I think you're going about this the wrong way.

I have the Garmin Legend CX after losing my original Legend and to be honest, I hardly use the built in maps and don't download them into the unit. You don't need color or even the map software because these are really extras that just increase the price of the unit.

First, if you have to start creating a new route while on the road, you could be in a lot of trouble. The software moves painfully slow (due to the microprocessor) and developing new routes while the screen refreshes takes time and you really need a large computer screen to develop efficient routes while avoiding highways and dangerous interchanges. It's ALWAYS better to develop routes at home on your computer screen when you have time to analyze the road and upload them to your GPS. Furthermore, the little buttons and small screen also add to the difficulty in making a route on the fly. To be honest, I hate having to develop a route while I'm on the road on will only do this if necessary.

As a result, I develop all my routes at home and my trips with the GPS go smoothly. I DON'T need to look at the "map screen" and simply follow the screen with the "ARROW" and it points to all the turns and beeps when I have to make one! I repeat, I DON'T look at the "map screen" on a road trip! If I have to look at the map, it's because I made a huge mistake in a route and choose one that's too fast to cycle.

Using the above procedure, I can use ANY GPS to get me from point A to B. I can use a cheapest Garmin GPS without any built in maps or topo software and it would work out just fine so long as the trip's routes were planned ahead of time with PC software or by hand! That's correct, you don't even need to buy the Garmin software and can just buy a used copy of Microsoft Streets and Trips and type in the coordinates by hand to develop your routes. I did this for a whole year and it worked out fine. The only reason I purchased the Garmin software was to avoid typing and save time. Quite frankly, I like Streets and Trips better and wish they would have an option to upload routes into my GPS.

You can have a fully functional used Garmin GPS on your bicycle with a used copy of Streets and Trips for about $150.00 dollars and it would be just as good as mine that cost about $500.00 in total. I think cost what's keeping people from enjoying this incredible technology. It does not have to be expensive.

I think it's much more important to develop ENJOYABLE routes before going out on the road and focus less on all the features. Spend time creating routes that allow you to explore places you've never been to before. Trust me, you'll enjoy the trip a lot more than standing on the side of the road trying to create way-points. Should I lose this GPS, my next one will probably be a regular Garmin Legend without any color, megabytes of ram or built in detailed maps.

Enjoy the GPS world and start exploring.