Newbie questions on Cycling & Elevation

[bravozulu]

I'm new to GPS. I want to get a portable for my road cycling. I mainly go either north or south on the Pacific Coast Hwy, so maps, topography, etc are of no interest. What I do want however is to configure a simple screen with MINIMUM of parameters. I don't want to get maxed out by unneeded data in the midst of traffic.

Can I configure the screen to show only Speed, Distance, Elapsed Time, Elev? Elevation gain would be nice. I'd like to see this info portrayed without pushing buttons or scrolling through menus. And I'm wondering if perhaps the Garmin 500 wouldn't be a better choice as it's tailored to cycling.

Maybe I should change my forum name to 'Mini-Data', just to differentiate me from all the 'Maxi Data' folks out there.

Gary Curtis
Santa Monica

[BrokenLug]

These 2 websites might help you make an informed decision on a good GPS for road bike usage :

http://gpstracklog.com/buyers-guides/gps-for-cyclists

http://bike-gps-review.toptenreviews.com/

I'm sorry to say if you want the KISS rule applied for road biking usage only the PN's may no be for you.

[John Moran_2]

Here are the default INFO pages in Large Text and Small Text when PN-60 is set to Cycling Activities mode.

Note: There are many more available Data Fields which could be selected in a Custom Activities mode.

[CowboySlim]

....I mainly go either north or south on the Pacific Coast Hwy, ......Gary Curtis
Santa Monica

Roger that, so if you go north, you may run into John Moran of the preceeding post, and going south, I live about 1 mile off PCH. Let me know and I'll keep an eye out for you.
About the elevation gain, I did drive about 5 miles down to Newport Beach on PCH this AM and got about 30 feet of elevation gain from north Huntington Beach ging south to the bluffs above dog beach.

[bravozulu]

Thanks. I looked at the various links. It seems the PN 60 screen is larger than the Garmin 500 edge. That's nice. I agree, the coast highway is dead flat. But I ride a few canyons during the week and do laps. Cook going up, freeze descending. Thank goodness for technical fiber clothing.

A few questions:
1) Does the size of the deLorme interfere with riding? Or the weight?
2) Am I right in thinking the screen presentation could be limited to parameters of speed/elapsed distance/elapsed time/total climb? I read through the online manual today, but only casually.
3) Would this unit work well in an automobile? Specifically the screen size? I'm retired, so I don't commute.
4) What is mapcaching, and does the average guy need it?
5) Having no knowledge of GPS, do I need to buy any extras for Southern California?
6) Figuring on maximum rides of about 4 hours, what is the best battery strategy?

Gary Curtis
Santa Monica