Trying to find out which one is the best for the mountain biking world. My needs are to have the sweet looking map that shows where I traveled, distance, altitude change. I want the one witht the best looking maps on the unit. Any help on my decision will be appreciated.
Funtimes! something I know a little about. I have a PN-30. It is almost the same as the PN-40 sans the baromic altimeter. For what you are talking about it would almost work. It will show you distance, and altitude change. For the real altitude change you have to go home to your computer and upload your track. Then you can see what you did on a large screen move throught the profile and see your speed and both the indicated altitude and the terrain altitude on the bigger screen. The garmin edge at the same price range doesn't have a color screen. At the same time the PN's don't have high res screens like some other GPS do.
On friday I went exploring on my bike. I ended up doing a loop back onto my own trail. I was simply able to look at the GPS and see exactly what I had done. You can get elevation and speed on the fly, but I don't trust them. At the end of the day you can check it on the computer and figure if you really hit 33 mph on your down hill portion, or if it is an error.
The software is a PAIN to use. It is like nothing else. Once you start using it, the software makes a lot more sense.
DeLorme's software is painful for a couple reasons:
1) It is navigation software as well as mapping software, so it's designed so all the functions are in tabs across the bottom of the screen. This way you have no pup-up windows or pull-down menus to block your view of the map. Note that Office 2007 uses this same approach, so there must be something to it...
2) It is also very powerful, the best way to learn it is to explore all the menus and figure out where things are.
Otherwise, my advice to the OP is go look at all three models and make your own choice, nobody is going to tell you what to buy that will fit your needs. Consider price, whats included in the bundle (software?), what additional data is available, how much do you want to use third party apps and data to get what you want. Considering raw GPS performance (sensitivity, accuracy, time to fix) I would argue that they are all essentially the same.
you didn't say which model of garmin edge. forgot the 305. i have the delorme pn-40, but i must adm it since i got my android phone, i hardly use the pn-40.
for off-road the pn-40 is superior, but i split my time between running, road biking and mtbing.
i ran partialloy in the woods saturday, and my droid was difficult to monitor my position, but i stayed on course, and although the loop was a little different then the previous week it was good enough.
for finding previous maps, the delorme is difficult, although its better for geocaching then the droid, it don't have instanteous downloads off the web that the android offers
pn-40 is sturday, and i'd buy it over the edge 705, but i already own the edge 305 and a foreunner 405
If you have not picked yet, I just bought an Oregon 200 for $199 at Bass Pro Shops, its for my daughter mostly non bike use. Maps are available online, no barometric altimeter though. Will report back more when we use it.
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