Originally Posted by Tourist in MSN

I am curious what you get from a cycling specific one that you do not get from a general recreation one.

A friend of mine asked why I did not get a real GPS (meaning cycling one). I asked why I should, he said it is really nice to be able to look at a map to see where you are. I said I had a cycling specific map, a topo map, an automotive map, I could choose from any of those. (Actually have a couple topo maps.) He stopped talking.

I am aware my GPS does not have blue tooth, does not talk to the ride sharing sites, but I do not care about that. Someone I know was talking about strava, I asked what strava was, he said it was software for cyclists, I said I do cycle touring, why do I not know about it. He said - I said it was for cyclists. Oops, foolish me, I thought that if you do cycle touring and if you do randonneuring, you are a cyclist.

I load (from my computer over a cable) the tracks I need to follow for randonneuring brevets into my GPS. Works great for that.

Since my Open Street maps do routing, I can do routing on my GPS too, although it often gives me some weird routes.

The only thing I do not like about my GPS is that the buttons are small, in cold weather my heavy gloves or mittens sometimes have trouble pushing the correct button. But I do not know if that gets better with a cycling one. Does it?

So, please tell me what I am missing from not having a cycling specific GPS, other than the lack of connectivity that I already know I am missing and have no interest in?