8 out of 8 people found this review helpful.
Very Usable GPS especially when weight matters
Date of Review: Oct 20, 2004
The Bottom Line: Buy the Foretrex 101 for the same features & longer battery life unless you can get a good buy on ebay for a used Geko.
I've used this a lot for hiking, XC skiing, backpacking, kayaking, driving & bicycling. It has worked well even in moderately dense NW forests. When combined with mapping software, it makes all sorts of route finding much easier. Logging information like average speed and, with mapping software rate of climb, makes it possible to do better future trip planning– like knowing your average kayaking speed under varying conditions.
To make the most of the 201's low gain antenna, you need to carry it outside of any clothing or equipment pockets. (I use a Radio Shack cell phone case and use its belt clip to hook it on something exposed to the sky. A simple belt clip should be an included accessory with the 201.) The 201 did a poor job of tracking a bike ride when carried under a Gore-Tex jacket. It also has a hard time in dense forest that is rain soaked. All the GPS units with better antenna weigh more than twice as much – more than I would carry backpacking.
For me, the biggest issue with the Geko 201 is the short battery life -with alkaline (8-9 hrs unless its cold) and especially rechargeable batteries (4-6 hrs unless its cold). If I were buying now, I'd consider the new Foretrex 101 that Garmin claims has 25% longer battery life.
The data cable is expensive and requires a serial-to-USB adapter if you have a modern computer. Garmin should offer both types of cables and they should be cheaper. The new Foretrex cable is half the price of the Geko but is still RS232!?! But when connected, it is a snap to use National Geo Topo software (at least on a Mac) for upload, download & export. I've even imported track point text files into Excel for additional calculations.
It is really easy to learn to use this unit. Once you grasp the menu layout, it is easy to figure out most of the features even without the manual. Which means that even after you forget what the manual says, you'll still be able to figure out what to do. Some bike computers and most heart rate monitors are harder to figure out than this thing.
