Cycling UK Forum

Could I ask someone who uses theirs more than I do, what I need to download routes from .gpx files? Or upload Audax routes? I have a Garmin Etrex (monochrome screen) which was a big-birthday gift and I have really just used it as an expensive cyclometer.

I think I need City Navigator CDs - or should I go looking for something else?

Will I then be ready to download Audax routes and knock 30minutes off my 100km rides?

Cunobelin or Ben Lovejoy could be your best bets to ask...

If you want detailed mapping on your garmin - you do, but in practice you can get away without it. You could use something likemarengo, which works from Google mapping. When I joined up it was £4.99 for a year, but I think it's gone up a bit. I've found to be very intuitive and easy to use. It has the advantage of numbering the route points - note, they aren't waypoints, so you get over the waypoint limit on garmin units. At each waypoint (confusingly marengo calls them waypoints - but they aren't), you type in an instruction, L, R, SO or whatever, and that will work fine. On the on-screen base mapping, your route is a line and your position is a dot - in the middle of nowhere. But you can set the distance to the next waypoint etc - and next waypoint name which is the instruction. It's like having a route sheet that tells you when you've got to each turn. I used that method, before I lashed out and bought City Navigator, which does have the advantage of a detailed map of europe, and you can use automatic routing, which is quite handy in the car, as long as there are two of you to read the instructions out.

Look up the mapping CDs from Anquet, tracklogs or memorymap. If you buy one it will have OS mapping for you to plot your route on and it will load it onto your GPS if you ask it to.
They start at around £25

Hi

I use Tracklogs to plot a route for uploading to my Garmin. After a ride I can upload from the Garmin to overlay on the OS mapping within Tracklogs.

I also use Mapsource GB Topo on the Garmin - this provides fine, on-screen detail such as contours, village and town names and points of interest. The most useful feature is that it usually shows the names of lanes, something that OS maps rarely do.

Thanks for the tips;Garmin helpline said City Navigator was too detailed and the memory capacity of the earlier Etrex too small and recommended 'Waypoint Manager.' However before I spent money I looked at Marengo which together with Takitwithme.com enables you to upload gpx files or it seems details from Google maps.

Any tips about where to put the marker where you turn? Just before on or after the junction!

I don't put a marker before a turn - little point I know I've got to turn.

I put the marker a little way after the turn . The equivalent of about twenty yards or so. Assuming there isn't another turn straight after. This seems to work best and allows for small inaccuracies.

However, if you have set up the route to do auto-routing rather than follow on-screen mapping it may make more sense to have the appropriate instruction before the junction so you know what you must do at the junction.

This link may help:

http://www.audax.uk.net/

Follow the link to GPS at the bottom.

I couldnt get Takitwithme to work.
I did manage to do it with
bikehike.co.uk and GPSBabel
after some struggling with the computer.

My 4 year old Legend works well with Memory Map. The on board map only shows main roads a route uploaded from my PC via M'Map is easy to use. I also use it to check the accuracy of my cheap cycle computer and to mark where I park the car on the odd occassion I drive to do a ride.