GPS Good For MTB Trail Riding.

[Two Tone]

Having come to the conclusion that the Garmin Edge 1030 is no good as a GPS on a mountain bike can anyone suggest an alternative I use a Garmin Montanan 610 on my trail motorbike but its a bit large for a cycle and the mount which isn't very good on a motorbike is even worse on a cycle with a tapered handlebar.

 

[OldBean]

OS app on phone with downloaded local maps or all maps for a subscription mounted to handlebars with Quadlock .....not failed me so far .
OS maps is a bit scratchy but is getting better....I find Viewganger too fiddly for my fuddled brain.
Have fun.

 

[OldGoatMTB]

Trailforks on phone

 

[KennyB]

Suggest you look at this:

Whats apps do you use to navigate between trails?

I've tried Trailforks and Viewranger and either I'm using them wrong, where I live doesn't have too many trails mapped out, or they don't really give you that option. What do you use, if anything, when you're out and about in the middle of nowhere and you want to navigate from one trail to...

www.emtbforums.com

 

[JoeBlow]

I've just bought a Garmin Edge Explore. It seems to do the job. My iPhone died on me once on a long walk and I swore never again. Not to mention that compared to a GPS it's a bit fragile and expensive to be mounted on the bike.

Al

 

[RickBullotta]

Having come to the conclusion that the Garmin Edge 1030 is no good as a GPS on a mountain bike can anyone suggest an alternative I use a Garmin Montanan 610 on my trail motorbike but its a bit large for a cycle and the mount which isn't very good on a motorbike is even worse on a cycle with a tapered handlebar.

What were your issues with the 1030?

Check out the Wahoo Elemnt also.

 

[MrSimmo]

I'm with you Two Tone, I've got an Edge 830. I've had to turn off pretty much all the auto features (detect turns, climbpro, reroute, get me home etc) as none really worked for me. Getting off trail and getting back on never really worked for me either. The firmware bugs with gps, sensors and loss of data were killers for me. The list goes on. Even the trailforks app (which is on the 830, just come to the 1030+) isn't great. I may be wrong but I suspect the Garmin Edge series is for road riders and mtb is an afterthought. According to my Edge, I managed to do a 24 foot jump yesterday, strange as I rode Swinley Forest and anyone who knows the area knows there aren't any 24 foot jumps there (excluding maybe that crazy drop off in the skills area but thats closed)...

I used to use ViewRanger, Komoot, BikeWithGPS, WorkoutDoors and a few others, none really did what I wanted - a simple offline mtb nav app. When you enable the features you end up with sizeable £ annual subscriptions and still dont get the battery life etc you get from a Garmin.

Ended up with:
1. Create/Import GPX route files with Garmin Connect
2. Garmin 830 for Route Logging and offline route guidance
3. OS Maps with Premium Subscription on the iPhone for checking out the area I'm in and planning a route back
4. Trailforks iPhone app to find DH style trails
5. For long rides, good old printed OS map from the car boot with a compass which I keep in the Camelbak


BTW changing the routing mode in the Garmin to "Mixed Surfaces" from "Mountain" made a big improvement to the map display for me.


Hope that helps

 

[JoeBlow]

To be clear, I only use the nav features on my Garmin, map, distance, speed figures etc. I'm too old to care about performance statistics.

Al

 

[Don_Singer]

I use a Garmin Montana, yes it is huge and heavy, yes the mount isn't great (I secured it with some zipties) but I haven't found a phone app that easily manages tracks and provides good track following guidance (like that little arrow pointing the way). Also, I find the data field selection and elevation profile to be super handy for XC races. I can track my average moving speed v current speed to check if I am on-target for performance goals and the profile lets me know when there is a hill ahead or how soon I'll get to the top of a climb (less important on an eMTB). I guess my point is the Montana has a ton of features and a big display that is configurable. On the downside, you can't have tracks for every trail loaded (well you could but geez) so I also use Trailforks if I am just exploring.

 

[BOTG]

I have the 530 Edge plus. A little small and not tough screen but good value.