Garmin Oregon Series

[Craig Wagoner]

Has anyone used the Oregon Series on trips?

[Successor to the Professor]

I haven't had the chance to use these in the field, but I've played with them a little bit.  Taking away the navigation buttons and giving you one massive touch screen makes reading this very easy.  The touch screen didn't seem very refined to me, but I'm sure you would get used to it over time.  Even the base models take microSD cards, so you can load a ton of maps for long trips. 

I might hesitate on this a little for a bike trip because it would live in your pocket or bag.  I'm a huge fan of the Edge series that you can mount to your bars or stem.  The Edge series also has a lot of features that will eliminate your need for a cyclo-computer, such as speed, cadence, distance, heart rate, etc.  The Edge series is also a lot cheaper than the Oregon series.  You can get the top end Edge 705 for the same price as the base Oregon 200 model.

[gferry]

My opinion on the Oregon series is that it is the essentially as the eTrex Vista Hcx with a really slick interface.  Two other additions: can interface to a heart rate monitor and can wireless transfer data to another Oregon series.  There may be some issues with how well you can see the display so check that out.

I have the Vista and it works very very well for cycling (though I would like to know the %grade when climbing) 

[alpineMc]

One thing to note is that if you move up to the Oregon 550, the waypoint limit jumps to 2000. Very handy for long tours.