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Using the 820 mtbing?

What's the best way to use this device moutainbiking? Recording activities works well enough but what about using the maps and navigation? I've used this and a few previous Edge device on the road and except for the bugs and glitches, it's pretty straightforward. I was pleasantly surprised to find that a good number of the trails I ride show up on the OSM on the device. Unfortunately they're almost impossible to see due the fact they are thin black dotted lines on a dark green background.

I tried creating a course in GC and it won't follow trails as far as I know. But! I just tried RWGPS and I can create a course that follows OSM trails!!! I'll have to give that a try and see what navigation cues I get.

Of course if I'm just riding around it would be nice to be able to see OSM trails on the display. Is there any way to make them more visible? Perhaps if I know the area I'll be riding I can create a course that covers all the trails and then have it display on the map without navigating it. Is that feasible?

Update: I just laid out a GPX course in RWGPS on trials and had the 820 navigate it. It showed the course on the map. It alerted for some of the turns at intersections with bleeps and white arrow depicting the upcoming turn on the map. It did not show any textual turn instructions or count down the distance. It didn't alert for all turns at intersections, which may be a property of the map database. When it alerted with I intentionally deviated from the course twice and it alerted me each time. However, it did the same thing I found while riding on the road and that is the map stopped updating at the point of the alert and didn't continue to update my position so I didn't know where I was in relation to the course to get back on it. I don't know if swiping away from the map and then back to it would rectify this.

0 SWE8 over 8 years ago

On mtb tracks I do not use the navigate functions. I then set the course to follow as visible on the map, with color black. Then I just follow the black line on the map.
On my Edge 800 the lines where a bit thicker though...

What I also did was to create a custom map of all my favorite tracks in the neighbourhood. I use the IMGfromGPX program for this. If you just follow the guidelines, it creates a custom transparant map with nice thick lines, also on the 820. You can use this as an overlay over the OSM map (both maps "active").

0 ramans over 8 years ago

I've not tried routes yet, not even sure how to set that up, although it could be cool, I do use OpenStreetMaps which contain MTB trails and I can see where I'm ehaded on trails (they're not super accurate but close enough) and can use live tracking to see wehre my friends are which is cool.

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

I loaded up a course yesterday and navigated the course just to test the 820. I was in the map screen for most of the ride and the 820 would tell me (top of screen) what trail I was on (when they were labeled) and it would also say at the top what trail I was approaching. I found my Arrow followed along the course accurately but I didn't get any beeps indicating a turn. (I didn't notice any arrows indicating a turn when I reached a junction. But they could have been there.)

I did intentionally turn the wrong direction and got the expected off course warning. I then turned around and was notified I was back on course. Unfortunately I then shut of navigation since I know my route quite well and wanted Strava segment notifications. (I read you can't get Strava warnings when following a course.)

I didn't test if the course would re-calculate if I kept going the wrong way. (I think you need to dismiss the off course warning first before it re-calculates based on posts I've read.) I'll test that next time.

I also didn't test if arrow directions and instructions popped up from other data screens. But after my ride I did create a new course using the round trip course creator. I have the 520 set up to avoid highways and the profile was set up on mountain biking but the course was at least half on the street so I just cancelled it.

Lastly I created a course on the 820 using pins I created at different sections of trails. I created about 8 pins to make sure I hit certain areas. It took a while to do but the results were good. (I saved the course but didn't ride it.)

0 looigi over 8 years ago

On mtb tracks I do not use the navigate functions. I then set the course to follow as visible on the map, with color black. ...

I don't understand what you mean. Now do you get the course to show on the map while riding without navigating it?

0 aweatherall over 8 years ago

Under the course settings is an option to always show the course.

0 looigi over 8 years ago

Thanks. That was helpful. Hit Navigate, Saved, the specific course, scroll down and hit Settings, select Always show on map and then change to the desired color. Red works well for me. I think that'll be more useful than navigating the course which I've tried a few times now, at least for the trails I've been riding.

For me, the main reason do this is to make the existing trails on the OSM map more visible. The process is create a course covering all the trails, either by riding it or using a riding/mapping site like RWGPS, download it, then adjust the settings to make it always visible on the map. Obviously, it would be preferable if the trails on the device were adequately visible in the first place.