GPS Handhelds

I already have a have a baro Altimeter watch/digital compas.

If you have topo maps and a GPS your going to know you altitude anyway no?

the whole record your shit to a computer dosnt really float my boat anyway

the 60CSX has the barometric altimiter and an elcetronic compass

the 60CS is the old version of the 60CSX and doesn't have the quad helix antannae

the 60CX has the quad helix antannae but no altimieter or compass

the X designation is for the quad helix antannae. you can also get it on other garmin gps units. check out the
Deakin website

Syncro - The only difference between the [HTML_REMOVED]now discontinued[HTML_REMOVED] 60CS and the 60CSX is the removable SD memory card. They both have the Quad Helix antenna.
check here: http://www.garmin.com/products/comparison.jsp

This is also a useful site: http://www.gpscentral.ca/

Having owned both 60c and 60cx, I highly recommend the 60cx. The extra cost of the 60cx is worth it. The 60 cx has a faster and newer chipset enabling it to draw maps faster, has expandable memory and a more sensitive antennae. The latter is the key. If you are at all thinking about using a gps in the woods, go for the cx. Even under light cover in the trails, the 60c had very spotty reception. The other features are great as well. It is nice to have all your maps loaded into the GPS. You cannot do this with the 60c as memory is limited. The garmin gpsmap series is great. Waterproof, small and versitile. I use it for both hiking and car navigation. The extra cost of the csx may be worthwhile but that is personal preference. The 60cx does tell you your altitude(elevation) but may not be as accurate as the csx. The csx uses barometric pressure to determine elevation while the cx uses satellites and location to calculate elevation. I have not used both simultaneously to determine the CX accuracy in calculating elevation. I suspect it is not too far off. The 60c is a good unit but in a very short time, you will recognize its limitation.

The 60cx has a electronic compass as oppose to a magnetic compass of the CSX. The difference is that the CSX can tell you your heading when standing still while the cx needs to be moving (even if slowly) to tell you that information.

Hope that helps

Syncro - The only difference between the [HTML_REMOVED]now discontinued[HTML_REMOVED] 60CS and the 60CSX is the removable SD memory card. They both have the Quad Helix antenna.
check here: http://www.garmin.com/products/comparison.jsp

This is also a useful site: http://www.gpscentral.ca/

sorry, meant to say it's the new type of receiver. regardless, get the best receiver possible if you want to use it in the trees.

sorry, meant to say it's the new type of receiver. regardless, get the best receiver possible if you want to use it in the trees.

this man speaks the truth.

i've played around with most of the GPS that MEC sells (because I work there) and while they're nice machines, the reception sucks.
try screwing around downtown where if you walk under a bridge you gotta wait on the other side for your GPS to find the WAAS satellites again.

I agree with others, spend the extra.

I have a Garmin Etrex Legend (I think that is the model) and find that the reception isn't good enough for riding in the trees or close to rock faces, and it doesn't have enough memory for road trips longer than about a week.

Edit: The Garmin electronic topo maps that you can download to the GPS are pretty good, but you'll find that you need a GPS with decent memory to have much area loaded at any one time. The maps are expensive though! I still need to buy the US topo maps.

Must agree with the others, that little extra money you invest will give you much better accuracy and cleaner linework in the nasty areas that we ride, (under trees on steepish slopes.)

Also - buy a unit that will accept an external antenna. You can get a small patch type antenna that you can velcro to your helmet that helps to keep the GPS in view of the sky while your GPS is in your pack or shielded by your body bent over the handlebars.

Even better - we use a marine grade antenna (from Garmin) that mounts on a short pole of 2 - 3 feet. Tough to ride with but great for walking surveys, waypoints on woodwork stunts, etc… and yields great accuracies when others can't.

Edit: The Garmin electronic topo maps that you can download to the GPS are pretty good, but you'll find that you need a GPS with decent memory to have much area loaded at any one time. The maps are expensive though! I still need to buy the US topo maps.

I have the US road maps, as well as the Canada road maps, and I can only fit Vancouver and Seattle onto my Legend.

I bought the unit 4 or 5 years ago, and it only came with 8MB of memory, non-expandable. If I purchased one today, I'd defintely get one with a micro SD slot as their pricing is coming down a lot and it definitely doesn't hurt to have more storage.

skifreak, the point about GPS and canopy coverage is very important. Get a unit with a good antenna, otherwise you'll not be picking up enough satellites to get decent data points.

I tried out the Explorist 400 on a ride the other day was quite happy with the strength. was a fairly treed ride, with some canyons, higher speeds in spots and weather was pretty poor. The unit was in the sunglass pocket on my dakine bag, inside a ziploc bag and I was wearing one of those plastic rain jackets over top.

Kept readings all the way over the 5km dh. Should that be a pretty good indication of the overall quality?

If I'm gonna go for this unit I'm likely to save for the colour screen 500 version. definately has more long term use benefits over monochrome screen.

Found this site www.gpsvisualizer.com was sweet for converting the ride to a google earth or other formats.

http://www.gpscentral.ca/products/garmin/60csx.htm - about 280 or so in the US now

http://www.gpscentral.ca/products/garmin/60csx.htm - about 280 or so in the US now

where you finding it for that price?

my 60csx will arrive tomorrow!!

where you finding it for that price?

There's an online site called Afriel LLC which has auctions on ebay on all the time. I had a friend check the physical location and they are pretty big and a large Garmin dealer. http://myworld.ebay.ca/lillieafriel

also here - http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=pd_sc_1/102-4385202-2283359?ie=UTF8[HTML_REMOVED]search-alias=aps[HTML_REMOVED]field-keywords=garmin[HTML_REMOVED]#37;2060csx

my 60csx will arrive tomorrow!!

Vedder Mountain Trails Association has had this unit courtesy of MoTSA since June. I did a bunch of mapping on Vedder and was able to simply turn the unit on and ride. There were no gaps at all despite how heavy the forest canopy was. We used a commercial unit courtesy of Western Aerial Aviation previously, and the 60csx worked better, was lighter and used up less batteries.

I must admit that I am a real neophyte with using the unit and the software but it is pretty simple and foolproof.