Thinking of buying a GPS ??

[Kestevan]

Do you know the differences between the Touring & the 800 ?
I am able to build a .gpx file for our holiday route, perhaps 300 miles of many points: I just wondered if both of these can take that and "perform" as the navigation device well.
Indeed, I may plan the things as daily routes, so could be 4 or 5 of them.
I can see the Touring can come with "Garmin Cycle Map of Europe and Points of Interest" - is that better/same/worse than just downloading the OSM mapping ?
Maybe I ask too many questions!!!
thx

AFAIK the Touring is the same hardware as the 800 however it has different firmware. Main differences are the touring has no ANT+ support, so heart rate monitors, cadence sensors and power meters cant be used. It also lacks the "training" features of the 800, you don't get the ability to race against a previously recorded segment for instance.

However the Touring does have a route planner, and will navigate to a location using either on-road or off-road cycle tracks. It also has a trip creator.- specify the distance you want to ride, and it will suggest (and map) 3 circular routes of approx the entered distance, starting either at current location, or a specific start point.

You can also download pre-defined .gpx tracks to follow and it will map and way point then like the 800.

The maps that come with the unit appear very detailed, the zoom function allows a very clear birds-eye-view of the route, and also a 3D style layout like most driving satnavs. - cant answer the question on OSM mapping as not used it.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Anyone considered using a mobile phone with battery extender (in handlebar bag!) as a "touring mapping" option ?
I'm planning a London-2-Paris ride in summer, and whilst the thought of a fancy 800/810 with GPX route pre-loaded sounds the bees knees, I am baulking at the cost when I *think* a phone+extender could do the job !
Already own a Garmin 200 (I guess I could recoup maybe 70-80 cost by selling that if I did want to lash out!).
Mind you, the 800 is a fair bit cheaper than the 810 - don't think I would miss the extra couple of hours battery and phone linked bits....down to 225 on Amazon....

I'm *not* a major regular cyclist who would get massive use out of the 810 - another reason to not be so daft as to invest.

Maybe I should just print some paper maps ;-)
cheers!

Etrex?

 

[maltloaf]

sorry to bump an old thread but I just got hold of an Etrex 30 cheaply and was wondering how closely it can function to a real GPS cycle computer. I've fancied something with mapping for a while but can't quite afford an 810. Spotted this in a second hand shop window and decided to have a play.

I've been playing with it all evening and got my HRM and cadence sensors paired up plus got a good data point screen set up with almost all the fields I use on my edge 510.

Things I am wondering are...

Is there a way of starting and stopping the time count manually ? It seems to just march on until you reset it.
Can the journey log be uploaded to Garmin Connect somehow ? Garmin Express/gpx/fit ?
I see that there's a bike profile available in the profiles screen but what does it do ? it doesn't seem to change anything that I can find.
Any other tips for using the Garmin handheld units as bike units ?

Many thanks,

Kev.