Garmin Edge 800

bowden769

Morning

I have decided to get a GPS unit, Can some one please explain to me which one i would need i am leaning toward the above as its a good make, and the majority of routes i would use seem to me gsarmin route, can i use bikely with other units?? i would like turn by turn navigation and decent maps when zoomed

bowden769

Any one I feel lonely!!!!

Chinley Churner

I like mine.. use it for road and mtb... for the latter though you really need to get the 1:50,000 OS mapping.

balmybaldwin

Edge 800 is great, but it takes a while to get it tuned to what ou want because there is so much on i that is customisable.

The turn by turn stuff is good, but it does depend on the track you upload - especially for MTB. I find it is often better to download the track from whereever (e.g. bikely) and then load it into bikehike.co.uk, and manually add any critical turns you can see on the maps which is very easy to do, and bikehike can then load it straight to your garmin.

Map wise, I went for the OS 50k maps which are great, but they are expensive (and I dont think you can get a set with these + HR strap and speed/cadence sensor in one bundle)... it's worth looking out for discounts or extra money off vouchers for wiggle etc. You could go look at open street maps which you can get on a sd card for about £20 which is good, contains more unofficial tracks, but isn't as detailed or accurate (footpaths are often shown as bridleways and viceversa. I'm also not sure on how good the routing functions are on this map either - on the OS maps I can tell it to take me to a certain place, and it will map on and off road)

Depending on your bike it's work pointing out that the Garmin Speed/Cadence sensor isn't great for fitting on MTBs, and you might be better off getting unit & HR strap only and then add a different Ant+ Speed/Cadence sensor that allows more variation on placement of the unit. (Especially true of Full Suss bikes). Of course you don't actually need speed/cadence, as the GPS will do speed and you might be happy to live without cadence.

I've used mine on the road and off, and it is a fantastic tool, especially for training, loading to online things like Strava, route finding if you get dropped by the local chain gang etc. when you get used to it, it's also good for finding alternative routes if the one you planned turns out to not be ideal. But remember you shoul dalways have some form of navigation back-up just in case.
For doing things like LEJOG this summer it was invaluable.

Battery life is very good - I get up to 14 hours with the back light off (still perfectly readable in daylight) and about 6 with it on highest level.

I've done over 2000 miles with it this year, and it's not showing any signs of getting full despite me not deleting any data or routes.

During the LEJOG ride, it got a thorough waterproofing test, and caused no issues at all.

My only problem with it is whilst the mount is good and solid, it doesn't sit right on my roadbike stem as it's not round - not the end of the world though.

If it ever broke I would replace it in a heartbeat.

Hope this helps

felix.london

I've narrowed it down to this one as I don't need all the stats as I use the phones for that. Just want mapping and route following - this one seems to fit the bill - and runs on a couple of AA batteries - better for general mountain duties IMO (would be using it for back country snowboarding too)

Garmin eTrex 20
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00542NVDW/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

balmybaldwin

felix.london wrote:

I've narrowed it down to this one as I don't need all the stats as I use the phones for that. Just want mapping and route following - this one seems to fit the bill - and runs on a couple of AA batteries - better for general mountain duties IMO (would be using it for back country snowboarding too)

Garmin eTrex 20
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00542NVDW/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE

You know that doesn't include maps don't you? it makes it not a lot cheaper when you add the maps on with a lot less features

felix.london

Bought the Garmin Topo Maps for South-East France for €15 (Amazon.fr) on CD & SD Card. So still well under price of Edge 800. And like I say it's more suited to what I need i.e AA batteries & no touchscreen just nice, big, rubberised, snowboard-glove-friendly buttons

bowden769

balmybaldwin wrote:

Edge 800 is great, but it takes a while to get it tuned to what ou want because there is so much on i that is customisable.

The turn by turn stuff is good, but it does depend on the track you upload - especially for MTB. I find it is often better to download the track from whereever (e.g. bikely) and then load it into bikehike.co.uk, and manually add any critical turns you can see on the maps which is very easy to do, and bikehike can then load it straight to your garmin.

Map wise, I went for the OS 50k maps which are great, but they are expensive (and I dont think you can get a set with these + HR strap and speed/cadence sensor in one bundle)... it's worth looking out for discounts or extra money off vouchers for wiggle etc. You could go look at open street maps which you can get on a sd card for about £20 which is good, contains more unofficial tracks, but isn't as detailed or accurate (footpaths are often shown as bridleways and viceversa. I'm also not sure on how good the routing functions are on this map either - on the OS maps I can tell it to take me to a certain place, and it will map on and off road)

Depending on your bike it's work pointing out that the Garmin Speed/Cadence sensor isn't great for fitting on MTBs, and you might be better off getting unit & HR strap only and then add a different Ant+ Speed/Cadence sensor that allows more variation on placement of the unit. (Especially true of Full Suss bikes). Of course you don't actually need speed/cadence, as the GPS will do speed and you might be happy to live without cadence.

I've used mine on the road and off, and it is a fantastic tool, especially for training, loading to online things like Strava, route finding if you get dropped by the local chain gang etc. when you get used to it, it's also good for finding alternative routes if the one you planned turns out to not be ideal. But remember you shoul dalways have some form of navigation back-up just in case.
For doing things like LEJOG this summer it was invaluable.

Battery life is very good - I get up to 14 hours with the back light off (still perfectly readable in daylight) and about 6 with it on highest level.

I've done over 2000 miles with it this year, and it's not showing any signs of getting full despite me not deleting any data or routes.

During the LEJOG ride, it got a thorough waterproofing test, and caused no issues at all.

My only problem with it is whilst the mount is good and solid, it doesn't sit right on my roadbike stem as it's not round - not the end of the world though.

If it ever broke I would replace it in a heartbeat.

Hope this helps

Thanks that is a great post. I think u have definatly sold it to me

bails87

FWIW, I'm using the OpenStreet maps (free) on my 800 and they're great, so you don't have to pay for maps.

The 800 itself is excellent, expensive, but very good.

bowden769

i am definatly going to get a 800. my only question now is can you get 25k maps for it ?

gareth146

I am considering an edge but have read a comment that on bumpy road the card can become dislodged.

I plan to mainly use for exploring singletrack (obviously with considerable bumps). Does anyone have any experience of problems in this area?

Lagrange

I have an adventureer 2800 which is fine for me - easy to use and comes with 1:50k at a reasonable proce. Bit of a faff to download a route thay you have cycled but maybe you don't need to do that other than for training record.

camerauk

gareth146 wrote:

I am considering an edge but have read a comment that on bumpy road the card can become dislodged.

I plan to mainly use for exploring singletrack (obviously with considerable bumps). Does anyone have any experience of problems in this area?

I have had my Garmin 800 for over a year now and have never had the card dislodge