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Garmin courses & maps...?
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I do a lot of gravel races. The roads are usually not very well-marked (street signs) and reliable paper cue sheets are not always available. What is usually available is the course for download to your Garmin device.

I currently have a Forerunner 310XT which does do courses, but it's not very reliable. There isn't an actual map, and a lot of times it tells me I'm off-course when I'm not, and vice-versa. It also has a tendency to not give much warning for turns, so I end up blowing by quite a few, which sucks when you're trying to race.

What I'm looking for is a device that I can download the course to that will display an actual map with the course overlayed that will show turns in advance of actual reaching them (similar to what you get with a phone/car GPS).

In reading the reviews on DC Rainmaker, I *think* only the Edge 810 and Edge 1000 will do this, and you have to download additional maps (the free Openstreet maps or similar). Is that true? Anything else I should know?

Do these devices give a distance countdown to the upcoming turn (again, like your car GPS)?

Thanks.


Steve

"If you ain't first, you're last." Reese Bobby Talladega Nights
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Re: Garmin courses & maps...? [The_Mickstar] [ In reply to ]
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If you are hoping to use the navigation function in the Edge 810/1000 for your races, I must disappoint you - this is really not a great solution. Map navigation is slow, not without it's own issues, it some times will try to "optimise" your route for you, and the chances are it will not cover your entire gravel race route anyway. These maps are barley usable for a city navigation in my experience. Better stick with the basemap. Edge 520 has larger screen than 310, so you might see more details if you zoom in enough. Also Wahoo ELEMNT offers even larger map, and I think navigation too.

Edit: mistyped 510 instead of intended 520. Fixed
Last edited by: kgro: May 5, 16 18:37
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Re: Garmin courses & maps...? [kgro] [ In reply to ]
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+1 to above. The 520 will give you turn-by-turn for a course (with the OS update last week), but I would never use it on a race. I rode a technical road course on Saturday with my 520 as the guide, and it was very difficult. I could not imagine trying to use it in a gravel race.
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