Garmin Edge Touring advice

Jamie Bassett
Jamie Bassett Posts: 9
edited July 2016 in Road general
Hi
I don't really know much about these and was hoping someone who owns one could help me so I can decide whether it is the right thing for me.

Can you ask it to find you a route - say from Liverpool to Bristol - and then follow that route from directions on the screen?

Can you specify all on road, or road plus cycle paths, etc?

Do you set the route on the device itself or on Garmin site on your computer?

Has anyone got any positive or negative comments about them?

Thanks

Comments

  • Thick Mike
    Thick Mike Posts: 337
    Depends on the model. I have the basic 25 and I have to plot the route on the computer and export to the device. It gives you turn by turn 'breadcrumb' directions. Fancier models can plot the route from the device without needing the computer.
  • Jamie Bassett
    Jamie Bassett Posts: 9
    ....or would an Android smartphone app do the job just as well? Something like Cycle Streets?

    Basically I need to plan a route Manchester to Liverpool to Bristol and be able to follow it from the device.

    Thanks
  • JimboM
    JimboM Posts: 380
    Although some of the Garmins (eg 810\820\1000) allow you to create route on the fly I wouldn't use this option unless I absolutely had to. It's far easier to create the route on the PC using Strava\RidewithGPS\CycleStreets etc where you can choose whether to use cycle paths and edit the route as needed and then download to the device.

    Personally I like having a proper map onscreen with turn by turn navigation so would choose the recently launched 820 or the 1000 (this is what I have).

    Love my Garmins and would happily recommend them
    Cannondale Synapse 105
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  • keef66
    keef66 Posts: 13,123
    oxoman wrote:
    I have the basic touring version, to be honest I've never used it properly for find point A to point B route. It does have various get me home functions but it is well known for taking weird routes. I wouldn't personally be letting the Garmin find the route given the distance involved, I would be using memory map or similar then downloading to the Garmin.

    Me too. I have the Touring Plus. Liked the fact it comes loaded with maps for the whole of europe, and that they are updated via Garmin Express.
    If you create a route on the pc and download it to the device, you can then follow it as a course with turn by turn directions. It's very good at that. Probably best to do it on the Garmin site

    I've only ever used the round trip routing on the device itself, which sounds good, but it occasionally tries to send me down paths which would be a challenge for a walker. And yes, I have specified on-road riding in settings. It seems to be a problem with Garmin's interpretation of Open Streetmap's mapping. Checking on OSM the paths are invariably tagged correctly as unsuitable for cycling. Anyway, then it's useless; you can't ask it to find an alternative like you can with a car satnav. And if you ask for the quickest route home it plots a straight line! Handy for crows, not so good for cyclists.

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