Hello everyone, we own a B&B in Italy and over the years have seen an increase in bicycle tourists. So much so that next year we are launching a complete bicycle touring package for groups and couples. We are located in the heart of one of Italy's best wine areas - the Piedmont hills - and with the help of our cycling guests have compiled a number of varied routes from moderate to very hard and we have marked them out on various maps.
However it has occurred to me that it may be more convenient to have a clip-on GPS available instead of having to stop at each cross-road and consult the map (although maybe some might like the rest stop
), which begs the question which GPS?
I have been checking out the specs for the Garmin Edge 605 and 705, and although these do look great for dedicated cyclists with all the monitoring and recording functions, I wonder if these are too much over the top for a simple rental model? My thought is that if you are into all the bike computer functions then you will probably have your own model already?
So maybe just a simple hand-held model with a big screen which I can program in a variety of routes maybe better? Any opinions? I would favour either a late model Garmin or a TomTom, with the edge on TomTom as I think their European maps are better and I like the 3-D road view.
And then there is the question of mounting to a bike as they are designed for cars, and waterproofing?
I have also be looking on-line at the TomTom Rider, which although designed for motor bikes is waterproof and has a handlebar mount, plus it has touch screen navigation which sounds like a benefit, and a blue-tooth headset for receiving directions and making hands-free mobile phone calls (useful for motor-cyclists, but maybe not so for bicyclists).
Looking forward to reading opinions
Ciao