Favorite GPS and why?

Hi guys,

I am in the market for a GPS. What is YOUR favorite GPS and why?

Thanks,

Northern Rider

Garmin Etrex Legend

Why - it's paid for

Garmin 60CS. Reasons:

1. Small and light, easy to mount, either with a dedicated mount or just bungied to a tank bag.
2. Fairly cheap.
3. Versatile - can be used for car or hiking too.
4. Useful compass and altimeter.
5. 5-day on-tour battery life with two standard AA's - long enough that I don't even bother with power dongles which would be a real hassle with the four or five bikes I use it with.
6. Garmin has excellent support and a huge user base. Lots of mounts available too.
7. Autoroutes - nice for pavement tours, although I use direct routes for off-road stuff.

Screen size and readability is a little marginal, but I use a GPS as a supplement to paper maps, not as an outright replacement. For situational awareness and route planning, paper maps are still vastly superior.

The bigger, fancier GPSs are nice, but just too much expense and hassle for me. I do like the new stuff coming out with radar overlays though and will probably get one when they come down in price. Being able to track weather and adjust one's route and timing based on weather seems like a huge win to me.

YMMV.

- Mark

I have a 60CS and also like it very much, and for the same reasons. My only complaint is the 53 meg memory. It's no big deal most of the time, but for extended trips, it's too small.

The Garmin 276C.

Good:
Why? It's one unit that I can use in the truck, boat or on the bike.
Screen is easy to read in direct sunlight.
Battery lasts an easy 8 hours.
Lots of neat mounts available. (Touratech, Ram etc.)

Bad:
Garmin proprietary memory cards.(although one card holds a lot)
No Autoroute available for Mexico.
Expensive when you buy it with all of the extras (software, mounts etc.)

All depends on what you want.
On the Garmin web site you can compare the different units.

Ride Safe,
Vettster

Edit: Or, you can go even wilder and get one of these....

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=87343

The 76C! All the reasons listed for the 60C apply to the 76C except the 76C comes with 115 meg of memory which is enough for any cross country trip and then some. I can load the Roads and Rec detail maps for the Western USA in 115 meg. Battery life and form factor make it perfect for bicycles, hiking, boating, and any other use you can think of.

Jim in Sacramento

i just wanted to be the first to say it since 1 in 10 do.
i really only sell garmin and got my hands on a magellin for the second time ever today.
i seemed like a eight year old garmin.
i did not bother to get the model#,but dumbass brought it in after stopping short of buying a garmin because his job required 3 #s at the end.i fixed his for him without instructions.it still sucked.
right now i use the garminV,best valu with extras.
i like to sell the 60 series and the 76 series
i want the 276c
let me know if i can help

Plus it's the GPS that everyone else says "oh, I want that one" when they see you have one.

Yep

After the comments in this thread I became aware of the availability of this models and they sound like a good alternatives to the mighty 276c and I've some questions, hopefully someone could answer.

I wonder if I can put a 60CS or 76CS on my bike a expect to get live tracking of my position while in motion? Or does this devices only gives you the position while standing still?

I understand that this devices have limited memory but I wonder if I could download information such restuarants and hotels (even if it is from a small area, due to memory limitations). from city select and if I get hungry or it gets late in the middle of nowhere a can do a search and the unit would show me the nearst place? Is this feature available in the models?

As you can see I'm new to the GPS scene, so please be patiente.... :huh

Thanks for you advice,

Mane

Does everything I need, at a very reasonable price, and comes with the hardware and software right out of the box.

Jim

Yes, you get live tracking and tracks for as long as the unit is on.
I use City Select V6 and I can pull up resturants, hotels, service stations that are nearest my current location. A goto command will take you to the item chosen.

The 76C has 115meg internal memory

Yes both units will do all that and are good choices

You should check with Garmin what mapping is avaiable for your country (Guatemala?) before purchasing. Most likely it is not nearly as extensive as that for North America.

I have two on my bike, 2610 and 176.

BurnieM,

I understand that for Guatemala and all Central and South America is only the base map (world map!?) the one that is available. However, I visit North America about twice a year, and would be nice not to ask for directions every time a rent a car.

Thank you guys, the 76CS is looking very good right now....

regards,
Mane

All GPS's track "live".

Point of interest data is really just a function of the map database you're using. City Select is pretty good, but it goes out of date pretty fast - I occasionally use it to find a hotel I already know about, but I seldom search out things from scratch.

The memory limit of the 60CS can be a bother on a really long trip (e.g., more than a week or two) if you't not bringing a computer to reload maps. The 76 is better, but still not as good as those with removable storage. But I've never been able to get over the ackward keyboard location of the 76, although that's a personal thing.

If the whole idea of using map databases and hooking up the GPS to the computer seems like a bother, the Quest II comes preloaded with a pretty good database and is about the most plug-n-play GPS I've seen.

- Mark

The GPSmap 60C/CS and GPSmap 76C/CS will give you on screen instructions and a beep.

Only the GPSmap 276C or SP2610 will give you voice instructions.

I just bought a Megellan "Meridian Gold" ...210.00. Large Black/wht. screen easy to read in daylight. It's a handheld, so it will double for trail hiking. It should do all I'll need..
Brian

Yep! I forgot to add, It just oozes with "Farklebility"!

Ride Safe,
Vettster