Way back long time ago I made a
thread comparing some then-popular mapping software with Mapsource and Google Maps, and how to get stuff from each into your Garmin. The thread is seriously out of date, what with DeLorme Street Atlas and Microsoft Streets and Trips both being extinct, but the utility to get routes out of Google Map still exists. In post 3 of that thread I show how to get a navigable route from Google Maps into a GPS receiver. It won't do anything for you with the phone, but seriously, forget about using the phone to navigate or plan routes. Get a real GPS unit.
The utility is TYRE, from Tomtom. Stands for Take Your Route Everywhere. Free download. It comes from Tomtom but it knows GPX, too, so you can export a Google Maps route into Garmin software (Basecamp, nowadays.) Because Google and Garmin will have different map databases, you
will have to recalculate the route once in Basecamp. All TYRE actually sends to the GPX file is the points you selected on the Google map, so use as many via points on Google as you can to force the route to go where you want.
Just to address a couple of points mentioned earlier about cell service and phone GPS. It is true that Google lets you download a selected map section to your phone, so a data connection won't be required in that area. It's a very SMALL section, though! And while it's true that you don't need cellular service to use the GPS, if you want to see maps that aren't in the phone, you DO need cellular data service. The GPS will give you position all week if you have software that will read it, but without data service you won't see any of that on a map.
As for BlueTooth, I have a Garmin 2820, which is getting a bit long in the tooth (see what I did there?
) but still my favorite unit. Its Bluetooth handles both the phone and the helmet: the phone thinks the Garmin is a headset, and the helmet headset thinks the Garmin is a phone. I have on-screen caller ID, access to the phone book, whatever voice dialing capabilities the phone has. I can answer, initiate, and hang up, all on the Garmin screen. And that's a unit made more than a decade ago!
You want a Zumo. Period. Weatherproof, made for the rough environment of a bike. You can get them with traffic reporting, weather, even on-screen weather radar, I think. For music, get a satellite radio antenna, or use the BT to play from your phone.
Of course, once you have the Garmin and Basecamp, you really won't need Google Maps any more, unless you just hate how Basecamp works. That's pretty common, actually. Basecamp didn't exist when I made my thread lo those many years ago, and I've never bothered with it. I still have all the programs in that thread, even though you folks starting out can't get them any more. Pthpthpthpthpth.
