Garmin GPS for mountain biking?

Totally new to the forum so if this has been covered before I apologise.

I’m looking to possibly get a Garmin GPS mainly to explore new trails. I’ve been looking at the Garmin Touring (or Touring Plus) as I’m not too bothered about cadence or heart rate as I also use a Fitbit. I have an iPhone 6 and use Strava at present to track my distance/descent etc but really want a way to upload maps to guide me around new routes. I mainly ride Enduro/all mountain stuff.

So, in term of devices, what’s the best? Where is the best place to upload maps from? I mainly ride around the Peebles & Innerleithen area so are their plenty routes available to upload from there but I would also like to ride other ‘epic’ routes so are their a lot of maps available and where can I see what’s available before I buy?

Thanks.

I’ve got the Edge Touring and used it to successfully navigate a couple of new (to me) routes in the Lake District a while back. Very happy with how it performed.

I bought an edge 810 for road bike training but use on my mtb as well, i’ve used it to follow some routes locally that I nicked from other peoples strava rides. It worked well.

If you get an Edge then you won’t need all the other fitness stuff. The 810 is more than enough though it’s better to download routes rather than use the device as a satnav as the screen is so small. As the others have said Strava is the place to go to steal other people’s routes.

Cheers guys. How do I go about downloading routes from strava into the device? I take it I then pretty much use it as a kind of sat nav once the route is in the Garmin device and it will guide me around the route?

You need a premium strava subscription, then you can download routes and just drag them to the chew files folder on the garmin from windows explorer.

Cool, cheers.

So, am I better going for an 810 or Touring plus? I won’t be using the heart monitor given I have a Fitbit on my wrist.

I take it I can use the 810 the same as a touring plus for trail navigation maps/guides or is the Touring plus better as that’s all I’m really wanting it for?

Thanks

810 does decent maps/tracking/following. Much neater in some ways for strava as it lasts a lot longer and doesn’t drain your phone battery. You need maps for the 810 in the bundle (you will probably end up with the HRM etc. in the bundle)

As said you’ll probably get the hr monitor in a bundle set anyway so why not use it as you ll have all your ride info on one unit. You don’t need Strava premium to download routes either but by the sound of it it seems a little easier. Once downloaded you just follow the purple line on the screen. In the real world you just wait to hear the buzz and beep to tell you when you are off course.

Cheers guys.

Just realised the OS maps to download/buy are pretty expensive for the 810!!!

Where’s the best place to get these from?

Cheers

http://www.ioffer.com/i/garmin-gb-discoverer-1-50k-full-coverage-v4-full-map-602739092?i=255158760

Cheers mate. I take it it’s reliable? 😉

Cannot fault my Satmap Active 12. Full UK OS 1:25000 HD mapping. Cannot get lost with it.

When plotting routes I place a waypoint before any turn. The Satmap beeps, I wake the wcreen up to see which way to go. Perfect for XC routes.

I keep saying it, but I wouldn’t (don’t) use the OS maps on a Garmin, the 1:25k ones may be ok, but the 1:50k ones are useless at anything approaching a reasonable zoom IMO.