Not super helpful, but according to this Open Street Map manual, the new style routable "has an improved rendering style with a few more features (bridges, tunnels, oneway arrows)" and the routable bicycle is recommended "if you use it primarily for bicycle trips. This map is especially suitable for recreational cycling." But I guess this doesn't really say why the bicycle map is recommended for bicycling...
so the TOPO US 100k on the F5x is or routeable and is basically a picture. Birdseye imagery is photo. Worldwide DEM baseman. Is that routable? Or just the garmin cyclemap? Is that garmin cycle map the whole US? If someone in Europe wantes routable US is that one they would buy? Similarly there has routeable from their area?
so the TOPO US 100k on the F5x is or routeable and is basically a picture. Birdseye imagery is photo. Worldwide DEM baseman. Is that routable? Or just the garmin cyclemap? Is that garmin cycle map the whole US? If someone in Europe wantes routable US is that one they would buy? Similarly there has routeable from their area?
My understanding is that you're generally right. For the US, out of the box for the 5X, the US Cycle Map (see Garmin's description of the map here) is the only maps that can do routing. That said, the US Cycle Map is also the only map that has both roads and trails (the topo 100k has non routable trails and not a lot of streets), so it makes sense that would be the map that handles the turn-by-turn routing. The US Cycle Map is essentially a decent compromise map - it's not the best map for trails, and it's not the best map for streets, but it has a lot of both.
If someone was coming to the US and didn't have the US Cycle Map, I'd advise them to download the relevant free maps fromthis source, instead of buying maps from Garmin.
so the TOPO US 100k on the F5x is or routeable and is basically a picture. Birdseye imagery is photo. Worldwide DEM baseman. Is that routable? Or just the garmin cyclemap? Is that garmin cycle map the whole US? If someone in Europe wantes routable US is that one they would buy? Similarly there has routeable from their area?
DEM means "Digital Elevation Map". It's there just so the watch can show you (approximate, since it's probably coarse coverage) elevation and elevation profiles.
