gageplate

Wondering if some of you tech people can help me. thinking of getting a gps for biking mostly to load maps onto it from cue sheets i have. Don't really need all the bells and whistles just something to show me turn by turn (eyes are having trouble reading cue sheets) Wondering if the garmin 60csx would do the job. Anybody tried this with their bike and if so how well did it work. any pros or cons about it would be great. Am i able to upload load from say Map my ride or similar mapping sites. Thanks for any help you can offer.

vinced

I have the 60Cx and have used it for cycling almost two years. You can download .gpx files from Map My Ride, but it will be a track and not a route. I use City Nav 2009 maps with my unit and started to use BaseCamp, both are Garmin products. Basecamp is free. Aslo check out https://connect.garmin.com/ it will interface with the 60 series units.

I currently use it attached to my backpack, but will be getting a bike mount for my road bike sometime down the road.

If you have any other questions, I'm sure I caused confusion, feel free to contact me.

gageplate

Hi Vinced, if i am understanding you correctly, when the route comes up on the screen it will not give me a map looking screen instead it will just be a line (?). What i am really looking for is to take a cue sheet for a specific ride map it onto a mapping site and upload to a gps. Not really to concered by what else is on the screen, just want something that will show me where to turn. Does that make sense? Also, does the unit lean more towards the bigger side of things. Thanks. Brad

vinced

The screen was a map the will show you a route. The problem with Map My Ride is that the map will show a trail that is like a breadcrumb. You can see the downloaded trip, but you can get the unit to easily provide you with directions form it. When you get the unit it wil come with a CD with MapSourse and a basic map. This is usable for what you want to due, but I suggest you get a copy of CityNav and a micro SD card (at least 2GB). I use my unit in the vehicle, for geocaching (another hobby), geotagging photos, along with when we go out cycling. If I'm on a trail, then I just use it to keep track of the ride data (speed, distance, track, etc), for planned road rides, I try to input the route when I have a cue sheet in advance.

Keep the questions coming and I'll do my best to answer. As you can see I am a GPS enthusiast (especially Garmins).

I need to research the web based routing.

gageplate

So i like you also geocache but i am only using a garmin etrex. I am assuming that this will not work for what i would like which is a turn by turn unit. Or, is there some type of software i can load onto this one for what i need. Brad

mulveyr 

You can purchase mapsets from Garmin that will do turn-by-turn routing - I have one for my GPS60. However, route calculation is VERY slow, you don't get audible prompts, and the screen is so small and low-res that it's really difficult to get a sense of the roads around you, which I find handy when I need to detour.

I find that a smartphone with nav software ( I use an iphone ) is far more useful on the bike than the 60.

vinced

Since the 60Cx and CSx have color screens, it's easier to see the roads. I had the same problem mulveyr has on my old GPSIII+.

gageplate

Yeah i have that problem with my old gps. Mulveyr i have given the iphone some that, but two of my concerns are battery life and how to mount it onto my handle bars. I assume with the iphone, that i can map a ride out and then upload it directly to the phone and i would be good to go. Thanks for all the help. Brad

rodrigaj

I'll resurrect this thread, rather than start a new one.

I just purchased the Garmin 60CSX.

Vinced, since you are a self-described GPS Garmin "enthusiast", here is a question for you:

Is there anyway to convert tracks to routes - without having to actually draw the route over the tracks using Trip and Waypoint Manager Mapsource program?

Every site out there (toporoute, map my ride, etc...) will make a perfectly fine tracks file and some programs will convert these to course files (gpx2crs) for the Edge 305, but I can't find the equivalent solution for tracks to routes.

I am planning a 260mile bike route and would love to have a series of "routes" as opposed to "tracks".

I have owned an Edge 305 for 3 years and still use it, but I wanted a true GPS with all of the mapping and routing functions. I have the microSD City Navigator.

Should I have purchased the City Navigator DVD? I bought the microSD CN at REI, so I can easily exchange it for the DVD, if this is the way to go.

vinced

Rodrigaj - I prefer the DVD since I can use the maps in MapSource. This is the way I've always done it, since my original unit did not use SD cards. This is just my way of doing it, have a preloaded microSD might work better for others. As far a converting tracks to routes, Mapsource does not seem to have that function, but you should be able to load the track into the 60CSx and have the unit convert it on the track screen (TracBack).

rodrigaj

Thanks vinced. I think what I will do is get the DVD and keep the microSD card as well. Best of both worlds.

I tried the TracBack method before my post and was very frustrated with the results. Maybe I was not doing something correctly.

In the meantime, I have found a nifty website (ridewithgps.com)https://ridewithgps.com/ that actually allows the creation of routes if you start from scratch. You then export this file as a gpx route and do a GPSbabel conversion to a gdb file.

If you then open the gdb file with MapSource, it appears as a fully functional route with all of the turns information on it. This sounds far more complicated than it really is.

To my knowledge, ridewithgps is the only mapping website that has this feature. All of the others leave you with standard track files. Unfortunately, this site has awful editing capabilities, so it is really only good if you want to create a route from scratch. It is a work in progress, and the creators of the website are committed to improvements, unfortunately its more of a labor of love, than a paying job. Lots of potential.

Ultimately, the simplest, most straightforward solution is the DVD. What really bothers me about the DVD is not the cost, but the fact that it can only be used with one device. I understand why they have to do it like that, but it really ticks me off.

vinced

I will take a look at ridewithgps.com and see what it offers. As far as the DVD, I though you could load it on two devices.

rodrigaj

Not from what I have read - only one device.

I just routed a series of rides on ridewithgps.com and experimented with tracks and routes and everything went smoothly until I got to a 70 mile ride done in tracks and the ride was truncated when it was sent to the device using MapSource. I had to filter the track down to 500 points, from what ridewithgps gave - 1200 points.

That is another gotcha that garmin threw in without documentation. The routes let you store 50 routes with up to 250 points each, while the tracks let you store 20 tracks with up to 500 points each. The routes is documented in the owners manual, but the tracks wasn't.

Seeing as an active track allows up to 10,000 points, I was surprised at the partitioning of the memory, regardless of whether you have 20 tracks stored, or not.

In any case, this has been a steep learning curve for me, but I think I now have the functionality that I bought the unit for.

nancyj

I have a good bit of experience with both the 60CX and the 60CSX as our search and rescue team uses them along with the Astro for the dogs and they are also the "standard" GPS for FEMA. One thing we do is upload our data files into a mapsource as the active log and save that file before doing anything with it because Garmin strips a lot of info off of a file when you save it as a saved track. Mapsource makes it easy to Clip the data files later. actually mapsource is a good little data manager but not much in the way of mapping. We save all files on computer and clear the GPS out after each use.

That said - not of lot of info on biking uses from me, but you may want to check out Topofusion which is a slick and cheap mapping program developed by some mountain bikers and constantly being improved. You can try it for free with a fully functining demo program (which just obliterates some of the tiles. A lot of functionaity there and you can overlay jpeg files like park maps, GIS maps, etc right into the program.

We use Maptech Terrain Navigator Pro for all of our purposes but it is a bit expensive for personal use.

NeuroDawg

I don't know if you have found a way to convert your tracks to routes, but it can be done with GPS TrackMaker which is freeware. The menu to do so is sort of hidden, but can be found with Tools->Tracklogs and Routes->Tracklog Reducer->Create a Route.

gps_dr

If you upload a track into one of the National Geographic "Topo!" applications, you can save it as a route.
(It doesn't download tracks, you can specify how many points you want in the route.)

I much prefer tracks to routes, allows me to see networks of trails on GPS.
Garmin 60/76 series allow viewing of 24 at once.