going to play around with MapSource or load other free maps take the City Navigator SD card out and put it somewhere safe rather than overwriting it and spending half the night looking at a certain web site (ahhh!, me hearties) for how to 'recreate' it. It does say that in the SD card box but who looks at that?

Anyway, take a copy of the SD card and burn it onto a DVD or something first.

Apart from that it looks positive so far. The interface is moderately intuitive for routing. I haven't tried it in the car or on the bike yet.

I'm going to look into how the proximity sensor works at some point after I recover from potentially chucking away 50 squid.

Rick

I have a etrex vistaHcx, which is neater than the 60, similar size screen also has electronic compass so you don't need to be moving for it to work,
Also tiugh as old boots

How does a Quest 1 (which I have) and something like a 60CSX differ

TBH if I was in the market for a handheld GPS (which I will be when it reaches top of the priority list ) then I think I would be looking here:
http://www.satmap.com/about.php

I own both the satmap and the 60csx, since buying the satmap the 60csx has never been used. Do not get me wrong the 60csx is a good piece of kit but the satmap trounces it in almost every area. The only area the 60csx wins is the reception is better and the lock on time is quicker. But on saying that i think the main weak point is garmins topo maps they are not a patch on the OS maps. Its just wonderful to see a OS map unfolding in front of you. The main downside is the maps are pricey plus you cannot transfer the OS maps from memory map. You can transfer the gpx files but not the map a bit of a con as you need to buy the maps again. Build quality there is not much in it but if push came to shove if i was to drop one and needed it to work i would probably bet on the Garmin.

overlander said:

I own both the satmap and the 60csx, since buying the satmap the 60csx has never been used. Do not get me wrong the 60csx is a good piece of kit but the satmap trounces it in almost every area. The only area the 60csx wins is the reception is better and the lock on time is quicker. But on saying that i think the main weak point is garmins topo maps they are not a patch on the OS maps. Its just wonderful to see a OS map unfolding in front of you.

Click to expand...

I got one last week. Had a couple of short plays with it, but will be testing it out for real green laning this weekend. It's been cracking so far.

The main downside is the maps are pricey plus you cannot transfer the OS maps from memory map. You can transfer the gpx files but not the map a bit of a con as you need to buy the maps again.

Click to expand...

On the plus side for those that didn't have the MM software in the first place, the new online routeplanner is cracking (and goes down to 1:25K mapping so you get the added accuracy even if you have only bought the 1:50K maps for the unit ).

You'll love it, it will grow on you as time goes on but you might need to buy the power pack if you use it all the time. Yes the online route planner is great i have uploaded 3 walks already for sharing.

overlander said:

you might need to buy the power pack if you use it all the time.

Click to expand...

Already got it. I made the most of the squaddie discount.