A Good Solid Gps For Geocaching/biking??

[+MWPinSD]

My first post here...

 

I have read a number of these posts and am getting a feel for GPS Units. I already have a Navman GPS for my iPaq that I use for street travel, but it is only tied to streets and street addresses. So, I'm looking for a good solid unit to start geocaching, plus for use in hiking and biking. I live in the Black Hills of SD so reception in wooded areas is important. I'd like mapping capability to add topo maps.

 

I travel a lot and would like to be able to upload topo maps, cache locations, etc. in advance of my trips to enjoy the search while I'm on the road. Usually three locations would be the most, plus retaining Black Hills information. I don't know how much memory is required for that.

 

I am not looking for the lowest price, but a unit that will serve me well into the future. How important is color? If you were buying a new unit today, what would it be? What about length of battery operation? Some of the units that look like good candidates - Magellan SportTrak Pro and Color, Garmin 60c and 60cs (is this overkill for what I need?), Magellan Meridian Color and Platinum, Garmin eTrex Vista and Vista C. Is there any difference in the topo maps between Garmin and Magellan?

 

Since the street mapping portion is unnecessary and will not be used, which of these units (or others I haven't mentioned) would serve me best over the new few years as I learn to explore our country in a whole new way? I really appreciate your input. This is my Christmas present from my wife - she's a great lady, eh??

Edited November 24, 2004 by MWPinSD

[+Milbank]

Welcome,

I have not used a color one, but have seen the Garmin 60c and they are preaty great looking.

 

If I were to buy a new one today it would be a color one.

 

I also think if I lived in the black hills with all the trees I would go with the Garmin 60c because of the quadrifilar and external antenna connection.

 

 

This is my Christmas present from my wife - she's a great lady, eh??

 

Your a lucky guy.

 

I hope to get over to that side of the state next summer and do some caching.

There sure are a lot of caches in the black hills.

Edited November 24, 2004 by Milbank

[Azaruk]

I've been using a Magellan Meridian Platinum - (grey-scale not colour) - seems rugged enough, has a bike mount available and has excellent reception under foliage.

 

I am impressed enough to ask Sandy Claws for a visit

[+briansnat]

I have a 60CS and love it. I also have an eTrex Vista and it has served me well over the years. Its a great little unit. If I were to choose one for biking however, it would be the Vista, or Vista C hands down. Their smaller size is an advantage. You'll get less vibration and the Vista has a very sturdy mount. I don't trust the 60CS's bike mount because it uses one of those cell phone button type clips. I also just wouldn't want a large GPS like a Map 76S, Meridian or even a 60CS sitting on my handle bars.

[+Couparangus]

I use my Garmin eMap on my mountain bike myself and it works like a champ. Although discontinued, it's a good unit and can be had for a good price. My friend bought one off eBay and its in perfect condition. I wouldn't dismiss the value of maps on a bike GPS by any means. Despite most of my riding being off-road, its good to have a point of reference to civilisation! I carry a plastic baggie in my saddle bag to put on the GPS in case it starts to rain heavily. I have also the GPSmap76S, which is a great unit but doesn't really offer any benefit other than being waterproof. The electronic compass doesn't work because there's still too much ferrous metal in a bike. I fabricated my own handlebar mount from an old cellphone holder and it works perfectly.

 

C-A

[nchmura]

Hey, I map trails while mountain biking..

 

I have a magellan map 330 - it has streets and such (which you dont need) but it does the whole gps job quite well! Great reception on that thing as well. I originally had a Garmin GPS 12, which was good, but it did lose its signal in some of the heavier tree covers. I am currently eyeing some of the sportraks... they look nice.

 

However, since i have been really no help on your question... If you like to share the tracks and waypoints you collect while biking, please visit my biking website:

 

www.Crankfire.com

 

We are mostly focused on just the northeast, but will accept any trail submissions and gps trail data! Its been a tough time so far to find other mountain bikers who have gps units!

[+MWPinSD]

Thanks for the replies. nchumra, I am sending you an e-mail about my son-in-law, who wants to do Mountain bike trail mapping here in the Black Hills (SD). As a clarification to the rest of you, my biking is not rugged mountain trails, but rather more sedate than that. My wife and I do dirt roads, rail beds, etc., but not single track type stuff. I don't know if that clarifies the biking, in that we probably don't need bulletproof mounts.

 

Most of the use of this GPS will be for geocaching, with the biking part of it minor.. use in biking more for fun than for directions. I guess I would still like to hear a bit more about color vs. grey scale, whether the topo maps are better with Magellan or Garmin (if there is any difference), and reception (which Magellan appears to have the advantage).

 

I'd also like to know about memory. How much memory would be required for me to have the Black Hills topo maps loaded.. and then load another 3 relatively small regions onto the GPS in advance of one of my trips? The Meridian accepts SD cards, the Garmin 60C and 60CS have 56 meg available, but the others seem to reside around 20-24 meg. Is that sufficient?

 

I know I'm asking a lot of questions, but inquiring minds want to know!!!

 

Thanks

Mark

[+Milbank]

Garmin 60C and 60CS have 56 meg available

 

I don't know about the topo, but I think you will have more then enough memory for what you want to do with 56 meg.

 

My Legend only had 8 meg of memory and I can load all the Metroguide maps for the whole state of South Dakota into it.

 

I would not think the topo maps would be all the different for size.

 

56 meg of map memory sure sound like a lot.

[+Sputnik 57]

I'm not at home, so can't check right now, but I bet you can get all of South Dakota into a C60. I did a check for someone in Wisconcin, and got Topo's from the Illinois border up to Saskatoon.

 

I'll check when I get home and edit this post (unless someone beats me to it).

 

Edit: Topo for all of South Dakota in Mapsource is right at 31 MB, so you couldn't get the whole state on a Legend or Vista, but it would fit on a 60C.

 

The Black Hills, including all of Bad Lands National Park, Rapid City, through Deadwood and Lead, on up to and including Devil's Tower, WY is just over 4 MB.

 

Remember that Garmin Topo maps are 1:100K. They only offer 1:24K for national parks, and I don't have those maps. Still, these are pretty detailed for caching.

Edited November 24, 2004 by Sputnik 57

[+Team Coleman]

I don't know much about Magellen, but I have a Vista (greyscale) with Mapsource Topo and it works well for hiking, hunting, and geocaching. It's very sturdy, I've got the garmin neoprene case for it as I've dropped it MANY times and it still works like a champ. My only criticism is that it's not color and at dusk, if I'm in my truck (I have a windshield mount), it's hard to see/read and can become distracting. For that reason, I would go with the color if I had it to do over again. As for cover, I've never had any problems, but I've heard the vista doesn't perform as well as some of the other units from Magellen under heavy cover, but again, I've never had a megellen unit to compare it to. As for map size, the Vista has 24MB for maps and currently I have 3/4 of Arizona loaded into it and almost all of Massachusetts (my wife and I are going caching there in a couple of weeks when we visit her Gandmother for Christmas).

 

Overall, I've been very happy with the performance of my Vista, but every time I see a 60cs or a 76cs I start to drool.

[+Chuy!]

... I don't trust the 60CS's bike mount because it uses one of those cell phone button type clips.  I also just wouldn't want a large GPS like a Map 76S, Meridian or even a 60CS sitting on my handle bars.

I have the 60CS and the Vista and use both on my Mtn bike. The 60CS does not clip on via the button clip alone. The mounts all come with a full-size plastic clip that clips around the button clip and at the bottom of the unit; it is very sturdy.

Surprisingly, or not, both the Vista and 60CS can use the same handlebar mount. Both units' locking mechanisms are identical, enabling you to interchange any of the mounts so long as each has its optional bracket mount. It was a pleasant surprise to discover this before I bought mounts for each unit. You see, I had a windshield and bean bag mounts for the 60CS ( each came with a plastic locking clip). Then I bought a bike handlebar mount for the Vista which came with a new back cover (containing the locking mechanism.) Realizing the locking mechanisms were identical, I subsequently discovered they could interchange with all the mounts.

 

Yes, the 60CS is a bit larger and heavier, but when you are urban caching on your bike, the 60CS always gets my calling for its autorouting and more accurate readings.

Now, if the Vista C has a similar fast processor as the 60CS, I would buy that over the 60CS anyday. I like the Vista's more compact size and weight; I also prefer the joystick. Now if they can increase the waypoint capacity of the Vista C's to 1k from 500 ...

[speedy FFW]

I would recommend the Garmin 60cs for several reasons:

 

- big difference between B&W and color - you can differentiate much better between green (wood), blue (river), black (small streets) and your track

- great readability during day and night (at night I use a LED helmet light to read instead of the backlight function of the GPS)

- the battery life on this unit is a significant improvement - my typical experience on the bicycle: 20 hours rechargeables, 25 hours alkaline, 40 hours lithium

- in the mountains you probably will like the barometric pressure, altitude and compass feature

- it is the allround tool for roadbike, mountainbike, hiking, geocaching and car use (after you used autorouting on the bike and car you don't want to miss it again - e.g. just program the start of your ride and it will autoroute you there)

- during the SixGap ride in the Georgia mountains I only lost signal twice going downhill with speeds > 30 mph from switchback to switchback. Never lost signal uphill or while riding on flat roads

 

Take a look on the bicycle use, mounts and the autorouting feature with screenprints on my webpage Scout - The GPS Navigation tool

Edited November 25, 2004 by speedy FFW

[+Milbank]

Take a look on the bicycle use, mounts and the autorouting feature with screenprints on my webpage:

 

Whats the address to your webpage?