Though needlessly complicated and often unintuitive, Garmin bike computers still are one of the best companions a cyclist can have on the road, especially when compared to queue sheets which keep your eyes off the road and the scenery (where they should be!)
The goal of this post is to summarize as quickly as possible, the two main types of rides a Garmin can hold, and how to use each.
First thing to note is that for no good reason, Garmin has two** different kinds of files that you can save/import. Depending on what you want to do will determine what kind of file you will download/create. In a nutshell:
- A “saved ride” contains the exact route that was followed, which the Garmin device allows you to navigate using turn-by-turn instructions.
- A “course” contains speed and timing information which you can use to “race” the creator of the file. By default you will NOT be provided with turn-by-turn directions*
(1) Saved Ride (automatically provides proper turn-by-turn instructions)
A Saved Ride is a GPX file that you save in the GPX folder on your device. You can get these files from websites like BikeRouteToaster.com, connect.garmin.com, mapmyride.com and others.
A GPX file will give you turn warnings ahead of every turn and as you approach them. These types of files are also the ones that if you make a wrong turn the GPS will calculate a new route to get you to the destination.
You must add these to the device storage, NOT on your SD card. When you plug your device into your computer it will appear as a hard drive. All you have to do is find the GPX file you downloaded and drag-and-drop it into the GPX folder on your device.
NOTE: The garmin will process new gpx files found at boot time. You will see a rather unhelpful unlabeled progress bar before you can use your device. From my experience there are two progress bars PER .gpx file you are importing. You may want to load one gpx file per boot to minimize delay and ensure that they “stick”
To follow your newly saved route go to: Menu -> Where To -> Saved Rides and select the ride.
(2) Course (for training, does not provide navigation without manual intervention)
A Course is a TCX or CRS file that you save in the Course folder on your device.
It contains the route traveled along with speed and time information so that you can compare your progress to the file’s on-the-fly. This is good if you want to race against yourself to try to reach a new P.R. or if you want to race against someone who has already done the course.
This file does NOT provide turn-by-turn directions, nor does it recalculate for you if you take a wrong turn. If you go off course all you’ll get is a lousy compass that points you in the direction back to the course–it’s up to you to figure out what roads zig-zag back to where you were.
You can create your own course by converting a saved ride on your device, or by importing a GPX file into the Garmin Training Center software and converting it there. Once converted it will be uploaded to your device on the next sync.
You can also download this type of file from BikeRouteToaster.com, MotionBased.com and other websites.
*Garmin Training Center and websites like BikeRouteToaster.com (not Motion Based!) will allow you to manually add turn prompts to the file.
To ride: Place in Garmin Device -> Course folder (Create folder if one does not already exist)
To follow: Menu -> Training -> Courses
Common Problems with Files (and more things Garmin screwed up)
This list is a work in progress of common problems that Garmin users may run into:
- Using “Send to device” from connect.garmin.com does not place rides into “Saved Rides” folder:
Yep, connect.garmin.com’s “Save to device” will save the ride as a COURSE, which will not allow you to navigate it. You will need to use connect.garmin.com’s EXPORT option, choose .gpx, and manually add it - When attempting to navigate a ride the progress bar sticks at 100%:
This is a Garmin UI fail; apparently the device’s progress bar does not match up with what it is doing. Here is a general rule about this: the device can hang from 2-10 minutes after it “finishes” calculating your route, so give it that time first.If it continues to hang your route may be too large (4) (either too many track points or too large of a data file).
While there are many ways to trim a bike route, the best is really the only one worth mentioning right now, which is classic.mapmyride.com (the new mapmyride, at the time of writing, was exporting too large of files(5)), which strips out ALL data except location for turns. Your files should be between 5kb and 90kb, once you start getting into the hundreds you could have some problems
Sources and notes:
- (1) http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-457472.html
- (2) http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=394187
- (3) http://frank.kinlan.co.uk/garmin-705-knowledgebase/
- (4) https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?t=20450
- (5) http://support.mapmyfitness.com/mapmyfitness/topics/gpx_export_files_are_too_large_for_garmin_705
- **To complicate things there is now an ADDITIONAL file format called .fit that the Garmin 800 devices use. Since I don’t yet have one I can not comment firsthand on how this additionally complicates things.
Tags: courses, edge, edge 705, edge 800, garmin, maps, routes
