I have a love / hate relationship with Garmin products. While I love their cycling products, I hate their prices. On the upside, their high prices have brought several new entries into the cycling computer/GPS market. Hopefully, these new entries will fuel more competition that will help bring consumers better products at lower prices.
Until then, you can avoid paying Garmin for their cycling maps. In fact, you can get maps of anyplace in the world for your Garmin device for free. That’s right, FREE! The OpenStreetMap (OSM) initiative is designed to provide free maps, to anyone. And with a few basic computer skills like downloading files, navigating folders and copying files it is easy to install OpenStreetMap data to your Garmin device.
I’m not going to detail the step by step process for installing OSM map data on your Garmin device here. You can find everything you need to know at OSM Map On Garmin/Download – OpenStreetMap Wiki. Another very useful site with routable maps specifically for cycling can be found at Free worldwide Garmin maps from OpenStreetMap.
Ken Whittaker