GPS Computer with Maps - for 7 day touring

durhamwasp

Im looking at riding around 1200km in 7 days this year, pretty much entirely on roads Ive never been on.

So, I'm looking for a GPS Computer with maps, where I can load my planned route and follow it. What do you recommend?

Im not bothered about brand, and other fancy features, really just want the usual speed, distance, time, av speed, plus a map to follow.

Also, would you recommendation allow me to upload the complete 1200km route and follow it each day (have turned off my computer each night, and restarted it at a different point compared to the start point) or would I need to load 7 different legs of the ride?

thanks

ugo.santalucia

Following with interest, as it's pretty much what I want too.

Battery life is an issue for all... the best units will give you 22 h, most will give you less. The Garmin Etrex, which is more for hiking, but used b the Audax folks, uses AA batteries, so you can carry a lot of power. For the others you need a power bank, which requires cables, a fitting etc.
If you can recharge every night, it is not a problem, obviously.

marcusjb

I use my edge 800 touring. Typically I do not follow a route when touring and prefer to have paper maps still, so we can reroute as and when we see something interesting or find a road/area not to our tastes.

That aside, when I am fast touring, I do follow a route and the Edge never lets me down. Charging it via a combination of battery pack (being topped up by dynamo hub) and hotel stays every few nights, I am good to go forever. I did a 2500km fast tour last year and this all worked out perfectly.

Whatever you do, do not try and run a 1200km route as a whole - the garmin will run it most likely, but it will take a lot of processing and should you need to recalculate, it will take forever. I tend to run routes of no more than around 200km. It's not a big deal when you come up to the end of one of your routes to stop and load up the next 200km and off you go.

durhamwasp

Cheers, the Edge 800 was one of the ones im considering. Also thinking about one of the new Lyzene ones as maybes turn by turn instructions and a crumb trail could be enough.

Good advice about creating several smaller routes to follow