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GARMIN NAVIGATION SUCKS

Navigation Sucks BIG TIME!
I was riding a course yesterday. There was some road works ongoing on the planned route with really quick detour (I do know about it for a week, so no problem). 
After one kilometer I was back on the planned route and the GARMIN "NAVIGATION" was annoyingly showing MAKE A U TURN-- maybe for two minutes of riding on the planned route in right direction. Oh my gosh, really?  
And then even it pointed me in the wrong direction and started to showing Finish line flag with meters count down. LOL. I was for the first time in that location, so I just had to stop, open Garmin Connect app, look at the planned course( where you don´t see your location! 2nd LOL) so I had to open another map app to check where am I exactly and compare that with the course. Impossible just came true. I bought Edge 530 to get rid of the phone while riding. I bought Fenix 6  for that reason at first, but it was small and looking at it while riding was not convenient.
Rerouting is setup to minimize distance. It is not minimizing distance at all because of rerouting in nonsense ways.


What about your experience, is it the same, or (and) you´re ok with how it is working? 
Is it possible that some additional maps in device is causing this stupid errors in navigation? 
I´m about to find out. 
My guess is, there is no solution. The best solution would be put phone small as possible on the bars instead. There the navigation is much responsive and "smart":)
Did you try Komoot, somebody? Is it somehow better when you use it in garmin? 

Thx ya all

  • The road I was on was used for the outbound and inbound portions of the rac.e 

    To be honest any device is going to find it tricky if you go off course and then rejoin on a section which is used for two directions.  How is the device supposed to know which way it should go (outbound or return) if this happens as there is no one track going one way.  If you knew which way you were supposed to go in this situation I would just go that way and hope the device works it out at some point.

    Yes certain things relating to navigation could certainly be improved in Garmin units but we don't know what constraints the hardware places on the developers and navigation programming is probably harder than you think.

  • To be honest any device is going to find it tricky if you go off course and then rejoin on a section which is used for two directions.  How is the device supposed to know which way it should go (outbound or return) if this happens as there is no one track going one way.  If you knew which way you were supposed to go in this situation I would just go that way and hope the device works it out at some point.

    Yes, the device has two options: pick the outbound leg or pick the inbound.

    The only way the device can pick the correct leg is if you are moving in the correct direction. Even doing that, it might not pick the correct leg.

    I think the problem that BeamMeUp is talking about is that the device wants to you return to the track at the point you left it.

    It really should give-up doing that if you join the track at any point.

  • I had the make a u-turn happen multiple times. I had high hopes for the Garmin 530, but the software is low quality. Why wouldn't it take me to the next waypoint on the course. Why demand I go back to the last waypoint I had passed?

    It should pick the leg that matches the direction you are going. These devices usually do that.

    One option is to restart the course while you are moving in the correct direction.

    Not that convenient in a race but it might have been better than having the wrong directions for 3km.

    These sorts of issues is why I recommend looking at the map when navigating.

    I think the device tries to take you back to point in the track where you left (it's not taking you back to a waypoint).

    It really should give-up trying to do that if you join the track at any point.

  • The races I ride are gravel and are in an area I am not familiar with.Navigation is required by the race director because courses are intentionally not marked. This is because yahoos change the course after it has been marked. (They move signs and paint directions on the road that are wrong.)

    When I stopped to get a drink I turned into a gas station at a 4-way stop for a divided highway,. I bought a drink and re-entered the road where I had left it. Next time I will try and note which direction the course was taking me.

    I have been using Garmin products for over 15 years. 4 watches and 2 cycling computers. I could try and use RWGPS on phone for navigation, but GPS uses a lot of battery.

  • Not noting where the route goes before you stop is a rookie error! Navigating with off course warnings=ON with recalculation=OFF is quite reliable unless one heads off on another valid part of the course that is out of sequence.

  • The cyan (light blue) line should give you an idea where you need to go. 

  • I have Garmin edge 1040 - what a nonsense device. One of the worst purchases ever. Feels like a product from prior century. 

  • Haven't you investigated upfront if this device is for you? Why don't you give it back? And why do you post this in the 530 forum?

  • Try posting a description of your problem in the 1040 Forum and users there may be able to help.