goran

I plan to buy Garmin eTrex Legend HCx device for touring purposes. I've never used anything like that, so I wonder is this one good enough. I think Tom Allen from Janapar recommended it and guy went the world with bike so...

Do you have experiences with similar stuff? How hard is to navigate with it, or to say, is it worth of its price?

https://www.amazon.com/Garmin-eTrex-L...rex+legend+hcx

cbike

I use the Garmin Oregon 450. It's nice if you have plotted your route as a track beforehand. The routing on the GPS sucks. Tried it once and stopped quite quickly since it wanted me to go on interstate and level b roads (more details in the blog). I doubt the routing is any better for road cycling on other gps devices, especially when you enjoy quieter roads like me. For ad hoc trip planning a good paper map that shows traffic densities on roads is the best. If you spend hours planning and plotting a track then the GPS is quite useful. I've been doing that for my tours lately using various resources to evaluate road conditions. Google street view is a great one.

Of course the GPS also can log the route you've been riding for nostalgic reasons and act as the bike computer which is nice on my folder. So with that in mind I really like the Oregon 450. It uses AA batteries and I've been the Energizer Ultimate lithium batteries for the extended battery live. A normal set of AA lasts a day (~8h). For the Oregon the City Navigator NT maps are probably the best for cycling and I'd recommend spending the extra money for it. I don't have an eTrex so can't comment on that specific one.

prathmann

I've been using my Garmin eMap for just about all my travel (whether on foot, bike, car, plane, etc.) since '99 and have found it to be very useful. The eTrex HCx is basically an improved and upgraded version of the eMap that I have (more sensitive receiver, color screen, and automatic route calculation) and I'd recommend it. On bike tours it has come in handy in locating stores (grocery and bike shops) and motel/hotel options when the weather turned bad. The maps have also been handy in identifying which roads would get us through to our planned destination when there were detours or other reasons for getting off the originally planned route - but the small screen size is limiting so I always do my primary route decisions using much larger paper maps.

One suggestion is that when you get it start using it on all your routine trips - to work, the grocery store, etc. That way you'll quickly become familiar with it and it'll be much more useful when needed in unfamiliar surroundings.

Tourist in MSN

I have a vintage (black and white screen) Etrex Legend that I use for touring. I assume that a newer one like you are looking at is better than mine, yet I find mine is good enough for me so I do not bother to upgrade.

Comes in very handy. I use AA rechargeables and carry a recharger, carry enough batteries to last about a week since I am almost always near an outlet overnight at least once a week. I use a handlebar mount so it is always there. If I am not near an outlet to charge batteries, I can buy AA batteries but I have not had to do that yet.

Mine only has 8 meg of memory for storing maps. I bought the Garmin Mapsource USA 24k Topo maps years ago when they were still sold on CD. I load the maps I want while still at home from my computer. Some trips, that was not enough memory, I used a different GPS on those but my go to GPS is the Legend, it has better battery life than my other one.

Last summer I spent several days in Canada, I did not buy any maps for that. But I found that others had saved their tracks on the internet, I located some tracks that looked like they were where I wanted to go and loaded them into Mapsource. I then went from Mapsource to Google Earth to plot those tracks on a map or airphoto to confirm that they were where I wanted to go. And then loaded them into my GPS.

Thus, while in Canada, I did not have any of the roads or any other map features, but I did have the track to follow so I knew where to turn to avoid getting lost.

Think about how you want to use it and put your list of questions together to take to teh store so that you can make sure that it will do what you want it too.

There are several sites on internet with tracks from others, but I can't say which are best, I will leave that up to others to comment on.



I think most cycle tourists do not use a GPS the way I do, but I am a retired geological engineer and have been working with maps my whole life. Thus, I am a bit set in my ways about wanting to know exactly where I am at all times.

VT_Speed_TR

I have a Garmin GPSMAP 60csx and find it very useful when touring. I map out routes for each day, sometimes 2 routes for a day, and save them as tracks. I don't always follow the track, but it easy to go off route and then get back on. My unit has in its setting options for Routing, and one of those is for bicycle. It tends to choose a nice route, but I've seldom used it that way. I use it for food, services and lodging, which is a very nice feature.

djyak

I use a Garmin eTrex 20, and love it!

eofelis 

I work in GIS/geospatial and use expensive Trimble GPS mapping units for work.
When I shopped for a GPS for myself last year I got a Garmin Dakota 20 and it works great. It has a touch screen and is very easy to use.
Much easier to use than the eTrex. I have an old eTrex and never use it any more.

Last year I helped an old time archaeologist who was having trouble using his eTrex for his field work. I suggested a Dakota 20 for him and he has had a much better time gathering his field data for his projects now.

BigAura

I use a eTrex Vista that I originally bought for backpacking. I use an external rechargeable Li-On battery connected by USB. I breakdown the trip into route segments because there is a limit on number of points per route. I do wish it had a touch screen and better interface but works great for me.

Doug64

+1

I also use the 60 CSX, another good feature is that it takes Garmin Europe City Navigator, and North America City Navigator maps. These programs have all the roads and a comprehensive point of interest library. It shows all campgrounds, motels, restaurants. Smart phones will have a lot of this info, but cell phones don't work in some places. In Europe it was a great tool. We would still be lost in some of the larger city if we didn't have it with us. It is a good unit that I used for an assortment of outdoor sports and in my work.

In the U.S. my wife's smart phone is faster than my GPS for finding things, but the Garmin has some features that make it worth carrying.

goran

I have an opportunity to buy Legend Hcx in next few days for decent price. I see that people who used it are generally satisfied and I am aware that user interface is not the best possible but I can't afford anything with higher price at the moment so I guess I'll go for it.

I googled some issues with it, for example, when I download .gpx file from ridewithgps.com I must save it on device as a track and not as a route. What is the difference? If I got it well, it is because device allow max of 500 checkpoints and routes have more than that in average?

and finally, I can use this gps device for my 2300km trip through Croatia, Italy, France and Spain. I will prepare maps and track before, everything should fit on this 4GB of space. Some issues I should expect? (I am ok with tech so bad interface is not so much of a problem to me)

VT_Speed_TR

This is an issue (max points) I think on most Garmin units. For my Garmin GPSMAP 60 csx, I download the file from ridewithgps and then run it thru another free software utility ( which I forget its name now) which allows me to set the number of points in the final file. I just set the max to 500 and create the file to download to the unit.

michaelb05

I have the vista HCX and it works great for bike touring. I think the legend should be fine. the battery life on the vista is incredible, 25 hours of runtime, which is the best that I know of for a handheld GPS. You should be able to download and install free maps using the various open source mapping projects. I haven't looked at the mapping options for Europe. I haven't tried to download and install a route from ridewithgps (which I also use). I have set up routes before and used those for navigation, but I don't usually need that for bike touring. But I haven't ridden that far. If it installs as a track it should should display on the map and should allow you to route with it. I never seem to manage to use the trackback feature, but I am sure it works once you get the hang of it.

I think for biking, where navigation is usually easy (compared to the speed of driving) and gps works great, I mostly just use the map directly. In tight city streets, it can be hard to navigate, and the street names can be difficult to read and follow on the tiny GPS screen. A smart phone may be useful and better as a back up for navigating around a city.

Instead of preloading a track or a route, you may want to look at installing custom POIs for intersections and locations and other points of interest along the way. Those POIs then show up on your map, and you can use them as a reference point and can navigate to them if needed. The free maps though don't do routing.

DCwom

+1 for the eTrex 20.

I used an old eTrex "yellow" for a long time as a "flight recorder", but last summer I replaced it with the eTrex 20. The screen isn't very large but neither is the price. I never venture out without knowing where I'm going, i.e. I always consult a map, so the GPS is usually loaded with a route I've setup using map my ride or ride with GPS. I use the GPS as a tracker and a navigation reference rather than a real-time planning tool.