Morning folks,

Having got lost (again) on a road ride last week, and had to stop to take my phone out lots of times on pouring rain I’m accepting I need help navigating to get the most out of road rides.

I want a simple to use device that can potentially de-clutter my bars and get rid of the speedo and cadence at the same time (I have ant+ sensor in the chainstay for both).

I’d like to be able to get route files off of websites or easily plot them myself on the computer and then get them onto the device and set off on a route and have the garmin tell me where to go so I can concentrate on riding and not where I am/where to turn.

It needs to simultaneously record/display my heart rate and position etc (I have a garmin strap)info for uploading to strava afterwards whilst navigating the route at the same time too.

Happy to go second hand or new, and the cheaper the better really.

Is all of this possible and how do you get the routes off of the net and onto the device?

Thanks in advance for info

There might still be some Edge 810s in your local Aldi, they were down to £150 the other week. It’s what I’ve got and it does everything you ask for, once you’ve loaded it with maps, which are free.

Newer 820 and 1000 have maps pre installed but are much more expensive.

Pretty sure they’ve sold out, had a good look for them.

How easy is it to get a route onto it/how do you do it? Is it easy to record the route (strava style) whilst simultaneously having it guide the route?

Garmin Touring will do what you want as well I believe

You want a Garmin Edge 800-series or 1000. The current 800-series is the 820, but the older 810 and 800 will both do everything you want, and you can pick them up second hand for a lot less than the new units.

The 820 connects over wifi which you may find more convenient.

I think the current models also come with better mapping as standard, but you can put the same, free maps on using the instructions here: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2013/05/download-garmin-705800810.html

The Garmin 500-series don’t really do navigation. You can put maps on the 520, but it still won’t do turn-by-turn navigation.

OK thanks guys,

Does the 810 not do wifi?

What makes the 1000 so much more expensive? Is it worth the extra?

How easy is it to get a route onto it/how do you do it? Is it easy to record the route (strava style) whilst simultaneously having it guide the route?

Yes. It records everything you do, and in addition, you can choose to navigate using any route that you’ve loaded onto it.

Garmin provide “Garmin Connect” which allows you to design routes online, and upload them to your device via a plugin, but I’ve never like Garmin connect, and I’ve found the browser plugins hopelessly unreliable (I’ve only tried it on Mac, they may put a bit more effort into their Windows version).

I’m not sure if it’s true of the newer models, but with the 800 you can plug it in using a USB cable, and it appears as a USB hard disk on your computer. You can load routes onto it simply by copying route files into a special directory called “NewFiles”, and all of your activities are recorded as files in a folder called “Activities”. I find this much simpler and more reliable than mucking around with their plugins.

The 1000 has lots of other stuff on it which is useful for training purposes plus the screen is larger and AFAIK has a higher screen resolution. If you have the money they are very good but perhaps overkill for what you have described if money is an issue.

Roughly how many routes can they hold? Is memory ever an issue on them?

Can I go out with a group and record a ride too that I can then use for directions if I go out again on my own?

Does the 810 not do wifi?

810 will connect to your phone via Bluetooth. At the end of the ride, the Garmin automatically uploads to Garmin Connect, and then Strava, if you have linked Connect with Strava.

The Bluetooth connection is also useful for live tracking, if you’re out on your own

EDIT: I use the route planner on the British Cycling website and manually upload to my Garmin. I don’t have many on there, though, so I don’t know how many you can store. My map is OSM and is stored on an SD card.

Good bit of kit, the 810.

Can I go out with a group and record a ride too that I can then use for directions if I go out again on my own?

Yes, you just select a previously ridden ride and it’ll guide you round it again. Probably while giving you an annoying cue about how you’re going slower than you did last time. 😉

Garmin Connect (their own website) is awful – it’s like an attmept to combine Strava, mapmyride and Google into one and as a result it’s a bug ridden pile of crap. Fortunately there are enough other options for creating routes and manually uploading .gpx or .tcx files to the unit and then downloading to Strava afterwards.

So 810 has Bluetooth for post ride info/link to strava (my watch does this so my connect account is already linked to strava which is a good start) and for beacon function aswell then?

But it’s non-wifi, is that for downloading routes/gpx files to the unit?

I wouldnt worry about wifi, its mainly just for uploading ride results at the end to Garmin Connect. You can use it to upload gpx routes to your Edge but its a faff apparently via Connect, easier to just plug into your laptop/desktop). Its an alternate way of doing it as opposed to bluetoothing the ride to your phone (which as mentioned is automatic) and then the phone uploading the ride to the big wide web.

I got an 810, cracking piece of kit and very robust and durable. I do both MTB’ing and road biking and it’s great for both. OS mapping on it is very good, which if you do do MTB’ing is worth the extra compared to OSM’s in my experience as OSM is reliant on users providing the path data.

I would get a 1000 but it’s just not worth the extra dosh for what it can do, mate has one and I played around with it, while its good it’s not justifiably that good.

Anyone got an 810 they want to sell? Or swap for a retro GT commuter bike I want rid of 😆

I’ve just upgraded from an 800 to an 820 and I’m quite impressed with it. It has a nice little feature that creates a circular route for you. Just put in how many miles you want and what direction you want to head, North, South etc. and it generates 3 routes for you to choose from. Cost me £225 from Halfords with the BC discount