Not to mention if you don't have a firm grasp of topographical cues your beloved gps may lead you into a rather tight spot if you are in mountainous terrain or canyons.

yes i agree it is not to depend on for life or death but with several sets of batteries it will work good, and it wont show canyons or hills ules you have a topo map on it ,but other than that i dont ride without mine garmin legend great for hiking ,cross country skiing and for driving and geocaching(fun game)
many usful tools for riding, I would not go back

This looks like a pretty useful GPS unit. The kind I would buy, had I $400 to blow. I'd want to see some of it in action before I bought it, but it seems to have it all. Speed, altituted . . . you can plot courses, set up workouts and the like. If you've got to have GPS on your bike, this seems like a good choice.

The big downside is that there are two options for this model: heartrate monitor OR cadence monitor. You can have one, but not both. Right now I have neither, so it doesn't matter, but I always thought that if I were going to pay for a get up like that, I would want both of those features, and possibly more. Seems kind of wierd that they would do that. Probably because they are both wireless I guess.

[edit]whoops, forgot the link:
edge 305

You CAN have both. The EDGE comes packaged with either HRM or Cadence option. You just to buy the additional other feature as an option. IE If you buy the EDGE / HRM package, just buy the Cadence option and you will have both. At least that's how it is advertised.

But you are right ... if you purchase the EDGE package ONLY, you will only have one of the options.

Good Luck,
d.tipton

Thanks for clarifying that up. I read the page a little more closely and saw the section that explcitly stated that.

This is scary now, because that was literally the only excuse I was making to myself for not buying it. Now I'm going to have to come up with some other excuse . . . like rent, or insurance payment.

The ForeRunner 301 does indeed work with MapSource. I have an old Roads & Rec map and Topo map
from the pre-cambrian days of my GPS-III+, late '90s. One of the surprises is that I look at my wrist only for heart rate: I'm content to see the rest when I download the data. Looking at the gauge less often seems safer.

best,,,

I have a Etrex Legend. Nice but do I really need to spend $100 to get maps for roads other than interstates I can't ride on and highways that might be iffy. I looked around on their website map CDs and got sticker shock.

I have a Garmin Gekko ... 50 bucks on sale. I used it to trace my speed and distance while running on the trail - on foot - and it did all it was suppossed to do. No downloads, no recahrgeable batteries, but very reliable. I preprogrammed waypoints for car trips I have done, and it is accurate -with a clear sky - withing 3 feet.I would spot the middle of the ramp, so the arrow would point in the direction of the exit on the interstate, and it has done so flawlessly. It is a little labor intensive to program the bugger, but for 50 bucks I got a heck of a deal with it. The altimeter is slow but it works well and accuratelly as weel. All in all I am plenty satisfied with the little bugger.
Low tech GPS .... who would think that it would be possible?

Have been using a Garman 48 for about 6 years now while sailing...

The unit itself is no longer available from Garman, but at one point when I had internal memory problems, Garman fixed it for free.

Having looked at and used a number of GPSs on various boats, I have come to the conclusion that Garman is #1... both for signal aquisition and for UI.

I recently looked at some of their etrex units and am thinking about picking up one of those... for portability and maping capibility. One thing I have noticed is that color is overrated. Contrast in bright sun and long battery life are more important.

Garmin 76, Brunton MNS
Used the Garmin for the last 21 months, Big screen, easy to use.
No maps, but 10 tracklogs.

Also have used a Brunton MNS with their Topo loaded for a few months.
Normally turn off the elevation contours to simplify the screen. Has 50' elevation contours, 100 tracklogs.
Quite a switch from the Garmin. Still can't quite fit in all my tracklogs of the Denver Area.
(Even though I limit them to 250 pts or less each.)
None of the Garmin or Magellan units I've tested will identify a tracklog when the cursor is placed over it. The Brunton (AKA Lowrance) does! That feature is nice if you have a network of trails.
It also has the best 4WD & trail coverage.
Go for the Ifinder Hunt Plus or Hunt Plus color if you want off road info over street.

I have, and use a Garmin 76CS and I could not be happier with it. After doing some research before I bought a GPSr, I decided to get this model.....even before they went into production. They had all the features I wanted AND MORE. They are fairly pricey compared to some of the others, but you get what you pay for. It does so much more than what I ever dreamed of. I won't go into details, but you would be very happy with one I think. It is slighly larger than some of the other models, but it's still small enough to be usabe on a bike. Has a huge amount of memory for maps. I use mine for everything from road trips, to navigating at the lake(boating), to geocaching. I would not hesitate to get another one if something happened to the one I have now. If you have any specific questions about the 76CS, PM me and I'll try to answer them.

Interesting.

I've always said, an inexpensive unit like the Gekko and some sofware like Streets and Trips to get "Way Points" can satisify all your needs. I don't use the built in map software in the device when I'm on the road anymore and prefer to have the Pointer tell me where to go. I'll only use the map software if I'm really lost but that hasn't been the case for almost a year! For the most part, all you really need are way points every mile or half mile or major turns and you won't get lost.

Dude, get a mount for your handlebars. You will LOVE it! I have my Garmin 60Cs mounted there and my wife has a Magellan Platinum. I'd feel naked without it.

Rich Owings
www.MakeYourOwnMaps.com
www.GPStracklog.com

"We were desert mystics, my friends and I, poring over our maps as others do their holy books." - Edward Abbey

I use the Garmin Etrex Legend bungeed on top of my headlight. I download every single ride I do to Delorme Street Atlas and it has survived many falls both from my hands and off my bike at over 20mph. Every once in a while when I am stopped, the GPS will sometimes continue to count moving time which lowers my average moving speed on the GPS.