Right after my Garmin 800 deciding to leave me Sunday between Walna scar rd and Torvor (not by choice i might add) Im now in the reluctant market for a new mapping device and while i did think about strapping my phone top the bars and saving a few bob, in truth I know that wouldn’t end well.

So for mapping and good directional purposes is the 820 any good overlaying OS maps and routes ? as the 1000 is just a lot of money

820? Ha ha ha ha ha, have you read any reviews? Doesn’t work with gloves, doesn’t stay connected to a phone or heart rate monitor, sometimes just doesn’t work full stop.

Terrible POS

I have an 820: it works. But it’s not great. Touch screen is the biggest issue, especially since rain seems to confuse it,

I’ll happily keep using it for many years I expect, but if buying again I might look elsewhere

Should be some deals on the 1000 now the 1030 is out. There are cheaper touring version of the 810 around which seem to be a good shout if you don’t want all the training stuff like power meters and just recording and mapping.

Should be some deals on the 1000 now the 1030 is out.

Sensible approach.

I have a 1000 and it’s really rather excellent.

Just for balance, other than the touch screen and gloves, I really like my 820.

You can pick up an 800/Touring for about £100 fairly easily and, for my usage, I’ve not seen anything from Garmin to convince me that they’ve made any useful advances since then that would be worth the extra cash. YMMV…

My 810 fell foul or airport lost property – if I could get another one I would.

At the moment I was going betweent the 520 and the Wahoo Bolt as I don’t use mapping that much. DC Rainmaker reviews and discussions are a good place for some collated info.

Cheers chaps , for me im not bothered on heart rate power or anything other than speed time distance and mapping, most of the time is a Tamagotchi that takes up space on the bars but the mapping is the thing I need most, might just find another 800 and save the extra for C+H 🙂

As has been on here a few times : Personalise a Garmin

Also, a bright coloured latex cover can help find it when it falls off…. Mine is red, so its fine for spring, summer and winter but in hindsight, autumn is a challenge….

820 – screen is still shit some 100 firmware updates, don’t think its gonna be fixed via this, its clearly just the screen itself

infuriating, and sometimes a little bit dangerous I must add (cant be arsed go into details), I wish Id kept my 1000, but it was only the size of it that was the problem, that worked flawlessly in any weather

820 out, don’t bother, must be a new one in the pipeline anyways

ps this info is as of last night! touchscreen didn’t work with or without gloves, NO rain, just decided to be shit when I needed it (again!), suddenly the touchscreen started working again for no reason at all some 20 mins later….its now got a lovely mark on it where I smashed it against my stem in frustration 😆

Best replacement for an 800 is an 800, but you can’t get them any more.
Next best replacement is an 810, but I hear you can’t get them any more either.
So you are now in the joyous position of having to spend loads of money on something that doesn’t work very well.

Except there are loads of 800s and Tourings on eBay.

As has been on here a few times : Personalise a Garmin

Also, a bright coloured latex cover can help find it when it falls off…. Mine is red, so its fine for spring, summer and winter but in hindsight, autumn is a challenge….I lost my 1000 in the first month of ownership when it got knocked off the mount in the woods…

I was fortunate that I was using livetrack, so could see when it broke comms with the phone and backtrack to try to find it. After 30 mins search, a couple appeared and produced my Garmin from their pocket – they had been wandering around trying to find someone to give it back to!

After this, I did the following:

1. Printed some labels which stick onto the back of the Garmin under the rubber case – email, phone number etc.
2. Attached the elastic lanyard which I found in the box the same evening – this is now always wrapped around the bar and I have occasionally had it fall off and be dangling from it, so it works!
3. Added my name, email and contact number to the boot screen on the device as per the above link
4. Noted the serial number

In short, if I lose it again, the only reason it won’t get back to me is if the person who finds it doesn’t want to return it.

I’ve found my 820 relatively pain-free and pretty damn good for navigation. Yes the screen can be a pain so I ended up buying a wee 3 button remote which sits on the bars and is excellent for flicking through the screen and a damn side safer during a descent or a fast chain-gang etc

+1 for the little remote. Regardless of the touch screen issues, it’s handy for flipping between views while in the drops (I have mine mounted just below the hoods.)

Actually +1 for a lot of the integration. I’ve got the garmin rear radar thing (which BTW is a brilliant bit of kit) and lights and they are all nicely integrated with the head unit.

@daern “In short, if I lose it again, the only reason it won’t get back to me is if the person who finds it doesn’t want to return it.”

THIS ^ as i walked back to where i believed it fell a group of walkers we passed ask “what have you lost youre bell !”

I have a strong feeling that one of this group had seen the garmin fall and pocketed it, as they all looked sheepish to say the least BUT I have no proof and never followed it up and at the end of the day I am the only person responsible for my property ..lesson learnt i guess

People suck-ass 🙁

I wonder if Garmin can (or would) trace a stolen device that connects to their platform – after all, they have the serial numbers etc.

mrblobby – Member
Just for balance, other than the touch screen and gloves, I really like my 820.

I pretty much agree with this, though the screen can be infuriating at times. I’m also on my second as the first one developed a ‘halo’ around the edges.