Bike gps which one for a long week in the saddle

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postierich
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Bike gps which one for a long week in the saddle

Post by postierich »

Got an Garmin 810 but battery life is pretty shocking and would prefer disposable ones ideally another Garmin that would fit on my mounts.
Rich
postierich
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Re: Bike gps which one for a long week in the saddle

Post by postierich »

Looked at the Etrex 20x seems the obvious choice even though it does not come with mounts but they seemed to be only a few quid
padonbike
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Re: Bike gps which one for a long week in the saddle

Post by padonbike »

Hi Rich, I've just switched to an etrex 20x after years of battling with a satmap brick. I've been very impressed with battery life of around 18hrs with lithium batteries. Through the port in the back you can also run piggyback off an Anker but haven't tried this yet. You have to get the Garmin mount for a tenner as the eBay fakes don't secure device properly. Even with proper mount I still have homemade lanyard. Javi knows a thing or two about Garmins flying off!
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Bearbonesnorm
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Re: Bike gps which one for a long week in the saddle

Post by Bearbonesnorm »

Stock reply is pretty much eTrex 20/30, Dakota 20 or Oregon. I've had a Dakota for years, never let me down and now available cheaply with a little shopping ... others don't like the touchscreen but I like it. Garmin GPSMAP 64 might also be worth a look - Mike uses one and it always seems to work well. Battery life for all the above should be similar to what Philip says.
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whitestone
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Re: Bike gps which one for a long week in the saddle

Post by whitestone »

padonbike wrote:Javi knows a thing or two about Garmins flying off!
He lost a Garmin when I was riding with him on the Peak 200! Sounds like a habit :roll:

I've an Oregon, with as many energy saving tricks employed as possible I'll get around 20hrs out of a set of rechargeable AAs. Unlike the Edge series you can charge on the go with a normal USB cable (you don't need the Garmin battery pack to do this - a bit of toothpaste tube over the recharge button takes care of that)
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ScotRoutes
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Re: Bike gps which one for a long week in the saddle

Post by ScotRoutes »

Regarding the Etrex/Dakota/Oregon mount ; I had a Dakota fly off a couple of time, but never a problem with the Oregon. It may be because the back of he Dakota is plastic and the Oregon aluminium and therefore suffers less wear?
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Bearbonesnorm
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Re: Bike gps which one for a long week in the saddle

Post by Bearbonesnorm »

It may be because the back of he Dakota is plastic and the Oregon aluminium and therefore suffers less wear?
Could be Colin. I put a piece of tape over the 'runners' on the mount and since, I've never had an ejection :shock: Still always run a lanyard though, seems daft not to.
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ScotRoutes
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Re: Bike gps which one for a long week in the saddle

Post by ScotRoutes »

I'd applied a wee bit of Sugru to the mount - just to make it a bit tighter.

And I always use a lanyard. It's the Irish way.

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benp1
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Re: Bike gps which one for a long week in the saddle

Post by benp1 »

My Oregon has been completely rock solid. Never come off. It's quite old now though, it's a 550t
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Pirahna
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Re: Bike gps which one for a long week in the saddle

Post by Pirahna »

I've ridden around 10k using an Etrex without a lanyard, it's never come off the mount.
ianfitz
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Re: Bike gps which one for a long week in the saddle

Post by ianfitz »

You can borrow my etrex 30x if you like rich.

It knows the way :wink:

I’ve had 30 hours out of a set of Duracell lithium’s.

I’ve always used a lanyard and it has ejected once in the two years + I’ve had it.
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Re: Bike gps which one for a long week in the saddle

Post by Taylor »

Had an Oregon 450 for the last 8-9 years and it's been great.
Currently awaiting and Oregon 700 as I write.
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whitestone
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Re: Bike gps which one for a long week in the saddle

Post by whitestone »

One thing we've missed is that Rich would like one that fits his existing Garmin mounts. If he's an Edge then he's the quarter turn mount which I don't think any of the proposed models use.
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HUX
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Re: Bike gps which one for a long week in the saddle

Post by HUX »

Etrex 20 here.never come off the mount,still use a lanyard though just incase! Easily get 30hrs plus on a decent pair of batteries. Perfect for just following a route. Screen can be a little slow sometimes if you want to pan around to see where the hell you are, but that's ok for a quick rest!
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Alpinum
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Re: Bike gps which one for a long week in the saddle

Post by Alpinum »

Opening Pandora's box:

Garmin Edge 820.
It has an ingenious battery save mode and runs for ages.
Talking about ages, disposable batteries... :o

After first few uses I went on a longer ride and was amazed;

20 % loss of the battery capacity during a 8.5 h ride, 6.5 h in routing mode (and tracking the ride obviously), 2 h tracking only, with 2.5 h of the total spent in night mode. All sensors switched off except for HR. Illumination was on level 1. Temperature was 5 - 13 °C.
During a one week trip where it ran about 8 h/day I charged it once.

I've had some issues with it's glitches, but the new Firmware has improved it.
I've read of a few that are struggling with it, but it seems it's more down to getting used to the few little changes.


Again, many will have a smart phone with them, many will also have a battery pack for the smart phone. some will also have a torch with usb ports for charging. But still so many fuss about AA batteries.
how often do you buy batteries in a village when you wouldn't have been able to charge a battery pack?
one could argue that during racing there's not enough time. but then often dyno hubs are used - here again, the set up to charge a battery pack from a hub is easier than charging AA batteries.
Heck, even in the remotest places imaginable I came across folks in nomadic tents with solar panels and options to charge my stuff, but no AA batteries. Think about a little paradigm shift.
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Re: Bike gps which one for a long week in the saddle

Post by Oli.vert »

postierich wrote:Got an Garmin 810 but battery life is pretty shocking and would prefer disposable ones ideally another Garmin that would fit on my mounts.
Rich
Can you say a little about how you're using your 810? What settings and sensors are on? Also what do you think of as non-shocking? Just so we've an idea of what kind of life you'd like from the device.

I should say that I've no experience currently, but I am in the 'doing research on buying my first gps' camp, What amazes me is all the stuff that gets crammed into a garmin cycle gps/computer that I have no interest in at all, it seems there's loads of redundant functionality there that would no doubt drain a battery way faster than was needed. All I want is mapping and the ability to follow an imported gpx file. Possibly worth starting a new thread for that rather than derail this one?
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whitestone
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Re: Bike gps which one for a long week in the saddle

Post by whitestone »

I mostly agree with that Gian. Ultimately it's down to how you use the device and where you are heading. Most of the "tricks" for extending battery life are applicable to all devices of course, you just have to find the menu option to enable/disable that particular feature.

I went with a powerbank battery over dynamo for this year's HT550. Partly due to cost as I would have had to purchase dynamo and build the wheel up but I worked out the capacities of the batteries in the devices I had and reckoned I would be better with the powerbank. (my phone was off for most of the route and I used about 50% of the original charge in my light) A different route and the equation might have been different. It was actually a close call and for me I reckon the HT550 is about the borderline between powerbank and dynamo.

The/A problem with AA batteries is that there's a lot of "container" when compared to the space used for the actual power cells. Dedicated batteries are usually much better in this respect. I'd like to see devices like the Etrex/Dakota/Oregon use a dedicated replaceable battery that's the size of two AA batteries but also ship a battery holder so you can use AAs if you can't recharge the main battery. My fifteen year old camera does this so it's not exactly novel.

Does the 820 require an "on the go" USB cable to charge whilst in use? The older Garmin Edge units go into PC storage device mode if you attach a standard USB cable. A slight annoyance but one that can trip you up when you are tired.
Last edited by whitestone on Wed Nov 22, 2017 11:35 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Mike
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Re: Bike gps which one for a long week in the saddle

Post by Mike »

62 or 64 s :-bd best bit of kit for bike packing I have.
ScotRoutes
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Re: Bike gps which one for a long week in the saddle

Post by ScotRoutes »

During a one week trip where it ran about 8 h/day I charged it once.
That would be about 3 sets of NIMH AAs in my Oregon. Fewer if I had the opportunity to recharge at some point.

The only disposable batteries I've bought for it are Lithiums, kept in my bag as emergency backup. IMO it's still a useful option to have.
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Re: Bike gps which one for a long week in the saddle

Post by Bearbonesnorm »

What does a pair (or even 2) of Lithiums weigh compared to an external battery pack of reasonable capacity?
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Re: Bike gps which one for a long week in the saddle

Post by ianfitz »

Bearbonesnorm wrote:What does a pair (or even 2) of Lithiums weigh compared to an external battery pack of reasonable capacity?
14g :oops: :ugeek:
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whitestone
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Re: Bike gps which one for a long week in the saddle

Post by whitestone »

Bearbonesnorm wrote:What does a pair (or even 2) of Lithiums weigh compared to an external battery pack of reasonable capacity?
15 - 24g for Lithium Ion AA battery. A 20,000mAh powerbank weighs 320g or so.
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Re: Bike gps which one for a long week in the saddle

Post by ScotRoutes »

External battery pack is a good option too but also requires a cable and then you have sealing problems if it's wet.
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Re: Bike gps which one for a long week in the saddle

Post by benp1 »

I haven't bought any lithium AAs in a while, I can't stomach the cost

Sanyo Eneloops seem to last just fine for me. Usually take a spare set for a 3 day trip but don't always need them
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whitestone
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Re: Bike gps which one for a long week in the saddle

Post by whitestone »

ScotRoutes wrote:External battery pack is a good option too but also requires a cable and then you have sealing problems if it's wet.
A good point Colin. I've borked one of the small lipstick sized batteries with moisture ingress. Most likely a problem if you are riding with the battery pack attached. I tend to recharge at night when bivvying so hopefully avoid that but it still means I need to keep the pack dry during the day.
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