Thinking of ordering one of these. Currently use OSmaps app on my iPhone, but drains the battery fairly quickly and want to see speed, distance etc.
Can anyone tell me if garmin maps differentiate between footpaths / bridleway /byeways etc? I saw some old posts on another forum from a few years ago where people complained they all just looked the same on the map display.
The maps are from Open Streemap not Garmin, and no they do not have UK PROW information on them. It differentiates between paths and trails but that doesn't help a lot.
I believe you can get an OS maps download for Garmin, but it costs about £300?
It's definitely worth investing in TalkyToaster maps for the Explore (£10 or so).
I live in Scotland and don't have to worry about such nonsense - but it looks like TalkyToaster does differentiate between the various types of path.
https://talkytoaster.me.uk/new-footpath-bridleway-cycleway-and-long-distance-path-additions/
I don’t understand why they’d charge £300 for OS maps, when you can get all the OS maps for £25/year using the OSMaps app? I checked out the talkytoaster maps, they are £25 so a bit more reasonable
The OS maps I had were bitmaps, so when zooming in you didn't get more detail, just pixels. It made it hard to see what was going on, but that was an older device. I tend to plan beforehand though, and get my phone out if I need to.
On ebay £40 for full GB 1:25k OS on a micro SD card which plugs into your garmin,
I use these https://www.the-thorns.org.uk/mapping/help/ukgarmin.html
Happy with them but never tried the Talky Toaster ones, perhaps someone else can opine.
On ebay £40 for full GB 1:25k OS on a micro SD card which plugs into your garmin,
If these are genuine Garmin products rather than copies, they'll be tied to the SD card they come on - the Edge Explore 2 doesn't have an SD slot. Having said that I think that there are unlockers available.
I can't help with the mapping I'm afraid (I'm using the maps supplied) but it's worth a mention that Halfords currently have a deal going for money off on all biking accessories. 20% off purchases over £150 will save you £50 on an Explore 2 at the checkout. If you collect Microsoft reward points too, they can be turned into Halfords gift cards.
I think the Explore 2 has a bigger battery than than the last explore, but recently on a ride I was using my (mark 1) Explore for navigation, the battery was down to 5% after 6 hours. I had a power bank luckily.
I have the Explore (1) and no issues with off road mapping at all. Great device, other than battery, but you need to knock off back light and activate power save for long rides.
There's a known issue with the Edge Explore 1 where the battery indicator is not calibrated correctly. I only got about 6/7 hours usage out of mine which seems to be a common complaint.
What's interesting is if you keeping running the device after it reaches 0%, it will keep going for another 2-3 hours.
However, once you do this, the battery indicator then becomes completely unreliable and will even report different levels if you reboot the device.
I was able to repeat this behaviour on three separate devices and sent Garmin all the data files from the devices, Garmin ended up swapping it for an 830.
The cynic in me thinks that there is a fundamental hardware issue with the edge 1 which results in the battery not reporting it's levels correctly. Garmin have attempted to mask this in software by only allowing the battery indicator to report about 70% of battery capacity.
This 'fix' only lasts until you run the battery to flat (effectively recalibrating the battery level indicator) which then results in the original issue manifesting (unreliable battery indicator).
Hope that makes sense!
Thanks for the replies...
Does anyone use the garmin segments. Couldn't really see how to set it up. I noticed the edge explore 2 doesn't support strava live segments, that might be ok if I can create my own segments in garmin. I basically want to track my progress on a ride vs. previous rides on hills, downhills etc. If that isn't easy to do think I might just go for the 830 instead which supports strava live segments.