Cycling UK Forum

Greeting LEJOG community. I was wondering what map(s) would you recommend for Garmin GPS. On the Garmin website the offers are as follows:
#1 Topo PRO in scale 1:50k for the whole of Great Britain for the cost of $199.99 (it has ActiveRouting and turn-by-turn directions on roads and trail)

OR

#2 Topo Light no scale specified it covers again the entire Great Britain for the cost of $24.99 (it does NOT have the ActiveRouting but has Turn-by-turn directions on roads and trails)


Does anybody has an experience with both or either of these? I will be doing Royston's 'Safer Route'.
Do I need active routing for that? I must say that I am not familiar with Great Britain at all and the Garmin GPS will be my primary navigation. I will have paper maps as a back up and also Google Maps on my smart phone.

Thank you all for your help and inputs.

Mar Oli Kop

Neither of the above, I'd recommend using Open Street Maps (OSM), free or donation
I download mine from VeloMap, https://www.velomap.org/ but there are other options.

I would also follow a Track rather than use Routing. With a Track you simply follow the line, Routing on a Garmin often behaves in odd ways.

Adding in key Waypoints, e.g. lunch stops and night stops, would allow routing to be used if circumstances dictated.

You can download OpenStreetMaps (OSM) mapping for free (the maps supplied with the newer Edges is OSM based)

There is a guide to downloading & installing them on the DCRainmaker.com site here.

I used the free Openstreet map downloaded from their website with guidance from the DCrainmaker site.

There is also "Talkytoaster" who can supply free maps or they sell preloaded SD cards suitable for Garmins:-
https://talkytoaster.me.uk

Help from Talkytoaster on this page:-
https://talkytoaster.me.uk/maps/how-to-install-the-map/

I took a Garmin Oregon 750 on our LEJOG. It has pre-loaded OS 1:50 and 1:25 on it. I also put the SUSTRANS and Cicerone routes on it. Maybe it was my lack of familiarity/patience, but the Garmin was soon put aside in favour of Open Street Maps and Google Maps on our phones. The Garmin unit used a lot of battery - and was always throwing up file limitation error messages.

We had SP Dynamos fitted to our front wheels - coupled with Velo chargers to keep our phones charged up.

Thank you all for your help. I did end up buying Garmin map on SD card. I bought the EU Cycling map for $50. I will be testing it later this week. It seems like a good suggestion to use the Map screen of the GPS and just follow the track and not relying at all on the turn by turn navigation.
Thank you all again. If you have any other suggestions or ideas please share it with me.

MarOliKop wrote:Thank you all for your help. I did end up buying Garmin map on SD card. I bought the EU Cycling map for $50. I will be testing it later this week. It seems like a good suggestion to use the Map screen of the GPS and just follow the track and not relying at all on the turn by turn navigation.
Thank you all again. If you have any other suggestions or ideas please share it with me.

You can do both ?
You can have the map/track screen on and the turn by turn still running in the background.
When approaching a junction the TBT beeps and the junction is magnified with the appropriate arrow direction.
At least it does on my 810.
Can't remember if it automatically reverts to map/track screen or you have to re-select it.

cycleruk wrote:

MarOliKop wrote:Thank you all for your help. I did end up buying Garmin map on SD card. I bought the EU Cycling map for $50. I will be testing it later this week. It seems like a good suggestion to use the Map screen of the GPS and just follow the track and not relying at all on the turn by turn navigation.
Thank you all again. If you have any other suggestions or ideas please share it with me.

You can do both ?
You can have the map/track screen on and the turn by turn still running in the background.
When approaching a junction the TBT beeps and the junction is magnified with the appropriate arrow direction.
At least it does on my 810.
Can't remember if it automatically reverts to map/track screen or you have to re-select it.

Thank you for your help. I think, and I will be testing it in the next weeks. I think my GPS can have a split screen for both and possibly even chose a proportion of the map to the text.
I talked to Garmin tech support and they recommended the cycling maps over the Topo maps. Also they have said, that the turn by turn might sometimes get me off my designed route if a specific trail is not on their map and it would try to interpret it certain way. So I will see.
I will definitely share my experience with this when I am finished.

Along with Garmin, load OSM on your phone.
When the Garmin gets confused, and it will.
The phone OSM will let you get back on track,
the Garmin will then starting giving TBT again, usually.

scottg wrote:Along with Garmin, load OSM on your phone.
When the Garmin gets confused, and it will.
The phone OSM will let you get back on track,
the Garmin will then starting giving TBT again, usually.

Is there an Android phone Satnav program that uses OSM and also works offline. ?
Thanks.

OSMand is the one often advised on this forum.
There are so many too choose from you can compare them here

Vitara wrote:....
Adding in key Waypoints, e.g. lunch stops and night stops, would allow routing to be used if circumstances dictated.

My experience last summer I had two "issues"

1. When you go off-track the Garmin keeps trying to navigate you back to the point where you departed from it's track rather than to find a good route back to your track. On one occasion I deliberately departed from the Garmin loaded track to visit a particular town; to get back to the original track was about 1 mile and several miles nearer my destination whilst the Garmin kept wanting me to go back several miles to the route departure point.

2. Sometimes the Garmin maps did't recognise a ferry crossing (even though I had enabled ferry crossings in the route creation settings). Sometimes it would use a ferry, sometimes not, even when the ferry had been long established for many many years. But this is a route creation on the GPS itself so probably would no affect the OP.

Ian

Paulatic wrote:OSMand is the one often advised on this forum.
There are so many too choose from you can compare them here

Cheers Paul.
Quite a list.

So I have just received the Garmin EU cycling maps on SD card. I have installed it into my unit and turned on my gpx route. The rout sits on the map and is shaped on top of the roads, trails etc.
I will just be following the route polyline and not be using the routing or turn by turn navigation.
The map seems really good and it includes camp sites among other points of interest such as hotels, stores and gas stations. I am really happy with my purchase. I will let you know after the trip how it worked out, but for $50 I am really pleased.
I did also install the OSM for Android and downloaded maps of England, Scotland and Wales. I did upload to it my gpx route - the same that I use on the Garmin unit and again it shaped on perfectly. This will be my backup.
If you guys have any further suggestions let me know. If you have any questions about the Garmin map let me know.
Thank you for all of the input.

Psamathe wrote:

Vitara wrote:....
Adding in key Waypoints, e.g. lunch stops and night stops, would allow routing to be used if circumstances dictated.

My experience last summer I had two "issues"

1. When you go off-track the Garmin keeps trying to navigate you back to the point where you departed from it's track rather than to find a good route back to your track. On one occasion I deliberately departed from the Garmin loaded track to visit a particular town; to get back to the original track was about 1 mile and several miles nearer my destination whilst the Garmin kept wanting me to go back several miles to the route departure point.

2. Sometimes the Garmin maps did't recognise a ferry crossing (even though I had enabled ferry crossings in the route creation settings). Sometimes it would use a ferry, sometimes not, even when the ferry had been long established for many many years. But this is a route creation on the GPS itself so probably would no affect the OP.

Ian

Which is the reason it's better to follow a Track than a Route provided your Garmin model has the option (Etrex 20/30 does)

The Track is simply a purple line on the map, so you're either following it & on route, or you're not & you're off route. If you do go off route for any reason, road closed, to visit a town etc. you can zoom the map out & if you're close enough just head in the general direction of your track until you intersect with it. I've done it lots of times & it works fine.

Using Garmin Routing is really a final resort option & it helps to have an idea how your Garmin works in this mode. One way to do this is to set the Garmin to find a Route for places you are familiar with, that way you can get an idea what it's doing and why. e.g. if you set the options to avoid main roads it will happily take you off an A road and round a 0.5Km loop which brings you back out onto the main A road 200 metres on from where you left it.