Anyone using the Garmin Vista HCx

[willy in pacifi]

I am about to pull the trigger on a Gamin GPS unit with the City Navigator NT software. Mainly this will be used for longer brevets and well jsut for the hell of it. It was very cool during my last 600k where one of the riders was using one and during the second night we did not have to rely on stoping to read the route sheet after every turn. I was double checking the Garmin to the route sheet and it did not miss a turn.

Anyone have any helpful hints when it comes to using one of these on a bike?

They are about $300 at REI. Anyone know where the lowest reasonable price is other than Ebay which is at about $230?

Thanks, Willy in Pacifica

[benb]

I've had the regular eTrex Vista since 2001... It's been a pretty big P-O-S.

I'd be real interested in hearing how this new Vista HCx is. The features look greatly improved to the point where I'd buy one. The entire concept of the unit itself is really nice.

The little black joystick on mine broke within a year or two. I got a new unit with very little trouble from Garmin free of charge IIRC. (I forget, it could have been EMS gave me a new one... they are really good about taking care of you when something fails.)

But anyway the little joystick broke again.. probably just from sitting in the drawer unused too as I have never used it much due to it's flaws.

I wouldn't buy it without hearing about it's performance from another owner... make sure you find out how durable the new one is.

Other issues you need to find out about...

- Is the new antenna improved.. the old antenna made the unit useless anytime there was tree cover.. you basically had to leave it off in your pocket and only turn it on when you hit a clearing, you could stop and re-acquire your position. Might not be an issue in other areas... in New England forests and mountains it is a big issue.

- Old screen was too small & low-res for any vehicle use, the color on the new one should help but it's no bigger and no higher res.

- CPU power in the old one was too low to keep the map moving properly at vehicle speeds. Including bicycle speeds, a road bike would probably be the worst, in the car on the highway you end up zooming out and it can keep up. On the road at 20mph you probably want to be zoomed in which makes the unit have to repaint the map more quickly.

- Motorcycle or MTB use would cause the battery terminals to vibrate off of the batteries and the unit would power down... I don't think I ever took it on my road bike but my guess is mine would have the same problem on the road if you hit a pothole. This was kind of dumb since they made and advertised the handlebar mounts.

Seeing as Garmin has the Edge and other cycling specific GPS units today I hope they have the battery issue resolved...

I have little interest in the Edge models.. but replacing my Vista with the Vista HCx would interest me if it could be used for hiking, cycling, and occasional car use.

The battery power estimate for the regular Vista was super optimistic.. they claim 12 hours... I got more like 8 most of the time with alkalines.. as low as 4 with rechargeables.

[benb]

So perusing the Amazon reviews it sounds like Garmin has perfected the antenna in this unit... so you can cross that off my list of concerns...

If I can cross off the rest of the concerns I'll probably be looking at buying the new one too.

I looked at it last week in the store but they didn't have one they could power on to show me.

[willy in pacifi]

So perusing the Amazon reviews it sounds like Garmin has perfected the antenna in this unit... so you can cross that off my list of concerns...

If I can cross off the rest of the concerns I'll probably be looking at buying the new one too.

I looked at it last week in the store but they didn't have one they could power on to show me.

Thanks Ben,

Not knowing much about GPS Units I am trusting, to an extent, the guy who was using it on the 600k. He seems to like it and it never missed a turn. Of course it is only as good as the input. He is also a big computer geek from Stanford and recently moved here from Japan. He had every battery operated gizmo you can have on a bike on his bars. He even had a small reading light whip like gizmo in order to see the GPS. great guy to be riding with when you have never been on the roads.

The biggest advantage over the Edge models is the replaceable AA Batteries. All the bike specific modles have built in batteries that need recharging after 12-15 hours so they are no good for anything over 300k.

I am sure I will not use it as a regular item but with my upcoming ride down to San Diego it will come in handy. Plus, I can use it to map out a few more permanents for RUSA.