Your Garmin help, please

My Garmin occasionally reports heartrates in excess of 240bpm, only when cycling not when running, both of them alone. What could be wrong?

I used to get that with Polar near tram tracks in Melbourne or sometimes near HV power lines. Perhaps your rides are taking you near something with large electromagical power whereas your runs are not.

I was riding on a trail in the middle of a golf course, no HV lines in sight. Could be some Illuminati / Bilderberg shit going down in their countryhouse?

Oh, you said Garmin? Probably some random number generator that Garmin's drug-fucked software engineers created just to keep the support staff entertained.

Or maybe electrickery underground, because how many overhead powerlines do you see on golf courses? Or an electrical pump system under the golf course for keeping the greens green.

Or...

It's a Garmin so GPS signals probably interfere with it and affect its operation. Shield it from those and it'll probably work better.

£109 for replacement Garmin (3 months out of warranty).

Send them a bill for their faulty electronics destroying your computer...

are there any cheaper HRMs than the garmin branded one that I can use with an Edge 500? Or if anyone has one for sells?

aliexpress ones work fine

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/131679473178?clk_rvr_id=1017331935746&rmvSB=true

thanks both

le swimming.
Has anyone any experience of garmin swim vs swimmate?

@Greenbank probably

swimmate

The adult disposable swim diaper?

Not me.

I haven't used Garmin Swim or Swimmate.

I've got a Forerunner 920xt (the uber triathlon Garmin). Works perfectly for me but ££££.

Local pool has Swimtag, which is just as good (but doesn't do HR if you wanted that).

Just bought a Garmin Edge Touring off eBay. I'm a total Garmin novice/mong. According to the instructions, I should be able to plan a route by entering an address like so:

Where to > Route Planner > Add First Location > Address

But my Garmin doesn't give me 'Address' as an option. I've only got:

Current Location
Saved
Recent Finds
Use Map
POI Categories
Cities
Coordinates

None of those options are very convenient. I'd quite like to enter a postcode. Why can't I?

Depends on the map, the touring I beleive uses open street map which does not fully support post code search due to licencing issues.

Routing on the device is absolutely the worst option you can use. Try planning your route on ridewithgps or similar and send it to the device.

https://ridewithgps.com

You might need to update/add maps which have postcode info. IIRC Garmins base City Navigator ones do not do that. You should be able to supplement it with OSM ones though

Thanks. Could the problem have anything to do with the fact that my Garmin is missing the MicroSD card that I believe it should have pre-installed?

It is absolutely to do with the micro sd card missing as the basemap which is probably the only one loaded does not support just about anything.

Here is a view of the basemap of a route, notice the absolute lack of detail.

How to get maps on your device , use a micro sd card of 4-8gb in size
http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2013/05/download-garmin-705800810.html

Right. Thanks.

I've just logged in angrily to Ebay messaging.

I got a Garmin Edge Touring a few months ago too. I've used the on-device planning once, in an emergency. Found RideWithGPS (the free level) worked really well using a tcx file. The turn-by-turn wasn't so good, but a tcx file gives you waypoints with brief directions and a distance to the next coursepoint.

Thanks again. Three questions then.

1) Do all Garmins come supplied with a microSD card already loaded with maps? I.e. should the bloke who sold it to me on eBay have supplied the card?

2) Who provides this mapping?

3) If I buy a microSD card myself, and download onto it the OSM maps from this excellent site (linked to by @freezing77 above), will the mapping functionality be as good as the maps that come on the card usually supplied with the Garmin itself?

1. Not all garmins come with a micro sd card but AFAIK all of the touring series do.
   
2. The maps vary from device to device, the touring series are supplied with and use open street map.
   
3. See answer to 2
   
   

You can buy additional maps for the garmin such as City navigator europe and for the UK ordnance survey maps but these are at 1:50,000 scale and pixellate at higher zoom levels.

The city navigator series fully support post code search but lack the detail of openstreetmap.

Very helpful. Thanks. The seller says that he bought the Garmin without an SD card, bought an SD card separately, then deliberately removed the card before putting the device up for sale. He's now sending me the SD card he used, which should save me, er, about £3.