Garmin 705 for Lejog

[Corrander]

I'm going to use a garmin 705 for my lejog in June. I was just wondering if anyone else had used one for such a trip and if so how they found it.

When setting the "routing" did you use "follow road" or "prompted" and did you use the "recalculate" as "prompted", "automatic" or "off".

Thank you in advance for any help or advice.

[mw3230]

I used a 705 last year and in one word - invaluable. The freedom of cycling along without worrying about map reading is great. The Garmin bleeps as you approach a junction and again as you reach the junction. The more care you take with planning your route the better the guidance it gives you when on the road (although I must say that I was given the whole E2E route as a download because I did the ride as a member of a CTC tour) Some tips -

- do not allow it to re-route. The routing is notoriously erratic and you may end up going via X, Y and Z instead of from A to B
- In built up areas zoom in closely so that you can see exactly where you are, it's quite easy to miss a turn when the junctions come thick and fast
- I have mine set to follow road but avoid trunk roads
- don't forget to charge it each night
- I guess you're going to pre-load your routes, I'd recommend Bikeroutetoaster. If you search on other threads there's loads of advice about this
- if you're new to the Garmin use it on your training rides and you'll soon learn it's advantages, along with your preferences for the various display settings
- it's important to take a map as well to enable you to have an overview of where you are. Many people find that pages torn from a cheap road atlas are fine

Good luck

[Mick F]

I'll be using mine JOGLE next month.

705s are difficult to use, as I've found out, and it's a steep learning curve to conquer its strange quirks. I'll be loading my daily routes as "Courses" in TCX format, as the navigation problems with GPX files is annoying.

Read my thread:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=35873

I had an Edge 305 and it was perfect but lacked mapping of course. When I sold it and bought a 705, I expected a uprated 305 with maps - what I got was a strange piece of quirky firmware with bugs and defects embedded into the unit! It's a well-known problem, and it appears that half the fun of owning a 705 is sorting it out.

Any road up, my 705 is going to accompany me all the way - I know the route and don't actually need it, but it will be fun knowing all the facts and figures as I pedal along. With a Course, it tells you how far you have to go and a Goal Time too to keep you on target.

[Corrander]

Thank you both for your replies. It really helps me.

Just one query to Mick, I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean by I'll be loading my daily routes as "Courses" in TCX format...please excuse my ignorance. What's the difference between TCX and GPX?

[Cherwell]

I bought an Edge 705 about a month ago and will be using it for LEJOG this summer. I’ve been experimenting with it and there are two main ways to navigate a pre-determined route.

1 .tcx files. Can be uploaded from Bike Route Toaster or Bikehike. These can be used for navigation but only prompt you when there are course points present. There is a limit of 100 course points per course.

2 .gpxx files. Can be uploaded from bikehike. These contain data that allow the unit’s navigational ability to calculate the route and prompt for turns etc. Provided that settings/routing/recalculate = “off”’, then the route you see in bikehike is the route the Edge will take you on. There is no need for course points, so no 100 point limit.

To follow an uploaded .tcx course, go to - menu/training/courses.

To follow an uploaded .gpxx course, go to - menu/where To?/Saved Rides

What I do now is plan the route using Bike Route Toaster because I like the ‘OSM Bike’ facility which is particularly useful for planning routes on cycle paths through towns. I then save that as a gpx file on the computer and upload it into Bikehike. From there I download it as a gpxx route.

Gpxx routes give much better on road directions at junctions than tcx courses or plain vanilla gpx routes. Try for yourself and see. The settings I’m using are:-
Settings/routing/guidance method = prompted, recalculate = off
Settings/map/auto zoom = on

I’ve used it on rides in ‘unknown territory’ and I think it’s fantastic – no more stopping to read the map, or heading off 5 miles in the wrong direction! You need to keep an eye on it though and not rely totally on prompts because sometimes junctions do not appear as junctions – e.g. where you have to give way but the name of the road does not change, and bear right or bear left turns. Use it on routes that you are familiar with to get to know its quirks.

[Mick F]

With GPX or similar, you get a "Route" to follow, but the 705 does the navigating despite what the input method may have been. I've found that there's a problem or two up and down the country with "Routes" where the 705 just misses out bits of the maps. The latest one I found was the A99 and A9 down to inverness.

Try out making a Route in GPX from JOG to Inverness, then get the 705 to navigate. Zoom in and see the pink line on the road. You will see that just north of Helmsdale will just be a straight line. Check out my OP.

The way round this is to use the same method of creating the route, but upload it as a TCX and put it in your Courses Folder rather than your GPX Folder. This comes up as Course and the route and pink line will be perfect.

Try it, and experiment.

[Mick F]

Try it, and experiment.

PS
In my post (above), I referred to a route but I've since deleted it. I have now done it again.
http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=123071

If you download this route as a GPX Route and put it into your 705 GPX folder and try to navigate it, all seems ok until you zoom in and see where the pink line is. Even though the route I made is perfect, the 705 doesn't follow it properly.

If you download the same route as a TCX and put it into your 705 Courses Folder, then get it to navigate it, all is perfectly followed.

From now on, I'll be using TCX Courses.

[Mick F]

PPS
Here's the "evidence".

This one is GPX in the Saved Rides Folder. Note the straight line.

This one is a TCX in the Courses Folder. Note it follows the map perfectly. Also note that they are identical routes.
http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=123071

Read my thread
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=35873

[Cherwell]

Interesting. There's obviously a bug or two in the system. It just goes to show that you should not rely on these things completely. I still prefer the gpxx routes because of the turn by turn instructions.

[Mick F]

You can get turn-by-turn directions with TCX too.
You don't need GPX or GPXX

Read my thread
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=35873

[Corrander]

Thank you all so much for your advice. I've had my 705 four months, but have learnt more on here in the past four days.
I have found the routing a little strange on occasions, so perhaps I will try the TCX method and see how it suits.

I'm off on a circular 100 miler on Sunday, so I'll let you know how the garmin performs, as I'll be cycling through areas I'm not familiar with.

[Oswald]

You can get turn-by-turn directions with TCX too.
You don't need GPX or GPXX

Read my thread
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=35873

How do you get the turn by turn directions in tcx? I know you get the little blue arrows pointing you which way to go but to how do you get the red banner appear and the route blown up like in the gpx?

I have read your thread but cannot seem to decipher how to do it. I plan my routes using bike route toaster.

[Geemachine]

i set off in two weeks on the JOGLE, i bought the garmin 705 a few weeks ago and had a few rides were it takes me way of course. Will still have my trusted map book with me. Does anyone know if you can upload your route onto your laptop

[Mick F]

In BikeRouteToaster, the Summary tab has bit for you to fill in regarding how far before the turns you want the directions and also whether you want them or not.

Look in the Download box.

Actually, I'm no expert in all this, I know how the 705 works for me, but the finer points of navigation I don't use.

I love the maps and I love the way I will never get lost again, and I love the fact that I can have a Course loaded for the ride and I know how far I have yet to go. I love the way the map shows the way too. It takes out all the guesswork and the need to keep referring to paper maps at every junction.

If mine packed up and fell apart, I'd go out tomorrow and buy another.

[bigfoot]

I'd second Mick F's comments. Great equipment, appalling documentation.
I almost invariably use a course for navigation, and always use BikeRouteToaster to plot it first. Great for discovering small roads (even locally)

Based upon my experience (and I'm reasonably tech savvie) the mistakes I remember making are,

The PC basemap is useless. You need a detailed map. The best Garmin map is City Navigator. There are apparently open source ones which work (see e.g. http://frank.kinlan.co.uk/garmin-705-knowledgebase/)
Mapsource is only useful for putting any Garmin map on your PC onto your 705 (this depends whether you've got maps on CD or on an SD card - if the latter ignore this and Mapsource)
Assuming you've got detailed maps on the Garmin...
Register with BikeRouteToaster (other sites work as well), and draw a route. Autorouting is pretty good. Save the map using the Summary Tab (The save is right at the bottom, the download bit is to transfer the route/course to either your PC or a Garmin).
Once saved you can share with your friends or the world (e.g. http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course. ... rse=148938 - Day 1 of a 4 day trip to the lakes and back from Warrington largely avoiding Micks favourite A49 which I find a bit dreary - I couldn't have considered using this route with paper maps). To put a saved map on your Garmin, use the Download bit in the Summary Tab. Give the course a name, and transfer to Garmin as a tcx file (if you transfer as a GPX it goes into the routes folder). If as suggested earlier you hit the "Add Coursepoint Warning " before you download, the Garmin should give you a beep ahead of every coursepoint and an appropriate message.
You need Garmin Communicator installed to transfer to the Garmin from BRT- available from the Garmin website if you haven't already got it on your PC.
To use, press Menu Training Courses on the Garmin, select the course, and "Do Course". Remember to press start/stop before you start the ride.

If you want to try the same Course as a route, choose transfer as gpx at the Download stage. There seems to be a problem with the filename doing this from BRT - all mine end up called "course"- but you can edit the name from your PC.
To use this press Menu Where to, Saved Rides and choose the saved ride and "Navigate". Again remember to Start the timer. The "Where to" option can give enlarged views of junctions etc (I've used it for a trip in the car to Southampton), but this is not that useful at cycling speeds.

One last warning - it is possible to do a course and a route at the same time - and not to the same destination. VERY VERY confusing. Got me lost coming out of Blackpool last year when there were two tracks on the Garmin!

If mine broke I'd buy another (or the 800 which looks lovely)