Garmin Montana

If you import it to Basecamp, double click on it, the track window comes up, and in the header you can read total number of points.

Ok, thanks. But no way to check on the device itself, right?

My trip meter reads EXTREMELY long compared to the actual miles. I don't know if the loss of signal is causing it.

Nope.

Doh!! Oh well, can't have everything.

Nope. Mine has been dead on from day one.

I just looked at my tracks from last weekend. Here's my observations:

1. In all cases, forest canopy or obstructions weren't an issue.
2. Saturday's track got split into pieces
3. On Friday's track one entry has a speed of 785mph but the max speed on the trip meter is only 85mph (first digit appears to be truncated). This indicates a loss of signal.
4. I see where the extra miles got added. At Woodland I stopped under a canopy at the Chevron Station. The GPS picked up a point some 150 miles away showed me as having ridden an additional 150 miles each way. I see another place in the route where that type behavior occurred. So that explains the extra miles. I think I'll reduce the frequency of the breadcrumb. For future, I'll not reset the odometer on the fly; I'll just examine the track when I get home and delete the spurious points.

I'm still thinking about reverting to an earlier version of the firmware. I'll wait for DRTBYK to report back after his trip.

BTW, last September when I was riding around Europe for a month, I probably had 3-4 instances of something similar to this occurring, but in those cases, I had to remove the battery and reset the unit.

Excellent! this info helps a lot.

You can on an Oregon 6xx:

Yes, and they have a working theory ;-)

Yes, and Yes.

Has anyone found a case they like to store their Montana in? Maybe a camera case or something?

Fits like a Glove :)

+1 but black

In spite of all of the good suggestions, I kept looking, hoping to find that elusive nice protective case for not a lot of money.

I think we have a winner. I bought "The Classic Case - Camera / Hard Drive / GPS Case" by HandStands on Amazon. They did not claim it fit the Montana or any other specific GPS from what I could see, but did list the dimensions, which looked fairly close, so I took a chance. It was only $6.99 and eligible for the regular free shipping deal. Link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001KXRV8U/ref=oh_details_o00_s01_i02 Note: currently on sale for $4.99.

It fits really well. There is a small amount of space around it, which seems fine, and elastic straps to hold the unit in when you open it, and mesh pockets on the facing side for random crap. The shell material is firm with a little flex to it, but seems sturdy. I am very happy with this.

Pics:

Nice find but one suggestion - when you put your Montana in, make sure the screen faces the other way so that random craps you stash in there doesn't end up scratching or worse yet, breaking the Montana display. There's no problem having things pushing against the back of the gps but the display side is fairly delicate.

Carrying the Tempe and a Lanyard Clip

I was getting tired of never having the Tempe with me - it always seemed to be on the wrong bike or in the car, or attached to a different jacket, so I finally came to the conclusion that the only place it could be was on the lanyard I have on the Montana.



The double carabiner clip has the lanyard attached to the middle span of it, the Tempe itself on one side of the clip, and the other side of the clip is hooked to the bike so the gps won't be lost if it comes out of the mount.

Works really well!

Thanks.. Ordered one.
Still running 4.7 after reading all the comments re 4.9. Heading to Alaska pretty soon with tracks and routes loaded. Throwing my 60CSx in the bag though. Just in case..

Problem is, if the Tempe is exposed to the sun, you're temp readings will be hella off.

It's a crapshoot anyway. It's not like I'm taking scientific readings. Where is the best place for it, anyway? In a tank bag? In a pocket getting warm from body heat? In a fairing, getting warm from the bike? There is no easy answer, but at least this means I have it with me.