Garmin Edge Touring

Ben6899

Is it any good?

I borrowed a mate's 800 last summer, downloaded some moody maps and it was absolutely brilliant. The route shown by a purple line and the optional turn-by-turn navigation (or a simple bleep if you go off course) was a 'lifesaver' on a couple of long rides in unfamiliar territory.

Does the Touring work in the same manner? What are the standard, included maps like? Can I download the moody maps to the Touring?

I have tried searching websites, forums and Amazon reviews/answers but the terms of reference are foreign to me.

glenwatt

Ben,

Although the touring is has very similar seocs, I believe the Touring loses some of the Ant+ functionality.

I am a bit biased in replying and I hope it doesn't break any rules. As I am trying to sell an 800 second hand in the for sale section, if your still interested / in the market.

viewtopic.php?f=40091&t=13064508

wongataa

Ben6899 wrote:

Is it any good?

I borrowed a mate's 800 last summer, downloaded some moody maps and it was absolutely brilliant. The route shown by a purple line and the optional turn-by-turn navigation (or a simple bleep if you go off course) was a 'lifesaver' on a couple of long rides in unfamiliar territory.

Does the Touring work in the same manner?

Yes, I believe so

Ben6899 wrote:

What are the standard, included maps like? Can I download the moody maps to the Touring?

I don't know what the supplied maps are like but you can load your own maps on them. You can load your own maps on any Garmin with mapping capability as far as I am aware.

keef66

I have the Garmin Touring Plus. (Not fussed about the barometric altimeter but I did want HR info; also didn't need cadence or any of the training type stuff like virtual partner)

The course navigation and turn by turn instructions are pretty good and as you describe. The included maps, the whole of Europe, are based on Open Streetmap so they are as detailed as I'll ever need. You also get to update them periodically via the Garmin website (although the download / install process happens with glacial slowness for reasons known only to Garmin. It's certainly not our internet connection; we're on the end of a 50 Mbit/s Virgin Media cable)

Courses created on the pc and downloaded to the Garmin work perfectly, as do rides which are saved as courses for later use.

The only feature that's a bit flaky is it's own route creation. You can tell it you want to do a circular route of say 50 miles, and it will suggest 3 options. You can view the routes and their elevations and then pick which one to ride. However, you need to inspect the proposed route very carefully. It seems to have a habit of sending me off-road, sometimes on footpaths which would be a challenge for a walker, despite correctly set preferences. I've checked on OSM and the paths are clearly marked as unsuitable for cycling, so it's a Garmin issue.

I have discovered some delightful CX routes in the process, and have tested the CR1's vibration damping seatstays extensively!

Greek Cycling

we use them to guide our guests.

sat nav for cyclists, the maps included (including Greece), seems to be pretty good.

Ben6899

Thanks for all your input, chaps. Very much appreciated.

Nick Payne

keef66 wrote:

The included maps, the whole of Europe, are based on Open Streetmap so they are as detailed as I'll ever need. You also get to update them periodically via the Garmin website (although the download / install process happens with glacial slowness for reasons known only to Garmin. It's certainly not our internet connection; we're on the end of a 50 Mbit/s Virgin Media cable)

The reason for the glacial slowness in updating is that the Garmin units only support USB 1.1, which is many times slower than USB 2. If you have a microSD to SD adapter and an SD card reader on your PC, you should be able to fool the map update into thinking that the SD card is the actual Edge Touring unit, and increase the speed of update many fold by doing the following:

1. Connect the Edge Touring with SD card installed to your PC, and copy GarminDevice.xml from the Garmin folder on the Edge Touring to the Garmin folder on the SD card.

2. Disconnect and power off the Edge Touring, remove the SD card, place it in the adapter and insert in the SD reader.

3. Start the map update process.

I use Basecamp to install maps onto the SD card from my Edge Touring via this process, and I get about a 30x increase in speed of writing to the card compared to leaving the SD card in the Edge and updating with the Edge connected to the PC.

keef66

Nick Payne wrote:

keef66 wrote:

The included maps, the whole of Europe, are based on Open Streetmap so they are as detailed as I'll ever need. You also get to update them periodically via the Garmin website (although the download / install process happens with glacial slowness for reasons known only to Garmin. It's certainly not our internet connection; we're on the end of a 50 Mbit/s Virgin Media cable)

The reason for the glacial slowness in updating is that the Garmin units only support USB 1.1, which is many times slower than USB 2. If you have a microSD to SD adapter and an SD card reader on your PC, you should be able to fool the map update into thinking that the SD card is the actual Edge Touring unit, and increase the speed of update many fold by doing the following:

1. Connect the Edge Touring with SD card installed to your PC, and copy GarminDevice.xml from the Garmin folder on the Edge Touring to the Garmin folder on the SD card.

2. Disconnect and power off the Edge Touring, remove the SD card, place it in the adapter and insert in the SD reader.

3. Start the map update process.

I use Basecamp to install maps onto the SD card from my Edge Touring via this process, and I get about a 30x increase in speed of writing to the card compared to leaving the SD card in the Edge and updating with the Edge connected to the PC.

Wow! Thanks for that. At least the mystery is explained. Any idea why only USB 1 on Garmins?? Cost saving?

Suppose it's academic for the newer stuff with wireless and bluetooth etc?