RidewithGPS vs Edge 800

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fatblokish

Guru
Location
In bath
I am confused.
Please allow me to set the scene.

I have created a circular course with RWGPS of about 24 miles and about a dozen clicks to shape the route which includes some dedicated off road cycle paths. Saving this as a GPX track I then am able to correctly see the route on the 800. I turn on route guidance for the course and then hop on the bike.

All works fine until I go off course, then one of several things happen.
a) The unit tries to redirect me back to the start of the course using its own guidance. As I have city navigator maps installed these seldom (if ever?) have off road cycle paths shown, so it encourages me to take a different route from the one I selected when planning the route.
b) The unit tries to redirect me back to the start using a dead straight line
c) The unit plots another route back to a certain nearby point on the route; I hesitate to call this a waypoint as firstly I did not specifically select that point as one of my dozen clicks.

Questions
1. When I upload the gpx into the unit, are the dozen clicks registered as waypoints?
2. Are more than a dozen waypoints (i.e. ones that I did not specify but were created by the software itself) transferred when I upload the course?
3. How can I force the unit to take me to the NEXT waypoint so that I can continue with the course if I ever fall off the pre-planned course?
4. How can I be confident that I am back on the pre-planned course and not one that the unit has just calculated?

I'm off to France next month and am becoming anxious that the 800 may become a liability as it is much easier to fall of the course than with a car GPS, and finding my way back on course is not easy.

Ta
 

defy-one

Guest
Keep a smartphone to hand :simplez
 

Gary E

Veteran
Location
Hampshire
There are settings within the 800 itself that may need tweaking.
In settings - routing look for 'Calculate routes for' and make sure it's set for bicycle and not car/motorbike.
Also the guidance method (same place as routeing) can be set for on or off road.
There's also a 'lock on road' setting that may need to be fettled.
I only use mine on road so can't promise this will help but hopefully it's worth a go? :smile:
 
OP
OP
fatblokish

fatblokish

Guru
Location
In bath
There are settings within the 800 itself that may need tweaking.
In settings - routing look for 'Calculate routes for' and make sure it's set for bicycle and not car/motorbike.
Also the guidance method (same place as routeing) can be set for on or off road.
There's also a 'lock on road' setting that may need to be fettled.
I only use mine on road so can't promise this will help but hopefully it's worth a go? :smile:
Thanks Gary,
What happens on your unit when you go "off course" (aside from it making a noise like swarming bees)?
 

Gary E

Veteran
Location
Hampshire
Yeah you get that warbling noise and 'OFF COURSE' comes up on the screen.
If you don't get back on course it says 'RECALCULATING ROUTE' then 'ROUTE RECALCULATED'
Then it starts navigating the new course.
All of the above is with SYSTEM-ROUTING-RECALCULATE turned on.
To be honest I've not bothered to turn it off as all of my routes are on roads and so if I take a wrong turn I just turn round and get back on the original course.
There's a particular route I do that is about 52 miles long. Depending on how I feel at the 45 mile point I can elect to throw in 1 or more loops of about 5 miles to increase my ride length but I don't plan these in on the Garmin. As I start the loop I get all of the above but when I get back to the point where I deviated it just continues the planned route.
During the loop it recalculates with what appears to be (I say appears because I've never followed it) the most direct route to the finish point.
Hope the above answers your question.
I will say that my relationship with my 800 has not always been straight forward (it's certainly caused me more greif than my 705) but after a bit of frustration I've always managed to get it to do what I wanted and overall I'm very pleased with it. Stick with it!
 
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