Thinking about buying a Garmin edge 200, I only need a GPS for down/up loading routes in gpx and navigating. Are these any good for this?

edge 500 is pretty good for navigation imo. i *think* 200 is the same

Need to upload a tcx rather than gpx though. easiest way is to draw the route on ridewithgps and export a tcx

It’s not really what they are designed for but I’ve found mine pretty good once you get the hang of using it. It’s basically following a dotted line trail, with an arrow showing your direction. It’s good on road rides where the turns are quite obvious, less so off road if there are multiple lines to take for a junction for example.

It does let you know if you have gone wrong, and points you back to where you left the plotted route. I wouldn’t head off into the wilds without a map for backup, but I’ve done some fairly long routes in places I haven’t ridden before using just the 200 to navigate.

Creating routes is a bit tricky, took me a long time to work out exactly how to do it. On my first test – off road 38k route in the peaks I went wrong twice as it can be a bit tricky following a breadcrumb route, but it swiftly pointed out my error and I got back on track with no major difficulty, but I knew the route from a map. I’d be a bit wary going out cold with it on new terrain. With a guidebook as backup or a map on phone etc no bother.

creating routes is not *that* tricky…

i use mapmyride, ‘click-out’ my desired route, export the gpx, cut and paste that into the ‘new’ folder on the unit, er, job done.

it’s not a true sat-nav type thing, but i like it.

200 is ok but basic. I’d spend more if I could

I’ve got one, but I wouldn’t use it for navigation. the screen is too small.

The edge 500 is a useful amount larger and the “proper” navigation garmins (800) are more iphone sized.

The 200 and 500 are the same size 😕

For what it’s worth I find creating routes a doddle, using BikeHike and navigating on road pretty good. Only used for off road once and it was ok.

It’s a simple GPS, but I really like it.

A few little things I’ve found useful are:

Set the ride as tcx
Use bikehike or bikeroutetoaster to create routes, and ensure that you make it automatically provide coursepoints
When exporting the route, tell it provide a warning of somewhere between 200-300 ft before turn

All this does is make the breadcrumb trail more useable, as it bleeps at you, and gives you a warning (with direction) at whatever distance you set from the turn (much like a cars GPS)

(edit) – only ever used it on the road bike, as I just check a map or phone when I’m offroad.

Simple little unit – love it

Not turn by turn navigation, but as others have said – the breadcrumb works well on the road, but can be tricky off road.

Personally I create the route in Viewranger on my mac, export it as gpx then drop it into the ‘new files’ folder on the Garmin when following the route I then use the viewranger app on my phone for back up to just check where I am…

It is turn by turn navigation though – as long as you set it to warn you of course points and run it as a tcx.

I’ve messed this up a few times, where it simply runs as a breadcrumb trail, but getting the prompts (visual and bleep) before and at the turn works great on the road (for the money).

In truth, I’d rather have an 800 or similar, as I like to know where I am, and what I’m passing, but for a cheap, simple and effective GPS, it works well.

Interesting to hear that someone’s had course points working. I read rumours of that, but I’ve never managed to get it to work personally.

I’ve navigated a lot with the 200 and it’s broadly absolutely fine. The niggles with it are:
– you don’t get to choose the zoom level, and it’s a little zoomed-in for my taste (but if you can get course points to work, this wouldn’t be an issue)
– you don’t get to see much useful data when you’re using the map, and you can’t choose that either

But it’s cheap, the battery lasts better than my 800, it does bark at you when you go off-course, and basically it does the job. I might have to try course points again…

If you have reasonable spatial awareness, can devise a course as a tcx file on bikeroutetoaster and feel confident following it or just keeping close to it, the 200 is an excellent device. In some ways, it is better than the 500. Faster satellite acquisition, MUCH easier to read the buttons, simpler display. I swapped the 200 case onto my 500 because I liked the button labels so much.

For reference, I have a 200, 500 and 810.

I’ve bought the 200 and it’s fine for navigating on road and with a bit of practice is good off road too. Add on the fact that they’re £69 at asda at the moment (which is where I got mine) they’re an absolute bargain!

I’ve used one as navigation aid quite a bit.

It really needs to be used with a map, but helps you make the right turns. It did let me down once in Iceland. For some reason the gps trace was offset by quite a bit and it was impossible to follow and got quite lost. There’s no map so it’s hard to be aware of the general route. If I’d been usig say a Garmin 800 I would have been able to see the route was wonky and worked out from the on screen map where I should be going.

In summary, it can be really useful but I wouldn’t rely on it for remote rides.

Fantombiker, I’ve got one for sale at the moment if you decide you fancy giving it a go.

Add on the fact that they’re £69 at asda at the moment

Agreed! Mine was the same price from Halfords a while back. It’s a good intro to GPS and a good bike computer to boot.