This summer, I’ve found a new life for my old GPS unit, a Garmin Montana 600. This unit was first released in 2011, and I got mine in 2015, so the technology is well over ten years old now.
For the most part in those ten years, I’ve struggled to get to grips with it, returning on-and-off to see if I can find a use case.
However, over the last few years as I’ve got into cycle touring, I’ve been looking for a device to replace my phone for navigation and route tracking.
I don’t like having my phone stuck to my handlebars, exposed to the weather and vulnerable if the bike were to fall over. Furthermore, all-day GPS navigation destroys the battery life, which I wanted to conserve to use my phone as a camera and, well, a phone.
I needed something with:
- Battery life capable of lasting at least a full day of GPS navigation
- Sufficiently weatherproof to sit on the handlebars all day
- Ability to record routes to upload to Strava (because did it really happen if its not on Strava?)
After doing some searching online and seeing the exorbitant prices of new cycling head units, I wondered whether my old Garmin might do the trick. It’s turned out to be the perfect device for my needs, but with a few quirks and caveats to its use in 2025. As such, here’s a few notes for anyone else using their own Montana or similar unit ten years later.
Contents
Hardware
I really like that this Montana unit is very robustly built with a rubber bumper construction the whole way around. It’s IPX7 waterproof and I had it on my handlebars for sixteen days of windy and wet September weather cycling the North Coast 500 in Scotland and it had no issue (read more about that trip here).
The screen is nice and bright, albeit a little small by modern comparison to a smartphone. That said, it has a nifty feature in that you can read the screen very well in sunlight without the backlight on, so for the most part its not drawing too much battery power.
One issue my unit has developed is a series of black lines in the lower third of the screen. These are always there when the backlight is on but not visible when turned off. This seems to be a common problem online for this unit and the remedy seems to be a factory reset (did not work in my case), a full screen replacement DIY or by Garmin, or live with it.
So far I’m going for the latter; for a while every time I turned the unit off-and-on the lines would grow each time, but they seem to have stabilised now covering most of the width of the screen. It’s a little annoying but when moving for the most part I have the backlight off and so then they don’t interrupt anything.
Another nice feature is the removable battery and being able to power the units of AAs. A full day’s 80km cycle with the unit on throughout will use around 50% battery in my experience, so being able to swap out gives some extra headroom if you can’t charge up on a long tour.
I’m sure you can buy an external battery charger, but I don’t have one, so to recharge I have to put the dead battery in the unit and then plug that in via an old-school mini-USB cable.
A fun quirk of the Montana is that when its plugged in and charging you can’t use it, the screen turns on but just displays the Garmin and USB logo, and you also have no idea of battery percentage without unplugging it and turning it on. This can get a little frustrating but its nothing insurmountable.
To mount the Montana to my bicycle handlebars, I bought the official Garmin mount from Amazon, here. It’s not the cheapest for what it is but I managed to buy a used one on Amazon for about half the price of retail because of a damaged box.
It has also earned its keep by holding the unit faultlessly across some very tough, vibration heavy terrain. I’m sure you could 3D-print something similar if you are so inclined.
User Interface
The interface on the Garmin is very … of its time. There is an application for seemingly everything I didn’t know I wanted and everything I might expect to use on a day-to-day is buried in a maze of menus.
I effectively use three of the myriad of applications provided on the home screen and app draw: Map, Track Manager and Trip Computer. I’ll go through now how I use them typically for a day’s activity.
Routes vs. Tracks
This has confused me for about ten years. Within the applications available on the Garmin, you have “Track Manager” and “Route Planner”. To me these sound pretty interchangeable. However, these are quite distinct bits of Garmin jargon.
A Garmin Route is a navigable, GPX file that will give you turn-by-turn directions and can even be used so the unit bleeps at you when its time to turn or when you are off-route. It’s like using a SatNav.
A Garmin Track is a simple, breadcrumb-trail style GPX. You cannot use it for turn-by-turn directions, it is just a shapefile overlayed onto a map.
You can import routes (as in the dictionary definition of route, not Garmin’s) as tracks which you can then follow using your eyes but the Garmin won’t spoon feed instructions to you. You also record your own tracks when moving with the Garmin turned on.
Apologies in advance for the tongue-twisting numbers of Routes, routes, Tracks and tracks going forward.
Personally, I don’t bother with Garmin Routes.
I experimented with trying to get them to work but they seem to me a lot more hassle than they are worth.
With my Montana 600, a Garmin-Route can only hold up to 250 points (i.e. vertices to the polygon that is drawn out on the map), which is generally not enough for anything significant in my experience.
By contrast, a Garmin-Track can hold up to 10,000 points, which was sufficient for me to store a complete 800km loop of the North Coast 500, for instance.
With Tracks, you can download a GPX online or make your own, plug your Garmin into s computer, drag-and-drop the file and generally it will work effortlessly. With Routes, you have to use the proprietary Basecamp software, which is a whole other viper’s nest of faff.
If the turn-by-turn Route directions are a dealbreaker, this is probably the biggest weakness of a unit like the Montana compared to a modern GPS.
I can see the benefit of turn-by-turn directions when trying to get out of built up areas (say leaving a train station on a cycle tour), but for the most part my navigation tends to be reasonably straightforward where seeing a little arrow on a pink line is sufficient.
As such, from now on I’m only going to be talking about using the Garmin with Tracks and any mention of “route” will be in the general sense of the word.
Start Recording
There is no “start recording” option — from the moment you turn the unit on, its recording. This is a bit of a double-edged sword: on the one hand, you will never forget to press start again and have no evidence of your mighty work out to post on Strava.
On the other hand, if you have the unit turned on at home to set some things up, then turn it off, get a train across the country and turn it back on again and do nothing, you’ll have a lovely big straight line and an awe-inspiring maximum speed from home to your start position.
So whenever you are about to start a new activity, you need to go into the “Track Manager” app on the home screen, then “Current Track” —> “Clear Current Track”. Click the red “Clear” button to confirm and then the GPS track will reset.
Additionally, if you are using the “Trip Computer” app, you can press the hamburger menu on the bottom of the screen, then go to “Reset”. Here you have options to:
“Reset Trip Data” This turn the clocks back on your trip computer to 0, such as your moving time, speeds recorded, elevation etc. but maintain any recorded GPS track.
“Clear Current Track” preserves the data in the trip computer of distances covered, average speed etc. but clears the recorded GPS track. This is the same as “Clear Current Track” from the Track Manager.
“Reset Both” will clear both your current GPS recorded track and data in the Trip Computer. This is what I do to start of a new activity. This then gives you a clean slate to start a new activity. On a multi-day cycle tour, I press this just before setting off for the day’s cycle.
Follow a Route
Assuming you’ve imported your route as a basic GPX onto the unit successfully (more on that later), it will come up as a Track in the Track Manager App.
Press on the route you want to follow, then “View Map”.
This should show you an overview of the whole route. Press “Go” and you should then be centred back on your GPS position indicator and the route, along with any waypoints in the route, will appear with you.
This is now within the Map app; pressing the cross at the bottom of the screen will return to Home.
To stop navigating the track, press the hamburger menu in the bottom row and then “Stop Navigation”. This then returns to the standard “Map” application with no routes overlayed.
In the Map app, I have the dashboard configured in the top of the screen to show me some information from the Trip Computer — speed, time, odometer, elevation. You can have something similar or an array of other options by going to Hamburger Menu —> “Setup Map” —> “Dashboard” —> “Small Data Fields”.
If you want to change which data fields are being displayed, you have to then go Hamburger Menu —> “Unlock Data Fields”, then tap on the data field you want to change and you’ll be presented with a list of options to change it to.
Add a Waypoint
If your inputted GPX file has waypoints, these will appear on the map with the Track, but you can also add waypoints on the fly.
If you drag on the screen to pan away from the GPS location, a pin will appear than you can place anywhere on the map.
Tap the box that appears at the top of the screen to then get more info about the point, then the flag icon at the bottom of the screen to mark it as a waypoint.
This is a good way of adding a point for somewhere you want to stop en route and then being able to see the distance to it (use the “Distance To Next” data field in the Trip Computer or Map dashboard).
However, this will only work if the waypoint is the next waypoint on the route.
If you have anything before it (such as pre-loaded waypoints), you will have to wait until you are passed these to see the distance to that placed waypoint.
If you just hover the pin over the location, the distance indicated is as the crow flies, not along your prescribed track.
Stop Recording
If you don’t do anything at the end of your activity, your Garmin Montana will keep GPS recording. This includes turning the unit off; when turned back on it will keep recording to the same GPS “Current Track” as before.
This is useful if you are stopping for a while but don’t want to stop recording the activity (say a lunch break during a cycle), as you can turn the unit off and conserve battery, then turn it back on and not have to do anything.
To stop an activity, you have to save the track. To do this, go to “Track Manager” app —> “Current Track” —> “Save Track”.
You are then prompted to enter a name to give the track. Press the tick button in the bottom right corner and the track will save.
You’ll then be prompted whether you want to “clear the current track and associated trip data”? Pressing “clear” here is the equivalent of pressing “Reset Both” in the Trip Computer as discussed above.
If this is the end of your activity for today, you probably want to press clear.
The only time you might not want to press clear is if you are saving a portion of your route but intending to continue and then later save a lengthened version.
Your saved tracks then appear in a list inside the Track Manager with the name given to them.
You can further choose to archive your newly saved track by tapping it and then pressing “Archive Track”. As far as I’m aware, all this does is sorts the tracks into an “Archive Track” folder to keep the main Track Manager menu uncluttered. This is useful if you have lots of routes saved as Tracks in your Track Manager and you want to file away your own recorded Tracks separately.
All tracks are stored on the Garmin Montana’s internal memory (4GB), not on the microSD card hidden behind the battery. 4GB may seem a small, but GPX files are sufficiently lightweight for this to be a reasonable bit of headroom.
However, this does mean to access your Tracks after recording to upload to Strava or similar requires plugging the unit into a computer using the mini-USB connector.
This is the biggest downside to using this Garmin because it limits your ability to backup / share your GPX tracks to when you get home.
I’ve tried putting something together to connect to my iPhone but the way the Garmin mounts and the power I think it draws when plugged in makes it a non-goer. Android users may fair differently.
Using Additional Maps
Switching Maps
By maps in this situation I mean the layer on which you are seeing in the Map app and that your tracks will be plotted over.
My Garmin Montana came pre-installed with complete Ordnance Survey maps for the UK, which is a really handy tool to have and makes the experience akin to using the OS Maps app on the iPhone.
However, sometimes it is a little overkill, especially for cycling, and the amount of detail can actually be more confusing. Furthermore, its quite slow to zoom and pan with, so I wanted a lightweight option.
You can change the map the Garmin uses in the Map application by pressing the Hamburger Menu —> “Setup Map” —> “Map Information Select Map”. This then provides a list of the maps installed.
Note these maps are stored on the microSD card.
At the top of the list is “Worldwide DEM Basemap”. This should always be enabled.
Then there is a list of all other installed maps. For me I have “Garmin GB Discoverer 50K All”, which is the Ordnance Survey maps, and then a few European and “BirdsEye” satellite options.
To switch between maps, first press on whichever is enabled (other than the DEM Basemap), and then click “disable”. Then similarly click on whichever map to switch to and click “enable”.
Only have one map on top of the basemap enabled at a time.
In my experience the unit gets confused and is more sluggish if multiple maps are enabled. Besides, you will only be using one at a time.
None of the pre-installed options met my criteria, so I looked into installing additional maps. I believe you may still be able to buy some from Garmin, but the technology now is almost fifteen-years-old so I would not guarantee support.
Furthermore, you will probably have to sell an organ to afford them.
Instead, there is a community online supporting the use of the free and open-source OpenStreetMap with old Garmins like these. I was skeptical at first to the reliability of OpenStreetMap but the more I have used it the more I have grown to trust it and appreciate the versatility.
Installing New Maps
I have been using the free and excellent BBBike to download additional maps.
First, go to https://extract.bbbike.org/.
You can then find the region you want to download using the sidebar on the left hand side of the screen (press the green “search” button). These are generally entire countries.
Then click to create the bounding box and follow the instructions to adjust as necessary to encompass the region you wish to download. I would generally go larger than you think is necessary as the file sizes are not that big and you don’t want your maps to run out underneath you if you go off route.
You can then chose your map style using the Format dropdown at the top of the sidebar. This gives a range of different map types in different formats.
For the Garmin Montana 600, it can only read latin1 map types. Other units may vary.
This then means I have the choice of 10 different map styles to install for different purposes, such as cycling, driving, even a marine chart (OpenSeaMap). BBBIke then provides a little sample screenshot of what the map looks like, though as a note this is always for the same location and not where you have chosen to extract. Choosing a map style is discussed below.
Once you are happy and entered your email address, press extract. The BBBike process will then start of creating your map for you and a download link will be sent to your email. This usually takes around ten minutes.
Once received, click the download link and open the corresponding folder. You should see something a bit like this.
The only file of importance is the .img file.
It will likely be called something like “gmasupp.img” but you can rename it to whatever you like to make it easier for you, preserving the .img extension.
Then plug in your Garmin or take out the microSD card and plug that in to your computer.
If you plug in the Garmin with the microSD card in it, you should see both appear as two separate mounted devices.
Go to the microSD, then to the folder “GARMIN”. Inside you should already find some .img files if you are using the card that came with the unit.
Simply copy-paste your new .img file in, eject everything, put the microSD back in, and when you open up the map options you should see a new one in your list.
Using a Different MicroSD Card
For me, the microSD card that came with the Garmin was only 4GB in size, however I read online that it can support up to 32GB.
Map files aren’t huge however the OS Maps pre-installed on the card takes up quite a lot of that 4GB, so I wanted some extra head room.
However, you cannot simply copy paste the existing OS Maps onto a new microSD card and then add new maps on there.
The OS Maps is locked to the microSD card it came on by some proprietary Garmin wizardry, so if you want to use OS Maps, you have to use the original microSD. However, for additional maps, you can install it on a new microSD card, plug it in and use as normal.
Just make sure the microSD card you use is a maximum of 32GB, FAT32 formatted and of the same type as the original (black, basic SanDisk). You may get it to work with other types, but I’ve read its temperamental with a lot of more premium branded cards and certainly won’t work with bigger than 32GB.
Then make a folder on the microSD called “GARMIN” and put your .img map files in and you’re good to go.
For me, I’ve now installed a copy of Garmin OnRoad for the UK onto my original 4GB card so I can interchange between both when cycling. I found this very useful on the North Coast 500.
For going abroad, where OS Maps won’t be of any use, I’ll be taking my 32GB card installed with extra maps. This gives me a lot more headroom for experimenting with different formats and in a pinch means I have a little more storage space always on me for, say, photo backups.
My Experience with Different Maps
In terms of which map to choose, it depends on what you are doing. For basic road cycling, I have just been using the Garmin Onroad map, it provides a nice level of detail without being too cluttered. It also responds much faster to zoom and pan compared to the OS Maps.
For off-road and gravel cycling, I used the Garmin Ontrail map. This was good because it clearly shows tracks and trails which are generally not indicated on road maps and certainly not passable for cars.
However, it has an interesting quirk in showing every track (including barely there footpaths that we had no hope of getting the bike down) as a thick yellow line, the same format it uses for major dual carriageway roads.
This made it quite difficult to apprehend the sort of terrain we were going to be hitting while cycling cross country across Ireland earlier this year.
I’m currently prepping the Garmin for use backpacking in Patagonia over the next couple months, and decided to install the OnTrail map and the OpenTopoMap to compare how I get on.
The OpenTopoMap is nice because it gives contours for elevations (albeit it appears only when quite zoomed out) and has a lot nicer discretion between footpath and road, however on first glance it seems I have to zoom in very far to see the footpaths (around 200m level).
Compare this to OnTrail, where I can see the same footpath at the 800m level, albeit its not immediately discernible from a dual carriageway.
I think the best thing to do is install a few and see how you get on.
Using the Garmin with a Computer
If it’s not already quite apparent, a proper laptop or desktop computer with ability to wired connect to a mini-USB cable is a bit of a non negotiable.
In principle you can draw routes to follow on the device itself, but this is not really practical given the tiny screen. Realistically you’ll be wanting to create your own or download GPX files onto your computer and then transfer them to the Garmin.
There are two approaches here. The simplest is to just drag and drop files within your computer’s in-built file manager, like Finder on a Mac. This is pretty straightforward as the Garmin will appear just like any other mounted drive (though it may take a couple of seconds to appear as the device turns itself on).
I then copy my routes to follow to the mounted drive, “GARMIN” —> “Garmin” —> “GPX” .
This is also where you can retrieve Tracks that you’ve saved, or from within the “Archive” folder if you archived them.
Garmin Basecamp
The alternative is to use Garmin Basecamp.
It’s quite old now, but still available to download here and at time of writing was last updated in 2023.
This is Garmin’s software for managing the device, creating routes, uploading, downloading, sharing analysing … there’s no doubt it can do a lot.
But I just can’t get my head around it at all.
I’m sure some people live by it, but for me it takes the Garmin Montana’s quirky menu layout and jargon-filled interface to another level (what’s the difference between a “track”, a “route” and an “adventure”?!)
Here’s as much as I’ve worked out to do with it.
View Tracks on a Big Map
What is quite nice is being able to view your tracks on the map you’re going to be using on a big screen.
You have to plug in the Garmin unit to be able to view the maps installed on it (you may be able to install the .img files directly into the software but this is the only way I could get it to display OS Maps) but then you can drag and drop a GPX into the “On My Computer” section on the left hand sidebar and then see it on the map.
Transfer the Track to the GPS Unit With Elevation Details.
I haven’t decided whether I like this feature or not.
The advantage of uploading a GPX track to the Garmin via Basecamp rather than file drag-and-drop, particularly for cycling, is the track then appears on the GPS with little waypoint markers for the top and bottom of hills.
This is very nice motivation on a steep slog!
However, these markers are saved as waypoints, so that if you have the trip computer data field for “Distance To Next” it will be to whatever the next waypoint on the route is, generally one of these hill markers.
This is sometimes nice as it gives a distance to the end of uphill misery, but annoying if you are on an undulating road and you want to see your distance to a different waypoint (say, camp for the night).
To transfer within Garmin, select that Track file on the sidebar within “On My Computer”, then select the Track file within that in the lower panel (Tracks have a little footprint icon).
You can then right-click and “Send To Device” to upload to the GPS unit.
Transform Tracks into Routes
I know I said I wasn’t going to mention them again, but if using navigable Garmin-Routes is a dealbreaker for you, all hope isn’t lost.
Within Basecamp, you can right-click on a track (with the footprint icon) and then “Create Route from Track”. This will then give you a pop up window, including with the preview of the instructions.
Just remember the limitation with shape file points (250 vs 10 0000) which may cause some issues if you have a large or detailed input track.
You can then upload this route to the GPS in the same way and find it in the “Route Planner” app.
My GPX Workflow
Just a few words to finish up on how I create and work with my GPX files.
If I’m trying to generate a cycling route from A to B, I’ll use cycle.travel — it’s free and absolutely fantastic for generating cycling routes. If you aren’t already familiar with the website and app, definitely take a look.
If I’m designing my own route, if it’s for hiking or climbing in the UK I’ll probably plot it using the OS Maps app.
For cycling I’ve recently started using RideWithGPS with a free account to generate routes, it has quite a good basemap and the track “snapping” to roads is surprisingly good.
The problem with RideWithGPS is a lot of useful features are locked behind a paywall. The main one is being able to add waypoints, such as campsites. To get around this and a few other problems, I use the really excellent gpx.studio.
This is a, free, open-source and web-based (my three favourite things!) GPX editor that does pretty much everything I have ever needed to do with a GPX file.
The main feature I use is adding waypoints using its very simple co-ordinate input form.
The other useful feature is being able to re-sample tracks to 10,000 points to fit within the Garmin limit, using the filter button on the left hand panel.
Finally, after a multi-day route, I’ll import all my days’ activities into GPX Studio and then merge them to make one single complete track. I can then export this as a new GPX and upload as my activity to RideWithGPS or Strava, for instance, preserving all my speed, time, elevation etc. data for the whole route.
In every case, the problem is having to load files up using a Mac or PC. Sometimes, what seemed like a good idea on a computer screen cozied up at home last week doesn’t seem like the best idea for a route in the moment.
In these situations, you have to fall back on some more old school navigation (look at a map) as there’s no way of generating a new route to import on the Garmin (unless you want to try and plot it on the unit itself … leave that to the masochists).
Even more frustratingly, I can’t take my GPX files off the Garmin to upload to Strava until I get back home from a trip. Then no one sees them! How will anyone ever know of my incredible athletic achievement?!
Of course this is a bit of a tongue-in-cheek frustration, but it would be nice to get the GPX files off the unit while on the go, if only to allow me to delete the track from the unit and free up more space.
I’ve often thought about something based on a Raspberry Pi which could be used in tandem with the Garmin in the field, maybe using a bit of Python and a Strava API to automate uploads. I’ve read Strava have tightened their terms on using APIs recently though, so a little more research is required before looking at anything like this.
Final Remarks
Overall I’ve been really pleased with using my old Garmin Montana 600 and glad to give it a new life of use after ten years of it predominantly sitting on a shelf.
It takes a little work and certainly has its limitations compared to modern units, but if you have your own or similar GPS unit collecting dust, it’s worth taking a second look before splashing out on an upgrade.