Looking at all the garmin devices/iphone apps that you can download maps onto. (late to technology 🙄 ) what’s best? easiest to download maps, us OS that sort of thing, do they stay on bike ok? fit on short stems? Properly useful of bit of a gimmick?

Ive got an edge 800 and use it everywhere from road to trail

Edge 800 is what I’d buy for road riding and with OS mapping it would be great for MTB too.
SportPursuit are currently doing the 800 with full UK 1:50K mapping for £270.

i have an 810, its awsomes.

I use my iPhone and strava for tracking rides.

Viewranger for mapping etc

Lifeproof case and chuck it in my pack/pocket.

Properly useful of bit of a gimmick?

That depends on what you’re wanting to use it for…if you want it to direct you on new trails, then it’s the best thing since sliced bread. They’re also handy if you get lost. For anything else you could probably get away with a standard cycle computer unless you want to upload your routes or get into Strava.

800 here and use it on road bike, mtb and commuter. Needs an out front mount on the road bike just for personal preference, also on the mtb as it won’t fit on a Thompson 50mm stem.
Wouldn’t be able to go back to not using one.

I’ve been using GPS on my bikes since around 2000, I’ve used Garmin eTrex, Edge 705 & 800, but most of the time I’ve used them to record my rides rather then navigate.
The times I would use them for navigation would be on events like the HONC where you get the route in advance and you can save so much time (big groups of riders stood at junctions scratching their heads looking at maps) as the GPS tells you which way to turn.

Agree with the out front mount comments, however ive got 4 bikes and at 30 quid a pop 😯 ive had to just swap it over as and when

I have an 800. I was very comfortable with paper OS maps and swore by them, however I think the 800 is the best thing ever. Every aspect of it I find useful from the data you can display while riding, to the maps, to the geeking out about stats afterwards. I use the heat rate monitor with it.

I use mine with a 50mm stem and it’s fine on mine. The elastic band mount is good because if you have any offs and the garmin takes a knock then it can move quite freely meaning the shock wave through the unit is less.

In short I love it! 😀

my mate has a satmap – it’s really good, though I have no experience of other units

Edge 800. I reviewed the Satmap, Memory Map and Bryton units for the CTC mag. in my view the 800 is the perfect balance of size/functionality. I use OSM free mapping for roadie stuff and OS 1:50k for off road.

The only downside is that it can be a little flaky when transferring routes to it.

I’ve an edge 800. It’s the best of a (bad) bunch.

Screens too small to be useful really needs to be smartphone size and resolution, as it is it’s just good enough to function.

It’s not user friendly. Forget apple levels of under friendly, heck even Microsoft does better. Took me 5 minutes to figure out how to create a course today from a file stored in the history, why there’s not a button on the screen while you looking at the history file I’ve no idea.

Screen isn’t very good in bright sunlight, i leave my back light on permentanlty to counter it but that does mean battery life is only good for about 7 hours.

Another vote for the Edge. They happen to be on offer on Sportpursuit at the moment too 🙂

Been using the Satmap for a few years and rate it very highly.

It’s a robust no gimmicks GPS with a decent size screen, buttons instead of touch screen (better when muddy/wearing gloves). OS mapping is excellent but expensive for the 1:25k maps.

I’ve got the whole UK in 1:50k and 1:25k for all the areas I ride most often – Lakes, Yorks Dales, Co Durham, Northumberland, Borders. Got all the 1:25k maps on Ebay for loads less than RRP.

I find 1:25k much more useful for proper off-road riding, especially on moorland where trails are often hard to spot as they show field boundaries.

heading to the 810 for my birthday I think. Looked round and have been very impressed with the 500. Short stems might not work but you and mount on the bar or top tube.

I will be using the HRM/Cadence on the road bike and maybe the mtn bike too.

The 810 has a redesigned interface from the 800 too.

Know plenty with them and all happy.

Thinking the same myself. I’m still using an Edge 705 for road biking – and a Dakota for MTB. The 810 would give me one unit and the WiFi would be handy for uploading daily tracklogs.

Screen isn’t very good in bright sunlight, i leave my back light on permentanlty to counter it but that does mean battery life is only good for about 7 hours.

I only look down at a junction, and it beeps to tell me that one is coming up. the data screens are all perfectly legible if you configure them right. (810)

OS Getamap to draw the routes, £130 Dakota 20 from Handtec, £10 stem/bar mount from Amazon, £25 Garmin GB Discoverer maps from ioffer.com and 2900mah rechargables from 7dayshop. Sorted.

went from OS Map, to Memory Map PC software and firstly old Garmin Etrex (*no map, direction arrow, compass, speed etc etc – now for sale) now on Satmap OS50,000(*bargain bundle a while ago).

Satmap is a luxury really but it does save hauling the map out on most occasions. ie if you’ve got a 5 way crossing then an arrow to the L doesn’t always help so you might have to go a little bit to get confirmation, with the rolling OS map you get extra ‘pictorial context’
You can help the no map GPS by planning the route/waypointing on the GPS accurately and I tended to put routes/waypoints slightly ‘before the turn’ so the arrow was pointing before you got to the turn so you were looking for a left in the near future sort of thing.

For routes/distances etc both GPS were fine(*Satmap is easier as you always have map confirmation ability on screen) but I always take map anyway as the ‘screen size’ allows diversion/emergency etc planning more easily.

In terms of planning I use highlighted paper OS 50 maps (quickly see loops/routes etc of the right size for me in an area I want to visit) and PC software as it ‘contours’ the ride with no effort atall.

I’m thinking moving to a GPS device instead of using my iPhone. I’ve noticed that the data generated on the iPhone is inconsistent with data generated by my cycling buddies using GPS devices. Anyone else noticed this?

not directly but it seems that iphone users complain the most about inaccuracy on here

nope. sold my garmin 200 as there was no discernable difference.

accuracy suffers a bit if I leave my phone in my shorts pocket but stick it in a jersey pocket or top pocket of my bag and its fine.

I bought some stick on screen protectors for the Edge 800 and they have had the added benefit of making the screen less reflective so easier to read in sunlight.