Garmin 500 Question

ianwilliams
ianwilliams Posts: 257
edited August 2013 in Road buying advice
Hello

Quick question about the Garmin 500.

If you program in a route for the breadcrumb navigation, but then decide to change plan, will the unit keep recording your progress as a single ride, even if you switch off the breadcrumb navigation?

Thanks!

Comments

  • smoggysteve
    smoggysteve Posts: 2,909
    The unit will record wherever you went regardless of the plan. If you turn off the route it does not effect the recording so long as you did not reset it by pressing the bottom right button until it does.
  • It will still log your data. I planned a 101 mile route but took a couple of wrong turns and this added up to a couple of miles in all as this was my first time using the routes so when closer to home knowing I would still achieve the century I changed my route and it loaded fine!
  • Fantastic, cheers.

    Is the breadcrumb navigation good for you guys? I like the idea - not sure I need the full maps (or can afford the 800).
  • smoggysteve
    smoggysteve Posts: 2,909
    Breadcrumb is something I do not get on with. Its fine on a big open plan area with definite turns. But, if the road layout has a few turns close to each other and its easy to take the wrong one it won't help you get back on track. It does kind off tell you the general direction on your route with an arrow but if its a heavily built up area with lots of roads it can just make things worse. I prefer to just plan a route and stick a basic plan of certain turns or points on my top tube.
  • That sounds similar to what I'm doing now - scope a route out on Street View, find landmarks etc to navigate by?

    I find it hard to know what to write though. My one today was a sheet of A5 paper and that was only for 20 miles!
  • smoggysteve
    smoggysteve Posts: 2,909
    If you know your local area it should just be a case of studying a map and taking in places in reference to each other. If you know one town is north of you and another is east. You can use that as a basic knowledge to navigate around your route. GPS has made us lazy. Glad the army showed me how to map read and use basic relief recognition.