Best budget (2nd hand) GPS for navigating across Europe

daniel_b

Afternoon all,

a question on my brothers behalf.

He lives in Northern Italy, and is planning some cycle touring with his gf next year.

He currently has my old Edge 205GPS

(yes that one!)

But it must be in the region of 14 years old now, and he is wondering if there is anything else out there for sub £100, second hand I expect most likely, that would fulfill a similar or improved role.

They are thinking of 10 day tours, so one with adequate memory (Or a slot for an SD card) - decent battery life would be good, but I suspect they will have to have power packs with them of some kind - although one that can run whilst having a powerpack connected (If such a device exists?) could be useful.

He said he is not worried about maps as such, the current breadcrumb trail he uses is passable, but happy to look at all options.

I've only ever owned the one above, a 500, and my current 1000, and know very little about the other models capabilities\reliability.

Are there other brands that could be considered as good solid reliable alternatives, Wahoo being the obvious one (Though I have zero experience of them) and I think I have seen a few on kickstarter maybe, the names escape me now, and perhaps they never came to fruition.

daniel_b

A quick scan of completed listings on ebay shows the 800, 810 and 820 all seem to sell for around the same price!

wongataa

Garmin eTrex. Takes AA batteries which are easy to obtain, long battery life. It isn't a cycling unit but you can get cycle mounts.

Poppa Wheelie

I have a Wahoo Elemnt and can highly recommend it and the battery life is very good.

From my past experience with a Garmin 800, the maps are either expensive to buy or are time-consuming to create from an opensource, whereas the Wahoo comes with a worldwide map which you can update for free. Whilst he's said he's happy to use breadcrumb trails having a map takes the guesswork out of the trip.

A quick look on eBay shows most units sell for more than £100 but there have been some that have sold for just under £100. In any case, he could take a punt and buy one, use it for his trip and sell it again for there or thereabouts what he paid for it.

Darius_Jedburgh

I second the eTrex. OK, its not a cycling computer but it is designed primarily for navigation which it does very well. As said 2 x AA batteries should easily last two days, or even more depending on how long each day is. There is an excellent bike mount that will fit nicely on the stem.

Probably better than using a bike computer because it just concentates on navigation.

w00dster

I use the etrex for mountain bike touring. Good bit of kit, but likely to need replacement AA batteries during the trip, which is no big deal as easily available.
I’ve not seen the second hand prices, but mine wasn’t cheap when new. But it’s a much more reliable piece of kit than the edge range (had the 500, 810 and 520).
I use my Bolt for the road, it’s fine and easy to use. Good battery life but depending on time in the saddle and sleeping arrangements, charging could be an issue. Using the map I would only get one long ride out of my Bolt before it needed charging again.(about 8 hours of following the map, would still have charge for a normal non mapped ride, but wouldn’t last another full day)
The Lezyne Enhanced GPS also worked well for me, it’s cheap, mine was new just over £100. Works well from the phone and easy to plot routes. Works alongside a mobile phone, which I imagine on a tour will always be with the GPS anyway. Very good battery life, probably best of all the GPS devices I’ve used. I only got rid of it as the mount wasn’t great for mountain biking.

Possibly worth having a look at DC Rainmakers site.

wongataa

Poppa Wheelie wrote:

I have a Wahoo Elemnt and can highly recommend it and the battery life is very good.

From my past experience with a Garmin 800, the maps are either expensive to buy or are time-consuming to create from an opensource, whereas the Wahoo comes with a worldwide map which you can update for free.

It is simple to just download maps completely ready to go of anywhere you like for Garmin units.

daniel_b

Thanks for all the replies - will check out the Etrex, and the Lezyne.

wongataa wrote:

Poppa Wheelie wrote:

I have a Wahoo Elemnt and can highly recommend it and the battery life is very good.

From my past experience with a Garmin 800, the maps are either expensive to buy or are time-consuming to create from an opensource, whereas the Wahoo comes with a worldwide map which you can update for free.

It is simple to just download maps completely ready to go of anywhere you like for Garmin units.

Is that the free open source maps you can put on?

Poppa Wheelie

wongataa wrote:

It is simple to just download maps completely ready to go of anywhere you like for Garmin units.

That's interesting. When I had my 800 I had to either buy a map from Garmin which was expensive or got to an open source website, select the map tiles I needed, then download the tiles and then finally build them into a 'custom' open source map before transferring them to the Garmin.

Do you have a link to download complete maps for Garmin units, please?

wongataa

Daniel B wrote:

Thanks for all the replies - will check out the Etrex, and the Lezyne.

wongataa wrote:

Poppa Wheelie wrote:

I have a Wahoo Elemnt and can highly recommend it and the battery life is very good.

From my past experience with a Garmin 800, the maps are either expensive to buy or are time-consuming to create from an opensource, whereas the Wahoo comes with a worldwide map which you can update for free.

It is simple to just download maps completely ready to go of anywhere you like for Garmin units.

Is that the free open source maps you can put on?

Yes.

wongataa

Poppa Wheelie wrote:

wongataa wrote:

It is simple to just download maps completely ready to go of anywhere you like for Garmin units.

That's interesting. When I had my 800 I had to either buy a map from Garmin which was expensive or got to an open source website, select the map tiles I needed, then download the tiles and then finally build them into a 'custom' open source map before transferring them to the Garmin.

Do you have a link to download complete maps for Garmin units, please?

http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2019/08/how-to-install-free-maps-on-your-garmin-edge.html

junglist_matty

Had an edge 800 for the last 5 or 6 years, it's still working great, and battery still lasts at least 12hours.

Can pick them up on ebay for around £50-£75, would highly recommend.