Garmin 800 or 810? And what are the OS maps like?

Looking at getting a garmin that can do OS mapping.

I can get the 800 performance bundle for £219, or the 810 just the unit for £251, but i already have an ANT + cadence and HR monitor from an old garmin unit, so those not being in the box isnt a great problem. I can then get the OS maps for either unit from ioffer.com for £25.

So is the 810 worth the £30 ish extra over the 800?

And whats the quality of the OS mapping like, is it clear to use for navigation as you are riding along?

Thanks

I’ve only just got around to planning routes on mine and it is very good. It zooms in on the junction and shows you in time and distance how long until you reach it.
I’ve found no easy way of just pursuing around the map with it as the screen is too small but for navigation and tracking it is great.

I have a Garmin 800.

IMO use the OpenStreetmap maps, they’re free and very good.

If you have multiple bikes,(road and mtb), and do several types of riding (commute, train, race, bimble), the profiles for rides and bikes is worth the extra for the 810 – unless the 800 can be upgraded with firmware. I haven’t used the bluetooth.

IMO use the OpenStreetmap maps, they’re free and very good.

This!

So is the 810 worth the £30 ish extra over the 800?

Yes, I think so. For the wireless syncing, and what TIRed said.

IMO use the OpenStreetmap maps, they’re free and very good.

They are very good, but for decent off road use they’re not OS maps. Which are excellent 🙂

The screen is a bit small so making a route up as you go can be tricky, but for following pre-made rides, or figuring out where you are, or which way to go at turns, they’re great.

I’ve an 800, but IIRC the 810 is all but the same in terms of mapping but talks to your phone and has a nicer menu system and training pages*.

The screen is too small and the mapping too low resolution to plan/navigate effectively, but is adequate on the road, or for getting back on track if lost.

The navigation algorythm is crap. Mine has a liking for dual carrigeway ring roads and if you avoid them it tries to route you back onto the route, not recalculate a new shortest route to the destination.

Imported gpx files for the most part miss out the turn by turn navigation and the garmin doesnt add them. But the http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php does work and exports straight to the garmin and is great.

TBH, I’d spend the money on a cheap waterproof smartphone and find some mapping and training apps and get bluetooth sensors. If you really want the garmin then the most seamless way I’ve found is:

Planning:
http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php

Exporting and storage:
Golden Cheetah

Logging:
Strava (golden cheetah and to an extent bikehike is irelavent really if you have strava premium)

*stuff like if I select my SS bike and the just going for a ride option it will show whatever numbers I’ve set up for that type of ride (i.e. not cadence!), but will for the road bike, on the 800 is shows the same pages by default for all bikes, and adds other pages when a route is selected, or a training program etc which is just awkward.

Can’t help you but if it was me I would spend the extra.

As for the mapping – it is fine if you are bimbling or there aren’t that many paths but the screen is small so it is hard to read if you are going fast and/or there are many paths to chose. This isn’t really a feature of the garmin though as this would be the same with an OS map on a board.

You can navigate using it but I find it much easier to program in a route first as that gives you a highlighted line to follow. This is fine for most situations as you can clearly see where you are supposed to be looking for a turn even if your eyeballs are rattling around on a descent.

Still rate it as one of the best things I bought in terms of upgrades. You can ride following others then go back later and easily find that secret trail. You can look at Strava etc. and find where others go or as I like to, you can use the various mapping sites to plot new routes on paths and tracks that look interesting. “where’s the path” is really good for this as you can put an OS map next to google satellite view. Found many new trails this way.

Have got an Edge 800 and one of the biggest drawbacks is not being able to synch wirelessly, so yes it probably is worth the extra

I do find the OS maps useful though – they are better than the opensource maps I’ve used. Admittedly limited by the screen size.

However one useful feature is that when the Edge is hooked up to your PC you can view the maps using Base Camp. And then using Print Screen you can print OS maps for anywhere in the country

However one useful feature is that when the Edge is hooked up to your PC you can view the maps using Base Camp. And then using Print Screen you can print OS maps for anywhere in the country

True, but IME base camp is completely counter intuative to use and it reads them off the device so it’s painfully slow to refresh. Compared to a lot of online sites which have the same OS mapping, at higher resolution, for free.

I’ve grown to like BaseCamp over the years – yes it’s hard to use at first, but once you’ve got the hang of it, it is very useful and does stuff like stitching together GPX files, which I haven’t seen elsewhere.

Yes you can see OS maps online – but sites like bikehike are limited to a small display area, and a finite amount of data per day.