GPS units

[Dale Lougee]

    Just a comment or two for anyone thinking about buying a GPS unit.  After some input from other riders and research of my own, I bought a Garmin Dakota 20 in Sept and have been experimenting with it since then. In my personal opinion, this is as close to the perfect unit for our type of riding as you are going to find. It has a multitude of feature but two very important ones for us. 

    First-it is powered by alkaline, lithium, or NiMh AA batteries which can be changed in the middle of a ride. Since you only need two at a time, it is not hard to carry spares but if you need to you can stop at any mini-mart for replacements. A lot depends on settings you use but I have been able to get 13 hours on a pair of NiMh AAs. My unit gives me about an hour warning when the power level gets low.  This is without using the battery saver mode which I have not tried yet but I think might be very useful at night.  I have not tried lithium yet so do not know what sort of burn time you might get from these but it would be better than alkaline.

    This brings up the 2nd very useful feature.  Like any computer, you can not read it in the dark-right?.  Wrong.  While it is true you can not see the screen in the dark, it lights up whenever you get within about 300 ft of a turn programed into the route.  Assuming you have programmed the route right, no more missed turns in the dark.  You can turn it own at anytime by simply touching the screen if you want to check distance to the next turn or whatever.

        Enough for now.  If anyone needs further input, send me an email.

 

                                                                            Dale Lougee

                                                                            dhlo...@gis.net

 

                                                                               

[CRWGPSGUY]

>  You can turn it own at anytime by simply touching the screen…

I have a hard time believing a touch screen would work under our standard rando conditions. (wet, gloves, salt spray, tired food covered fingers, etc.) I would suggest going to best buy with your cycling gloves and poke the touch screens and see for your self.

The Colorado is nearly the same device with a button and dial interface.

The mounting on the Garmin products are still wobblie plastic junk.

 

 

[littlecirclesvt.com :: mike beganyi]

I thought the same thing... until I read a great field report of
someone using it for endurance mountain bike racing.
Aside from the glare issues (solved with clever mounting or screen
protector)... he really liked it.

Post here of the Oregon: (this is about adjusting for sun glare in
desert riding)
http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,493.0.html


My question is - how often are you messing with the unit?
Isn't it 'set it and forget it' (unless you get lost) between
controls?

-Mike

On Nov 12, 6:57 pm, "CRWGPSGUY" <CRWGPS...@comcast.net> wrote:
> >  You can turn it own at anytime by simply touching the screen.

[CRWGPSGUY]

>As for concerns about it being weather proof, I don't trust my Cateye either and always put a sandwich bag over it in the rain.

No water proof + electronics = eventual problems. I don’t buy stuff that is targeted for the trash can market.

 

>Since the Dakota was only recently released, perhaps the mount has been improved since the Colorado was issued.

They are nearly the same… Colorado is also a “recent” release.

 

>My question is - how often are you messing with the unit?

Often enough, more so if you don’t use routes. Mostly zooming, panning, and looking up POI in path.

 

>Isn't it 'set it and forget it' (unless you get lost) between controls?

That depends on how you use it. And that is WHEN you get lost not a if.