Which routing app for Edge and other Garmin newbie questions

[Hard-Drive]

Thoroughly enjoying getting back into road cycling and I've done a couple of rides with my new Edge 830, although I'd only done some very basic setup. I've now sorted the data fields, however I have a couple of questions for experienced users!

1-Which routing app is best for me? I've recently moved to a new area (Rutland...great cycling country!) and want to explore...setting up a route ideally on my laptop by dropping multiple pins/waypoints along the route (so it takes in the places I want to go through rather than any "auto routing" cleverness) and then uploading it to the Edge. I tried this on a route I already knew on Garmin Connect, and to be honest it went a bit haywire about 25 miles into a 35 mile ride. Is Strava any better?

2-The Edge (device, not U2 guitarist) has been flashing "lap time" stuff at me during my rides. I don't understand why...all my rides have been a single loop, there haven't been any multiple "laps". Why is this?

3-My virtual training partner (or similar) finished a ride about 20 minutes ahead of me the other day. He wasn't invited, and certainly didn't stop for a socially distanced takeaway ice cream like I did. Why is this happening?

4-Are there any good features that I should use (bearing in mind I don't have the additional sensors). What are people's experiences with the bike alarm and incident detection? Any good or lots of false positives?

Thanks!

[3013buz]

Hard-Drive said:

Thoroughly enjoying getting back into road cycling and I've done a couple of rides with my new Edge 830, although I'd only done some very basic setup. I've now sorted the data fields, however I have a couple of questions for experienced users!

1-Which routing app is best for me? I've recently moved to a new area (Rutland...great cycling country!) and want to explore...setting up a route ideally on my laptop by dropping multiple pins/waypoints along the route (so it takes in the places I want to go through rather than any "auto routing" cleverness) and then uploading it to the Edge. I tried this on a route I already knew on Garmin Connect, and to be honest it went a bit haywire about 25 miles into a 35 mile ride. Is Strava any better?

2-The Edge (device, not U2 guitarist) has been flashing "lap time" stuff at me during my rides. I don't understand why...all my rides have been a single loop, there haven't been any multiple "laps". Why is this?

3-My virtual training partner (or similar) finished a ride about 20 minutes ahead of me the other day. He wasn't invited, and certainly didn't stop for a socially distanced takeaway ice cream like I did. Why is this happening?

4-Are there any good features that I should use (bearing in mind I don't have the additional sensors). What are people's experiences with the bike alarm and incident detection? Any good or lots of false positives?

Thanks!

A number of years ago, around 2013 I was using Google to generate routes however, on a few occasions it took me down some routes really not suitable for a road bike. Since then, I've only used Strava. Turn on Heatmaps and it shows you popular roads too. Not had any issues, apart from an occasional freeze of the head unit.

On laptime you may have the unit set to automatically create a lap based on time or distance?
https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/edge830/EN...

I'm sure you should be able to turn off virtual partner, but it may be initially that because you have generated or uploaded a route into the unit there is some data there that is giving you the partner target?

I'm on an edge 800 so cant comment on the other parts.

[DangerMonkey]

Hard-Drive said:

1-Which routing app is best for me? I've recently moved to a new area (Rutland...great cycling country!) and want to explore...setting up a route ideally on my laptop by dropping multiple pins/waypoints along the route (so it takes in the places I want to go through rather than any "auto routing" cleverness) and then uploading it to the Edge. I tried this on a route I already knew on Garmin Connect, and to be honest it went a bit haywire about 25 miles into a 35 mile ride. Is Strava any better?

The Ridewithgps.com website is brilliant for this. You can use a combination of os cycle / Google maps / streetview etc and then send it to your device.

[MarcelM6]

I've heard good things about Komoot also, but personally just go with the mapping in the Garmin connect app.

[itsnotarace]

You can turn off the virtual partner the when you load the course (route), click the spanner icon

You can turn off auto lap under System>Bike Settings>Auto Lap>Off

The above is from my Edge 800 so maybe slightly different on newer models

For route planning I second ridewithgps.com and export to a TCX file with turn guidance which I then copy to the device

[IrateNinja]

Another user of Strava Routes.

Create on strava using their heatmap, then load to the device using the strava routes garmin connect app.

[Hard-Drive]

Thanks for the input guys. I've used Strava routes a couple of times now and "it just works". Great advice, thanks!