So I got a new toy, a Garmin Oregon 450 and have used it on my last mini tour. But I still have a hard time using it. Specifically using the routing functionality. Obviously for my nearly 200 mile trip I could not just enter my final destination or I'd be biking on the interstate all the way. I drew up my route on the computer using Garmin MapSource and uploaded it in a variety of formats.
- As a route. Well my route segments for a day were either to long or to complicated that by default the route had more than 50 navigation points. So the GPS would not calculate the route from it.
- A route with a max of 50 navigation points. Now the GPS can calculate a route but it's anything of what I want. It makes sure the navigation points are traversed but it may prefer other roads and causes me to zigzag and take undesirable roads.
- A track. This worked the best. I could overlay my map with the track and follow it. I did not get acoustic signals of a turn so I have to keep a close eye on the screen but I did get the remaining distance.
So the track option is somewhat workable but that means I need to plan out my whole exactly beforehand and doesn't give me much flexibility with my tour. I did try to use the routing feature a few times. It got me out of the starting town quite nicely but then wanted me to go on a gravel road. Since I didn't picked it it was sending me next on the interstate. Another time it send me to a level B (mud) road.
How do you use your GPS? Would the Garmin City Navigator North America do a better job of routing me while avoiding interstates, gravel roads and if possible busy highways? Or am I just expecting too much from technology? Even Google maps sends me repeatedly to gravel roads when I map a biking route with it.
BTW I'm using the free
4000MB Routable US map which is build from the Open Street Map project.