Long Distance Competition/Ultracycling, Randonneuring and Endurance Cycling - GPS for long distance

I have a chance to pick up a free hand held GPS from a catalog. Catalog lists
Garmin eTrex Legend,
Lawrence ifinder H2O,
Magellan Triton 300/400 or 500 .

I have no experience with GPS at all and I am not sure which one will be better for long distance.

Lawrence and Magellan have an additional SD card for more storage. Garmin is a basic one with only 8MB of storage. Magellan 500 has a digital compass and a barometer, but all reviews say that are not reliable. They all run on AA batteries. Any info will be appreciated.

All of those models are rather dated - but it sounds like the price is right. Normally I'd be inclined to go with the Garmin models of outdoor use, but the 8MB memory of the Legend is a pretty severe limitation if you ever want to load more detailed maps (the incl. basemap is about the level of detail of a state highway map - to get more detail you'd need to load maps for a specific area and 8MB would only cover about one medium size metro area).

Although I don't have one, I've heard pretty good reports about the Lowrance iFinder models and would be inclined to go with that one. Again, the included basemap is pretty coarse and it'd be good to get the more detailed maps to load into the memory. So check out the availability and prices of these for this unit and the Magellans.

What applications do you have in mind for the GPS?

Thanks for the info, prathmann.
I have no experience with mapping software, although I do have Microsoft Street and Trips software on my PC. I have not done the research as far as where to get the software and how much and if it is compatible.
Looks like Lawrence is more for fishing than cycling. How detailed maps do I need for long distance cycling?

I find the detailed maps to be very useful when bike touring in locating businesses (grocery stores, bike shops, motels, libraries, etc.) that are given as "Points of Interest" on the map database. The more detailed maps will also include all the small rural roads that are sometimes the best for cycling rather than just the major ones which are included on the basemap. The map data is pretty generic in terms of applicability - so the Lowrance will have plenty of useful information for cycling in addition to other outdoor activities.

Another thing that I find useful about a GPS while touring is that it keeps a tracklog showing exactly where I went. There's software that can then automatically combine that data with the timestamps on digital camera photos to indicate just where each picture was taken.

I was looking into GPS units like that (particularly the Garmin series) for trekking, and wasn't very impressed. And that was with more current / advanced units.

I know that "free" is very enticing, but I think you'd be better off investing a little money into a more useful device. I picked up a Garmin Nuvi 205 on sale, and it works fairly well. Color, touch-screen, pretty good reception, turn-by-turn directions, if you own a car it's vastly better than the hand-held units for driving.

You can't program routes into the 200 series and battery life is limited, so my primary bike-related use is just if I get massively lost and need to find my way to a street or a nearby resource (e.g. stores). You can step up to a Nuvi 500 or 700 series and get the ability to pre-program routes.

I was looking into GPS units like that (particularly the Garmin series) for trekking, and wasn't very impressed. And that was with more current / advanced units.

I know that "free" is very enticing, but I think you'd be better off investing a little money into a more useful device. I picked up a Garmin Nuvi 205 on sale, and it works fairly well. Color, touch-screen, pretty good reception, turn-by-turn directions, if you own a car it's vastly better than the hand-held units for driving.

You can't program routes into the 200 series and battery life is limited, so my primary bike-related use is just if I get massively lost and need to find my way to a street or a nearby resource (e.g. stores). You can step up to a Nuvi 500 or 700 series and get the ability to pre-program routes.

I agree that all of those free models seem pretty-much useless. I don't think the Nuvi is very suitable for long-distance cycling, though.

I know about a hundred randonneurs who use GPS for long distance riding. Of these, all but one use a Garmin handheld mapping GPS (the one who isn't is using a Delorme PN-40, I think).

Since the battery life on a Nuvi 255 is only 4 hours, it isn't really suitable for use as a long-distance cycling navigation aid, unless you can figure out some sort of lash-up power supply.