I started using an old smartphone for off-road navigation, as many do. There are some decent apps for this, most support offline navigation (often with a subscription). There are some upsides and downsides to this approach:
Pros
- Generally you can use your old out of contract device for this. Load the maps while on WiFi before leaving home.
- This is a device you likely already have. No additional cost.
- Performance varies based on the device but is generally good even on fairly old devices.
Cons
- If you use your primary phone for this you risk damage and loss. I have seen many phone holders break on the trail.
- If your phone has optical image stabilization in the camera, mounting it to handlebars will eventually destroy that.
- The screen is made for bare hands and you may struggle in bright sunlight to see it clearly, especially with tinted goggles, sunglasses, or a tinted helmet face shield.
- The battery will drain fast having the display always on bright. If this is your primary phone, now you have a dead phone battery. On a motorcycle you can add a charge port if it doesn't already have one but the USB cables often fall out with the intense vibration and shock from off-road motorcycling.
After an accident that I believe was caused by me struggling to see the navigation, I decided it was time for better navigation. I looked at the options. I already had a Garmin InReach and fenix watch so I decided to get Garmin navigation which integrates with these devices. The Garmin Zumo XT2 was on sale so I bought one. This was over a year before the XT3 was available.
Garmin is a very mixed bag for sure. They have some very high quality hardware and advanced features. I love my smartwatch and InReach. Garmin battery life is amazing. I also have their rescue plan and the SOS can be triggered with the Zumo, the watch, or the InReach. Garmin's software is very complicated and cumbersome to use. They have multiple apps that do basically the same thing but only work on certain devices. The apps for the XT2 are different than for the XT, or XT3 for some unknown reason. In order to get a GPX route on my XT2 using a PC, I have to have Tread installed on my phone. I don't directly use Tread but it is the conduit between my PC and my Zumo. Here is how I get a GPX file from something like OnX on my PC to my Zumo XT2:
- Find the GPX file you downloaded on your PC.
- Open Garmin Explore website in your PC browser.
- Upload the GPX to Garmin Explore. Always upload it is a "track" and NOT a "route". Yeah, this is confusing when I consider it a route. More on that later.
- Once you can see the route in Garmin Explore website, now it is ready to sync to the Zumo through your phone.
- Now open the Tread app on your phone. Just open it. You don't do anything else with it.
- Open the Explore app on your Zumo and let it sync.
There are other ways to get a GPX file on your device but this works for me so I stick to it.
Routes versus Tracks. Yeah, let me explain. So a route to Garmin is apparently just a rough guideline of a few points of interest you want to visit. This works about like Google Maps routes. Say you select a destination town miles away and Google Maps find the best route there. You decide to stop for lunch so you add a lunch spot to this route. Now it has 2 points on your route. Google Maps will dynamically route you there. The Zumo routes work this same way. It tries to find the best route between the GPX points. This works fine on paved road generally. However, off road it gets lost. It tries to get you back to major roads between points. Never use routes off-road. Always import the GPX file as a track. The Zumo will simply navigate your track point-by-point. You need a GPX file with many points so each segment between the points is very short. GPX exports from OnX, GAIA, and most others will give you a nice dense GPX file for this.
On road navigation with the Zumo XT2 is great. You can navigate to a place like you would with Google Maps and it generally works well. There is a nice shortcut for home so you can navigate home with one click. It shows what roads are coming up next, and other very useful features. Off road navigation lacks this. You can see your GPX track you loaded, and you can see where you are on it.
My Zumo XT2 broke on one of my rides. I crashed onto rocks and the impact broke the mount and the back plate of the device. Garmin warranted this repair, sending me new parts right away. They sent a refurbished Zumo XT2 and mount. This was over a year after purchase too. This is great warranty support for physical damage which most warranties generally do not cover stuff like this. However, the refurbished Zumo XT2 had an issue where it would stop responding to the touch screen. A hard reboot would often fix it temporarily. I contacted them and they promptly sent me another unit which has been working fine.
Overall I am content with the Zumo XT2. I wish it had better off-road capabilities. I suspect the Zumo XT3 is better here. Garmin also makes a very similar (but more expensive device) the Tread which is more focused for off road. The XT3 have many significant upgrades over the XT2. It has double the internal storage, more precise GPS, supports additional maps via Tread, and a much faster processor. It even supports a Garmin Catalyst app.
