I have had a 500 for nearly four years now and not had any problems with it at all. I have now started to ride longer and in places that I don't know. I can follow a route sheet, but as the rides lengthen so will the time spent in the dark. A head torch, maybe, but probably not.
With this in mind I bought an Edge Touring. Very disappointed with it. First 3 rides it turned off at times, froze, lost it's position on the route, and that's to say nothing of the battery life. I have now returned the unit for a refund.
The thing is all I want to do is plot a route on my PC, load it onto the GPS and ride. I want it to give me turn by turn instructions and I want it to record the actual route I took. That is all I need it to do. The touring was perfect. Well, except it wasn't because of the above.
Now I am really confused. The Touring sounded perfect and if I could pair it with an external battery, even better. I want to buy another unit, I have already bought an Anker battery. Question is what do I buy? An 810, a 1000, or maybe an Etrex, or maybe some paper maps. I know the 810 and 1000 will be far more than I need but if they work well they will also replace the 500. The Etrex I could use in addition to the 500.
Whatever I buy do I need to use a charge only lead, or can I use the standard data cable as supplied?
Bob