Using a Garmin Touring computer for touring

salsarider79

Before I splash out on a Garmin Touring computer I thought I'd ask people who have used one a few questions
1. Can I store a full route (a week long tour Norwich to Penzance) or do I have to program the route in day by day?
2. What is the battery life like? My 200 is very good, but if I'm using the mapping....
3. Would you buy another one?

andymiller

I know this is a boring 'wheres-the-fun-in-that?' reply, but it's worth getting up close and personal with the technical specs and in particular compare them with possible alternatives - eg the eTrex 20:

Edge Touring

Accepts data cards microSD™
Waypoints/favorites/locations 200
Routes Limited by memory space available
History up to 180 hours

eTrex 20

Built-in memory 1.7GB
Accepts data cards microSD™ card (not included)
Custom POIs (ability to add additional points of interest)
Waypoints/favorites/locations 2000
Routes 200
Track log 10,000 points, 200 saved tracks

I don't know why the technical specs for the Edge Touring are silent about the size of the internal memory, but it suggests that there probably isn't much of it. That doesn't necessarily matter as you can store routes and tracks on the micro-SD card. It might matter if you buy maps on an SD card and the card slot is occupied.

The limitation on the number of waypoints probably isn't going to be a problem for most people, but it might be important to you.

Custom POIs may also be important to you (eg I have a file of POIs for Italy that includes campsites, hostels, train stations, water etc etc). I'm puzzled about why the technical specs for the Edge Touring don't mention these as I'd have thought the firmware would be pretty similar - maybe the marketing people decided that to keep things simple.

houndlegs

I have an edge touring.
1.I would imagine you could put a weeks long ride in there(I havent tried)but I dont know if you could just pick up next day where you left the day beforevor that might confuse it.
2.My battery only just(and its run out a few times mind)lasts a weekends tour,without a charge.
3.I dont think I would, I'd be looking at other possibilities now. Having said that,I have no idea if theres anything better about.

freezing77

It will be possible to store the route as a single file and maybe as a back up also split that route in daily segments.
Battery life is not one of the strong points of the edge touring, if you cannot charge it every day I would seriously consider an etrex as someone has already intimated.

I have an edge 800 and an etrex 30 , I use the edge on single day rides and the etrex on multi day. I have previously used the older etrex legend series for multi days touring.

lemon63

I used the Edge Touring for our JOGLE last June, pre-loaded it with all 13 days routes and it worked really well.
I created all the routes using RideWithGPS, exported them as GPX_Track Files and loaded them onto a microSD card for the Garmin.
Battery life was fine, charged it up each evening and it lasted for each days riding which was around 7 hours.
I would definitely recommend it, it made our trip so much easier. I also loaded the same routes onto my mate's Garmin 800.

desweller

I can get 35 hours' riding out of my eTrex 30. For me the ability to just whip the batts out and stick another pair of AAs in is a massive plus.

I think it's a really good tool for tourists. Strong, too; mine's been run over by three cars and it still works (not watertight any more though, but hey).