This tutorial should allow you to plan, transfer and Navigate a simple route.
Navigation on a Garmin Edge 205/305 is you riding to a compass direction pointing to the next waypoint. It differs from Do Course which is a previously ridden or planned Course or track.  

http://www.marengo-ltd.com/map2/index.php?route=194

MarengoRoutePlanning.JPG

The Marengo planning software is easy enough to use and if you follow the convention of naming your Waypoints as the turndirection when you are planning your route you’ll be rewarded with a bleep and a countdown and distance timer 10 seconds before the turn.  Some of the other route planning sites don’t allow the naming of the waypoints so you would be stuck with the WP01 WP02 numbering system.

By naming the waypoints as the turn direction it gives you an instant indication of your next direction change. It helps if you know your left from your right.
Example LT01 is Waypoint 1 Left Turn.
RT02 is Waypoint 2 Right Turn.
RL03 is Waypoint 3 Right then Left turn (a dogleg).
LR04 is Waypoint 4 Left then Right turn (the other dogs leg)
SA05 is Waypoint 5 Straight Across
BL06 is Waypoint 6 Bear Left ( usefull at a fork in the road that may not be a junction) 
BR07 is Wapoint 7 Bear Right.
You get the drift, keep it simple and the turn will be instinctive. It also gives you time to shout out the turn direction to fellow riders. Don’t forget by Navigating a Route you get a 10 second time and distance countdown to the turn.

I save the route as a GPX file with a Z prefix so you know the file will allways appear at the end of list of your Documents folder. Using the Marengo Save as GPX option I’d save it to My Documents as Z8mileTT.gpx.

The next section deals with transfering the Route into the Edge 205/305 using GPSBabel. You should have downloaded this software from the link on the Garmin Edge page.  Run GPSbabel.

On the >>>Input box of GPSBabel select GPX XML on the pulldown menu next to Format.
The File path in my case is: C:\Documents and Settings\My Documents\Z8mileTT.gpx

Next the Outut box settings

 

In the <<

Next to What tick  Waypoints and Routes

Next connect up your Garmin Edge 205/305 it should have no Routes and no Waypoints in it. If it has delete them now. Deleting just the Route doesn’t delete the Waypoints you need to go into Waypoints and select Delete All. That done it is time to download the Route into the Edge.

Click the Lets Go box and you should rewarded with:

gpsbabel.exe -p “” -w -r -i gpx -f “C:\Documents and Settings\My Documents\Z8mileTT.gpx” -o garmin -F usb:
 

On opening up the Navigation, Routes  on your Edge the 8mileTT route should be in there.
 

Ride to near the start location highlight the route press enter on the Edge and select Navigate.

Press the Start/Stop button and your on your way.  You can toggle between the various display modes and to find the best one for you. When riding an unknown route  the compass is handy. Map mode comes into it’s own when you get off course. Use the down arrow to reduce the map scale and and see where the nearest  waypoint is.

Courses are an entirely different thing on the Edge, you do a course which can be 13000 trackpoints. It doesn’t give you the bleep when the turn (waypoint) comes up, you do however follow the exact course you have ridden before and get the benefit of the virtual rider. (maybe another tutorial coming up)

There is a marked difference between doing a Route and a Course. On a Route you are navigating to the next Waypoint, when you approach that waypoint the Garmin Edge 205/305 will bleep and change screen mode. It gives you a 10 second countown and a distance reading to the waypoint. It’s great to place these waypoints at roadjunctions and name the turn direction.

On a Course, once you have selected Do Course and are on the Course nothing much happens until you are off Course. Then the Garmin Edge will warn you that you are off course. I think the warning sensitivity is set to about 25 yards. Once back on course the Garmin Edge will bleep Course Found.

You can save your ride as a Course on the Garmin Edge without any software by going into the History and saving it as a Course, it’s that simple. Map mode is used more heavily when doing a course as you will be monitoring the track.

This is my first go at this  so if something is not too clear let me know. Once you have done one the second is easy.

GPSBabel.JPG
GPSBabel screenshot thumbnail, double click twice to enlarge to fullscreen.

Garmin have just announced the released of the Edge 605/705 with a colour screen and onboard Maps. It still has the 100 waypoint limit so I think a page like this is still going to be usefull to a lot of people out there. Depending on what Garmin Map it comes with there could be a fair few tears out there.I’ve just upgraded the to Mapsource Metro Europe V6 software and initally it looks great. There is a problem though. It does not support Garmin Edge Courses (double drat) so Edge users still have problems saving a course even if the use the Garmin Vector maps. This issue is going to have to be settled before they release the 705. It also meams that Gpx2Crs software is going to be getting a lot of use in the future.The good thing about the upgrade is that it upgrades the TrainingCentre map at the same time. I found it worth it for this alone as it is significantly better than the base map. It is great for road based cycling, your not going to be able to do any offroad routes using it if your a mountain biker.Page updated 02 Oct 07
Screenshots added 13 Dec 07
“Double click twice” added 24 Apr 08