Garmin Edge Touring - Worth It?

[Peteaud]

i have had the standard touring model since january the 6th this year and love it
i often download a GPX route from the strava route planner and can follow this fine
i have at times asked the garmin to take me from current location to a certain village/town or to a favourite that i have set at home and find it works fine

i also often just slap it on the handle bars to record my ride if i know where i am going or someone i am riding with knows
Cheers Ed

Pretty much the same here, no hassle with mine, love it.

When planning your route (i use RWGPS) just take care to put in enough way points and check the route with osm and google as well.

 

[G3CWI]

When planning your route (i use RWGPS) just take car to put in enough way points

Take the car? Surely not

 

[Peteaud]

Take the car? Surely not

I have found an e,

 

[G3CWI]

You'll be dancing all night on Es.

 

[young Ed]

Pretty much the same here, no hassle with mine, love it.

When planning your route (i use RWGPS) just take care to put in enough way points and check the route with osm and google as well.

i am always zoomed right in close on the strava route planner which runs on google maps and just add a way point every now and then or where it wants to take me another route to where i cant and then the garmin works out all the junctions etc and everything it needs to tell me and when and hasn't missed a beat yet

Cheers Ed

 

[GravityFighter]

Cheers all.

I resisted taking the plunge on one before we went away and decided to stick with my basic Cateye. Glad I did as we only managed about 3 hours' cycling due to the weather and Mrs GF being a bit of a wuss

Going to see how I get on building my mileage over winter and if I really can't do without will revisit the Garmin options next year.

 

[Saluki]

I love mine to bits. It does everything I need it to. I didn't get the version with the HRM as I don't really need it as I don't cycle for sport and don't train hard. I ride for fun and fitness and if I want to use my HRM, I have it on my watch with a chest strap thingy.

The garmin has taken me 'home' before now, after I got a bit lost always a bonus.

 

[andyfraser]

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread but I bought a Touring Plus a couple of weeks ago and found this thread interesting.

I have to agree with what some have said, as a satnav it's not great. When I ask it to get me home from the office the route it picks is definitely not the shortest or the best (Google's just as bad though to be fair). When I've tried to use it as a satnav I find it fine until it wants to go on cycle paths. Then it just shows these long, wiggly arrows that are very hard to follow. Luckily if I keep going it eventually recalculates the route and gets me where I'm going.

When I tried to get it to follow a course I'd pre-made on Garmin Connect I forgot to turn re-routing off and it took me all over the place. In the end I followed the route and let it catch up.

I love it for displaying data as I ride and logging data to Garmin Connect and Strava. I sometimes like to have a route so it'll tell me when I'm going to arrive at my destination and how much further I have to go.

It's a lot better than my Edge 200 but it would be nice if it was a better satnav.

 

[young Ed]

i download routes from starav but it is basically exactly the same as GC and i think i have rerouting on and i have no probs

i find it to be a great satnav and great for displaying data, if i ever get a turbo trainer though i will have to save the pennies to get a edge 500 with it so i could have the cadence to have speed and distance on turbo
Cheers Ed

 

[andyfraser]

i download routes from starav but it is basically exactly the same as GC and i think i have rerouting on and i have no probs

i find it to be a great satnav and great for displaying data, if i ever get a turbo trainer though i will have to save the pennies to get a edge 500 with it so i could have the cadence to have speed and distance on turbo
Cheers Ed

How many waypoints are you putting into your routes? I let GC work out some of the route so, with re-route on, so having set my route to go around my road to the roundabout but setting a waypoint at the roundabout, my GPS routed me through the estate via cycle paths instead.

I'm tempted to try a different site and download the file straight to my Garmin and see that works better than GC.

 

[young Ed]

How many waypoints are you putting into your routes? I let GC work out some of the route so, with re-route on, so having set my route to go around my road to the roundabout but setting a waypoint at the roundabout, my GPS routed me through the estate via cycle paths instead.

I'm tempted to try a different site and download the file straight to my Garmin and see that works better than GC.

dunno on way points but i just click on the map on strava at every junction or turning and more often if need be

in the settings on the garmin i have 'recalculation automatic' and 'lock on road' and 'calculation method minimize distance' and 'routing mode tour cycling'
i find it will route me exactly where i plotted on strava and i am very able to follow this
Cheers Ed

 

[andyfraser]

dunno on way points but i just click on the map on strava at every junction or turning and more often if need be

in the settings on the garmin i have 'recalculation automatic' and 'lock on road' and 'calculation method minimize distance' and 'routing mode tour cycling'
i find it will route me exactly where i plotted on strava and i am very able to follow this
Cheers Ed

Clicking on every turn and junction would be setting waypoints (or whatever they're calling them these days). It's a shame you can't just set the start and end points, make sure the route goes where you want and it just follows it. Maybe turning re-calculate route off will do this.

What's the difference between cycling and tour cycling for routing mode? I've never been able to find out.

 

[young Ed]

Clicking on every turn and junction would be setting waypoints (or whatever they're calling them these days). It's a shame you can't just set the start and end points, make sure the route goes where you want and it just follows it. Maybe turning re-calculate route off will do this.

What's the difference between cycling and tour cycling for routing mode? I've never been able to find out.

well if these are way points then there we go
google maps does a thing where you enter start and finish points and then it gives you a route that you can edit to a certain extent and i believe there are some 3rd party software that will export this as a .GPX file (what your garmin takes) just google google maps gpx exporter or something like that

and the difference between cycling, tour cycling and mountain biking is HUGE, just i'm blind when it comes to technology!
Cheers Ed

 

[andyfraser]

well if these are way points then there we go
google maps does a thing where you enter start and finish points and then it gives you a route that you can edit to a certain extent and i believe there are some 3rd party software that will export this as a .GPX file (what your garmin takes) just google google maps gpx exporter or something like that

I've plotted a route in Strava and set a waypoint for every junction etc for my route home and loaded the GPX file onto my Garmin. I'll see how I get on with that.

and the difference between cycling, tour cycling and mountain biking is HUGE, just i'm blind when it comes to technology!
Cheers Ed

In the real world yes. I don't know they difference between cycling and tour cycling in Garmin's world though. I have tried Googling it but without much luck so far.

 

[MikeW-71]

This seems a good place to ask.

I'm going to be doing an off-road tour next year. I've plotted the routes out on RWGPS and I could use my Edge 500, but it's the kind of middle-of-nowhere riding where seeing an actual map would be useful. I will also be taking paper maps with me just in case.

How much does the standard map show? Will it show bridleways for example? Many parts of the route make use of them and the OSM-Cycle map on RWGPS does not show all of the ones that the proper OS maps show.

I know I can get the OS maps from Garmin for the Touring, but they cost a bit over £100