So part of my leaving present from work was a good chunk of CRC vouchers (lucky me!). I’m relocating to West Yorkshire with what appears some pretty good riding locally or a short hop into the peaks via Langsett/cut gate I’m thinking of investing into a bike sat nav! I have an OS map but I fancy one of these swanky witch craft devices.

I’ve seen this,

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/garmin-edge-800/rp-prod55544

However then I saw this,

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/garmin-gb-discoverer-1-50k/rp-prod47626

Which set alarm bells.

Can anyone comment on the quality of the maps? Bit put off that Garmin need to charge over £100 for an OS map. You don’t buy a Garmin Sat Nav for a car and then immediately buy a map to replace the stock one…

Advice, recommendations welcome. Might just bank my CRC vouchers for a rainy day and explore old trusty old skool way… slow & lost.

Get the one without maps and buy the maps from here instead.

http://www.ioffer.com/i/garmin-gb-discoverer-1-50k-full-coverage-127349741

They are the same maps, whether their price is “too good to be legit” you can decide. I’ve used them in my Garmin with no issues whatsoever.

Going back to why the maps cost £100. The included non-OS ones are OK but not so detailed. Think about how much it would cost to have all of the UK at 1:50k on boggo paper maps, and then the hassle of carrying them everywhere with you. If you’re going on long rides then the convenience of not stopping to fanny about with maps is a delight.

or root about the web for a “free” download.

I use Talkie Toaster’s maps with my 810, unfortunately he’s stopped uploading the OS 1:50 lookalike maps for free as people kept selling them on ebay. However a £20 subscription to for his downloads is a lot cheaper than the Garmin ones!

EDIT- I suspect johnnystorm’s link above is exactly what TT got upset about 🙄

Cheers,
Jamie

EDIT- I suspect johnnystorm’s link above is exactly what TT got upset about

No, the talkie toaster ones are 1:50 lookalike in a squint really quite a lot kind of way – i.e. same information but not really that OS like. the Ioffer ones are proper OS mapping but don’t know if they are ‘genuine garmin OS mapping’ with the protection removed. To me they look a bit low-rent scanned when compared to the memory map OS maps I have on my iphone. But then again, I’ve never seen a legit Garmin OS map on a device in the flesh – it could be theirs look a bit average too.

Take care if you go the legit route what format you buy – if it comes on the SD card it has to be used on that specific SD card which is a pain if like me you prefer to use the road maps on the road and the OS maps off road as you have to switch cards all the time. If you could transfer both onto one bigger card that would be loads better (you can setup the 810 to use different maps on the same card automatically depending of if you are doing a mountain bike or road ride).

Also, I was a bit underwhelmed when I got my 810 and started using it – the screen is quite small and low resolution – fine when looking at small sections of map but if you zoom out to for example to review your route you can’t see enough detail to make good decisions. I end up going back to memory map on my phone for that.

The iOffer ones are the Garmin maps. I suspect the reason they look a bit ropey is the Garmin screen resolution, particularly on touchscreens, is not great when compared to a modern HD smartphone. There are of course advantages that outweigh that imho, waterproofing, battery life, use with gloves on, mounting convenience, etc.

FWIW the ioffer ones do come in a Garmin security sealed packet…..

anyone know if you can stick the iOffer garmin maps in an android phone?

Even if you could, I guess you’d have to take the other card out wif yer choons on an that? And your nav. apps.

Unless you can copy off the garmin card?

The ioffer ones are blatantly dodgy, so you might as well download them yourself via torrent rather than give money to some crim. Will be just as legit.

Alternatively, (legally) download the Open Cycle Map version for free, which is what I did. I actually prefer them to OS maps. Seems to be a performance benefit using them on the 800 as well for some reason.

Cheers zilog, good points!

Openstreet maps for mtb here if you like – http://openmtbmap.org/
This link is the same data but ‘tweaked’ for roadbiking – http://www.velomap.org/

The important bit is that he has tweaked the routing info. to make it work better for both sorts of bike. To make it work though you need to read the instructions on the site – e.g. to avoid cobbles on a road bike you set ‘avoid unpaved roads’

I build my own maps for my Garmin 800 using the OSM data and the mkgmap application.

Not for the faint hearted though, the talkytoaster and velomap options above are all good.

talkytoaster using OSM are great.

In a few years time I reckon OSM will be the gold standard rather than OS

Don’t forget to “give back” and update the OSM map database if you discover errors or missing trails etc. Doesn’t take long once you get the hang of it.

I agree…I’ve managed to add a few corrections to some scottish hill tracks myself. It’s a 100% accurate where I live though, and has tracks OS doesn’t have.

another +1. It’s super easy to do but do a little reading first so that you code the routes in a consistent way for where you are. Not difficult though

I build my own maps for my Garmin 800 using the OSM data and the mkgmap application.

I’ve tried it, but haven’t got it to work properly as yet. I’ve used various TYP files- I’ve even got an old OS 1:50 lookalike one form Talkie Toaster which came with the Mapsource version download.

Cheers,
Jamie

New 705 user here with some basic questions.

Micro SD bought and downloaded the UK maps from http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/

Bunged it in, all good, appears to work.

Am i right in thinking that this is a road bike suitable set up but not MTB (i.e. not for bridleways, hacking off road round the highlands etc)?

If this is the case do I need to install a different set of maps instead of what I already have or as well as?

And which MTB friendly source is the way forward. My goal is to grap some gpx of great UK natural riding, and then go follow. This is doable right?

(obvious proviso of being sensible & having map hard copy just in case etc etc)

cheers

http://openmtbmap.org/

I use this, its been super for the lakes and north wales. Even used it to track where i’ve been on holiday.

And if youre a roadie, then just alter the options in your settings.

Cheers all, helpful info 🙂

I use the Talky Toaster maps, so far not had to fall back to the genuine Ordnance Survey as OpenStreetMap is so good (albeit with the very rare missing path). You can also route on the Talky Toaster map, and it maintains clarity to the maximum zoom.

For people using the discoverer maps at 1:50 do you ever find you need 1:25?

The ioffer maps – is the consensus that they’re a bit hooky then? Clearly at that price something is wrong.

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2013/05/download-garmin-705800810.html

my opinion: OS maps are the best in the world I’ve come across – if you want such quality and the continued production and update of them, pay for it and help support them.

my opinion: OS maps are the best in the world I’ve come across – if you want such quality and the continued production and update of them, pay for it and help support them.

Whilst I agree, I do think it is a huge shame the system is not more joined up. If you buy one product (memory map for example) a significant chunk of the money goes to the OS licence. If I ‘own’ that licence for the use of OS already why should I pay for it again if I buy a second device or bit of software that uses the same licensing? There should be some sort of passport system where you buy the device or software and enter your separately purchase OS licence code to activate the mapping on that device.

It’s also fair to say that Garmin’s price structure has not reflected the very significant reduction in OS licensing costs in the last year unlike most other OS electronic mapping providers.

For both of these reasons I’m relatively comfortable running dodgy garmin OS mapping whilst owning full RRP memory map equivalent mapping.

my opinion: OS maps are the best in the world I’ve come across – if you want such quality and the continued production and update of them, pay for it and help support them.

Except that it’s a weird publicly-owned Government agency that also – and confusingly – is nakedly commercial. And the digital mapping sales model means you buy a version of the data rather than the data itself via a third party – Garmin, Satmap, MM, Anquet etc – and potentially pay for the same mapping repeatedly if you swap devices or software.

Brilliant mapping, shonky, confused organisation.

Incidentally, the mapping reproduction and the functionality of the latest Satmap Active 12 is excellent. Garmin don’t seem to get called on it much, but viewing OS maps on their devices is like looking at a poorly adjusted television from the 1970s. Something to do with the way they’ve rendered the data apparently rather than just the screen res.

As far as 1:50k v 1:25k goes… I’ve found that with a mapping GPS the 1:50 is fine 99% of the time. Occasionally in built-up areas and threading through farms – normally walking rather than riding – 1:25 is handy, but mostly a luxury you don’t really need.

Oh, fwiw, Viewranger on an iPad Mini in a Lifeproof case with a bluetooth Garmin GLO GPS is brilliant, though a bit much for use on a bike…

Possibly a slight hijack, but a related question:

Currently for mapping I use an Android device. Specifically, I have a custom map style configured at Cloudmade, and I use Mobac to create atlases of tiles for offline use on the device.

The custom styling is important to me because I find most map styles (whether standard OSM styles, Google Maps or Garmin maps) are either too cluttered or too low-contrast to be readable quickly and in bright light – even OS 1:50k is far from perfect for road navigation.

So, is there a way I can build custom-styled maps from OSM data for an Edge 800/810/Touring/1000 – either via Mobac or similar, or by hand-cranking a config file for Mkgmap?