So thinking of getting a garmin edge 520 for navigation off road. Never used a garmin before or really read any maps as we usually ride trail centres but want to do some more natural singletrack now. Was just wondering how good the navigation works off road as on the roads it must be spot on? As i understand it you just download a gpx file of a route onto your laptop then transfer this to your garmin and away you go?
thanks
I've used mine off road and it works OK, just need to keep your wits about you, if you veer off course it beeps to let you know... follow the line and away you go
That's how it works essentially, but you'll need to also load a base map onto the garmin as well if you want some reference, otherwise you just have a breadcrumb trail on a blank background which can be tricky to navigate a new area.
Lack of sd card slot means you can't get a massive area of map on the 520. Plenty for individual rides but you just might need to spend a bit of time installing different maps if you go somewhere different.
Talkytoaster does good free maps and you can use the garmin mapinstall software to send them to the garmin.
This is the best source of free maps for a garmin i have found along with instructions to download for the 520. I use this all the time now and gave my 800 away as I never used it.
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2013/05/download-garmin-705800810.html
ok... i've followed all the instructions on there and it doesn't give me the file required, it's not showing the _gmapsupp.zip file... is it just me!?