I'm an idiot

elbowloh

Had a garmin edge 800 delivered on Satuday and went out on a group ride on Sunday to try it out.

I knew there was a car in front of me and I knew there the was a roundabout coming up, but I got distracted with my new toy and trying to figure out which exit I was supposed to take...and WHAM i went straight into the back of a Mercedes 4x4. Luckily i sort of looked up in time and only just hit it (more of a deflected blow at slow speed as i tried to steer down the side). Wheel and forks ok, slight cut to my knuckles . I pulled up to the side of the car to say sorry and with a wave of the hand and a sad face, but the driver just looked at me and then drove off.

Completely my fault and was surprised he didn't have a go or even get out to check his car for damage (which i'm pretty sure I scratched or dented slightly).

Lessons learned (i hope).

elderone

well,could have been worse and lesson learned.
And yes,you are an idiot lol

meursault

Why didn't you go for the 810? Purely cost?

As I am in this position too, would like the latest model, but bluetooth connection and weather, seems like a lot for £100 more. Think I will get 800 too.

slowbike

just think yourself lucky you didn't have an offset out in front mount for it - it could've broken your new toy!

lesson 1 - look where you're (insert swear word here) going ... !

elbowloh

meursault wrote:

Why didn't you go for the 810? Purely cost?

As I am in this position too, would like the latest model, but bluetooth connection and weather, seems like a lot for £100 more. Think I will get 800 too.

Cost and the reviews for the 810 just did't seem as good. Seems to be lots of people complaining baout the 810.

elbowloh

Slowbike wrote:

just think yourself lucky you didn't have an offset out in front mount for it - it could've broken your new toy!

lesson 1 - look where you're (insert swear word here) going ... !

Out front mount is in the post...

wiganwarriors

Had my 800 for 8 months and I can say hand on heart it has frankly ruined every planned ride for one reason or another I have ever done. I have been on numerous forums tried various setting even contacted Garmin but still no joy. For a unit costing so much money it is just unacceptable.Taking the unit back to the shop weekend and demanding my money back. Its a real shame would have been a great addition. Hope you have better luck. May have been unlucky and bought a dodgy device but really can't be bothered with a replacement and possibly facing the prospect of more heartache. Back to the original post it is very addictive looking down at the screen especially if you have activated alerts.

slowbike

wiganwarriors wrote:

Had my 800 for 8 months and I can say hand on heart it has frankly ruined every planned ride for one reason or another I have ever done.

Really?!
The worst my 800 has done is (inexplicably) turned off during the ride ... it's done this a few times ... I just have to turn it back on again.
It hasn't slowed me down, hasn't put a spanner in the wheel and hasn't thrown me off or stopped my heart - so I can't quite see how an 800 would ruin a ride ... ?

madbiker2007

Bloody idiot! Your right on that OP. What would have happened if it had been the other way round, as in the driver of the merc was screwin around with his sat nav and hit you. "LOOK WHERE YOUR GOING". It really doesnt get more simple than that yet its alarming the number of people who need a manual for their eyes.

ForumNewbie

wiganwarriors wrote:

Had my 800 for 8 months and I can say hand on heart it has frankly ruined every planned ride for one reason or another I have ever done. I have been on numerous forums tried various setting even contacted Garmin but still no joy. For a unit costing so much money it is just unacceptable.Taking the unit back to the shop weekend and demanding my money back. Its a real shame would have been a great addition. Hope you have better luck. May have been unlucky and bought a dodgy device but really can't be bothered with a replacement and possibly facing the prospect of more heartache. Back to the original post it is very addictive looking down at the screen especially if you have activated alerts.

You should get a Garmin 500 or even a 200 with your money back. They are fine and a lot less complicated than the 800. You don't get the actual SatNav, but I don't think that's really necessary and could be distracting and potentially dangerous when cycling, as the OP has found.

rodgers73

Just photocopy a road map :-)

handful

wiganwarriors wrote:

Had my 800 for 8 months and I can say hand on heart it has frankly ruined every planned ride for one reason or another I have ever done. I have been on numerous forums tried various setting even contacted Garmin but still no joy. For a unit costing so much money it is just unacceptable.Taking the unit back to the shop weekend and demanding my money back. Its a real shame would have been a great addition. Hope you have better luck. May have been unlucky and bought a dodgy device but really can't be bothered with a replacement and possibly facing the prospect of more heartache. Back to the original post it is very addictive looking down at the screen especially if you have activated alerts.

The 800 is a fantastic device........but, it takes a hell of a lot of research, swearing and experimenting to get it to do what you want reliably. When you do it's the best thing you could buy, particularly if you don't know an area that well.

mustgettaller

handful wrote:

wiganwarriors wrote:

Had my 800 for 8 months and I can say hand on heart it has frankly ruined every planned ride for one reason or another I have ever done. I have been on numerous forums tried various setting even contacted Garmin but still no joy. For a unit costing so much money it is just unacceptable.Taking the unit back to the shop weekend and demanding my money back. Its a real shame would have been a great addition. Hope you have better luck. May have been unlucky and bought a dodgy device but really can't be bothered with a replacement and possibly facing the prospect of more heartache. Back to the original post it is very addictive looking down at the screen especially if you have activated alerts.

The 800 is a fantastic device........but, it takes a hell of a lot of research, swearing and experimenting to get it to do what you want reliably. When you do it's the best thing you could buy, particularly if you don't know an area that well.

I must be lucky - mine's been great from the word go, and has enabled me to get riding numerous times in areas I don't know.

iPete

Everytime my Garmin 800 has messed up I can honestly look back and say it was user error. You have to put time into getting the courses mapped and really delve into the settings.

Many people expect a cuddly car style sat-nav right out of the box and get upset when it 'doesn't work'.

marcusjb

Yes, you are an idiot. You know that anyway. Sounds like you were lucky.

As for those saying Garmin ruined their rides or whatever, iPete has it right. Get your courses right and set up right and you'll be just fine. Learn to understand the foibles of the underlying mapping systems (whether you use garmin's maps or OSM).

I ride quite a bit at the weekends and really don't have many issues with my 800 bar the known issue of trying to record rides above around 350km.

djm501

Can you get your money back for something 8 months old? I'm no expert on consumer law but that's getting towards the point of statutary warranty running out (OK 4 months to go). I think they only have to give money back within 28 days.
You may just have to put up with a replacement. Garmin's customer service is good but I'm not sure they'd stretch to that. If it was *that* bad, how did it take 8 month of use to decide?

andyd77

if the device is not fit for purpose then he or she would be entitled to a refund - if it can be proven the device is faulty through a manufacturing fault then they should have no issues - you have theoretically 6 YEARS to report a fault which could be proven to be a manufacturing fault - resulting in the item being either 'faulty' or 'not fit for purpose' but I digress..

OP look where you are going - then reverse this situation and put yourself in the car - checking sat nav etc and hit cyclist...

fishyweb

ForumNewbie wrote:

You should get a Garmin 500 or even a 200 with your money back. They are fine and a lot less complicated than the 800. You don't get the actual SatNav, but I don't think that's really necessary and could be distracting and potentially dangerous when cycling, as the OP has found.

Probably are a lot less complicated, but it is not true that they are fine. I have a 500, and the Courses function is very buggy, and famously so if you take a look at the official Garmin forum for the Edge 500. Worst I had was last Sunday on my longest ever ride, following a 75 mile route. When you are following the breadcrumb trail map, and then press the Enter button to change screen, the unit turns off. I did this after 17 miles. I then turned it back on and was able to follow the remainder of the route, and it appeared to be recording OK. Got home, though, uploaded to Strava, and it only had the first 17 miles, up to the point that the unit turned itself off :-( Gutted (though still pleased that I completed the ride, and it didn't exactly ruin it!).

wiganwarriors

Hi slowbike.You appear to have had great success with the device. If it is not to much trouble and time consuming could you list the step by step procedures you perform when plotting and downloading a route. I would really appreciate it.

cheers

Chris

thefd

madbiker2007 wrote:

Bloody idiot! Your right on that OP. What would have happened if it had been the other way round, as in the driver of the merc was screwin around with his sat nav and hit you. "LOOK WHERE YOUR GOING". It really doesnt get more simple than that yet its alarming the number of people who need a manual for their eyes.

Seems a little harsh! I know what you are saying, but the OP has said he was an idiot.

slowbike

wiganwarriors wrote:

Hi slowbike.You appear to have had great success with the device. If it is not to much trouble and time consuming could you list the step by step procedures you perform when plotting and downloading a route. I would really appreciate it.

There are some online guides available and I'm sure others have posted on here ...

I just go onto BikeHike.co.uk, plot the course and use Save Route - download to GPS - it gets put on the 800 ...
or if I don't have the unit with me I'll save the gpx file and load it back up before saving to GPS.
There are loads of ways to do it ...

If you want turn warnings then you'll need to look it up ..

wiganwarriors

Thanks slowbike. I save mine as a Tcx file to my desktop then open Garmin-new files then copy it. I was under the impression if using Gpx format you do not get a turn by turn info. Once you have plotted your course do you check it over on fall zoom to check for glitches? The majority of the courses are downloaded but freeze when navigating this potentially could be due to dense forests I guess but it fails to recalculate when it eventually finds gps. Anymore settings I should be aware of?

slowbike

As I said - if you want turn warnings you'll need to do it differently ... personally I just highlight the course on the map.
I don't bother checking the course on the gps - it's never been wrong yet. The unit has turned off a few times - trying to recall, but twice has been whilst I've been following a course - so could be related ... but I just turn it back on and curse ...
I've got the speed/cadence sensor - and I think that helps it keep up with the course - although as I don't use that function much I couldn't be sure - never had a problem with freezing.
I don't bother with recalculate as that stuffs up the course completely - especially if you're not going shortest way to the finish.

wiganwarriors

marcusjb could you please list the possible foibles/issues I may be encountering in my quest to download and navigate a route, having researched the device and its quirks for the previous eight months with little or no success, any suggestions or advice would be highly appreciated. I have attempted routes using both Gpx and Tcx formats in the past.

Wiganwarriors

peddlingmadness

Purchased the Garmin 800 Last year after reading lots of bad reviews regarding the 810 and the bugs in the firmware. great little bit of kit, I download lots of routes from strava and ridewithgps and follow them with no problems. I even follow off road MTB routes (boo, hiss, spit I hear you say) and find myself on tracks I didn't know existed.

take a look at http://frank.kinlan.co.uk/garmin-edge-8 ... -edge-800/ for more understanding on the set up. Once you get it right its done for good.

And regarding the idiot thing! Yep I've nearly been caught out taking my eye off the road. I now just keep the speedo screen on and have it automatically switching to the map before needing to turn before it automatically switches back.