GPS for Route Directions
 

Do any of the Garmin or other GPS devices allow a rider to put in a route and then provide turn by turn instructions? If they do can please give me a brief explanation of what is involved?

Yes. With the Edge 305 you have to manually create the route by drawing it on the map and then placing turn directions at each turn you want to signal. Some 3rd party software helps this process go a little faster, like bikeroutetoaster.

I've never actually done it because it's a little cumbersome and I tend to ride well known routes with people I know. I mostly use the Edge as a sampling computer to plot HR/cadence/speed over distance/time/elevation.

I used my Edge 305 for navigation when I was stuck for a while in a location where I didn't know my way around. It's much like bt describes and yes, it is cumbersome, but works, for the most part. It doesn't give turn to turn instructions, you pick waypoints on the ride (like just before turns) and the unit will beep whenever you reach the waypoint and shows a name you entered, which could be an abbreviation of the road you want to turn on, etc.

I used this site http://www.marengo-ltd.com/gps/index.php, which has instructions and a free Google based map you can use to plan your route and name the waypoints. You will need to download gpsbabel (also free) to load the course to the Garmin.

If you try this, I recommend you make a walking route around your neighborhood first. Trying to figure out how this works while on the bike is difficult at best. The instructions at the site above are good for planning and entering the route, but not much help for how to actually follow the route.

Make sure you use the highest resolution of the map to place your way points accurately. If they are off the road, you may not pass close enough to the waypoint to trigger the Garmin. I think this happened to me my first try and I missed half my turns.

Huh? I can lay out a course for anything under 50 miles in about 5 minutes.... and a century in 10-15 minutes. Its VERY easy to do and not cumbersome at all with the new website integration.

Or just get a handheld Garmin unit with mapping and auto-routing capabilities eg. eTrex Vista Cx or better. Turn by turn indication.

Kind of an involved process, but worth it in cases where I don't know the route:

• I use bikely.com to plan out the route.
• Use bikely to save the route as a GPX file to my computer.
• Garmin Edge doesn't natively read gpx files, so I use gypsies.com to convert that file into a crs or tcx file (whichever works w/your computer) & save it back to my computer.
• Use Garmin Training Center to import the course from my computer, add waypoints, and send it to my Garmin
• Using Garmin, go to menu: training: courses to start the course. It will give you alerts when you approach the coming turn, distance & time to the next turn and the finish, and a map (showing only the roads you placed into the course on bikely), and a simple altitude profile.

Like I said, rather involved, but worth it on longer rides or rides I don't know the route--I then don't have to use a paper route slip.

I use mapmyride.com and just draw it on the map. Then I upload it to my 305 as a "course". Then, choose start course and follow the line on the map screen. It even tells me when I'm off course. Great tool...easy to use!

I believe the soon-to-be-released Garmin 605/705 will offer this feature.

The Garmin Quest I use on my bikes has a color screen and auto-calculating turn-by-turn navigation.

There you go :p The only time I tried to do it was when I first got it back in April. I guess Garmin has stepped up since then but my memory of it was using POS Garmin Training Center software to draw routes and place waypoints at every important turn. Living in the San Francisco pretty much means all rides within 100 miles or so starting from home are well known, so it just wasn't an important feature to me. The more you know ;)

veloroutes.org can export routes directly to Garmin's TCX format as well, no need for a 3rd app to convert.

i've yet to own a GPS device, but I've had times where I could've used one!!

+1. And the Vista series are actually useful for off-the-bike activities unlike the rest of their GPSr's.