Cycling UK Forum

You know how everyone hates the "What....?" threads Here's mine....

My old Garmin needs replacing as it doesn't talk to my computer any more (I could fix this easily enough but it is lacking in other departments too), so which do I go for?

What I want it to do:
- not run out of battery after only a couple of hours
- to be able to show OS landranger 1:50000 maps ( or similar) with my desired route overlaid
- to be able to show finer scale urban maps with road names for navigating around town
- to be able to log routes and tell me how far I've ridden today
- to mount easily onto the bike
- not to cost an arm and a leg
- to talk to my Win 8 PC easily so that I can up and down load routes to BikeHike, etc

...thus something like the Garmin 800 / Touring seems to have a load of features that I don't need, and costs more than I want to pay. What do you recommend....so one said an etrex 20 (£120 from Cotswold outdoor)...would that be a good choice?
cheers

I think the eTrex 20 is £135 from Cotswold. If you're applying a further CTC discount to that you might not be aware of the wording on their webpage - "Please note that no further offers or discounts apply to this item". I'm assuming that means no CTC discount

Regardless of the price it's a pretty good unit. The screen is small but then again I have an Oregon 650 with a larger screen and I still find that difficult to use while moving. The eTrex 30 has the addition of a barometric altimeter (plus a few other things). I know altitude can be important to a touring cyclist

As for maps, you'd need to add the expense of OS Landrangers onto that price. The Topo maps that come with it, well, if they're the same as the Topo UK map I had in my previous Oregon 300, they are useless for cyclists. They can provide road routing though, which is one of your requirements. Last time I checked the maps were about 4 years out of date though.

Without question, eTrex20.
The newer models I believe are supplied with have decent maps now too.
A set of Eneloops last longer than I can pedal (Garmin claim 25 hours if memory serves).
The bike mount.....Garmin Bike Mount for Colorado and Oregon by Garmin http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0012MI7QE/r ... Rtb1BEYB8T
The screen seriously sucks in daylight, even worse on sunny days so this really helps......3x Garmin eTrex 10 20 30 Handheld GPS Premium Anti-Glare Anti-Fin... http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00CVXV9CM/r ... Rtb0ENGPH1

I think all your requirements are met with a standard iPhone. I use one for many of the requirements you list and your other requirements are covered as well. I've found battery life e.g. recording a track using my iPhone is fine (should last 8hrs+) - it is a 3G connection that kills the battery (which is optional and can be switched off).

Ian

Hi

Garmin Etrex 20 however one with UK topo maps.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garmin-eTrex-Handheld-Ireland-Light/dp/B00IRGHC3C/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1403963239&sr=1-1&keywords=etrex+20+uk

Garmin GB explorer is expensive at £136 ? the last time I looked the cheaper version has the Garmin base map which is practically useless. Alternatively you could get it without the topo map and download open source maps if inclined to do so.

Garmin Montana.
http://www.burrowsgps.co.uk/garmin-mont ... 23522.html
This one is mine, refurbished unit, and much cheaper than brand new.

The unit is big and chunky, will go for 12hrs on Li battery or 17hrs on AA batteries.
Massive screen and easily read even with my tired old eyes, and all the maps you could dream about will go into it.

Read these:
http://www.tramsoft.ch/gps/garmin_montana600_en.html
http://garminmontanagpsr.wikispaces.com/

If you have an android smart phone you may be nearly there. For longer rides you will need an external battery.

Afraid I don't have an i or smart phone.

If I got an etrex 20 - how easy is it to down load new maps (such as land rangers or open source maps) onto it? You might be able to tell that I am very much at the Early Learning stage when it comes to GPS!

Lesson One.
Go to http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php and create a route from home to wherever, then back home again.
Click on Save Route, and window will open up and select "gpx track".
A download will happen, and when you connect your Garmin device up to your computer, you can transfer it to it.

Open up the device on your computer and you'll see a folder called Garmin. In there, there's another folder called "GPX", and put the bikehike created gpx into it.

When you switch your Garmin on, you can go to "Tracks" or "Courses" or something like it depending on your unit, and you'll see what you created. Click it open and you should see a pink line on the map. All you need to do is follow the pink line. You can zoom in or out as you think fit.

lowrider wrote:Hi

Garmin Etrex 20 however one with UK topo maps.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garmin-eTrex-Handheld-Ireland-Light/dp/B00IRGHC3C/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1403963239&sr=1-1&keywords=etrex+20+uk

Garmin GB explorer is expensive at £136 ? the last time I looked the cheaper version has the Garmin base map which is practically useless. Alternatively you could get it without the topo map and download open source maps if inclined to do so.

+1 I recently bought an Etrex 20 from Amazon with the Topo maps. All the road names are there. I can import tracks from Bikeroutetoaster and look at what I actually did in terms of hills and speed on my PC. You can get the bike mounts on Ebay from junglezon for £3.99, dont buy them from anywhere else. Its easy to put other maps on, there are plenty about. Doesnt have the battery problems of a smartphone and we use it for footpath walking too.

Al

lowrider wrote:Garmin GB explorer is expensive at £136 ?

It may be expensive, but you can copy it.

Mick F wrote:Lesson One.
Open up the device on your computer......
.

Sorry Mick, lost me there.
And only on lesson 1.

Mick F wrote:Lesson One....

Sorry - I probably wasn't very clear - I was wondering about how one gets new maps onto it rather than routes.

Your Garmin will come with a lead.
Connect it into your Garmin, and the other end - USB connection - into your computer.
Your computer will recognise the Garmin as a "Volume" or an external hard drive.

If you open it, you will see inside the Garmin and will see a some folders, the one you're interested in is called "Garmin".
Inside that, you'll find another folder called "GPX". Put the download from BikeHikeUK into it.

Maps are just the same.
Open up the device and see the folders.
Garmin maps are IMG files, and you just drop them into the "Garmin" folder.

You can have a microSD card inserted into your device, and that too has a Garmin folder. Personally, I like my maps in it rather than the main unit itself.

Here's a picture of my microSD card plus inside its Garmin folder.

The OS maps come on a µSD (microSD ) card usually. The eTrex 20 has a µSD slot.

The free OpenStreetMap (OSM) maps vary in size depending which ones you go for. I use OpenFietsMap which is specifically for cycling. The map for Western Europe is 2.5Gb so that would not fit in the eTrex internal memory. It would need to go on a µSD card. There are other cycling maps based on OSM which are more granular, so you might be able to get the coverage you need without an external card.

Getting the maps onto the device - there are several different ways depending on the maps. Garmin provide a free program for PCs and Macs called Basecamp. It has its fans and its un-fans. Personally I like it. It lets you manage maps, routes, tracks and waypoints and transfer all of the above between your computer and the GPS. You can manage them in a nice hierarchical fashion. Basecamp also allows you to use the maps you have on the GPS on your computer. This is useful for planning routes. Some maps are available "ready-made" for Garmins. It's just a question of downloading them and copying them to the Garmin (when you connect a Garmin to a PC it appears as an extra drive in your computer, or 2 extra drives if you have a µSD card in it). Probably similar for a Mac although I have no experience of that.

There's a lot of knowledge around on the subject, in fact sometimes there's too much information to process. You've made a good start by coming up with a list of your requirements. The eTrex 20 certainly ticks your requirements, with the provisos I put in my earlier post.