Many Thanks for all your wise words and good advise, it's a great help.
I've noticed that in the UK, the stores sell Garmin 500, 800 and 1000, the reviews say these tend to be unreliable when you go off the beaten track, is that why the Etrex and Dakota are more popular, I take it you can get a bike mount for the handheld hiking devises ?
I will definitely get the maps from AVA as back up.

I'm aiming for 25 days and leaving around the time of the grand depart, or maybe a little later in June to miss the snow.
I guess your thoughts are that the GPS will be a lot quicker, instead of getting the maps out, good point.
Any suggestions ?

Thanks

Hi, hope you can help me, I intend to ride the 2017 tour divide, I've done plenty of on and off road touring in Europe, but always used paper maps cut up and laminated and a compass ( sorry i'm old ), reading blog's about the divide tells me I need to upgrade to a GPS Garmin, I'm not great with Tec so would need the basic thing, no need for heart rate, cadence, etc, just need to know where I am and where I'm going!
Can anyone recommend a unit that would suit my needs?   
Thanks for your help!