Garmin Dakota 200
 

I rode with a guy for a short while today who suggested to get a Garmin Dakota 200. Anyone have one? Likes? Dislikes?

I assume you mean the Dakota 20?

The Dakota is a pretty neat little unit. Touch screen, although you may find the screen a little small for your liking. The Oregon is the next size up, and then the Montana.

I use the Montana which is a huge great beast of a unit. Perhaps a little too big for cycling - I've got it mounted on my handlebars but if you want a sleek aero unit don't even think about it. Put some decent (free) maps in it, and you should get on with it pretty well. My friend has the Dakota 10 and likes it, although I think he'd have gone for the Oregon if he had a little more in the $$$ department.

Cont: Thanks. Can you tell me more about your Garmin?

And what Dakota do you have?

If you want to use the GPS while bicycling, you should also look into the Garmin Edge 500 and Edge 800.

I don't have a Dakota, I have a Montana. It's comparable in functionality (albeit with more memory, more geocaching capacity etc) and is very significantly bigger than the Dakota.

A lot will depend on what you're wanting the GPS to do. If you want something bike-specific you might be better off looking at the Edge series. If you want something for walking, hiking, geocaching etc then if you've got the budget you might find a physically larger unit easier to work with. That would probably mean an Oregon (go for an x50 series rather than an x00) or the Montana.

The Montana is a big brute of a unit and there's simply no way to attach it to a bike if you're worried about aerodynamics. That said, those of us in this forum are unlikely to be the most aerodynamic riders so that may not concern you (it doesn't concern me!)

My friend has the Dakota 10 which works much like the 20 except it doesn't have the memory card or electronic compass. There may be a couple of other differences as well.

If you like geocaching then I believe the Oregon has a Wherigo player built in whereas the Montana does not and I'm pretty sure the Dakota doesn't either.

I had a Garmin Oregon. Piece of ****. It would power down almost at random, like if I asked for an elevation plot while I was following a previous track or route, or if I tried to save a track with a certain name, instead of doing what I'd want, it would just turn off. Eventually I returned it for another Oregon - the lady at REI suggested going from a 400 to a 550t, said they might have fixed some of the bugs. Garmin markets them as waterproof; mine died of water damage when I got caught hiking in a storm with a lot of rain.

Don't waste your money on a $400 paperweight.

I'm surprised the waterproofing should fail with something as simple as rain. My 60CSx was described as being waterproof to IPx7 or some such - I took it hiking in torrential downpours without issue, when it got muddy being mounted on the handlebars of my MTB I washed it off under the tap. It still works just fine.

The Montana has never really gotten soaked but I've been out in the rain with it and it hasn't skipped a beat.