Edge 500 Users, Do your courses work?

[Rubber Bullets]

I've just read this thread on the Garmin forums through, and am in 2 minds.

I have had my 500 for 8 or 9 months and rarely had any problems at all. It isn't perfect, but I have been happy to put up with it's minor faults.

I have not however used the course feature, up to today.

Today I uploaded a 40 mile course, as a .tcx file, created from a previous ride using the ridewithgps.com site. I have just got back and the unit worked impeccably.

Today was just a test though. On Friday I am going to attempt my first ever 100 mile run, on roads that I largely do not know, and am concerned whether or not to use the course feature.

Reading the thread above it would be easy to think that everyone with a 500 has exactly the same problem, and that it never works, but this is probably not the case, a number of users have posted frequently there, and most have probably not posted at all, do they not use the course feature, or does it work fine for them?

I am riding with a friend who has a 305, and so we will probably be fine, though I would prefer to have some sort of mapping as a back up, but I don't want to risk not having the data for my first ever century. I'm really not sure what to do.

I have also just updated to the new 2.7 firmware, which offers 1 second data recording as well as the old default 'smart record' though I'm not certain I could tell any difference with today's ride.

I have also asked this question in that thread, and the answer I have got seems hopeful, but I wondered if any of the Edge 500 users on here have any experience of this?

any advice?

RB

 

[Garz]

I have toyed with the course feature a few times now. Generally I cycle around areas I know already so rarely need it but I have plotted out for areas I'm unsure about.

It did crash on me once returning from a long trip to the bike shop that built my latest machine, I ended up overshooting a turn-off going 4 miles downhill before stopping and checking my smartphone in my saddlebag. U had to return up the 4 mile slog to get back on course which really fatigued me.

In general it works pretty well but I now make sure I edit the warning points to more distance than default on the mapping sites. i.e. it shows '100 ft' which I change to '200 ft' so that the warning bleep actually notifies me in time. Otherwise if your going pretty fast it can bleep when your at the turn or change before you can react.

The other tip would be to carefully study your route. By this I mean I found mapping sites show 'turn left' when in reality on a roundabout it's actually straight on. You only realise when 50m down the road it says 'you are off course' so now I edit any errors I may spot to how I would negotiate that point.

Oh and I specifically didnt update the firmware to 2.7 as on the forums lots of people noticed bugs and as 2.6 seemed stable to me I held off.

HTH

 

[Rubber Bullets]

The route following I did today was simply with the 'map' view, i.e. the line on the screen telling me which way to go. I have no warning points and don't know how to put any in anyway . I found this pretty clear, and easy to follow, but I do know the roads anyway.

Having said that I have spent some time going over the route, and have looked at a lot of in on Google Streetview. This way I do have some idea what junctions will look like when I get there.

Perhaps I shouldn't have updated , ah well, we'll see.

RB

 

[snomaes]

I have also asked this question in that thread, and the answer I have got seems hopeful, but I wondered if any of the Edge 500 users on here have any experience of this?

any advice?

RB

I have used this function after loading a route from http://bikeroutetoaster.com/. It has worked very well on the routes that I have tried up to 55 miles.

 

[Rubber Bullets]

That's just what I wanted to hear, thanks snomaes

RB

 

[Rubber Bullets]

I have now saved the route as two 50 mile segments, would it be safer to try it this way? Just run the first and then switch over?

RB

 

[ian turner]

View: http://youtu.be/kAEM26w0bgg


A bit ott really

 

[Garz]

You could split it into two segments if you knew where the rest break position was. I would just plot the entire route but can understand why your doing this method. I have never tried a really long route where I was stopping say half-way but it should continue the course when switched back on, even if you had to re-load it.

I tried a 25 mile route which I never cycled yesterday and it worked pretty well.

 

[Rubber Bullets]

Thanks for the reply Garz, I missed it though as I was on my way by then.

I tried the mapping, but it didn't want to play and so we relied on my friends 205 or 305 (I'm not sure which), and that was fine.

His theory is that I had just uploaded a .tcx generated from the ridewithgps site, and that includes far too many wyapoints and the 500 crashes. He created a route using marengo and manually put in way markers just at each junction.

I might try this next time.

Many thanks for the help.

RB

 

[Garz]

Yes that sounds about right. The best working site I found so far is bikeroutetoaster. The others are a bit hit and miss.

 

[scook94]

I use the courses function a lot. It's the reason I bought the 500 in the first place. A breadcrumb trail is really all I need. As you say the 500 does have it's problems, but I can't justify the further expense to get the map function.

I use the "classic" MapMyRide to create the route and download it the .crs file. Hopefully the new site will support saving as .crs soon (haven't looked in a few weeks, so it may do already).