Garmin Edge 820 . Maps questions

StuR

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Patreon
Apr 28, 2018
449
731
Forest of Dean
Ive currently got an 810 which is great but i want to add an Ebike field.
Im trying to keep my bars as clutter free as possible so seriously considering an upgrade to an 820.
My one concern is the mapping.

Can anyone enlighten me as to the quality of the on board off road maps ?
Can other maps be added ?
(The 820 hasn't got an SD slot )
In particularly interested in quality off road maps for UK as well as French and Swiss Alps

Thanks
 

mark.ai

E*POWAH Master
Patreon
Jul 10, 2018
828
594
Windermere
If it's anything like my Edge 1030 then the default maps look ok, but route finding is really poor! Garmin seems to have moved all their default maps over to use OpenStreetMap (OSM)(OpenStreetMap), so the quality of mapping in an area depends on how good OSM is in that particular area. I've noticed where I am that a load of trails are incorrectly tagged for cycling, which means that either routing tries to send you down trails you don't have access to, or it doesn't send you down trails that it should.

That's the bad points out of the way - but there are some positives!

OpenStreetMap is open source, which means anyone who finds a mistake in the mapping can edit it and make a correction. When the maps are rebuilt (by Garmin, maybe a few times a year?) then all the latest changes to OSM will get added to the Garmin version of the maps. So over time, OSM will keep improving. Any fixes you make to the maps in an area are not just good for you, but also good for everyone else using them.

OpenStreetMap recently added tagging for trails where you can indicate a general MTB difficulty for the trail. You can also specify uphill difficulty as well. I've been adding some of these locally as well as fixing errors I notice.

There are plenty of other versions of OSM maps (some free, some not) which you can copy onto your Garmin and use instead (provided there is enough space free on the device). These other versions can be tuned for particular activities like MTBing. You install the maps into Basecamp, and then you use that to install the maps onto your device. Some of the ones I've tried are:
 

StuR

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Patreon
Apr 28, 2018
449
731
Forest of Dean
If it's anything like my Edge 1030 then the default maps look ok, but route finding is really poor! Garmin seems to have moved all their default maps over to use OpenStreetMap (OSM)(OpenStreetMap), so the quality of mapping in an area depends on how good OSM is in that particular area. I've noticed where I am that a load of trails are incorrectly tagged for cycling, which means that either routing tries to send you down trails you don't have access to, or it doesn't send you down trails that it should.

That's the bad points out of the way - but there are some positives!

OpenStreetMap is open source, which means anyone who finds a mistake in the mapping can edit it and make a correction. When the maps are rebuilt (by Garmin, maybe a few times a year?) then all the latest changes to OSM will get added to the Garmin version of the maps. So over time, OSM will keep improving. Any fixes you make to the maps in an area are not just good for you, but also good for everyone else using them.

OpenStreetMap recently added tagging for trails where you can indicate a general MTB difficulty for the trail. You can also specify uphill difficulty as well. I've been adding some of these locally as well as fixing errors I notice.

There are plenty of other versions of OSM maps (some free, some not) which you can copy onto your Garmin and use instead (provided there is enough space free on the device). These other versions can be tuned for particular activities like MTBing. You install the maps into Basecamp, and then you use that to install the maps onto your device. Some of the ones I've tried are:
Thanks @mark.ai for a massively comprehensive answer
Much appreciated
 

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