Garmin 800/810

[Toks]

Hello, has anyone got one of these bad boys. Are they any good. I quite like the idea of my own personal SAT NAV.

[Wal]

I too wanted sat nav on the bike but was reluctant to fork out £300 for a Garmin. After a bit of research I ended up with a Sony Xperia Active phone (now discontinued but still available on eBay) and a SportyPal bespoke bike mount. I installed a bike computer app called IpBike and am very happy with the outcome. In summary:
- The device is about the same size and weight as a Garmin 800/810
- The SportyPal bike mount is simple, sleek and lightweight. Review [url=http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2012/01/review-of-sportypal-sony-ericsson.html]here[/url]
- Much bigger screen than the Garmin's and with 4x the resolution to boot. The extra map detail is very noticeable!
- Water and shock-proof so no need for an ugly waterproof case.
- Pressure sensor for accurate altitude measurement.
- ANT+ compatible so you can use power meters, HR monitors and speed/cadence sensors with your app(s).
- Countless maps and routes downloadable from multiple sources. Many free offline maps so you don't need a data connection whilst riding.
- Direct upload of rides to Strava, MapMyRide, Endomondo et al without having to connect to a computer.
- It's an Android smartphone! In addition to running all your apps it takes photos and videos, plays music, connects to the internet and oh yeah, makes and receives phone calls. You can even use the flash as a backup front light!
- It's cheap - mine cost £100 plus £15 for the bike mount.

Disadvantages:
- Battery life isn't as good as the Garmin. I get about 5 hours on a charge (screen on the whole time, mobile data switched off) and carry a spare battery for longer rides. You can extend the life by switching the screen off when you don't need it and by running it in airplane mode if you don't need the phone functions.
- The touchscreen is capacitive, rather than resistive. While that means it's more responsive, to use it in cold weather you will have to wear touchscreen gloves.
- The screen is not quite as readable in bright sunlight as the Garmin, but still pretty usable.
- While IpBike offers most of the Garmin's functionality, a few nice-to-have features are missing e.g. elevation profile of planned rides (it does give you the profiles of completed rides, however) and turn by turn navigation (you just follow a coloured trace on the map).

For me the pros far outweigh the cons and I'm more than happy with my cheap bike satnav solution.

Wal

[Andrew G]

You don't need a sat nav Toks. You're never lost on a bike, just checking out some new lanes.

[Lesley]

Yes I have one, and I love it...

[Toks]

Thanks guys. I'll let ya know...Andrew I'm trying to push myself this winter with longer and more interesting rides so any motivation that can help is good. The novelty and enchantment of being lost on a Road Bike disappeared long ago I'm afraid

[Andrew G]

I was serious about the never really being lost Toks. You know roughly what direction you're heading and soon see a sign for somewhere you know, so it's difficult to be lost lost. It's a lot of money to cover that application. Of course if you want it for more or fancy the gadget then it doesn't matter. If we only bought what we needed and not what we wanted it would be boring .

[Lesley]

if you would like to borrow mine and try it out, let me know Toks

[Phil H]

I've had a 705 for years. I only use the maps sporadically. If you're not careful on the settings they can drive you mad. Sometimes useful though if you're unsure where you are and you've got no data signal from the phone. Also the batter life is about 15 hours - which is a lot better than a phone.

[Toks]

Thanks Lesley, I checked out a few reviews and generally feedback was quite good. So I now have a Garmin 800!...those nice Wiggle people made parting with nearly £300 quid effortless - . Now I'm trying to justify spending all that cash by reminding myself that I didn't take a holiday this year.

[Dombo]

Just got a Garmin Edge 800. The basic map is pretty useless so can anybody advise:
1. Where to get decent maps (not OS as they are too detailed and I anyway prefer them on paper), although i have the 2008 City Navigator Europe for my old Zumo 550 so that might work
2. Where to download ride routes. I assume sportive routes can be dumped into the device as i've often heard warnings at the start, "if you're using Garmin route ignore such and such after wherever because you'll end up on the M3/in a river/going over a cliff".

And if anyone's interested, according to the new toy my desk is travelling NE at 0.8mph and has just dropped 30 feet, so best avoid any tall buildings in Canary Wharf .

[Amy]

[quote="Dombo"]Just got a Garmin Edge 800. The basic map is pretty useless so can anybody advise:
1. Where to get decent maps (not OS as they are too detailed and I anyway prefer them on paper), although i have the 2008 City Navigator Europe for my old Zumo 550 so that might work
2. Where to download ride routes. I assume sportive routes can be dumped into the device as i've often heard warnings at the start, "if you're using Garmin route ignore such and such after wherever because you'll end up on the M3/in a river/going over a cliff".

And if anyone's interested, according to the new toy my desk is travelling NE at 0.8mph and has just dropped 30 feet, so best avoid any tall buildings in Canary Wharf .

[Phil H]

GPS works very badly if at all indoors. We've got a new mobile technician app on test and we have to send people out to walk around Croydon to get signal. I'm not totally sure that our company insurance covers walking around Croydon.

[Dombo]

Seems to work quite well. I downloaded a route from ridewithgps.com and it appears as a line to follow so you don't need detailed maps. Then for mtb it tracks your route so you can easily follow the breadcrumbs back home. Free maps available on talkytoaster and dcrainmaker site has excellent tips and advice. Top bit of kit and highly recommended.

[MattR]

I got myself the 810 a few months back because I was fed up of my poo old android phone which would only last 5 minutes and often lose the whole ride. So I got sucked in by the stats of all the fancy features on the 810 like Bluetooth and live feeds and the best one ‘the tell the misses where you are’ feature. Tbh I've not used any of them much at all. The Bluetooth lets you upload to Garmin connect really easily via your smart phone but is more difficult to Strava which is where all the action is. Although it can be done with some third party tools or by exporting a gpx file from Garmin and uploading to Strava it's easier just to get the usb cable out when you get home. Live feeds requires Strava premium which I'm not yet prepared to pay for but gives scope for the future if I want to waste some more money. You still need that waterproof smart phone to get a data connection so you'll be buying one of those as well I got the Samsung XCover 2 instead of the Sony. I probably should have just got the 800 as it has a nice carbon effect finish and would have been a bit cheaper, but what the hell it's done now.

I like the OS 1:50000 so bought that on a memory card separately. Got a good deal on eBay for that as well but your right it is a little detailed but like Phil says most of the time you don't need the maps and is just for when the much hits the fan and you get lost. But I'm blessed currently with some youth and fitness and go out mainly with the old boys (it's fun and a laugh) so just stick to them like glue and it's unlikely I'll get dropped so not really an issue. Not sure about where to buy/download the mapping as I was happy with either the default City Navigator and the OS is even better. Which incidentally when you do follow a course it reverts back to the City Navigator bird’s eye view as you can’t follow a course on the OS mapping so is just for reference.

In terms of uploading routes Garmin calls them courses you have two options. You can draw your own on Garmin Connect website and sync them across with a connected Garmin (map my ride does this too) or as I did the other day downloaded the Hilly 50 route from the CTC website and uploaded that because sadly I didn’t get off my bottom and go and do it when the day came around, next year. Took me a read of the internet to work it out but you take the gpx file that you downloaded and place it into the 'NewFiles' folder in the drive that mounts itself in My Computer (windows) when you attach the Garmin to the computer. Be careful to get the devices memory as two drive letters will mount if you have an SD Card in the device as well.

Now that I've written all that, this tells you exactly what to do [url]http://ridewithgps.com/help/garmin-edge-800[/url] It even tells you about some Open mapping sources. I think this was the original source I used to work out how to do it [url]https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?31119-Downloading-gpx-files-to-Edge-800-Issue[/url]

Actually just remembered also if you have Strava premium you can download people that you follow's rides and load them onto your Garmin in the same way as any other file you find on the internet so you can go and beat them unless you’re trying to race Lesley in which case she is too strong and you will lose .

[MattR]

Oh but p.s. basic survival navigation techniques work well if all else fails on the rare days your able to see the sun.

[url]http://www.wikihow.com/Use-an-Analog-Watch-as-a-Compass[/url]

Note the importance of British Summer Time.