Your Garmin help, please

I've never used paper routes sheets.
TABR shouldn't require many diversions but TCR will.

When I'm not burning all my cash and brain power on other upgrades I'll definitely consider it.

During TCR I had the ELEMNT and an Etrex on the go, which made re-routing really easy. I'm revising my setup so that it's just the ELEMNT and my phone on a QuadLock. If I need to re-route over a longer distance than the breadcrumb trail allows for then I can fire up the phone and use RWGPS to give me something to aim for. It doesn't happen often though.

Can you send routes direct from phone to the ELEMNT without a wifi connection? Was slightly confused whether that was/wasn't possible based on stuff I'd read online.

I don't think so, no. You import routes over wifi through Strava or RWGPS, but RWGPS is the only way if you want TBT navigation cues. You can do that without connecting to a phone, but you can also use your phone as a wifi hotspot if you aren't near a network. To my knowledge there's no way of taking a GPX file directly from your phone and installing it on the ELEMNT.

Bluetooth?

Hmm so on the fly routing is going to be worse than with the 1000?

You connect to the phone via Bluetooth but I'm not aware of a way to move routes like that.

Even doing it via rwgps and wifi hotspot is way ahead of Garmin in functionality.

It's a shame it's not possible to create routes on RWGPS on the phone app, as that'd be a tidy enough solution. Perhaps there's a way to create a route that way and then import it into RWGPS to then sync to the ELEMNT? It's a little clunky but I don't have much faith in device-based route calculations. In the rare instances I've needed to route on the fly I've used Google Maps on my phone until I'm back on route.

Looks like this app could do it:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/inroute-route-planner-gps-navigator/id703796787?mt=8

You wouldn't get TBT though, just a breadcrumb.

As for opening GPX files directly, I've read on the Elemnt user forum that you can open a GPX file in an email attachment in iOS and tap "Open with" to the Elemnt companion app, then sync to device.

Cool. That's useful to know.

Then you require a data connection though.
Unless you have offline maps on your phone.

^ The above app I suggested seems a bit shit.

This one was recommended on the Elemnt user forum:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/easyroute/id605127860?mt=8

£0.69 on ebay from china

That's why I used Google Maps in the few instances where I needed to re-route over a long distance. Ahead of the TCR I cached enough coverage for the entire race, so I always had quick navigation with or without a connection.

The problem is the copies don't work. I'd rather pay the Garmin premium to get a working one.

I didn't have to do any really big re-routes and had offline maps in the form of Google and OSMAnd. In the end I mostly used 1000 with RWGPS coming into plan after 'swimming' across Montenegro.

I had one re-route in Italy, but that was on major roads and was easy enough anyway. I only ended up using G Maps if I was routing to a hotel I'd just booked, but it was always there as a backup option.

I had lots of little ones where a 'road' I'd picked was a farm track or whatever - in which case I'd just zoom out, ride around it and hope for the best - trying to get back onto my route asap.

People who spent more time route checking probably don't have this issue. I hate maps, routes, navigation, etc so I will always be ad-hoc routing and never know where I am. I'm ok with that.

Who was asking about live rerouting for a Wahoo recently? Not Wahoo but interesting:

https://dynamic.watch/

dynamic.watch has a route plotter that works on a mobile and a widget that goes on the Garmin and then routes saved on the website can be pulled into the Garmin using Wifi or Bluetooth or taking them direct from RWGPS.

Those of you who use a Etrex -

I understand the differences between a route and a track, so is it just a case of personal preference?

That sounds great; getting routes from anywhere but Garmin Connect on to my fenix is a huge PITA. Would be amazing good to pull directly from phone.

I've not used it. Let me know how it goes.

Depends if you want turn arrows or not. You get them with routes, with tracks you do not. I generally use tracks and the compass pointer screen. Which should always point in the direction you should be travelling in.