[jcolley]

I've been creating custom routes for cycling that are typically loops starting from my house and going anywhere from 20 to 80 miles back to my house. I've used bikeroutetoaster.com to create them and have used them on my Garmin Edge 305 for about a year.

Now, I have a new 8820 and would like to replace my Garmin and carry one less thing with me.

Is there a GPS Nav program that will let you load custom routes/courses in .gpx format and also has voice prompts for turns? I keep a headphone in one ear when I ride and would like to keep the 8820 tucked in a pocket, not out to look at.

Any suggestions?

[FF22]

I don't think that I've seen anything for the BB's that allows the use of a pre-defined itinerary. I've looked over many of the gps offerings. Not even one that would just show it on the screen, nevermind trying to get it to VOICE the route. Most of them want your origin and destination and find the route for you.

Even my standalong TomTom920 has to be forcefully kept on an itinerary from point to point or it will decide that C-D which I've thought should go my way, it will re-route to a better choice in its estimation. The way around such recalcs, is to actually define the itinerary to take you just past a crucial turn so it is already after the intersection in place C. Then it will usually go your way to D.

But the battery life of the TomTom does not really provide longer biking trips.

I did use gps-ed on the BB yesterday to track a 53 mile bike ride including two ferry rides. And I opened GoogleMaps at one point along the ride to help us figure out which road went where we wanted - we could have used more topography but we knew the ride had its hills but our unusual 90F temps made it more of a challenge. (which reminds me - Gmaps does not have a terrain view while their website does, I should write them).

[jcolley]

F2,

Sounds like we are riding in similar areas, PNW? I didn't make it out yesterday and what a shame that was.

I did however head out at 5:30 this morning for a 55mi route up the Hood Canal and back. I had the BB and used Blackberry tracker and bbtrack so the wife could see where I was and I could d/l the ride after.

I do think she tried to call toward the end of my ride and couldn't get through. With Blackberry tracker running constantly, I think the data connection blocks incoming calls...

I have found something called Trimble Outdoors that looks interesting, but haven't read enough yet to make the plunge. It has a PC program for planning the routes, but I haven't figured out yet if it works on AT&T.

[FF22]

Well, I generally call it the pacific northWET! But not yesterday.

Bike Seattle up to Edmonds, ferry to Kingston, Indianola, Paulsbo. We decided it was too hot to go to Bremerton, opting for the other hilly terrain of Bainbridge. Ferry to downtown Seattle and home to near Greenlake. Sounds as if Hood Canal is close by - nice!

I have not played much with either Blackberry Tracker or bbtracker but have been using gps-ed. It has done a terrific job of tracking bike rides, hikes (mt si) and cross-country skiing. Yesterday, we were no exactly sure of the route to Paulsbo after a bit. Stopped, turned on Gmaps found our intersection and looked over the maps for where to head. Also a few different weather programs showed us the HEATED reality. We tracked around Lake Washington 2 weeks ago and a loop from here around Lake Sammamish (Issaquah) a few weeks back. gps-ed did well on them all.

I would not mind an "itinerary" program since my friend has this route from here to Snohomish, over to Everett (Lowell, really) and then a meander through suburbia which is not bad, back to Bothell but lots of turns and I tried plugging that into my Garmin - but it does NOT work as a route.

Garmin's also got something for the BB but I don't see any trial version. It is a one-time $99.00. I am not into monthly subscriptions. I have a Garmin 76cs and I've used it for biking in the past. It is not as sensitive (as the puck I have with the 8830) and loses under heavy trees sometimes. It probably would have been better since I have topo maps for it and could have looked at terrain. But, one less device is better, therefore the BB.

Of the two, B..B.. Tracker and bbtracker (confusingly similar names), which do you prefer and why, if you don't mind my asking.

[jcolley]

Well, I just got my 8820 last week and pulled my Edge off the bike this weekend, so I haven't had much time to play with either program yet. Blackberry tracker lets my wife log in and see where I am, somewhat realtime, but then when I get home I can look at my track history and export as .kml. BBtracker on the other hand functions much like the history on my Edge, allowing me to look at my track, elevation, speed, etc. and export it to gpx IIRC.

I have used bikeroutetoaster.com for creating a lot of local routes around here (Port Orchard) and out to Manchester State Park and up the Hood Canal. It lets you export them as .mbcrs files which I can then load into MotionBased and those will give you a "course" with turn prompts on the Garmin.

I would really like to get rid of it though. I have a PowerTap 2.4 on the bike and hate having two bike computers. Until Saris and Garmin start letting the PT and the Edge 705 talk to each other, I'd rather just carry my 8820 and let it serve as Nav/phone/media for the long rides.

I downloaded a demo of the Garmin app for the 8820 and it's pretty, but still won't allow you to load custom tracks.

So far, the only thing I've found that will is Trimble Outdoors, but it's a subscription (not so sure I like that) and doesn't list compatibility with AT&T, only the CDMA carriers such as Nextel/Sprint, etc. I emailed their tecj support, but no answer yet.

[twic]

I'm in the same situation (but on a different continent). I want to be able to plot a route on bikely.com, export it as KML or GPX, and then follow the route on the ground using my blackberry (an 8900 Curve, FWIW).

I was hoping the Google Maps app or RIM's standard Maps app would be able to do it, but no dice so far - when i try to import a KML or GPX as a 'layer' into Maps, it says it doesn't recognise the format.

Is there really no free software for the BB that does this? It wouldn't even need to overlay the track on a map, just show the line on the screen, and show where i am relative to it!

[FF22]

You know, MAYBE gps-logger can do that. I have not tried it but I think it does recently allow loading of "paths" and I think it can show a path while moving anew. So maybe it would show an "outline" of a former path and as you progress, you can see if you are following it or not. BUT it does not show a maps, only the line of the path, so you would not have any advantage of seeing which road you turned on or should turn on, just that a turn is coming up.

But again, I have not tried this function so I may be wrong about how it works. There is a gps-logger thread and the programmer is active in it so you can ask him about these functions.

[rileyrg]

Anyone have an update here? It seems quite a common and obvious requirement to load a predefined gpx route into the BB and see it on a map.

[Just Me]

Bump. What about now? Does anyone have a favorite GPS app that let's you upload a GPX track and follow it. Ideally it will function out of cell reception where data is unavailable. All it really need to do is overlay my current location on th GPX route.

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