Garmin 705 or not....

[bigdavey1974]

Hi,

Doing Lejog at the end of May.

Starting to do some hefty rides now but regulalry get lost. Thought its about time to get some help.

What I want to do is have a decent road map on it. Do I need to download/pay extra. What do I need to ask for if buying 2nd hand?

If I want to go from Birmingham to say Milton Keynes will it take me a decent route rather than dual carraige ways etc? Is it easy to map a good cycle friendly route?

I assume it is reasonably easy to download other maps?

Pretty new to this cycle computer stuff.

Thanks in advance.

Dave

 

[jayonabike]

I bought a Garmin last year. I bought the bundle with full road maps. The problem I found with it was that the screen was to small, and if I wanted to see where the road was heading to I would zoom out and loose a lot of the minor roads and just have the main roads showing. Fine if your on main roads, pointless if your cycling down country lanes (like I do)
So I sold it and bought a SatMap. You can buy it at the moment with full O/S Landranger 1:50000 U.K map for around £350, the maps are normally around £200 so a good deal. I bought mine from Amazon for £320 and the Bike mount ( It's gone up a bit, I paid £29.99 for mine)
I love it, large screen, proper maps, good battery life. I used it on my first 100 mile ride the other week and I had no problems following the route I had plotted. It is easy to plot routes, either on the unit itself or as I do, use a website like RideWithGPSplot your route on your P.C and download the .gpx file to the unit.

 

[fossyant]

Got a 705 with Euro maps on and cadence/hr etc - all in a bundle from handtec. Recommended you go for the Maps on DVD and get a blank SD card just incase the SD falls over.

Very happy with mine, just takes a little while to learn how to use it, oh and turn off auto re-routing if you are following a pre-plotted route.

You don't have to use the Garmin maps, as there are open source maps now available, I use one for MTB routes as it has the bridleways on.

 

[bigdavey1974]

Cheers both.

So if I want to do my Brum to Milton Keynes I would have to pre-plan whatever gadget I use? or does one of them tell u where to go?

Anyone help?

 

[400bhp]

oh and turn off auto re-routing if you are following a pre-plotted route.

Hell yeah - It took me 4 months to work that one out. The auto-route option can make the unit unuseable especially if you are on a looped route.

 

[400bhp]

Cheers both.

So if I want to do my Brum to Milton Keynes I would have to pre-plan whatever gadget I use? or does one of them tell u where to go?

Anyone help?

You don't have to. It can be used like a standard sat nav and you can set it to avoid the major roads. However, using a simple gpx maker like bikeroutetoaster means you choose the route that is suitable for you (avoid A AND B roads, avoid towns etc.)

 

[bigdavey1974]

Thanks and a Garmin 705 would do that?

The opensource maps mentioned above will allow me to do all that?

 

[400bhp]

Yes x 2

 

[Norry1]

I find my 705 is fine if I plot a route on a map first and then download to the 705. It normally "gets me home" if I get lost but it can take you some strange ways.

It is also easy to download routes others have used. - Some websites hold banks of such routes - also ask people you know and they will often share with you.

Martin

 

[bigdavey1974]

Thanks Martin

 

[gussington]

I've got a 705 that I picked up pretty cheap, hoping that it would do the same job as a car sat nav. It doesn't unfortunately - it calculates strange routes, sometimes tries to make me go the wrong way down busy one way streets in London, and has a very small low resolution screen. This said however, it is still a bloody brilliant piece of kit - and is almost always attached to my bike!

If you do get one, then I would recommend that you check out sites like:
http://www.bikely.com/listpaths
http://www.cycle-route.com/
and probably many others - and try to find what you think will be reliable gpx files - that you can load onto a 705. You will then have pre planned routes - hopefully planned by people who know the roads. Not a foolproof aproach - but I have had a lot of fun using it!

I would also recommend that you still have paper maps of some description on you when going far, otherwise will be buggered if the sat nav fails you - and this is coming from someone who is hopeless with maps.

Personally I think that current bike sat navs are very overpriced for the functionality that they currently offer - but I love mine and now probably won't ever be without one.

Gus

 

[zacklaws]

I have the "800" and have a similar problem when I use it to plot me a route, especially when I ask it to avoid A roads, for example a short 8 mile ride becomes nearly a 30 mile epic as it routes me all over the country side avoiding the slightest bit of A road, and with the screen so small it is difficult to examine the route in detail. But using routes downloaded from the net their is no problem. The memory on them is large enough to plot the whole Lejog at home in segments, download it to the Edge, and just load that segment you need for the days ride.

 

[400bhp]

Just a point to note.

If using/creating gpx routes, try and double check via Google streetview. Sometimes, the gpx builders like bikeroutetoaster can take you on private roads/tracks that might be unsuitable for road bikes.

 

[zacklaws]

Just a point to note.

If using/creating gpx routes, try and double check via Google streetview. Sometimes, the gpx builders like bikeroutetoaster can take you on private roads/tracks that might be unsuitable for road bikes.

Thats one of my biggest bugbears with Bikeroutetoaster and why I stopped using it till recently as it seems better to use with an Edge 800. Only twice this week it wanted to take me across farmland where there was not even a track which is useless on a road bike

 

[benb]

I have a 605, and as above, it's excellent for following a route that you have created on a website like bikeroutetoaster and then loaded onto the GPS.

I wouldn't rely on it to do the actual route for you though, for the reasons already given.

It can be time consuming manually creating the routes, but it's worth it to get the most control and detail over it.