Garmin Touring+, What am I doing wrong?

[w00hoo_kent]

So, I'm the proud owner of a Garmin Touring+ a bit like an Edge but more for route planning than statistics gathering and a lot cheaper because of it.

However, while I seem to be able to operate it fine when it comes to statistics gathering, the second I try to add in following a route it all goes to pot. If I'm just doing my commute, no route programmed in, I hit the bottom right hand button, it starts recording, I get to the end of my cycle, press it again and choose 'save' on the screen. My complete ride is logged. Smashing. If I've loaded up a route in to it and select that route to ride, I seem to have an unerring ability to log about 0.2km of the route and lose all the rest, while still getting all the prompts to follow the route.

This is particularly annoying as those are the 'epic' (your values of epic may vary) routes that I'd actually like to have decent data for rather than the repetitive commuter rides.

Anyone able to guess what choices I'm making incorrectly? I believe the process is - Choose route from saved routes, it asks if I want to ride the route, I say 'yes' it calculates the route. As I start riding it then asks me if I want to ride to the route because I'm near it (I'm almost always on the route or within 50 metres of the start point). I think I've tried 'yes' and 'no' for this with similarly poor results. I may also have pressed the bottom right hand button to start logging at some point during this process.

 

[ufkacbln]

Assuming this is the same as the Edge 810, you select the route, and the ""Ride" button appears...... press "Start" to start the recording and then touch "Ride" on the screen to start navigation.

 

[Peteaud]

Choose your route and press ride, follow the arrows.

When you want press the right hand button to record. When finished press right hand button again and press save


you can swipe between the 2 screens if you want. In fact there are 4 screens but i disabled the elevation and the other one (can,t even remember what it was)

 

[w00hoo_kent]

Thanks for the help, sounds like I've been starting to log the ride too early in the process and then over-riding it with the route. I'll try again tomorrow as I have another loaded route to follow.

I need to decide on which fingerless gloves to buy before I can reliably swipe :-) I've kept the elevation one after reading some advice on configuring it to help out conquering hills (although that was for the 810 and most of the variables were default on the Touring +) .

 

[Peteaud]

Thanks for the help, sounds like I've been starting to log the ride too early in the process and then over-riding it with the route. I'll try again tomorrow as I have another loaded route to follow.

I need to decide on which fingerless gloves to buy before I can reliably swipe :-) I've kept the elevation one after reading some advice on configuring it to help out conquering hills (although that was for the 810 and most of the variables were default on the Touring +) .

When you plan your route make sure you go to the start point!

When you log your ride (press the right hand button) do this after the route has started, and away from your house, so no one can track you / your bike.

 

[StuAff]

When you log your ride (press the right hand button) do this after the route has started, and away from your house, so no one can track you / your bike.

Or enable the privacy options- i.e. keep them private if/when you upload to Connect or RWGPS, and enable privacy zones round your house/work on Strava (which is the best way to share a ride without sharing too much info...).

 

[Kestevan]

I've got a touring and had some of the same problems at the beginning.

First of all I'd suggest turning off auto re-route as this can do some "interesting" things if you're not exactly on the course when you start. It can also send you on some wild detours if you go off route for a minute. With it switched off it's easier to wander off track a little and rejoin the course yourself - you can always switch it back on mid-ride if you get hopelessly lost.

When near the start select the saved ride, and press the "RIDE" portion at the bottom of the screen. This will load the ride into memory (you will see "calculating" on the screen. Wait until this is complete before starting off (should only be 10sec or so). At this point the garmin will say "you are near start of ride - do you wish to begin" or something similar. Saying yes to this will start the routing, AND start data logging. After this point start riding.,... DO NOT press the (physical) start/stop button on the bottom of the unit as this will end the data logging.

If you don't wish to log the ride you can say NO to the "do you wish to begin" I believe this will still show the mapping, but will not log the ride.
When you have completed the ride, press the physical start/stop button, and select SAVE from the screen.

The thing to remember is that other than the "do you wish to start" prompt when near the start the logging and mapping are too separate things. Stopping logging with the button does not automatically stop the navigation, and vice versa. You can break up a mapped ride into multiple logged sections by using the stop/start button, and can vary the navigation (by selecting a new waypoint or using the "return to start" option) and the existing data logging will not be interrupted.

One other thing - when you map out your route, place more waypoints round areas where there could be multiple routes. The Garmin navigates between plotted points internally, and this can result in the unit deciding to take you a different way to the way you envisioned when you plotted the course. Adding a couple of waypoints on the selected course should make sure you go the way you intended.

It's also worth turning off the use of narrow track/bridleway (unless you want to ride these), esp if you download and follow a course from a 3rd party (i.e. Audax GPX file).... the failure to do this led several of us down a farm track and through a ploughed field on this years Xmas Cracker Audax.

The Garmin is not the most intuitive device, and the lack of a decent manual is a crying shame - because at heart the Touring is an absolutely cracking bit of kit.

 

[w00hoo_kent]

Right have done those. I've also turned off auto shutdown as about 2 miles in to this mornings ride it decided to turn off and while when I turned it back on it continued routing it looks like once again I've lost the data because that stopped, I should have hit the start button just in case I guess. I think it was auto shutdown as it offered that to me again at around the 90 minute mark but I spotted it in time and said 'no' first time if it had asked I wouldn't have seen as I was concentrating on stopping before the T junction at the base of the very steep, very straight hill...

Will keep persevering.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

auto shut down should only come into play when the unit is in paused mode, well thats my understanding of all the units I have used 2 Brytons and 2 Garmins, whilst riding it shouldn't show up, on the 705 I just got (old tech I know, but I am poor), the right button starts the ride (following a course ect if that is set) pressing this again pauses/stops the ride, then you press the left to reset or finish the ride, even if you switch the unit off with the power button and start it again, it will continue from the same ride. So are you by any chance putting the unit into a pause mode state.
Also when it turns off (I had this with the 705 till I sorted firmware and stopped it recording every second, not sure which worked, but the last two rides it didn't turn off) it will go into pause mode, meaning you have to press the start button to continue recording, not 100% sure this is same, but I would have thought so, which would explain why only the two miles were recorded.

Hope this helps.

 

[Tyke]

On the 800 you can set it to detect movement and ask if you want to start recording

 

[sazzaa]

My Touring was driving me nuts yesterday! Was trying to follow a saved route, first it wouldn't let me start even though I was right next to the start position, I carried on down the road thinking it would find me and catch up at some point, but no - Garmin had other ideas, trying to re-route me absolutely everywhere except the road I was trying to follow! Finally I thought I had cracked it to join the route I was after, but no, it took me on a 15k route back to my start point instead........ Ugh!