Gamin - Montana 610
 

I'm seriously considering getting a Garmin - Montana 610 for touring. I good GPS unit is something I want with me out on the road, and I'm not at all happy with any of the bike specific units. This thing is a beast, yes it's big, yes it's heavy, but should that stop me from having one on my bike?

Anyone here using one of these or something similar?

https://static.garmincdn.com/en/prod...00/g/cf-lg.jpg

Garmin - Montana 610
https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/into...rod523640.html

If you don't mind carrying it I don't see any reason not to use one. I use the GPSMap 64 models for work and they're fine. I'd just load a .gpx file of the route(s) I plan on taking if I was to use one on a bicycle trip.

I used a Garmin CSX60 before smartphones were introduced. If you load City Navigator North America or City Navigator Europe on it, there is a wealth of information. Contrary to the title "city" it covers all roads in the country.

I just carried it in my jersey pocket. It is really an aid when navigating through large cities. Sometimes on long tours I will carry it because in some of the places we tour there may be several days without or with sketchy cell service. However, a smartphone is actually faster to use. We don't tend to use turn-by-turn info regardless of what device we are using.
http://i783.photobucket.com/albums/y...7666ba8b74.jpg

I also used the CSX for work.The Montana should be a good device.

Are Bicycle specific routes (on-road/off-road) included in any of the maps?

Judging by the garmin site - not from the manufacturer, though there are 3rd party basemaps available. No idea on how good the 3rd party stuff is.

I have a Garmin 800 and use Free worldwide Garmin maps from OpenStreetMap for my maps. They are routable and to me seem like good maps. I re-download maps about once every six months or about one month before I travel to a country. I have never had Garmin maps outside of the basic map for my country of China where I got the unit so can't compare.

Debra

After a bit of searching I came up with several sites where about any type of map can be created and downloaded, or purchased. So it's nice to know that there are plenty of options.

Thanks Debra. I'll add that one to my list.

I have used maps from these other sources too, in addition to the "Free worldwide ..." link already posted:

GPSFileDepot - maps4gps's Garmin Compatible Maps

Europe - OpenFietsMap

I am not sure, but I might have also used this one:

https://www.openmapchest.org/

I usually use a vintage GPS with black and white screen and very long battery life with screen on full time, but if I need more memory I use a Garmin 62S with an extra memory card installed, but I have to have the screen set to time out very fast to avoid burning up the batteries in the 62S.

Great info there, thanks!