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I notice slot of riders using garmin devices when I'm our, I no absolutely nothing about them, quick Google throws up alot of models. Can some of enlighten me about the benefits of them?
Do they show previous routes people ride? The ability to go to a riding location that is new to me and find out the off peiste stuff previously riden from a map on one of these devices would appeal to me if that's a thing.
Thanks
The Edge series are specifically aimed at cycling, usually road and are primarily data recording devices, so distance, speed, elevation gain. Then depending on what external accessories you have: power, heart rate, etc. Some do have mapping to various degrees.
Devices like the Etrex and Oregon are more general GPS units that can be used for cycling.
It's up to you to load previous routes, there are lots of sites with these available for download as a GPX file. If your device has a map then loading the route will overlay it on the map. As far as I'm aware you can't just dump all rides in an area on to a device then pick and choose.
The benefits? Whatever you want them to be.
my experience is that if you are a bit short of riding time they can be good as you can pre-prepare your route and just get out and round without getting lost. For that they are supremely helpful
Against that I find it rare that any of the tasty little tracks that I know ever appear on maps or they are there but you don't know that they are great, they are just another bit of route. A GPS can also tie you down to just the main loops. Because the interface tends not to be so slick they aren't so good for exploring new areas. Yes you can make it work but they are really at their best for following a preloaded route
Overall i find them a positive help and the number of online tools available to help you plan your route in advance seems to be increasing all the time