GPS for trail riding

[KMD]

I'm thinking of buying a GPS for off road use on the trail bike. I'm looking at the Garmin Etrex Legend HCX at around £150, and would invite comments please. I've searched and this subject has been covered before, but things move on quickly in the GPS world.

So what do you think guys ? give me your views please on off road GPS.

 

[Funrider]

The Nuvi 550 is worth a look.

It's a full blown GPS, which is designed for cars/bikes/walking/sailing, it's waterproof and has an eight hour battery.

See the Nuvi 550 forum for more details

 

[RAM-man]

.. if the budget is £150 ? and you want to buy new product, then yes eTrex is what you're likely to get .. but it is a Garmin, which is a key plus point.

Remember to factor in the cost of a mount and cradle as well.

Using a *buyer beware notice* the 2nd hand ebay market may find you a Garmin 60 series (60CSX ?) or a Quest 1 series. Lately, 2610's are fetching good prices in the 2nd owner market, but be alert to the perils of the ebay bizarre.

 

[Mav]

Find yourself a windows based gps unit then you can use OS mapping from Memory Map - it's by the far the best way to get the lay of the land. It's also the only way to get a guide if the track you're looking at is legal.

One unit that is compatible are Road Angel, also consider Windows based PDA's or mobile phones eg the Samsung Omnia

HTH

 

[BurtieBoy]

I use the E-Trex (later colour version) with Memory Maps - you need to buy an OS topographical map of the UK for the Garmin and it works a treat.

 

[andyclift]

Remember that when off road you can't have auto routing, just direct lines between predefined waypoints because there are no vector mapped routes for the GPS to use to calculate. If that is all you need even my ancient Garmin 12 would give you 100% success. You just enter the grid refs of each waypoint and follow the arrow. A copy of Mapsource is useful as its easier to enter the waypoints on the PC and download them, but not essential.

If you want to go upmarket there are units which will run Memory Map but you need to budget £300+. I use a Ipaq Travel Companion which runs Tomtom software (as purchased) but now also runs Memory Map for off road, in my case walking, and Garmin software (better than Tomtom). In practice I find memory Map as a planning tool on the PC is very good but loading the waypoints of a route onto the old Garmin is actually more practical than using the Ipaq as all I need when moving is a big direction arrow. The old Garmin uses standard AA batteries that will last a day, the Ipaq uses a dedicated rechargable that will last a few hours. I also find it better to take an OS map than use the small Ipaq screen.

If you want a GPS for full public road routable navigation it may make sense to spend the money for a dual purpose system. If you only want off road point to point KISS comes into play - Keep It Simple ****