Garmin 800, wich maps ?

[BigTam]

I am about to purchase a Garmin 800 bundle, but which maps should I go for, the City Europe or the GB discoverer OS ones ?

 

[Herzog]

Will you be heading off-road at all? If so, I believe the OS maps would be more suited (?). I have the City maps and they're great, showing all showing roads and some of the footpaths (I've not tested how detailed the footpaths are, I'm strictly a road man). City maps also tell you where the nearest pubs are...

 

[BigTam]

City maps also tell you where the nearest pubs are...

Mixture really, but I do like a nice pub

 

[Svendo]

I have a 705, but this site has an interesting comparison showing the relative strengths and drawbacks of OS and City Navigator. Unfortunately neither is perfect for everything. I have no choice on the 705, but as I don't go off road I'd have the City Navigator, which also comes with the postcode data and places of interest data, like your car's GPS. I don't know if the OS maps do, other than the wealth of information 'printed' on them.

An option would be to pay for the OS maps and have a version of the Open Street Maps for road riding. The OSM maps seem to be the linux of GPS maps, same database, but various implementations. You can sample the coverage and quality of OSM on sites like RideWithGPS which have them as a map option.

I'd be interested to know, could you have both available for the 800 on a single SD card? (I know you can't load both at once, but could you have both available without having to swap micro GPS cards?)

 

[deadhead1971]

I have a 705, but this site has an interesting comparison showing the relative strengths and drawbacks of OS and City Navigator. Unfortunately neither is perfect for everything. I have no choice on the 705, but as I don't go off road I'd have the City Navigator, which also comes with the postcode data and places of interest data, like your car's GPS. I don't know if the OS maps do, other than the wealth of information 'printed' on them.

An option would be to pay for the OS maps and have a version of the Open Street Maps for road riding. The OSM maps seem to be the linux of GPS maps, same database, but various implementations. You can sample the coverage and quality of OSM on sites like RideWithGPS which have them as a map option.

I'd be interested to know, could you have both available for the 800 on a single SD card? (I know you can't load both at once, but could you have both available without having to swap micro GPS cards?)

Thanks for posting the link to my site.
Yes indeed you can have an SD card with multiple mapping options installed. Mine has City Navigator (the one I use most frequently), the OS Discoverer, and the talkytoaster open source map.
You can also use the contour data from talkytoaster overlayed on top of Navigator, so it gives you more useful data to play with.
Hope that helps.

 

[BigTam]

Cheers for the info guys, got the 800 with the City navigator maps, not impressed with them so far, but will look at the other options.

 

[Herzog]

Cheers for the info guys, got the 800 with the City navigator maps, not impressed with them so far, but will look at the other options.

What's not impressed you? Perhaps it's something in the settings that could be changed...

 

[Svendo]

Thanks for posting the link to my site.
Yes indeed you can have an SD card with multiple mapping options installed. Mine has City Navigator (the one I use most frequently), the OS Discoverer, and the talkytoaster open source map.
You can also use the contour data from talkytoaster overlayed on top of Navigator, so it gives you more useful data to play with.
Hope that helps.

That's cool, better than my 705 can do. I like that they've enabled such flexibility, and not tied in as proprietry-ness as possible. I guess you need to get the CD version of City Nav, otherwise you're stuck with the micro SD card it comes on, which at 2GB won't also hold another map? My map was a gift, but next time I need to buy one...

What's not impressed you? Perhaps it's something in the settings that could be changed...

On my 705, once used to it being only a map of cycleable roads (albeit with the POI and postcade databases too) it makes sense. And it's pretty reliable in that sense, google maps can suggest roads that Garmin suggest NO! and Garmin usually wins. I've only found one road on it that isn't passable (Green Lane from White Hill here, which even google doesn't mark.

My only gripe with City Nav. on the 705 is that road names sometimes obscure junction details, especially in urban areas. It'd be better to have separate options for road detail and road name detail.

 

[dongo]

I have an 800 and have been very pleased with the OpenStreetMap maps, they are free, regularly updated and have better coverage of off-road cycle routes and National Cycle Routes.

Some useful links:
http://talkytoaster.info/ukmaps.htm
http://ridewithgps.com/edge_800

 

[Herzog]

My only gripe with City Nav. on the 705 is that road names sometimes obscure junction details, especially in urban areas. It'd be better to have separate options for road detail and road name detail.

On the 800, the size of the text can be changed, as can the point at which the text becomes visible. Perhaps there is an option on the 705 to do this?