I have been driving a few years back very fond and often quite long distances on the road bike. To be honest, this is my passion and if possible I go to the weather conditions in accordance with at least 50 a day but usually 100km. Well. In recent years, the selection of training rounds limited to a few well-known routes, of which I knew to be expected there with not too much traffic and reasonable road conditions. Since the same routes in the long term but are dull and driving by map or directions that you have previously searched on the PC, with the mental stress is not necessarily useful, I have made myself to the search for a navigation device.
The search for the manufacturers was relatively fast - a Garmin it had to be! Garmin is in my opinion the only manufacturer that will meet the requirements for an outdoor Navi. The selection criteria were primarily free choice of maps - what I want to do with a car navigation map on the wheel? - And long independence from an external power supply - a cigarette lighter has my road bike for weight reasons not). But then I was spoiled for choice. There are countless different devices, each with a different advantage. Water tightness, display size, battery life, ease of use - and not to forget - the price was at the end of the decisive reasons why it should be the Vista HCx.
The next step was the price research. And the path did not lead once again past amazon. Interested there was the device anywhere!
I ordered then to expand it in the same set with the handlebar holder on the road and a MicroSD to the rather small internal memory.
After just one day I already had the package in his hands. Packaging is more than adequate, so a good piece for the transportation is safely packed. This was followed by the insertion of the batteries and how to install the driver software on the laptop. Now it was time. The unit was first turned on. The satellite search begins, first, second, third, fourth and fifth place and the position is shown to me on the supplied "card". This lasted not even 10 seconds! At closer look at the integrated card then I knew but not if I should laugh or cry - on this, only the motorways and major roads included. But I had already read about something and the shock was limited. Well, I played a bit with the different in very clear menu contains points, took over the settings of the device according to my wishes before and groped my way to connect with the given options. For this you need not even a manual with a little knowledge of the various terms used. This is the way in electronic form on the CD supplied.
Next, install the maps done. Here I chose the free maps openmtbmap. The installation was relatively easy if you stick to the described in the readme.txt points. Only the transfer of European maps of 1.4GB took to the device via the USB cable less than 45 minutes. However, this is due to the unused USB 1.1 port on the Vista HCx. For this reason, a MicroSD adapter for further transfers had to be purchased subsequently.
Since the purchase, I used the device back for testing purposes for a few trips to the cross-country skiing and jogging tracks for recording and for subsequent navigation. First result: Simply fantastic!
Unfortunately, so far the weather was not really having to also test with a predetermined route on the bike make. But what I've seen in a "dry run" for the purpose more than adequately. The size of the display is also good for use on the road bike. Since you have the nose are almost on the on the device;) I can not wait to explore new terrain.
As for the battery life match the manufacturer's specifications. I've been using the device with Ni-MH batteries with a cape. of 2,300 mAh. The term is at off backlight for about 20 hours with continuous use at minus temperatures.
Supplement 21.03.2010:
After finally spring has swept even over Sachsen I have planned a circular route through the already used last year planning software Rad.RoutenPlaner 7.0 and this sent directly from the program to the Garmin. All in all, the planning and the transfer took less than 10 minutes. Then the device plugged into the handlebar mount, turned reveal the satellite, the route is loaded and off we went ... What can I say? Just awesome! The navigation is a little getting used to, because unlike the usual car navigation, but it has adapted quite quickly. I immediately 80km in completely unknown territory put on very quiet roads behind me without thinking even once whether I'm right or wrong.
The device itself pretends intersections emit a warning tone and displays on the screen in text form and with easily identifiable, sufficient in size to the arrows driving direction to which you have to drive. Recognizing and mental processing of information is thus still very possible even on the bike at 50kmh.
You should definitely use in the included MapSource and Garmin even identical routing settings. I have it set for that bike as follows and thus achieved very good results:
- Leadership: follow road
- Follow road: Confirm
- Turn instructions Mando: at
+ Straßennavi. Einstellgn.
- Recalculate Route: Automatically
- Calculation method: Better Route
- Calculate routes for: taxi
- Avoid: "Toll roads" and "Unpaved roads"
What you should always bear in any case with him are two spare current donors. Shortly before the end of my round trip sounded the warning signal for the end of the batteries. That would go not only because of lack of recording very annoying)
