Mountain Biking / Hiking

dfrancefort · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 27, 2004 Posts: 2

I want to get a GPS for mountain biking, so when I go to pleaces to bike and maps are not available I can create my own trail maps. I want to also use it when I climb or hike so I can track myself in a remote location. I would like an altimeter, but are hey calculated on the GPS or barometric pressure ? barometric pressure stinks as I can go to sleep camping and wake up in the morning and the altitude has changed by 300 feet, yuk! Any assistance would be helpful in getting a unit between $200 and $300

revhigh · Occasional Visitor Joined: May 14, 2004 Posts: 13

The only GPS I can tell you about is the one I own...
I have the Garmin eTrex Vista which I use it for hiking/biking. It's small and full of features. You can add maps to it and all.

I used to think that a GPS that comes with a barometric altimeter (BA) only uses the barometric sensor to calculate altitude and like you, I thought, that can't be too accurate. Then I found out that the Vista has a BA and it also has GPS altitude and auto (or manual if you choose) calibration. The BA calibrates itself to the GPS altitude every so often if it's set to auto. The reason for the manual calibration is that GPS altitude accuracy isn't that great so if you know your actual altitude and you calibrate the BA, your readings will be much more precise (I think within 5 ft). The precision wont last very long (I don't know how long) but it's better than the GPS altitude reading.

Hope that helps.

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