My first Garmin.

Georgeflippy

I've been riding road more and more the past year and am looking to plan bigger routes and ride while on a family holiday in France. I have heard you can use a Garmin to follow pre-defined routes on and off road and it sounds like it could be a really usefull tool rather than using my phone. I don't need all the training tools but phone compatibility could be useful. Is the Garmin touring worth the £150 or so or would the 820 be a better investment with the sharper screen and extra gadgets? Would be nice to try some out but don't have that luxury, shame because they're a lot of money for a dad of two. Any thoughts?

cgfw201

Get a Wahoo Elemnt Bolt.

Full OSM mapping built in with turn by turn directions (if you create route on RideWithGPS.com) and does everything else much, much better than Garmin.

Georgeflippy

Just been having a look at reviews, seems interesting but maybe not quite as suited to navigation as the Garmin touring?

ugo.santalucia

Georgeflippy wrote:

Just been having a look at reviews, seems interesting but maybe not quite as suited to navigation as the Garmin touring?

It depends whether you want to find your way (car style) or follow a pre-planned route. For the former, you need maps, so Garmin Edge 800, 1000 or Touring.

For the latter, you just need a basic unit that can take GPX and TCX files and save your rides as FIT files. If this is all you need, I suggest you get a second hand Garmin 200 unit from Ebay... 30-40 pounds typically... they are very good and very reliable, with 14 hours battery life. If you then discover that you need more and want the maps, the bluetooth capability, the touch screen and the all shabadan, then you can spend big money on the 1000 or the Touring and whatnot and re-sell your cheap unit for the same price you paid...

Simple, really