Just In: Garmin Edge Touring

I've had a Garmin touring for a couple of weeks now and have to say I'm unimpressed. After owning a Mio 505 for a month before (only had to return that after I found the screen too sensitive in rain which made it useless for tracking rides or navigating in the UK winter - it was perfect otherwise and had far better spec/higher res screen) I had been a bit spoiled, the navigation on the Mio device was much better than the Garmin. The Garmin should avoid off road routes but no matter what options I select just about every course/route it creates includes off road sections (Rooley Moor road, Rochdale being one).

In the dark or somewhere you aren't sure of and being routed onto one of the these routes on a road bike is frankly ridiculous. Great if you're on a cyclo cross or mountain bike.

Although the Garmin can follow a course I've had issues with it if you join the course anywhere but the start, it's great when you go from the start and gives nice car like turn by turn directions.

The Mio on the other hand has the option of navigating to the nearest point on the course and going from there. The Mio could also be setup to avoid off road routes.

Plus points of the Garmin though are that I can use the touch screen with winter gloves, unlike with the Mio, which was not good with this but went crazy when raindrops hit the screen. I love the physical buttons for starting and stopping the ride. I love the compact size of the device. The out front mount (that came with it) is much better than having the device on the stem. Garmin connect is much better than the Mio PC software but I do miss walking into the house after a ride with the Mio selecting wireless sync with the broadband router and having the rides automatically upload to Strava.

Basically I'd like the Mio with the physical buttons and same feel of the Garmin touch screen and a compatible mount. The Garmin seems like a lackluster attempt to catch up to the Mio 505.

Don't know what the reviewer will think but would be interested to know if there are any ways around the routing issues, the would make me much happier with my purchase.

Thanks
Richard

If you want good free routable maps of the UK, look up talkytoaster.com

I can't recommend them highly enough.

The Oregon is a good choice, but it's screen limits its battery life somewhat. I went for the Etrex 30 over the Oregon down to this factor. Admittedly, the joystick on the Etrex isn't great when you're on the move.

I recently bought a Garmin Oregon 450 which is a great navigational GPS - it takes AA batteries and has a touch screen (much easier than the little joystick on the etrexs). The routing functions are a long way from perfect but I think that is the fault of the maps I am using rather than the unit itself.

by the way, you can save yourself a fortune on maps by dowloading open source maps from here:

http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/

I have the 800 but don't really want it's "training" features (anyone able to delete the "virtual partner"?) so considered buying the Touring and selling the 800. But it doesn't seem much more "touring" related. It still doesn't accept standard batteries, and as far as I can tell (why is there so much disinformation from and about Garmins?) it still won't give turn-by-turn instructions on a course created in Garmin Connect. I see the comment to use BaseCamp, but I would prefer to spend the hours on the bike, not on the computer.

Are you sure about the cadence capability with the Touring Plus, even via ANT+? Garmin website says No ??

For anyone struggling with the course navigation and turn by turn directions on a Garmin edge 800, please check out this foolproof guide for some settings that really work. Well, they work fine for me!
http://www.scarletfire.co.uk/2012/11/foolproof-course-navigation-on-the-...

For anyone struggling with the course navigation and turn by turn directions on a Garmin edge 800, please check out this foolproof guide for some settings that really work. Well, they work fine for me!
http://www.scarletfire.co.uk/2012/11/foolproof-course-navigation-on-the-...

Agree with the 'garmin just don't get touring' comment.

give me a nice paper map to look at any day.. far more satisfying to the soul when exploring a new country, and the battery life is brilliant.

+1 for the 800. That and ridewithgps got me from London to Paris unguided and with no back up map with only one or two wrong turns (human error). Not perfect but very useful when on new ground

+2 Garmin reliability. Had my 800 over 2 years and it has only once failed me. I use the plain old googlemaps to create my routes and then use a gpx extractor to pull the file off googlemaps. Job done.

Tourers - surely elevation should be a standard not premium feature?

And white? Yuk.

I was thinking of a Garmin, but it's now possible to upload a GPX file to the "bikehub" app on my iphone. It's the first app I've found where I can upload a specific route I've pre-planned. It's reliable enough to just turn off the data and just follow the bends in the "track" on the screen and the audible directions, so my phone lasts about 8 hours. Take an external charger and a few AAs just in case and you're sorted. And it saves weight because I only need one device.

I don't pretend to understand half of that but I have used Garmins for 15 years now and they always warn you in plenty of time if you do way points properly . Every turn gets a Wp just after it, say 50 metres. Then the GPs knows which way you are going. Stick a Wp on the junction and you don't know until you have rolled up to the white line. This method also give you time for a audible warning and time to react to it.
Re this device, I would have thought that maybe cadence would be handy.
Garmin still don't get touring. It would have been no good even on my little Outer Hebrides tour of 7 days. No mains power. AA's lurk everywhere. Solar power? Hmmm

I don't pretend to understand half of that but I have used Garmins for 15 years now and they always warn you in plenty of time if you do way points properly . Every turn gets a Wp just after it, say 50 metres. Then the GPs knows which way you are going. Stick a Wp on the junction and you don't know until you have rolled up to the white line. This method also give you time for a audible warning and time to react to it.
Re this device, I would have thought that maybe cadence would be handy.
Garmin still don't get touring. It would have been no good even on my little Outer Hebrides tour of 7 days. No mains power. AA's lurk everywhere. Solar power? Hmmm

Round trip routing sounds pretty cool for all cyclists. It would be fun to put in that I have 90 minutes for a ride at 18mph and it spit back some suggested courses

If the performance of all of the Garmin 500s and 800s in my cycling club is anything to go by then I can't think of a device I would trust less to guide me through the back of beyond than an Edge Touring.

Garmin still don't seem to have got the hang of the basics of building a device that can follow a pre loaded route on main roads. No matter what website you build the route on it still only seems to work some of the time and even when it does work the turn alerts frequently come after the turn. I often have to resort to just following the map, but that really spoils a ride.

I fail to understand how they continue to get the basics so wrong when TomTom, Google, NavTec, Nokia, etc. all manage to make it work.

Garmin's forum suggest there are many others who suffer similarly. I'll be very interested to read how the Edge Touring works for you.

(Also, the barometric altitude readings don't work that well due to weather pressure changes, again, I'll be interested to see how you find those. There is frequently a 25% difference between my Garmin 800s cumulative elevation and that recorded by Strava on my phone).

If this tiny computer is capable of creating its own loops, and differentiating between on-road and off, why can't the Garmin course-builder do the same on-line?

Every time I create a course in a new area, it finds me at least one MTB trail if I choose not to head down A roads, and you won't know this 'til you get there.