830 Routing Tips - Navigating a Course without Map Features

New to the 830 and really struggling with the basics on routing on a course from a previous activity.  Had a 130+ that worked flawlessly, highlighting significant turns with audible and visual prompts.  First go with the 830 had it constantly recalculating and beeping but no audible of visual prompts when appropriate.  Tried simply navigating a course as well as Race an Activity with the best case scenario showing a route to follow but constantly prompting turns where no significant turns were present while not prompting any when they were.  Had route calculation errors and tried turning off recalculations with no real success.  Do I have to turn maps off when navigating a course that doesn't use any map features?  My route is rather circuitous and covers much of the same track in both directions.  

  • The track does follow the installed maps. This happens to me on roads that have been well mapped for decades.

  • I did another ride the other day and found it best to turn off all routable maps.  When I had a routable map up, the navigation even picked a forest road as a shortcut rather than following the course.  Even after turning off the routable map  the navigation on the forest road persisted.

  • You may test this with OpenMTB (also routable!) maps which have much more details on paths etc. I also had issues with the Garmin maps as they mainly concentrate on roads, bike lanes and so on. Not really interestings for riding through the woods! Smiley

    OpenMTB maps: https://openmtbmap.org/

    (adding LIDAR as well you will get also shaded elevation on terrain)

  • @TomHH_ thanks!  I'm finding out trail navigation is more complicated than I thought and the more complicated the GPS, the less likely it is likely able to do it successfully ;) .  Admittedly, my trail navigation example may be one of the worst examples as it doubles back and crosses over itself, in addition to starting and ending at the same place with two separate out and back routes.  I ended up breaking the route into two different routes with a bit more success, but the Edge device is inclined to look for the shortest path to complete the route, effectively cheating on completing the entire course.  I decided to upload the trail to Trail Forks to see if the navigation experience was any better and quickly found through Trail Forks you can't have a trail that doubles back or crosses over itself and ultimately was unable to upload a full definition of the trail/route as a result.  I was however able to load up a couple different rides that I have had limited success navigating.  In the end, I know the trail well and don't need any help navigating it, but I had hoped to be able to share with somebody less familiar with the ride to duplicate in my absence.

  • Are you letting Edge do the route or do you ride pre-build courses? I also would switch off the automatic rerouting as it, well let's say - not good! I try to get back to the route by having a look at the map, because I like to have the course as it is without any bad recalculation.

  • Neither, all I was trying to do was re-ride a previous activity tracklog, removing all routable map features to avoid giving the Edge an option to find a shorter path to the finish on a forest road.  In the end, the Edge still looks for the shortest path back to the finish along the existing path, without completing the entire ride.  Unfortunately, Trail Forks added in the forest road (the only routable feature in the area) along with part of my bike trail, so now a I may need to turn off the Trail Forks maps too.

  • Maybe give OpenMTB a try - I never had issues with it, but I also never tried to make a recorded track a route/course. Maybe also check your profile settings.