UKH

I'm playing 'personal shopper' for a relative and am stuck. He wants a GPS suitable for cycling that will record where he's gone and at what speed, and also wants it to give grid coordinates in BMG for when out hill walking. If it gave directions when on the bike that would be a bonus, but not 100 % necessary. Is there such a unit out there that isn't really pricey? I've a Suunto Ambit 2 that does all the above, but is there anything cheaper? I know the conventional hiking GPS units would do grid coordinates, but they are a bit big for handle-bar mounting, and would they record cycle routes? Conversely, the cycle computers don't tend to do grid references, to my knowledge? Any help very welcome! Cheers

In reply to Mr Fuller:
My Garmin 800 does this. Not quite as well as a dedicated walking GPS with it displayed all the time, You just change it to British grid in settings and then touch the map at your point once then again and it will give the grid reference.

This is also another way
To view your current position:-

1. Press "Menu"
2.Press the spanner (Bottom Right of Screen)
3.Press "System"
4.Press "GPS"
5. Press "View Satellites"
6. Your location will be displayed at the top of the screen.

Strange that he wants this considering you could just see where you are on the map displayed?! (I use free opensource maps).
I also only paid £150 for it on a Black Friday amazon deal last year.

In reply to Mr Fuller:

I had a garmin geko a few years ago but I believe that they are now discontinued, not sure if they have been replaced with anything directly, I think the closest thing is the edge.

In reply to Mr Fuller:

What are BMG grid coordinates? Google is unhelpful.

An Android smartphone with Strava/MapMyRide/other will do this. Also you can use Maverick with OS map overlay (requires signal for map download, limited caching of maps, free) or stump up for proprietary OS mapping software. There is a wee app called "Grid Reference" on the Play Store by Arthur Embleton which gives 6/8/10 figure OS grid references. Touch screen not great in wet. Flight mode to extend battery life.

You can even make phone calls on them. Handy!

In reply to Mr Fuller:

Thanks all. I meant BNG, rather than BMG - a British Mountain Guide might be helpful but not even a smartphone can summon them on command.

I don't think he's interested in the phone route, but the Garmin 800 sounds very good - I don't think he'd care if it doesn't display it all the time, but doing it 'on demand' is cool.