Garmin Touring anyone?

[Onthedrops]

Fancying the look of the Garmin Touring.
I'm liking the idea of having a sat nav mounted to the bike to give directions in places not well known to me.
Can you download your ride stats etc to Garmin Connect or even Strava with this device? I always like to see how I've done after my rides to gauge improvement etc. Does the device have the ability to download routes and rides from Garmin Connect and RidewithGPS?

My alternative choice was the Garmin Edge 520. Now I know this has all the whistles and bells when it comes to stat recording. But do you also get turn by turn directions with this unit? And again, can you download routes to the device from Garmin Connect or RidewithGPS etc.

 

[RedRider]

Fancying the look of the Garmin Touring.
I'm liking the idea of having a sat nav mounted to the bike to give directions in places not well known to me.
Can you download your ride stats etc to Garmin Connect or even Strava with this device? I always like to see how I've done after my rides to gauge improvement etc. Does the device have the ability to download routes and rides from Garmin Connect and RidewithGPS?

My alternative choice was the Garmin Edge 520. Now I know this has all the whistles and bells when it comes to stat recording. But do you also get turn by turn directions with this unit? And again, can you download routes to the device from Garmin Connect or RidewithGPS etc.

Yes to all the questions about the Touring. It's great for following a pre-plotted route and speaking personally helped revolutionise my riding experience... No more fishing the Jersey pocket for sweaty road atlas pages at country lane junctions.

 

[Jenkins]

The basic Touring can be used either as a sat nav style device when you download maps to it (I've used Garmin Connect, Strava & Bikehike to create routes), a simple ride recorder which will upload to Strava, etc or a combination of the two - when you follow a created route you have the option to record the ride stats for upload. The Touring Plus also adds the option of linking to a heart rate monitor (if that's your type of thing) and adds a barometric altimeter.

 

[helston90]

No experience of the Touring but whenever I embark into unknown territory a friend has his smart phone on his handlebars- he creates the routes in Strava, tells it which one we want to do and it does turn by turn on the screen as well as recording our efforts.

Just a thought.

 

[dr snuggles]

Bought one a couple of years back when I did a short solo tour and once I got used to it it was excellent. Nowadays I use it to record my rides and upload to Strava. Word of advice, if you do use it to follow routes then make sure you turn off the automatic re-routing. It'll take you on a completely new route rather than direct you back onto your planned one. Good bit of kit though.

 

[Aravis]

A supplementary question if I may: the focus of many discussions on these devices seems to be the ability to follow a pre-planned route. What if you don't want to do that; you just want to display where you are on a map at all times and to record your stats. I can't see why it wouldn't be able to do that, but can someone confirm? If you're not asking it to carry out the pre-planned route following task, I'm hoping that battery life will be improved.

I've recently acquired an Edge 200, very much a "toe in the water" start. By simply starting it at the beginning of a century ride and not touching it until the end I seem to be getting battery life that comfortably exceeds what is advertised, even in very cold weather. Naturally I'm happy about this. I always had the intention of upgrading, probably to the Touring and keeping the 200 as backup, but I'd like to have confidence that if I use it in a similarly minimalist way I can expect comparable battery life.

At the end of a ride lasting 9 hours or thereabouts, I find that the percentage battery remaining on the Edge 200 is consistently shown as being in the high 50s. Extrapolation would suggest it should be able to last for upwards of 20 hours, more than enough for anything I'm likely to do, but that is as yet unproven.

 

[dr snuggles]

Course you can just turn it on and ride. That's what I do when I'm out and upload the file to Strava when I get home. To be honest the maps can take a bit of following if you really have no clue where you are so it may be best to pre-plot the route anyway.
Battery life is massively effected by faffing about with it while riding. If you leave it alone and knock the backlight down then the battery life seems really good. If I go out and ride approx 4 hours, when I get home I've got about 75%(ish) left. Cannot remember how much was left when I used it touring but I did b and b's so charged it every night.

 

[Onthedrops]

All positive so far on the Touring.
Anybody have any comments on the Edge 520?

 

[ianrauk]

Full in depth review of the Garmin Touring from DC Rainmaker
HERE

 

[Lee Johnston]

B

Course you can just turn it on and ride. That's what I do when I'm out and upload the file to Strava when I get home. To be honest the maps can take a bit of following if you really have no clue where you are so it may be best to pre-plot the route anyway.
Battery life is massively effected by faffing about with it while riding. If you leave it alone and knock the backlight down then the battery life seems really good. If I go out and ride approx 4 hours, when I get home I've got about 75%(ish) left. Cannot remember how much was left when I used it touring but I did b and b's so charged it every night.

Battery life is ridiculous if you muck about with the contraption while riding

 

[Onthedrops]

All sounds good with Garmin Touring. Is the Edge 520 a bit of a technical nightmare, seems to be full of buttons but does have lots of features.
Would it be safe to say there is a lot on it which is a bit peripheral? In other words, available but rarely used.
Not bothered about heart rate, VO2 etc. More to the facility of logging rides on Connect and Strava for perusal after the ride. Building up some stats and records and obviously being able to know where I'm going whilst out riding.
How are the maps on the 520? Pretty basic I assume but enough to keep you on track?

 

[mybike]

Is there a reason folk here don't use Garmin's BaseCamp for creating routes?