Today's shat nav aided adventure.

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In beginning to grow to hate my Garmin a lot. I set it to avoid narrow trails, and unpaved roads. Then I used the round trip function, and set a trip distance of circa 90 miles. It plotted a couple of round routes, and off I went, having chosen the more hilly route. Within 3 miles, it had a pink fit, and tried to route me back to the start position. Factory reset time. Let's try again. I reset the avoidance options, got a new route sorted, and off I went. Five miles later it tried to send me down a dirt path. FFS, check avoidance options, they still show avoid trails and unpaved roads. So another reset, do the avoidance options, and off we go again. 11 miles later, it has a hissy fit, and in true French style, gives up and tries to go home. FFS again. I switched it off at that point, useless piece of merde. Ive often heard it said "I wouldn't trust a Garmin as far as I could chuck it" I now know how far that is.:gun:

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Lovely day anyway.
 

jiberjaber

Veteran
Location
Essex
I've often noticed it gets left and right mixed up, I thought it was just me having ridden too many miles until I saw it happen again, route clear as day on the map as a left turn at a T-junction, instructions in text above, "turn right"! I almost stopped to take a photo of it the second time it happened, but wanted to get home...
 

Fab Foodie

hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
Location
Kirton, Devon.
I've used ridewithgps to work point to point routes and found it does the same thing from time to time. The only sure fire way is to use 3rd party software/mapping and then check it road by road .... and even that's not 100% either ....
 

briantrumpet

Legendary Member
Location
Devon & Die
Dinosaur alert: I'd never go anywhere new on the bike without a map. I need the bigger picture. That, and I don't have a Garmin. I like the challenge of committing routes to memory too.
 

Bollo

Failed Tech Bro
Location
Winch
I don't really trust any autorouting software for bikes unless its an emergency, as what makes a good cycling road is often beyond simple things like the road classification or lane count. Having said that, some of the Garmin maps can be a little flaky. For a few years before an update, my Gamin was perfectly happy to take me on the M3; I imagine because it's only 2 lanes between Winchester and Basingstoke so wasn't tagged as a motorway.
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
Using a twatnav is like reading the map through a cardboard tube. They are the worst possible technology for anybody wanting to learn an area or route but perfect for couriers or taxi drivers who don't care a damn where they're going.
 
Like many devices it is how you program it

Telling it to navigatevacspecific route ANDY tomncalculatevits own was always a recipe for a disaster

If you want to follow a specific route, turn off thevauto routing and there is no longer on issue issue
 

coffeejo

Ælfrēd
Location
West Somerset
I've often noticed it gets left and right mixed up, I thought it was just me having ridden too many miles until I saw it happen again, route clear as day on the map as a left turn at a T-junction, instructions in text above, "turn right"! I almost stopped to take a photo of it the second time it happened, but wanted to get home...
Mine's been doing this for ages. I upload a route and it shows the plotted map but can only navigate from course point to course point in a straight line - and then gets left and right mixed up. I've given up on the directions and just follow the plotted route on the map, which is actually a decent compromise between the Luddites' POVs above and having the Garmin.
 
OP
OP
Racing roadkill
I've committed most of my routes to memory (even the long one's), I thought it would be a laugh to just ask the Garmin for a 90 mile round trip, and blindly follow the instructions. I had trusty Google maps on the phone, as a fall back and Strava to plot what happened. After all the redirects and balls up's from the Garmin, I only had enough time left to do 60 miles. Et voila, c'est la ou tu vas.

http://www.strava.com/activities/228936759

It wouldn't be so bad, but my memorised route was both quicker, and didn't involve muddy 'orrible tracks.
 
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