What are the free open street maps like for mountain biking?

Thinking of getting an 810 and putting these on, or should i look at the ordnance survey mapping for off road use?

There was a thread about it on here a couple of weeks ago – IMO the OS maps are useless, although they look pretty. OSM is infinitely better. That will depend in part where in the country you are though, as detail can vary.

Edit: here, scroll down page 1 for the photos of my Edge 1000 comparing OSM and OS.

As above, it depends a little on where you are.i use the maps from https://openmtbmap.org which have been tweaked to give nice routing for riding. You need to read the instructions on the site though as for routing the settings won’t be intuitive eg. You need to set routing for car rather than bike

Other than that they are great and you can readily edit them online where you find errors

The main problem with the OS maps is they are a bitmap image. So they look nice on a big screen, or printed out. But not very useful on a small screen. They only look good at the correct resolution, if you zoom in they go all pixellated. Also doesn’t work if you rotate the map, you just get text upside down.

Whereas the OSM maps (or other Garmin maps) are vectors. So you can zoom in or out as much as you like, still looks OK. Also can show more details as you zoom in, eg streetnames.

The maps are nicer, but the classification of RoW can be a bit hit and miss. Usually, it’s bridleways classed as footpaths rather than the other way round.

They are different with different benefits. Open maps show more paths and tracks and the vector scrolling is good. OS maps are still better at showing terrain and other landmarks and it much clearer to see what is a footpath or a Bridleway. So with open maps you can see all paths that are there, OS maps its easier to see the legal tracks.

If I could only have 1 then it would be OS but for free open maps are great.

I regularly build a UK wide Garmin map from the latest OSM data. Got a batch job on my home PC which sucks the OSM data down and then processes it into Garmin format, adding an OS-like look and feel in the process. Only takes 10 mins or so including downloading all of the UK OSM data.

If anyone’s interested I’ll stick the latest file on a share somewhere.

That’d be good. Thanks.

If I could only have 1 then it would be OS but for free open maps are great

Whilst I would definitely have OSM. Perhaps reinforced with a paper OS. I really think the digital OS maps are useless.

I find it much easier to read the terrain on OS. The types of track are much clearer too. Here you can see bridleways and fire roads through the woods much more clearly on OS

As allthepies does, it is possible to build and style maps from OSM how you like and showing just what you want. It is however a little bit of a pain and in the end I just gave up as the maps from openmtbmap were close to what I wanted anyway.

Are there different types of OSM or something, because all my experiences of OSM are very poor.
Examples here are 1:25k +1

The difference is OS/Garmin 1:50k is a raster file, it’s a image of the 1:50k maps (and not at a particularly high resolution at that). The OSM maps are vector files, that’s why they look so much better as you zoom in/out. The downside is the OSM files have less detail, and can be deceptive as you zoom in.

I’m sure at some point OS will join the 21st century and release vector maps with 1:25k detail.

tbh I find 1:50000 pretty useless for MTBing, but 1:25000 on the other hand is perfect.

I find it much easier to read the terrain on OS. The types of track are much clearer too. Here you can see bridleways and fire roads through the woods much more clearly on OS

Yeah, but they look nothing like that on the device. See the link in my first post. On the screen they’re useless. Even on the road you can’t get the detail necessary to navigate, I’ve tried. I imagine the 1:25k ones are better as the effective resolution will be double. Or rather you’ll have the same detail at twice the zoom.

Yeah, but they look nothing like that on the device

That must be a Garmin thing then. Look fine on my GPS.

What level of zoom are you using which renders the OS mapping so unusable? I usually run 1:50,000 at 1cm to 120m off-road and much wider on road and the resolution is easily clear enough.

Personally I’d rather have OS maps which blur when you’re zoomed in to levels I’ve never used than have the wide open spaces and “here be dragons” approach of the OSM alternative.

Edit: I’ve a GPSMap 62S

I’m used to paper OS maps – and with the additional function of “here you are” of a GPS it’s the default option for me.

allthepies [quote]If anyone’s interested I’ll stick the latest file on a share somewhere.
[/quote]

Yes please for me too

kcal – Member
I’m used to paper OS maps – and with the additional function of “here you are” of a GPS it’s the default option for me.

I think I’m the same, I just instantly understand all the detail on OS from years of their paper maps. With other maps ie OSM I don’t really know all the symbols and legends.
I also want as much detail as possible, so I can’t understand people accepting 1:50k as an option when they could have 1:25k. It just wouldn’t even occur to me to accept something that only gives me down to 1:50k scale.

I usually run 1:50,000 at 1cm to 120m off-road and much wider on road and the resolution is easily clear enough.

I tend to use 1cm:40m. Must be a Garmin thing then, as even at 120m they look a bit shit.

Are there different types of OSM or something

Yes. OSM is basically just a set of data that needs to be rendered into a map for your Garmin device. So, for example, during the Nepal Earthquake there were people putting data from satellite images into OSM so folks on the ground could produce maps showing where things like landslides, destroyed villages etc. were along with other stuff. For the purposes of cycling you have to take that same data and put it into a form suitable for your gps

The standard tool for doing this is mkgmap and it works beautifully. You can pick what object, paths etc., how you want to see them and what zoom level you want to see them at. With a bit of effort you could probably get quite close to how as OS map looks.

but… it really is quite a fiddle and mainly for folks who really care what their maps look like. So for mountainbiking I use the maps from http://www.openmtbmap.org and for roadbiking those from http://www.velomap.org. It’s the same data, just rendered differently. There are loads of others to choose from so it really is just a case of looking around and seeing which version you like best. Take a look here to see what is available:

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Map_On_Garmin/Download

However whichever version you use it is worth learning how to update the data. It’s easy to do and make sure that everyone has access to the good stuff such as correct bridleway marking

enjoy 🙂

Anything below 1cm to 80m on my Garmin looks a bit shit but 80m is perfectly legible. There’s no way I could use anything closer than 80m for navigating with though there’s just not enough “ground” visible.

If the screen was much bigger I can see a potential benefit in that you could zoom in much closer, still have wider awareness of the terrain around you and the OSM would be clearer but on my GPS and phone OS is streets ahead.

We’ll have to agree to disagree then, as I find the OS unusable to navigate with on screen, whilst the OSM are excellent.

Indeed in the last 2 weeks I’ve used OSM on the South Downs Way and a 300 mile road ride, including riding through London. With OS I can’t get a good enough zoom to be able to tell one road from the next in built up areas.

allthepies

If anyone’s interested I’ll stick the latest file on a share somewhere.
Yes please for me too

I’d also be very interested please. I like the OSM maps, but I’d like something that looked a little more like OS. I’d love to have a go with your version.

Here is the latest version, built in the last hour.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_uy0wF5v0lbdV8xVTQyYmxHUGc/view?usp=sharing

This is all of the UK.

To install download the file and place in the Garmin folder of the memory card.

Note: No contours!

I regularly build a UK wide Garmin map from the latest OSM data. Got a batch job on my home PC which sucks the OSM data down and then processes it into Garmin format, adding an OS-like look and feel in the process. Only takes 10 mins or so including downloading all of the UK OSM data.

If anyone’s interested I’ll stick the latest file on a share somewhere.

In fact, would it be rude to ask for some pointers as to how to build this myself? just as a some manual steps? or is there a bunch of your own IP involved (in which case tell me to jog on).

No problem, the only stuff I’ve done is work out some parameters for mkgmap and make a batch file which gets the data and processes it.

I’ll try and write something up this wk.

That would be awesome, thanks. I’ll ping you a mail to your profile’s address.

I’m sure at some point OS will join the 21st century and release vector maps with 1:25k detail.

OS do vector mapping 🙂

At the risk of pointing out the obvious, most of the focus above seems to be on the look of the two mapping options. However the BIG issue (as mentioned by a one or two posters) is completeness of map data, which is VERY dependant on users updating/adding to it. Njee’s example is all very well, but it’s a well-trampled area, so it’s not surprising if it’s comparable in terms of accuracy.

I’ve used OSM maps whilst on hols in Europe or walking in the surrey hills, and generally they’ve been pretty decent – but when walking/scrambling in Snowdonia, the mapping is far more patchy compared to OS, I wouldn’t rely on it in that situation without a proper OS map (paper or otherwise). However, that was a year or two ago, and there may well have been updates.

Mtbing aside:
One other issue according to users (inc audax) on one other forum is routing funnies, not IME, and equally I’ve had my E30 crash on a City Navigator postcode search. Facilities/POI completeness can be rather variable but improving…

As an example of OSM patchiness- a large prominent pub at one end of Teddington high st (so not exactly in the sticks) isnt on the download I grabbed a few years ago, but is shown now with some accuracy online.

I guess the thing is, check OSM for the areas you’re mtbing over wrt OS; check/update your OSM install regularly; feedback missing data.
Oh, and there’s a funding phase over on the OSM site at the mo’ – they’ve reached what they wanted for new servers, but I daresay they won’t complain about additional funds 🙂

City Navigator’s aimed at on-road/urban use, not really the aim of Garmin’s OS offering.
edit : there’s nothing to stop you having several maps on your garmin (at least, easier on newer models) and enabling/disabling maps according to requirements. Tricky bit is can be identifying them, several countries I have on OSM don’t have unique names in the map select menu.

OS do vector mapping

I’m sure they do, but given that the options for mounting something on the bars are limited, that leaves us with the garmin supplied 1:50k maps, which are a bit rubbish. 1:50k detail would be fine as a vector file, or on a bigger screen, but on a 2″ GPS screen it’s only borderline useable, at best you can use it to quickly find your position on a paper map, or follow a really simple trail in a really sparse open area.

Vector’d maps do have their downsides though, this is what happens when you plot a course at the wrong zoom level. The navigator plotted a course at the nautical equivalent of the OS touring maps on his computer, unfortunately if he’d zoomed in enough the chart would have changed and he’d have seen that rather than being in 1000m+ of water they were about to hit a very steep reef!

Pffft, that’ll buff out. Could even be a sticker.

FWIW – I did clarify my point on OSM maps by saying it rather depends where you are, and thus the detail.

interested in this, i have both the os 1/50 and the openfiets ones im sure it was a cycle specific one i downloaded http://www.openfietsmap.nl/downloads/europe#GPS

curious to know if the https://openmtbmap.org/ are any better/more detailed.

Cheers