Garmin Legend HCx

[Cadence]

Trying to get to grips with this Xmas pressie and having a few problems.

Re fitting it to the bike I really want to position it on the stem. Does anyone know how i can do this? The Garmin handlebar mount is of course at 90 degrees to this so no good ...

Re creating a route to follow (e.g. for an audax / tour) what online sites do people use? Bikely didn't seem to work too well, is biketoaster any good? I'm totally confused by trackpoints, coursepoints, waypoints etc! I'd really like the GPS to say turn right in 50m then left in 200m etc ....

Hope people can help me get up to speed!!

Thanks, and a happy 2009 to everyone.

[MercuryKev]

You might find this page full of useful info:

http://www.aukweb.net/services/gps1.htm

Particularly the Jo Woods article.

[Cadence]

Thanks MercuryKev - very useful indeed.

Does anyone know how to mount a Garmin Legend HCx onto the stem?

[alanmc]

This recent thread , posts by pdm, had a link to a mount and a description of how he "DIY'ed" a stem mount.

I'd also highly recommend a read of Francis Cookes various articles linked from the page that MercuryKev provided the link to above.

[pdm]

Cadence,
Thanks for the PM.
I will take a few pictures tomorrow and post the results here to show the mount I have bodged used.

[frankly frankie]

Does anyone know how to mount a Garmin Legend HCx onto the stem?

You can try a RAM cradle from GPS Warehouse.  A bit of work on the back of it with hacksaw and  drill will adapt the moulding so that it sits nicely across a stem, drill a couple of slots and fix it on with a cable tie.  The RAM cradle is a very good mount, but not terribly elegant (even before the hacksaw treatment).  You CAN also get a 'rail mount' from the same source and avoid any hacking and drilling at all, but for me this combo sits up too high above the bars - I prefer the hack/drill solution, saves about 1/2".

[edit] exactly as described by     pdm   below

[Greenbank]

I just zip-tied my Garmin to the stem with two zipties, it's done an SR series like that.

If you use releasable/reusable zip-ties then changing the batteries isn't tricky either. (Right now I just stick a small screwdriver into the end of the ziptie to release it and it can be reused easily.)

[Polar Bear]

Trying to get to grips with this Xmas pressie and having a few problems.

Re fitting it to the bike I really want to position it on the stem. Does anyone know how i can do this? The Garmin handlebar mount is of course at 90 degrees to this so no good ...

Thanks, and a happy 2009 to everyone.

Can you set it to 'landscape' mode?

[andygates]

Those handheld ones get a bit confused as to direction of travel when not pointed forwards.

[pdm]

Have done a little writup on my mounting bodge solution - seems to work OK. The GPS unit is very stable and is easy to remove for cafe stops. All for less than 10 squids...

[Martin]

I'm tossing up between the Legend and the Vista; for an extra £20 the altimeter on the Vista looks good but a few queries

1. Will I need the topo map to be able to measure climbing? (am getting City Navigator on DVD); I don't want topo for road riding would prefer a 2d view.

2. Will I be able to just download the whole of the UK (or Sweden) complete with pre-defined routes off bikely onto the SD card or do I also have to buy the maps on SD card?

3. Am I right in thinking that you can only upload your tracks from the device to the
pc if you have the DVD?

[simonp]

I'm tossing up between the Legend and the Vista; for an extra £20 the altimeter on the Vista looks good but a few queries

1. Will I need the topo map to be able to measure climbing? (am getting City Navigator on DVD); I don't want topo for road riding would prefer a 2d view.

2. Will I be able to just download the whole of the UK (or Sweden) complete with pre-defined routes off bikely onto the SD card or do I also have to buy the maps on SD card?

3. Am I right in thinking that you can only upload your tracks from the device to the
pc if you have the DVD?

1.  You can't measure climbing before you ride with the plain 2d maps, if that's what you mean.  You can record climbing no matter what map you are using.

2.  Bikely maps don't download to the unit, you just get the track.  For mapping you need either one of Garmin's Mapsource products, or use the free Openstreetmap stuff.

3.  My Vista HCx came with Trip & Wapoint Manager, which will allow you to upload tracks.

[Martin]

1. Thanks; I'm not that bothered about climbing but if it can do it with any map might as well go for the Vista 

2. sorry I meant download off City navigator; I only want to download Bikely route tracks not the maps; I think Sergent Pluck did this with my event so it definitely works (although it doesn't show roadside tea stops  )

3.  is that as good as Bikely? does it follow the road to give you an accurate distance etc?

[simonp]

3.  is that as good as Bikely? does it follow the road to give you an accurate distance etc?

Trip & Waypoint manager doesn't use maps (from what francis said) so can't do follow road.  If you have mapsource then you can do follow road.

[frankly frankie]

2. sorry I meant download off City navigator; I only want to download Bikely route tracks not the maps; I think Sergent Pluck did this with my event so it definitely works (although it doesn't show roadside tea stops  )

Tracks (and Routes and Waypoints) are not stored on your memory card.
(They are in some newer Garmins, but not on the Etrex series)
They are stored in the unit's own memory, where magically they remain even when you change batteries.

Any maps you transfer into the unit are stored on the card, wiping in the process any maps already there.
There is also an option to log your daily recorded tracks onto the card, which I strongly recommend doing. 
(Presumably pre-loaded City maps are on a read-only SD card (?) so neither of these might apply.)

Regarding Trip & Waypoint Manager, this is from Garmin's page here:
https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=664&pvID=1951
"You cannot use this product to load maps to your Garmin device."

It will however upload/download Tracks/Routes/Waypoints.

But you're getting the DVD City anyway, so T&WM is irrelevant (though its possible you do still have to install it first, then install City over it - not sure about that but you do need the USB driver anyway, off the CD).  Garmin's software install is pretty flakey, I've found.

[Martin]

I've already got the DVD and playing around with it now; been plotting a route across Sweden; there is no apparent way of importing viamichelin's bike route to it, it just plots the beginning and end points unless I'm missing something; viamichelin saves them to a pc as a "GPS exchange file" if that helps and asks for your GPS maker beforehand (and even if there was viamichelin wets itself if you try to plot a bike route over 200km so you have to split it in 2). So I've done it manually on mapsource (which is actually much better than bikely) you just have to know the shortest route before you plot it. Doesn't seem to be a way to exclude motorways on mapsource.

I'll use Mapsource to plot Audax routes as the info control problem doesn't happen; speaking of which how do I enter info controls (presumably points of interest) on it?

[Martin]

thanks; I've moved this discussion to the Mapsource thread above

[simonp]

Audax UK recommend setting vehicle type to Delivery with shortest route preferred.

Generally that seems to give a sane compromise.