Garmin Question

[Tiffany]

I know this should probably be under "Gear and Accessories" but I wanted to possibly get some more exposure by putting it in the lounge. I hope that's okay.

I just purchased the Garmin Edge 305. I am looking for some tips and advice on how to get a particular route to download to a map for printing purposes. I am on the planning committee for the MS Bike Ride here in Springfield, MO and myself and another gentleman are in charge of putting all of our traning rides together. What I'm looking to do is ride or drive a particular route and then download it to a map that I can print and hand out at the training rides for the riders to follow. Last year I had to create the routes manually in Microsoft streets and Maps. It was a finicky program that took me a lot of time to do. My idea is that I can ride a route or even drive it with the Garmin and then download the route to the software and print it on a map. When trying to manually create the maps last year, I ran into trouble where the roads we were taking were not on the mapping software.

Sorry if this was long winded. Any ideas, tips, suggestions? Thanks in advance!

[SouthernBelle]

You shoud be able to upload it to Motion based. Then access the map there on the front page of that ride, click show show larger map right underneath the small map which will open up in Googlemaps.

[7rider]

I believe...and I'd have to check my notes on this at home..that you can also then export the file from MotionBased to Bikely and write up a cue sheet for it there. I've done that for this ride with some folks from my LBS. THere is no direct way to go from the Garmin to Bikely, however, due to the proprietary software (or some such), but I was able to do the work-around for this particular route. It took a fair bit of time, but it was do-able.

[Tiffany]

Great. Okay, now I've read through the manual and I consider myself a fairly "techy" kind of gal but that manual is very vague about creating routes/courses. What are the steps I need to take when I get ready to start a route that I want to map out?

[PscyclePath]

Tiffany:

The Garmin units work with a suite of programs called MapSource; and you should have gotten a CD with the MapSource Trip & Waypoint Manager with your unit.

You should be able to upload your track log from the 305 to Trip & Waypoint Manager and use that to plot your route. The basemap that comes loaded with the basic units is just that -- really basic, but you can purchase other map sets like CityGuide, City Navigator, or the DeLorme Topo map series and display those, as well as download them to your GPS device, depending onhow much memory/storage you've got.

To display your track on Bikely or one of the other mapping services (like Google Earth) you need to convert it from the native Garmin data file to a .GPX file. MapSource should be able to do this for you. There are also some Microsoft Excel add-ons that will convert your track from .GPX to a cue sheet, which you cn print and hand to riders.

The MTB Review forum has an active group discussion on GPS & bikes (http://forums.mtbr.com/forumdisplay.php?f=144 ) and I'm sure you can get some reliable help there...

[Tiffany]

Thank you, PscyclePath. I did get a CD with the unit but it wasn't MapSource. It was just the Garmin Training Center CD. The guy that helps me with the training rides is willing to buy better mapping software but we want to know what we're looking for before we buy. I'll also check out the MTB forum for additional information. Thanks.

[OakLeaf]

Garmin fitness units do not come with MapSource. You need to purchase one of their other software packages like City Navigator to download directly via MapSource. (The exception will be the optional memory card that will come with the new Edge 605 and 705, whenever they're released, but I'm not holding my breath.) And you can't upload any maps to the fitness units, excepting again the future 605/705.

SportTracks is a shareware program (Windows only, but it works under Parallels) that will download data from Garmin fitness units and display your track superimposed on a Google map; you can then save that image. IIRC you have to be a MotionBased Premium member to be able to save the Google maps displayed there.

All of this is probably no less hassle than creating the route manually in DeLorme Street Atlas (likewise Windows only but Parallels friendly). DH has been using GPS navigation for a decade now and is convinced that that's the best software package out there. Street Atlas definitely addresses the issue you found of roads not being in the software's maps. They update their maps annually. And if you're riding through either a brand new development, or a bike path, you can use the software's Draw feature to create the new road yourself and allow future routes to follow it. Unfortunately, the interface is not very intuitive, and you can't display Street Atlas maps in Training Center.