new garmin for touring.

[jags]

http://www.bikerumor.com/2013/06/14/garmin-edge-touring-gps-bicycle-computer-spotted/.

what do you lads think of this garmin.
looks good to me but so to did the etrek which is a pain in the arse to get used too. .

[ianshearin]

Looks like an attempt to create a cheaper version of the 810.

I was interested in the 810 but at the end of the day it is too expensive with all the other alternatives out there such as smart phones, paper maps etc...

If it retails at around £100 and has a decent battery or charging system then I would be excited.

Worth keeping an eye on methinks...

[Danneaux]

Hi jags!

I saw this as well, and pondered it at some length. It looks like a nice evolution of Garmin's bike-specific GPS units. I'm looking forward to user reports and to holding one in my hands.

I think so far for my needs, I prefer my more general-use Garmin Oregon 400T. It comes with a base Topo map for North America, and I added maps on 8GB cards for City navigation in NA as well as all the UK and Europe and bike-specific maps for the Benelux countries. It has profiles for a number of uses including hiking (which I use off-road) and automotive (which I use for on-road and snap-to-route) as well as turn-by-turn routing if desired. The touch screen is really good and beats the pants off a joystick interface for my needs.

I have finally solved the problem of short-lived batteries. I had settled on disposable Lithium batteries, but they were an expensive solution. Since switching to Sanyo's rechargeable "XX" Eneloops (rated at 2100mAh), I now get reasonable service. With the screen fully dimmed, it will run and record tracks continuously for 19.5 hours with a 15-minute reserve at the end. At full brightness, it will go non-stop for 7 hours and 37 minutes with a 3-minute reserve. Half-brightness gets me somewhere in between, but I usually just go with daylight and no internal lighting on sunny summer days.

If only it would charge the batteries while in place, I'd ask for nothing more. Still, the alternative isn't bad; I just swap the spent batteries for freshly charged ones when needed, usually at the end of each day even if there is charge remaining. That way, I can be assured of continuous track recording throughout the next day.

As it is, I charge the two "XX" AA cells in my little Eneloop USB charger using either the bike or trailer charging system, or in camp at night using the accumulator battery on my solar charger. Seems to work very well, and allows me to at last save my actual recorded tracks day by day instead of trying to recreate them later. I can also power the Oregon 400T direct from The Plug2+ or via my 2200mAh buffer battery so I don't even have to change the Garmin Spanner settings to revert to internal battery power at rest. While I'm riding, the buffer battery serves as a pass-through and is drawn down only when I am at rest. With the buffer and charging, I can go for days with this setup. It's working out really well, and I can even use it in the car with my car-power adapter and windshield suction mount.

My setup won't get weather or allow for live-tracking by others via a smartphone connection of Garmin's Edge 810 and 510 models, but I'm often out of cellphoen range anyway on my tours. It appears the new Garmin Touring GPS won't get those either. In many ways, the new Touring model looks a lot like what I'm using now. If so, it should be really handy for a lot of riders. Looking forward to see it in stores, jags.

Best,

Dan.

[jags]

on my new super dooper smart phone  when i go into maps and gps i can speak my desired destination into it and hey presto like magic it will give me turn by turn directions ,Ilove it.

I'm a total geek when it comes to trying to get these gps units to work ,why like the smart phone does it not have that option of speaking into it

[Cambirder]

Trouble with smart phones is the poor battery life for long day rides. Having had my Etrex 20 stolen I'm looking for a replacement and I am hoping the new Bryton Rider 60 will be launched in July.

[jags]

yes your sure right on that score i need to charge the battery every day  but then again  most if not all garmin gps need charging  if you were to use them on a tour.

[Cambirder]

Which is why in the end I may go back to another Etrex (possibly the 30 next time) AA batteries have there advantages.

[Danneaux]

AA batteries have there advantages.

And Eneloop "XX" rechargeables even moreso! They are a low-self-drain design that holds 85% of the initial charge after one year, so you can fish them out of a drawer and expect them to work. They also give stellar service. On my Garmin Oregon, I was lucky to get close to 3 hours with Alkaline batteries and reasonable backlighting. That rose considerably with Lithiums, but now with the Eneloop "XX"s, the GPS is truly practical for the first time in my ownership. 7.5 hours at full-bright backlight and 19.5 hours in ambient light. Wow! And, as an added bonus, I can simply recharge up to 500 times and forget about buying batteries after the first time.

In comparison, 4 AA Lithiums were around USD$10 at Walmart and -- when I could find them -- an 8-pack was a relative bargain at about USD$16. A four/pack of the AA "XX" Eneloops is just under USD$21 at Thomas Distributing, where I get all my Eneloops: http://www.thomasdistributing.com/Sanyo-Eneloop_c_1020.html

Yes, more costly up-front, but then much longer lasting for each use and every use thereafter 'cos you just charge 'em up again. Fastest way to save on battery costs.

Hope this helps.

Best,

Dan.

[jags]

Dan i binned my rechargable batteries.....
(by accident ) i needed to change them when i got to killarney ,i was getting so much grief from the looney i was with i mistakenly  put them in the bin, i then had to spend 10 euro on new batteries.
a lot to be said to tour solo.

[Danneaux]

...i binned my rechargable batteries...(by accident )

Noooooooooooooooooooo! 

i was getting so much grief from the looney i was with i mistakenly  put them in the bin

Having heard the tale, I think the wrong thing got binned.  I can understand exactly why you were driven to the point of distraction.

a lot to be said to tour solo.

<nods> Yes, it has its losses and compensations. There's two people I traveled with in the past that had me wishing I could erase the experience. For example, I practice "low impact" guesthood when staying in a hotel or motel with the bike, laying paper toweling and such under the tires and between handlebars and painted walls so no marks are left and I can leave the room as nice for the next people as I found it. It is about being a good neighbor and leaving a nice impression of cyclists as responsible guests. Imagine my shock when I returned from a grocery run to find one touring partner had used the hotel's white bath towels to clean his wet, aluminum-oxided rims...and had stripped the curtains from the windows to use as chain rags. I marched right out to the desk and told them who did what. Turns out he'd signed the guest register and was ultimately made responsible. I was so embarrassed I could have sunk through the floor, and so mad I could have done something irresponsible to him.

I will very much miss having companionship on my next tour, someone to share the sights with, but going solo can indeed sometimes beat the alternative.

Back to GPSs...I will be carrying a set of paper maps with me as usual. Technology is wonderful, but things can happen. Battery compartment contact strips can snap, things can get dropped, sometimes electronics just die, and then it is helpful to have a fallback option for such critical need. My usual orienteering compass will go in the bags, plus another on the watch band and the one on the bell, the latter two useful to orient the GPS map display when I've turned off the internal electric compass to conserve battery life.

Your new smartphone is a wonder, jags!

Best,

Dan. (...whose phone is really pretty dumb, but works as well as anything for talking in the middle of nowhere)

[andrewheard]

I only turn my GPS on when I'm coming up to a turn or other need to have it turned on; then turn it back off again. My Garmin eTrex HCx runs for months on 2 lithium AAs of cycle touring this way. I have a separate odo for measuring speed & distance.

[Danneaux]

Hi Andrew! Welcome to the Thorn Cycling Forums!

I only turn my GPS on when I'm coming up to a turn or other need to have it turned on; then turn it back off again.

Exactly what I have always done, and it surely helps with battery life. This trip, I decided I wanted to keep records of my daily tracks, so I went for maximum life in continuous use. So far, so good, but it surely requires better batteries than I've used in the past -- and a means to (re)charge them.

Best,

Dan. (..who will soon be ehm, "making tracks")