[Closed] Garmintrackworld

A quick summary to navigation in general:

There are two ways of navigating routes (and creating routes, and the two are linked).

One type of route is completely independent of mapping. Imagine a bit of tracing paper over a paper map: you draw the route you want and then your tracing paper contains the useful information. At the most basic, that may be just the wiggly line, but you can manually add notes at certain points: "turn right here" or whatever.

The other type has a closer relationship with the map. The device understands the roads or paths and how they connect, and it can determine that at certain points there is an actual junction rather than just a change (or not) of your bearing.

In the former case, your device can sens that you're approaching a point where there's a note, and it can pop that note up for you.

In the latter case, it can work out the note for itself: it'll know you're coming to a crossroads and it'll say "turn right here" without you ever having to predict at planning time that you'll want some assistance there.

The point to note, however, is that the mapping of off-road paths is not as thorough as that of roads. So whilst there are myriad sources of routable road maps (Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, Garmin's maps, Bing, etc) there are few of off-road trails. Google Maps has very few; OpenStreetMap has more, but it's a long way from comprehensive (though some areas are much better than others).

So if you're looking for off-road navigation you're normally looking at the former style.

The disadvantage is that it's not as easy to plan-and-go as the latter style, but the advantage is that most GPS units out there will support it. (Basically everything except the few designed exclusively to replicate traditional cycle computer readouts.)

The question you really need to ask when choosing a GPS for off-road use is whether mapping on the unit itself, with the route overlaid on it, would be essential or merely nice to have. If you want that, then you should be looking for a colour screen (more important off-road than on) and a decent amount of storage space (eg not the Garmin 520) support for either OS maps or (free and global) OpenStreetMap maps.

I think at first i will just be getting GPX files for routes from various internet sources and/or Strava.

I want to use the Garmin to "learn" new routes, so in the future i can ride them from memory rather than relying on the Garmin.

Does that make sense?

Yup, absolutely.

If you're doing that with off-road routes then you should probably think of them as the wiggly line on the tracing paper and nothing more. Some may have additional information, but most probably won't.

What most GPSs will do with that is allow you to see your current position and direction (as well as the path you've covered so far) superimposed on that wiggly line. A unit which supports mapping will superimpose both on a map. Many GPSs will allow you to tell them that you're trying to follow that line and will give you an "off course alert", which is a really useful thing to have in this context, since it'll proactively tell you when you've wandered off the trail rather than leaving you to look down half a mile later and notice you've slogged up a hill for nothing. (Though note that most units do give the occasional false alarm, especially if signal is poor under tree coverage.)

Personally I tend to suggest that most people starting out with a GPS are well served by buying an Edge 800 secondhand for about £100 and using OpenStreetMap mapping on it (which involves a little work, but instructions are on the web and there are only three or four steps, each of which is comfortably doable with no technical knowledge other than being able to copy some downloaded files to an SD card, and it's free). Then you'll be able to follow the wiggly line, and see the map (even if not all trails are on it) and if you later find you want some proper turn-by-turn navigation on the road you'll be able to do that too.

i have the edge explore 820 and the navigation is super crisp, concise and the stock maps have plenty of detail. use it loads, i have gotten in the habit of creating courses on strava on my lunch breaks then firing the GPX onto my garmin never to be used again!! nah in fairness most do get used, i ride in new places quite a lot with my job so its really useful. all off road too btw.

my main problem is mounting the thing. i hate having it on my bars, but the out front mount, the top cap mount, and the barfly have all been snapped off in crashes - the best place is mounted on my top tube but that is far from ideal when navigating!!

I'd second getting a cheap 800, if you want to prioritise keeping the cost down over having a newer unit it works well enough.

It's not as good for turn by turn navigation as you'd expect from a car GPS but it's fine for referring to occasionally or following a pre made route. I often use mine just for the map without a route, it's easier than digging out a paper map and I can use the road navigation as a backup if I want to get home quickly.

Another vote for an Edge 800 here