GPS

steelo
steelo Posts: 542
edited June 2007 in MTB general
Any suggestions as to what sort of GPS unit is good for recording bike routes through forest and suchlike. Also, are there any other makes other than Garmin?

I'll hopefully have the use of a Garmin eTrex base model over the weekend, but wondering if a newer unit/model is better or more up to the task. I'm a GPS newbie so any help or guidance would be good.

Cheers
Specialized Rockhopper '07
Trek Fuel EX8 '09

Comments

  • S_J_P
    S_J_P Posts: 908
    The Garmin eTrex range is good, reliable, robust, well supported, and cheap. I use an eTrex Vista for route recording, and download the route data (track, speed, elevation) to Memory Map after the ride.

    Magellan units are also very good, marginally better than Garmin in the reception stakes by all accounts.

    There's also the ultra cheap units (from "Go!" or something like that IIRC), but their durability may be an issue.

    Any of the units will suffer in dense forest though, you need a relatively clear view of an appreciable portion of the sky for an accurate fix.

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  • candrewgreen
    candrewgreen Posts: 88
    Steelo,

    The "Go" that S J P refers to is the Lowrance iFinder Go (or Go2) see Sila Ltd (Silva are the UK importer) once you get over the tacky looking vile red colour it's not a bad little GPS, it's sufficiently modern that it has a 16 channel receiver. The other thing in it's favour is that it has a UK base map which you don't get in the comparably priced Garmin units.
    I've seen it on sale in an outdoor shop for ~œ100.00 (Garmin with base map ~œ190.00) I bought mine from Maplins back in March when they were flogging them off for œ50.00, an absolute steal! (Might be worth seeing if any branches still have an odd one) As usual with stuff like this the importers take the p**s with accessory pricing, œ40.00! for a hanblebar mount, they're having a laugh! I simply have a bit of dense sponge under it on the handlebar stem and a cable tie around both.
    Regards
    Andrew
    Don't forget that although it has a base map it's not a TomTom type device i.e. It won't plan you a road route, so if you tell it to go from Oxford to Reading it will plan a straight line between points. (it's up to you to put in the intermediate points)
    Edit: scroll down the linked page to the red handheld!

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