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Hi all,
I'm planning some long distance bikepacking rides and want to upload GPX files to follow. Starting with bearbones 200 in a few weeks.
Can anyone recommend a good GPS? Been looking at Garmin 510 and 810... But what do most people use?
ALSO, how do you get around charging them mid ride? Dynamo? Solar?
Sorry if these are stupid questions.
Thanks for your help
I think something like an Etrex 20 would be better. You can use AA batteries in it. Take all the spares you need. It's not a "bike GPS" but you can get a bike mount. It displays OS maps and tracks.
tried out my etrex 20 at the weekend and the biggest thing I am impressed with is the battery life. You can easily get a few days of typical riding time out of it. 1.7Gb of internal memory and take a microSD card.
Screen could be bigger though and have yet to learn how to use all the mapping properly.
Thanks Mackem.
Apologies for the (possibly) stupid questions, but can you change batteries whilst keeping all your ride information on there? (If you're mid ride...)
Thanks again
Done a few long rides on the road this year. My solution was my current garmin 800 and a usb powerpack. The 800 will run while charging off the external battery back. Not sure about the 810 or 510. I believe the 500 did not work like this.
Very good piece of kit. Battery packs are around £20 off amazon. Just bought a generic one, about 2600mAh and connected with a usb lead. Might need to be careful in the wet.
Cheers Andy.
They seem a lot more affordable too.
I've not used one before, are they pretty intuitive?
I've got an etrex 20. Great gps for me. Use it for riding walking and the occasional geocaching with the family.
Just take spare batteries, I use eneloop rechargeables and they seem to last a long time. The screen is quite small compared to an iphone but it's readable. Recommend it.
The fundamental question is: do I lose data when I need to change the batteries?
You may need to end a track and then restart once you've changed batteries (to avoid losing the partial ride you're on) but otherwise, no you don't lose anything.
We have an early Garmin Oregon which has served us well over the years. It takes traditional AA batteries so it easy to carry spares, its a tough unit, I have dropped it in streams in the past and it keeps plodding on.
It's not the smallest sleekest thing, but it works and the maps are detailed enough at 1:50000 for most trails.
It's great if youre off riding somewhere you don't know
The fundamental question is: do I lose data when I need to change the batteries?
No.
I'm using an old HTC phone with MMTracker app on it. Means I can use all the Memory Map data I've accumulated over the years - I prefer a scrolling OS map, sometimes with track superimposed.
I connect it to my SP8 dynamo hub through a Kemo M172N which allows me to switch between output to the light or the phone. For the BB200 I'll be experimenting with an inline [url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/15000mAh-Portable-Ultra-High-Capacity-External/dp/B00D5T3QK4/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1399881992&sr=1-1&keywords=anker+astro+e5 ]Anker battery[/url] backup too, so hopefully I can confidently keep the screen on all night if needs be.
The Edge 500 is the only one you can't run from an external battery, and even then you can if you get some odd USB lead. All the others you can charge from an external battery pack.
I've got one of [url= http://store.apple.com/uk/product/HC351ZM/A/techlink-recharge-2500-portable-usb-charger?fnode=48 ]these[/url], which will double battery life I believe, to c30 hours on an 810/1000.
I recently purchased an eTrex 20 after doing a fair bit of research and coming to the conclusion that a bike specific model wasn't what I was after.
The battery life is tremendous and you can swap batteries easily as it takes 2 regular AA size, which was a must for me as I wanted something to use for weekends away hiking / bivvying in the Alps.
I grabbed the OpenMTBmaps for the UK and Italy (where I'm living now) and to be honest they are at least as good as the official Garmin ones, which seem to be missing quite a few trails.
The only downer to it was that I had to buy the mounts separately, so a bike mount and carabiner clip cost another tenner.
I went with the Satmap. Sizewise its a bit bigger than some of the alternatives
BUT Its got a great screen size and definition
maps looks very good on it
Also usefull if you do any other sports outdoors too 🙂