Garmin 250/350

robthehungrymonkey

What i'm looking to find out (much harder than it should be!) is do they offer any kind of navigation tools?

I've read bits and pieces that say they can help with navigation, but no further details.

I'm not interested in mapping (a la 605/705), but something to flash up on the screen to tell me to turn off the road would be really useful for routes i haven't been on before.

And don't say "just use a map" :roll: , as I think getting a map out all the time is a bit of a pain when you're cycling along country roads where you can turn on/off roads quite often.

Jez mon

Yep they offer navigational tools of some kind. You get a little track on the screen which is easy to follow it also tells to if you go off course. However IME loading courses onto the unit can cause instability

robthehungrymonkey

Jez mon wrote:

Yep they offer navigational tools of some kind. You get a little track on the screen which is easy to follow it also tells to if you go off course. However IME loading courses onto the unit can cause instability

Excellent, thanks.

I've read on lots of other threads about updated firmware fixing various issues with them, maybe that could solve your problem.

Jez mon

I have the latest firmware. All that happens is I have to delete the course if I want to put my ride data onto my pc. I have to say it's a great piece of kit though it's really good to be able to look at your ride data and nice to see improvements.

blorg

If you program a course into it you can include "turn left" / "turn right" directions- you have to program these in at the point you are creating the course though. It is OK but of limited usefulness IMHO, might be pushing it to rely on this alone (although you could always follow it with a map just as a backup.)

One of the issues (if you are using Google Maps to create the courses) is that it may be a bit off and as such the unit thinks you have gone off course when you haven't. This may work better if you had more accurate maps to create the courses on in the first place.

Great unit for recording where you have been etc. and also as a bike computer, the configurable screen is great.

richa

You can navigate with these no probs. They work well.

However, you do have to pre-program the routes in adavance.

Great for long rides, sportives, audaxes, etc

felgen

I am very happy with mine. I did a test route programmed against a route I already know and it worked fine, though sometimes a little short notice of a turn - must have been cos I am so talented and was going so fast .

As for the rest of it, I love the datalogging. Whilst the training center software is okay, I am now trying the sporttracks software, which certainly has it over the garmin offering in terms of mapping, if only to see where you have been (great for those hmm lets just see where this goes moments).

As for route mapping/programming into a Garmin - take a look at marengo... if you use this site and then the GPS babel, that seems to work okay, though it would be nice if there was a tidier and more efficient way to do it.