GPS Advice

[gairym]

Howdy all,

I'm a Luddite and have always turned my nose up at technologies invasion of the gentlemanly pursuit of off-road bicycling but.....now as I am now planning a 10 days TransAlp bikepacking trip it is becoming increasingly obvious that my life would be made A LOT easier (and a fair bit safer!) if I were to take along some sort of GPS device.

So.....can anyone suggest the cheapest possible usable (old, ugly - I don't care) GPS set-up I could use for my trip.

I'll look for 2nd hand and really am wanting to find the cheapest fully functioning GPS system money can buy.

Has anyone got one their selling....?

Let me know.

Cheers, Gairy.

[sub-xero]

I'd clearly recommend the Garmin eTrex Legend HCx. It's as cheap as a usable GPS device gets (about 180 EUR). You can install free maps from OpenStreetMap.org. Don't buy anything cheaper cause you wouldn't have much fun with it. If 180 EUR is too much, stick to the paper maps. The alps are very well documented and a GPS isn't obligatory. It just makes the trip more enjoyable and easy.

[gairym]

andi,

thanks again for your advice - funnily enough that was the exact model i'd been looking at online (have found one new online for £90 - not sure what that is in $/€ which isn't bad).

i'll post in the other thread now re: transalp trip stuff.

cheers, gairy.

[blesnar]

I got really used to using papago so even there are other options that work a lot better and easier with traveling with bikes, I never looked back.  Though it really is not for someone who has not been familiar with its interface as it could start to act up which leaves you at the losing end when you get lost.  Though, when you get comfortable with it, it will make sure for a very easy navigation companion.

[gairym]

cool, they look interesting but.....i'm not sure i want to experiment with something potentially unreliable when i'm in the middle of the alps.

gairy.

[revelo]

I'm not sure what you are going to be using the GPS for. Assuming you stick to roads, you can't really get lost like people do in the middle of dense forests or foggy mountains, where they go round in circles. I use a Garmin Foretrex 301 (65 grams with lithium batteries and no wriststrap) to locate my position on maps with a lat-long or UTM grid.

Smartphones can be used as a GPS, provided you only use them occasionally so they don't run out of power. I use a Nokia N8, which has maps for the entire world downloaded to its memory so it can be used offline (no cellphone coverage). the same thing is available for android phone and the iphone. See http://adventurealan.com/iphone4gps.htm

[gairym]

I'm not sure what you are going to be using the GPS for. Assuming you stick to roads, you can't really get lost like people do in the middle of dense forests or foggy mountains, where they go round in circles.

unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how  you look at it) i'm heading into the wildest parts of the alps (i.e. middle of dense forest or foggy mountains) and so i can't rely on my usual spider-sense of direction and some luck!

in the end i opted to buy a Garmin eTrex Legend HCx which should do the trick.

thanks for the advice all.

gairy.