Your Garmin Edge 800 bike GPS can provide true turn by turn navigation. Here’s a great tutorial guide on how to plan and follow a route on your edge 800. Route planning has never been easier.
First things first – your maps
I’m going to use free OSM maps as a common denominator because anyone can use them, they’re free, and routable. If you’re in the UK, grab the talkytoaster maps here. If you need help, watch my tutorial video showing how to install the maps.
Of course, if you’re using commercial maps like the Garmin GB Discoverer (All of Great Britain,1:50K), or the garmin city navigator (see my comparison post here), then these will also work just fine, since they are fully routable.
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Just view the pages at “Which Garmin is right for you?.
My personal choice for road cycling is the City Navigator map, as it offers the best balance between clarity and detail.
Search for City Navigator maps on Amazon
If you need the full City Navigator map, here’s some live price data – check the region before you buy!
The best way to create a route/course to follow
There are tons of sites out there which will let you draw routes on a map and then allow you to download the route as a gpx or tcx file. There does seem to be some variation in the outputs they produce, and in turn these can be interpreted differently by the Garmin. My advice is to use www.ridewithgps.com – it’s free to use, and very simple. Just point and click on the map, and it will “snap” to the roads. Make a mistake? Just click the undo button.
When you’re done, you can export the file in various formats. I always use the GPX track option, but TCX works fine too. I’ll say that again. Export the file as a GPX track, or a TCX file!
Getting the GPX/TCX file onto your Garmin
This step is very simple – just connect the garmin to your computer via the USB cable, and open it up so you can see the files inside (on most computers you’ll get an autoplay pop up – just choose “open folder to view files”. If you have an SD card in your Garmin, you should get two autoplay options – one for the internal memory in the Garmin, and one for the SD card. It’s better to use the SD card. Open the Garmin folder, then the NewFiles folder. Copy your GPX/TCX file into the NewFiles folder. You can then disconnect the USB lead.
Making sure the settings on the Edge 800 are correct
Before you head out, you need to make sure a few settings are dialled in properly. The Garmin has all sorts of options for things like recalculating routes if you go wrong, whether to avoid certain types of roads, and so on.
If these aren’t set up right, you’ll have problems, so listen carefully!
Set the controls…
The following settings only need to be done once. So set ’em and forget ’em.
To access the settings, press the Menu button, then:
1. Press the Spanner icon in the bottom right.
2. Choose System
3. From here, we’ll be changing the Map and the Routing settings

Edit each setting to resemble the images below.
(Note: Map Visibility can be left on Auto)
Here’s another way of viewing it, so you can see how the menus link together.
Click to enlarge.
Bonus: Customise your Edge 800/810
Take a look at these instructions and free downloadable wallpaper images to jazz up your GPS!
Setting your course up
Now that your Map and Routing settings are just exactly perfect, there’s only one more thing to do.
Load the Course list (Main Menu > Courses), choose your course to load it up, and hit the spanner icon.
Make sure Turn Guidance is ON.
#You need to repeat this step, each time you load a new course, for the first time.
From this last screen, hit the back button and then finally the big green GO button.
The unit may ask you if you wish to navigate to the start of the course.
If you know where you’re going, say NO.
The unit will then take some time saying “Calculating…”, with a percentage indicator. Once done, your route will be highlighted in purple on the map, and you should get Turn by Turn directions popping up on screen in advance of the junctions,
Note, if you use TCX files, you’ll also get little arrows on the map, as well as the pop up warnings.
Here’s some more screenshots showing the difference between navigating with a GPX track, and a TCX file.
I hope that’s helped a few people out. I know from reading various forums that a lot of people struggle with the official Garmin manual.
Happy course following! Please share this article on facebook or twitter if you found it useful. For an alternate yet very similar approach, you may also want to look at Rafe’s guide at forgot.co.uk
Lastly, if you’ve been thinking about getting a Garmin Edge 800 Touchscreen GPS Bike Computer but had heard stories that they were tricky to use, I really hope this little guide has helped put your mind at rest. It’s really a great device when you set it up right.
Once I start riding my chosen course, will my Garmin 810 be recording in order to upload the ride to Strava when I finish, or do I need to start something else when I set off?
You must still press the start button to start recording. Starting a course does not begin recording. This catches lots of people out!
Hi
Thanks for your reply.
Sorry i’m being a bit blonde here, ‘ive only tried this once and it jumped from the navigation screen to my normal everyday screen when i pressed start and obviously i need the navigation screen, if i had left it would it have jumped back to the navigation screen?
Thanks
Kim
Do you have to upgrade Ride with GPS to use the export files facility? every time I try to export it pops up “Upgrade Now” and won’t let me export.
It may sound a silly question but I’m not that good with computers.
No, you should be able to export the files from routes you’ve created on the free account.
Andy,
I only have the free RWGPS account and plan routes and then export the gpx (or tcx) files, without problem.
I also upload rides I have done without problem.
No idea why you are being asked to upgrade.
Hi John,
Thanks for getting back to me, I have to right click on the GPX poi box and save onto my desk top, I can then copy and paste to the file folder in the Garmin, it then wont load up onto my Garmin, not sure why it wont load.
I have followed the steps for turn by turn as close as I can for my Edge 1000 but not all the screens are alike. I can not find the turn guidance on after I load the course is it located on the 1000 in a different spot?
Touch Courses on your screen. Your inventory of Courses appears. Touch the menu icon at the bottom right of the display. You will see Course Options and the first one listed is Turn Guidance. Press to engage ON or OFF (the amber color will occupy 1/2 the horizontal field signifying it is on). The setting is global for all existing courses and new files that are added. You don’t need to do this for each course.
Garmin Edge 1000 – Software fully up to date.
I’m having problems (from the Forum not alone) with navigating a saved course.
When ‘off course’ I get no help to regain course, and the dist. to go is completely wrong and frozen after I regain the course manually.
Also when joining a saved course some distance from the start, it will not give me the option to choose which way around the course to go. It would appear to want me to navigate to the start not to the end.
As a top-of-the-range unit I am finding it worse than useless.
The Garmin manual does not help, has anyone written a Garmin for Dummies?
Any help please
This is Edge 800 specific however much of the control software has similarities, so it might help:
https://frank.kinlan.co.uk/garmin-edge-800/
Hi Alan,
I’m looking for a version of this article for the Edge 1000 – as for some reason I’m not getting the navigation prompts.. Can you point me in the right direction? Or are there any common pitfalls that I might have fallen into? I do understand how the navigation settings are now linked to the “Activity Profiles” :-)
I definitely used to have this functionality..hmm..
(My previous Edge 1000 unit was replaced by Garmin last summer – after failing in torrential rain – and I’m now wondering if I may have been sent a faulty unit..?)
Many thanks for your help,
Helen
Hi Alan, I have an 810 and after a recent update I was able to pan out to 1.2 km and still see the minor roads, which was great for navigating on the move;
but recently I can only zoom out to 200 m and see minor roads ; is there any way to fix this issue so that I can zoom out to 1.2 km?
Dear Al
That is extremely useful, and I am grateful for the time that you have clearly spent in putting it together. But I have a different problem.
I create my routes on MapMyRide. Then I save them in GPX format to my desktop. Then I click and drag them to the “New files”. I can see them in my Garmin on my computer, but then when I put the garmin on my bike, hey have disappeared. Well, not all of them. I put seven on the other day, and only two showed up. I re-ioaded them, and three different ones showed up. I went back onto my computer (where I could still see them, and deleted the lot. When I looked in the trash basket, not only were all seven there, but dozens of routes I had put on in the past, which just hadn’t been showing up.
So I guess that the problem is in my Garmin, not the computer. But what do I do?
Heeeeeeelp
Simon
Brilliant, thanks!