Originally Posted by
Seattle Forrest
For what it's worth, Garmins use Open Street Maps now. Older ones were made to use proprietary maps Garmin sells and it was possible but a pain to load OSM. But the newer units use OSM and update automatically.
I figured someone would correct me about the Garmins, TBH I didn't really do that much research on them. I've been using an etrex20 for a long time (with OSM that I have to torrent and copy to the sd card). I was thinking about getting a new computer so last season I asked a bunch of people I rode brevets with what computer they had, if they would recommend it and why. The people who had the Garmins had a bunch of complaints seemingly regardless of what unit they had (touchscreen and maps were the common ones), so I just ruled out the brand without really looking into them too much. The Bolt is the one that more people had than any other and the only one that people didn't have any gripes about. It doesn't seem to do anything spectacularly but it works. Obviously nobody had the Roam last season so I was just going to get that, but my friend said he had seen it and still liked the Bolt better, and we do mostly the same type of riding. It's a tough thing to buy because everyone is going to use it a little differently and has different preferences.