Robert C

I have a couple of questions about the Garmin e-Trex 20.

Yes, I know there half dozen threads on this unit already. Frequent topics are no win, not matter what is done, someone will be upset. Some will be upset because I started another thread; others would be upset if I had “necroposted” an existing thread. Like I said, a no win.

Back to the topic at hand; I am collecting gear for a cross China ride. Being in China my selection is limited and what is available is extremely expensive relative to what people are used to paying in the US.
I am considering getting a Garmin e-Trex 20. I see that the China map disk is an additional $12. Is there anything else I need?

Does it use standard USB cables (I am in China, assume that the box will be emptied of anything resalable that is not specifically listed in the advertisement as “included”)? I see that there is a bicycle mount; that will probably be on my order list. Is there anything else I will need other than a tremendous supply of batteries?

Robert C

Just to follow up. A person in my office called a vendor that I found. They told her that the E-Trex can not provide dirrectons or maps.

Quite frankly, they told her that no GPS can provide directoins or show roads on a map. I suspect thast the trouble I am having is language issues. The vendor has no idea what this device is, they just sell boxes. The person helping me is hesitant to order a GPS at all because the vendors tell her that it cannot be done (the Chinese are unwilling to say they do not know, instead they will say it cannot be done).

It looks like I will be going with paper maps. The reason that is a problem is that the paper maps are sorely out of date and it is actually illegal for a foreigner to be in possession of a map.

We have already ordered one unit and I sent it back. It was simply unusably bad. Even the Chinese here were unable to make it work properly. It was a Windows CE based unit and was not able to be entiely switched to English. However, like I said, even th epeople who spoke Chinese found it to be unusable.

The Assistant in my office is not willing to do this too many times because receiving packages is a huge nussiance. As such, when the vendor says it willl not do it, she is not going to order the unit.

What I wanted was something reasonably inexpensive that would show roads and that I would be able to load some sort of a file into that would tell me as I am approaching a turn. I believe that this can be done; but, the vendors in China all say that it cannot.

znomit

The etrex 20 does both of these things ok. It will follow a track you've created on the computer or on the unit itself. You can tell it to find a route to your destination.
Yes it uses a usb for data transfer, and yes, get the bike mount.

What you might be hearing is "it can't do that because we don't sell it".

I usually get two days touring one two decent AAs.