Garmin Edge navigation help

It's because the Garmin doesn't consider the first section to be a valid route. If you look here:

https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=17/46.753455/8.145927&layers=C

You can see that the two sections are displayed differently. The first part is tagged as "highway: path" the second is "highway: track".

Your Garmin will take you along the nearest route that it knows about that it thinks you're "allowed" on. I've not used Garmin for years, but there may be a setting somewhere for what surface types it will route you down.

If you send the route via Garmin Connect there's an option for cycling type (road, MTB etc).

I assume it then aligns with the appropriate heatmap.

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It was put in as MTB.

Some of the other times I've seen this it has tried to take me on a really strange detour where there was no trail on the ground at all.

We have been on a ride with 4 different Garmins all loaded with the same GPX file and at crossroads were given 4 different directions.

This weekend in the Lakes, mine spent at least half the time telling me to do a U-turn. I always have our route loaded onto my phone on Backcountrynavigator so I can have a quick check if I'm unsure. Not so easy when you leave said phone on top of the water tap at the campsite though...

This is one of the reasons I'm holding off buying an edge.  I have an older Oregon at the moment, and I tend to map routes at home, or pinch someone else's.  Some might have short bits of cheeky on them.   On the Oregon, I can just display the route on the map (or even 2 routes, different colours, e.g. one as a bail out loop).  I press start and record the ride, but I'm following the line on the map, rather then being given arrows and instructions and directions and distances to turnings.  

I quite like this approach as if you want to have route as a suggestion, explore either side of one or more routes you can do that without being shouted at.

Also as per OP Tom, if you're knackered at the end of long ride and just want to follow exactly the route you planned, because you did it carefully and you know it's the best one, you can do that without being told off and sent a different way because your Garmin thinks you're being naughty.  

Can you do this on any Edge computers?  Just have a route or two displayed on the map without "following" it?

I think it’s in part about the original route creation and saving. With my karoo i think it’s to do with route vs track. I think a route is a few clicks across the map just recording where you clicked. When that goes into the head unit it matches the clicks with its own map and creates a route through those points. This may not be the what you saw when you plotted. A track is loads of points defining everything you saw at creation. Some software lets you choose. 

I’m not sure how helpful that was, sorry

I don't have an edge Garmin, and it's years since I used the thing anyway so I forgot the terminology. But what @ampthill above says is what I remember 

I think you might have to activate them differently too. Because a trail is the breadcrumbs you've left as far as the unit is concerned so you are asking it to retrace or backtrack those crumbs not route you.

There are a few settings that can affect how the unit calculates routes - on the 830, from the home screen you need to choose the hamburger menu then activity profiles, select the appropriate profile then choose Navigation then Routing. Then there's options for Popularity routing, routing mode, locking onto roads and recalculation (I always turn that one off).

Also it's worth uploading the route into garmin connect before sending it to the unit, particularly if it's just a set of way points linked by straight lines. Connect will do a lot of the same route calculation that the unit will so you can check it over in advance.

I think @thepurist has it, so check the activity profiles first as above.

It's also worth noting that if you carefully map out a route in an app other than Garmin Connect and then export the GPX/import the GPX into Connect, then Connect sometimes chooses different route options (I can't remember the exact message or setting Connect uses, but it's bloody annoying it doesn't always stick to the plotted route🤬)

Posted by: ampthill

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ith my karoo i think it’s to do with route vs track. I think a route is a few clicks across the map just recording where you clicked. When that goes into the head unit it matches the clicks with its own map and creates a route through those points.

Yeah, that's definitely an issue Hammerhead/Karoo but in this case the OP gave it a GPX track file, which contains a huge number of points so that shouldn't be an issue here.

The issue is that turn-by-turn navigation on any device relies on the routes/trails available on the device's map. If the route isn't in its map, or it's been classified wrongly, or your settings tell it you don't want that kind of route, it won't take you on it even if that's exactly where the GPX track goes.