Help pop my GPS cherry!

That title is kinda... strange... Anyhowsers, I would like to get a GPS for riding/hiking/hunting/etc. and I have zero idea what to look for. I want something in the way of color screen and pretty rugged. Nothing super expensive, but not a walmart special either. Can someone point me in the right direction. I know nothing about these. Should I get one with a built in 2-way radio? Any help is appreciated.

I'm using a Garmin Oregon. What price range are you looking for?

Well I could pinch a nickel til the buffalo shits, but I'd be willing to go up to about $300 at the most.

Bang for the buck the Garmin 60CSX is probably the best deal going. Color screen, takes memory cards (SD) to store extra maps on like Topo ect, Waterproof, rugged ect. Also has great tracking capability (holding/saving track files) so it works great for ADV riding. Small enough to hold in your hand comfortably while hikiing ect. It does have a smallish screen but thats the price you pay for a compact unit that carry's well also.

Watch ADV rider in the flee market section, there are some great buys that come up on them.

Hodakaguy

That one looks pretty nice, I'll keep my eyes peeled for deals.

+1 on the Garmin 60Csx.

What mount are you using Hodakaguy?

Backwoods Boogie wrote:

+1 on the Garmin 60Csx.

What mount are you using Hodakaguy?

I actually sold my 60cs (the older unit that didn't take the SD card) and purchased a Garmin 478, I'm running the Touratech mount on the 478 but I was using a RAM mount on the 60CS.

If your using a 60CS (or any GPS for that matter) make sure and hardwire the power into the bike, if you just let it run on batteries once in a while they will loose connection and your GPS unit will randomly shut down, gets frustrating when you look down and find it off and not tracking anymore.

Hodakaguy

Any recomendations of a unit that has 2 way radio also? I'd be using this while hunting and backcountry hiking with people too.

KatoomVictim wrote:

Any recomendations of a unit that has 2 way radio also? I'd be using this while hunting and backcountry hiking with people too.

I'm not to familiar with those. Make sure they will store/save track files if you are going to use it for ADV style riding. The 60CSX will hold 20 track files at 500 points each.

Hodakaguy

Ok. The radio ones seem to be pretty basic, I guess I can get by with a separate radio.

The 60 CSx is the one I currently run, and have it mounted to the bike with a custom bracket holding a RAM mount. The screen is a little small for quick viewing when on the move, but it has excellent reception and tracking ability, and like Hodakaguy said, with the removable SD card, memory is limitless. I currently have a 2gb card in it, and have the whole western US base maps on it, and it is less than 1/3 full, leaving plenty of room for uploading routes. I think I paid about $320 with shipping about a year ago, so finding one under $300 should not be a problem. Whatever you get, spring for the extra $15 and get the cigarette lighter adapter for power so you can hard wire it into you battery.

As far as the ones with built in radio, Garmin has the Rino series. My brother has the 530HCx. It is the same GPS unit as the 60 CSx, with a 2-way radio added. The only complaint is that radio quality is not very good at all. We tested his unit with one of the cheap $25 a set radios from Wally World. When he broadcast with the Garmin unit, it was very garbled, but the cheap unit was fine. The only advantage that the Rino has is if you are riding with other people who are running a Rino, you can link them together to show their position on your screen, butonly if they are within radio range. My suggestion is for the extra $150, is to skip that unit and carry your own 2-ways.

Another +1 on the Garmin 60csx!

Well so far the general concensus seems to be that the 60csx is the one to be had. I'll have to do a lil more research and see what deals I can find. I don't care if I get a used gps as long as it's in good shape and is useable as far as storage and what have you...

I've found a few killer deals on teh Garmin Dakota 20. Does anyone know about this or have experiene with this? Maybe a GPS veteran could look at the specs and tell me if it will do what I need it to do, like storage and tracks and stuff. This is all french to me, I need as much help as possible. Thanks

Looks like it should work great for your needs. Couple things to consider, the touch screen can be a pain with gloves on where buttons are easy to operate with gloves. Also see what kind of charge cable they are using, the 60csx uses a waterproof rugged plug connection to the unit, some of the touch screens use a mini usb connection that is neither waterproof or very strong, not sure what type that unit has.

REI has the 60CSX on sale now for $199.

Hodakaguy

Rei's website lists it at $350

KatoomVictim wrote:

Rei's website lists it at $350

I think the sale starts tommorow, the 21st.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you will need to buy software for the 60csx. It comes with very basic maps but you will want to get the City Navigator (or whatever they call their current version) so you can do routing ect when taking it in the car or taking the bike into cities ect. You can also get topo software to load into it, the Topo 24K is great and will allow you to do routing ect, you might just choose to get the 24K and forget the other software for now.

Hodakaguy

Looks like REI or BassPro has the 60csx for under $200

Over at Adv rider a guy posted a coupon for bass pro save20a = $20 coupon code, don't know if its valid or for how long...

Its a lot of GPS for under $200 IMHO, lots of mounting options without spending a fortune too...

I saw that, too bad I'm broke right now. Hopefully they'll have it on sale for a bit.

did you ever pick something up?

I don't have enough money for a nice GPS. Just been getting pissed that I know where I want to go...just no good way of plotting/following a route without one.

I never did get one, I found tons of great deals, I could never justify buying one though when I could use money for other things like bills, and things that I break. I've become superb at reading maps though

[b]I finally joined the ranks of GPS owners, and got a new Garmin 60csx, Amazon has them for $199. I've relied on my twin brother too long to be the main navigator on our rides, so I am stepping up, and into GPS. Will be on a learning curve to use it, but excited. Will be planning a long Spring ride by mapping out some tracks!

[b]Well this showed up in the mail today.....now I have to figure out how it works! My brother KosmicKLR is great on the GPS, but it took him a year to get fluent with it! Wish me luck....I will be plotting my first ride on it for March 5th, down here in Texas....