Looking to buy a user friendly GPS.

A bit of a rant, then on to my question.

I have been looking to buy a hand held GPS unit for a few months now.
Two primary uses, one would be as an always at my side form of Map
Quest. The other main use would be on my Dual Sport motorcycle rides. At
some Dual Sport / Adventure rides, you are given GPS quadrants for your
next stopping point and I have to either ride with someone with a GPS,
or get way off course. It's possible to get from point A to point B on a
Dual Sport ride using a paper map, but it's not always possible to stay
on the suggested course, and a rider could get messed up and be on
someone's property without permission, which would be trespassing, which
can be a bad thing.

A week or so ago I bought a Magellan Triton 1500 at my local WalMart.
They had them on sale for $249 down from $449. So I took the plunge and
grabbed one. I was shocked to see that there were no operations manuals
with the unit, just a computer disk. Well guess what? I don't have a
computer! All I have is this MSNTV internet browser that limits me to
e-mails, usenet, and very few web sites. I called Magellan and asked for
a paper copy of the owners manual, and was told no such thing is
available. So this GPS unit is getting returned to WalMart.

My question is this. Is there a hand held, weather proof GPS unit that
can do what I need it to do as described above, that comes with a paper
copy of the user instructions right in the box? It must be user friendly
(idiot proof) and without all the bells and whistles this Magellan unit
has.

Thanks in advance for your reply.


"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and
degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing is
worth a war, is worse." --- John Stuart Mill:=A0

Mike Corey wrote:

If I understand it right, you don't need a GPS receiver you can watch
and follow a route on. You need one that you will glance at momentarily
and occasionally, as you pick your way across the terrain, reading
heading and relative movement info that will keep you headed towards a
specific point or series of points

For that, you probably need a Garmin 60Cx, 60CSx, 76Cx, or 76CSx
handheld. That, in a RAM mount on a motorcycle, would be pretty much
indestructible on a dual sport motorcycle short of your striking a fixed
object with it.

It is IPX7 waterproof, the 76 series will float, they all can be
immersed down to 1 meter for up to 30 seconds. They'll run for a long
day on two AA cells and can also use external power source (12-35V).

You can get (optional at extra cost) street and highway, topo, and
marine charting for it. There is really nothing on the market that is a
versatile as those handhelds.

The Triton is sort of a piece of fluff as far as good GPS receivers go.
Garmin has a line of new models that are just as fluffy, those are the
Oregon, Colorado, etc. No one that understands GPS, navigation, and
wants to record tracks would prefer the new "fluff" handhelds over one
of the last generation handhelds (the ones I mentioned above). The new
ones are simply dumber and less capable, there is not other way to
describe it.

As far as "..without all the bells and whistles..." the 60/76 "x" series
models are not simple devices. But they *are* pretty much devoid of
what I call "brain candy" or non-navigation related features. Because
they have a lot of features they also have a lot of settings and
preferences that sort of overwhelms people that are new to them. But
those that learn to use them don't complain about that once they master
the learning curve.

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA (jacker at midmaine dot com)
(also receiving email at jackerbes at roadrunner dot com)

Thanks for the reply Jack. I've done some snooping around and the Garmin
60Cx sounds like it may fit my needs. Does it come with a paper copy of
instructions? Where does a person go to buy one?


"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and
degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing is
worth a war, is worse." --- John Stuart Mill:=A0

Mike Corey wrote:

It does come with a printed user's guide. You can see and download that
here:

http://www8.garmin.com/manuals/GPSMAP60Cx_OwnersManual.pdf

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA (jacker at midmaine dot com)
(also receiving email at jackerbes at roadrunner dot com)

Mike Corey wrote:

It does come with a printed user's guide. You can see and download that
here:

http://www8.garmin.com/manuals/GPSMAP60Cx_OwnersManual.pdf

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA (jacker at midmaine dot com)
(also receiving email at jackerbes at roadrunner dot com)