I also use an eTrex Vista on my bike. The Edge was smaller, but the built-in battery and price were what steered me to the Vista. The one design downside of the Vista is that the bike mount bracket has to be removed from the unit to change the batteries.
I agree that voice-prompts in heavy traffic are a near requirement. The Vista and Edge, et al. all use the Garmin maps, so there is no 'map' advantage (i.e. better maps on car-based units) to any other unit. I doubt the Edge does voice prompting. I think Garmin wants people to buy two units, one specifically for driving and the other for hiking, biking, etc. I looked at their new line of outdoor units and it doesn't look like they have voice prompting either (Oregon and Colorado). I am sure you can use the Edge for hiking, mtn. biking with Garmin topo maps (note, you MUST use Garmin maps). Not sure if it has a compass and altimeter, but it will tell you direction when you are moving, and altitude with topo maps. A few things to keep in mind: 1. With built-in batteries, you will have to keep them charged. I would guess battery life on the order of 16 - 24 hrs. 2. With the mapping Edge units you will need maps. Maps cost about $100 for North America roads, the same for Topos. If you want to use for auto use, I'm not sure if Topo maps do the auto-routing. You will also need a memory card, about 4 GB to hold all the NA maps. If you use a Mac, you will NOT be able to load maps to the Edge (or any other Garmin unit or any other GPS for that matter). Garmin is way ahead of everyone else on that front though. You WILL be able to get the Garmin maps on your Mac, plot routes and load waypoints, routes, just not maps. I would hope within a year that will be resolved as Garmin slowly supports the Mac. 3. If you use for hiking, driving, in addition to biking, the unit will not keep track of biking mileage (i.e. you can't turn mileage accumulation off while driving, at least I can't figure out how). The Edges look like pretty slick units. I was skeptical, but am definitely a convert. Good Luck, Dan On Dec 22, 2008, at 8:49 AM, Paul Cooley wrote: > > I use an Etrex Vista on my bike rather than a Garmin Edge, but aside > from some bicycle-specific features, I would assume they are similar. > I did use the Etrex on a trip last spring to canoe the Mississippi > with a friend of mine who runs a guide service out of Clarksdale, MS. > (I hope a plug for his business isn't out of order: http:// > www.island63.com > ). > > The satellite reception and everything in the rental car was fine. > However, the fact it has such a small screen, and the lack of voice > prompts can create some frustrating-to-dangerous moments in heavy > traffic when you're not sure where to turn. If you've programmed a > route -- and the Etrex will calculate a route to a destination for you > -- it does beep and show a blown-up, simplified version of the > upcoming turn. One of Garmin's dashboard mounts might help. I had > mine sitting between the two front seats, so I had to take my eyes off > the road to look down at it when it beeped, or I would try holding it > in one hand while watching the traffic. Neither of those options was > very good. > > Not to mention that it greatly exaggerated my bicycling mileage for > the year. > > The next time I rent a car, I'm borrowing a voice-prompt system. For > driving, those spoken directions seem almost a requirement. If the > edge does voice prompting, so much the better. > > Paul B. Cooley > Santa Fe, NM > http://carfreefamily.blogspot.com > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Bicycle Lifestyle" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/bicyclelifestyle?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
