Garmin gps

DB100

Hi.
I am finding myself riding loads on the road at the mo, I would like a GPS device and I am considering the Garmin 705 and edge 500. What I want to know is, can they act like a sat nav, i.e. I want to go rom here to there, plan me a route to follow.
Any help would be appreciated

Cleat Eastwood

You can download / upload routes that you or others have planned.

You can ride a route and save it as a course so you can ride it again or navigate to it.

You can mark a place, ie your home, ride somewhere and navigate back to it.

It willl also warn you if you ride off course.

You cant enter co-ords and navigate such as a post code.

Don't expect graphics like a sat nav, v battery intensive, but you can see a route line to follow.

They are great fun and really handy

bigpikle

On the 705 you can enter a place name or point on the map and have the 705 navigate you there. Its a little clunky but will work. While you can specify avoiding main roads etc the route is a little hit or miss TBH.

We used this last weekend on a 2 day tour when 3 of us using 705's entered a place name and got 3 different routes, despite having the same routing preferences selected! We were all using different free opensource mapping on the devices so no real surprise we got different options, but only 1 of the routes was really rideable!

The best use IMHO for these devices is to follow a pre-planned route as well as tracking stats. I like the idea of being able to have it navigate home or to specific points in an emergency, but I tend to think of it as a last resort 'get me home' option rather than how I plan a ride!

markmod

Ok Bigpikle so which open map source gave you the only route that was ridable (for my future reference please) please provide a link to the source site/ file if you could.

mudslinger

I have the Edge 500 & I really like it. I primarily bought it as a training aid to "race" against a virtual partner however I've only done that once! It does have a basic GPS mapping function in that you can follow the trail of a prepared route. The Edge 705 displays a proper map but the 500 just displays a line you have to follow. I recently did a 50 mile ride somewhere I'd never been before & it was great with the 500.

It is quite a small device (not much bigger than a standard bike computer) compared to the 705. For MTBing I would prefer the 705 with the Ordnance Survey maps for proper mapping functions but they are a lot more expensive.

I'm currently using ridewithgps.com to create my routes.

alfablue

mudslinger wrote:

It is quite a small device (not much bigger than a standard bike computer) compared to the 705. For MTBing I would prefer the 705 with the Ordnance Survey maps for proper mapping functions but they are a lot more expensive..

I am not sure the 705 can use OS maps, one reason I bought the Dakota. It will use opensource maps though.

antfly

Don`t get the 500 if it`s for routing. I just got one, it does pre-planned courses but it won`t get you home if your lost and it doesn`t tell you where to turn unless you plot every turn before you upload the course. The 305 is as good as the 705 but without actual road maps. The 500 gives no navigation info at all if you don`t have a pre-planned course uploaded, the others do.

mudslinger

I am not sure the 705 can use OS maps, one reason I bought the Dakota. It will use opensource maps though.

I was pretty sure you can get the 705 with OS maps. That is why they are popular in the MTB community for showing bridleways. Not cheap though.

According to the following website: "Available on microSD/SD card. Topographic data is provided by Ordnance Survey® of Great Britain; road maps are provided by NAVTEQ™."

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=255&pID=13766

The 500 does show you how far off your route you are & the rough direction to get you back on it. It happened to me recently & I was pleasantly surprised. That said it is still a very basic GPS device.

antfly

They may get their topographic data from OS but they are not OS maps.