Is
this your Garmin Etrax? looks like it ticks two major boxes, price and performance (
£128 at amazon)
Nope. As I wrote - mine doesn't have maps! I have the very bottom of the Etrex range. It is an old model, now superseded by the Etrex H which is currently available new for
£65.99 at Amazon (or £69
used - huh?).
That speaks volumes for the hi-tech option!
Maps are great and they don't run out of batteries. I did my Leicester-Cambridge ride using nothing more than a few print-out maps and some research before-hand.
Maps are great - at home, or for backup on rides or walks. Unfolding them every 5 minutes on a wet windy day is no fun at all.
What speaks volumes for the high-tech option is that I haven't got lost in over 10,000 km of riding by GPS, or had the GPS break down. Many of my fellow audax riders not using GPS seem to take wrong turns on a regular basis.
I don't complain when direction arrows have been sabotaged or marshals are missing on sportive rides because I know exactly where I'm going!
I have a Geko 201 and the handlebar mount. If you set the waypoints up before hand then it is a useful tool for guiding you around unfamiliar country. Would be better if it lit up and beeped when you got near a waypoint though.
I nearly went for the Geko but the better battery life of the Etrex swung it for me.
I agree about the lack of beeping - my Etrex doesn't beep either. The only times I've missed turns is when I forgot to look at the GPS because I was talking to another rider. It flashes a message on the screen about a turn coming up, but that's no use if I'm not looking at the screen and redundant if I am!
A guide to using them which is quite good can be found
here
That seems to be a really popular article. It's what persuaded me to buy a GPS in the first place!
