Not had my GPS long so still getting us to it (Garmin Dakota 20). When the route gets sent on the 8th Oct will it be a route or track gpx file?

The second question on answering the first, what will be the best way to follow the route? Is there settings which will light up the screen at turnings in the dead of the night, magic time travel button to take me from the start to finish? Any thing that will make it easier to follow?

The gpx file will be a 'track' as most people units can't handle routes of that size due to all the waypoints.

All I do is load the route and press GO at the start. From there on I simply follow the line, if I approach a junction, etc then I just wake the thing up by touching the screen and carry on.

The route will be in a gpx format, which you can load up straight up onto the unit.

what will be the best way to follow the route?

Just follow it. All you'll have is a line overlayed on top of the OS map

Is there settings which will light up the screen at turnings in the dead of the night

Nope. You'll still have to navigate, read the map and workout/anticipate where the turnings are. The unit will just tell you where you are.

Any thing that will make it easier to follow?

I find if you change the settings so that the map is orientated to your direction of travel, rather than north, its easier to work out and one less thing to think about.

I'd suggest having a good play with it over the next week, rather than waiting for the event

Chew wrote:I'd suggest having a good play with it over the next week, rather than waiting for the event

I'll second that. Navigating Garmin menu's just does not seem to come naturally to me .

Yes, as Chew says setting the thing so it shows 'Track Up' can make things a little easier ... the screen should represent the ground a little better that way round which makes things easier at junctions, etc.

I have my settings as below:

Backlight timeout - 15 seconds
Battery save - on
Screen capture - off
Auto zoom - off
Track log - record, show on map
Record method - auto
Tones - off

Other people will differ.

Also, it's worth setting your trip page so it displays an overall average speed ... this is the number to keep an eye on

Oh and use the lanyard to tie the thing to the bars

I've pretty much got the same settings. I've been using the garmin like this for a few weeks and found it quite simple. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something which could help in the dead of the night.

Thanks again guys for your helpful input. Really looking forward to this one.