With these units how easy is it to physically use for navigation off road.? Is the screen easy to read whilst going along. I’m torm between the 800 or the Oregon , main use will be for off road + the occasional road riding and training.
i’m possibly looking to replace my satmap which is too bulky to sit on my short stem and is just wrong on the bars.

Thanks for that, great deal. Any pointers for cheap maps for Ireland and the Alps?

There are free openstreetmap packages for garmin units online… Will post some links up later when I’m at my computer.

Anyone recommend the best place to buy an extra speed/cadence sensor. Found this place is there cheaper?

@ Gary M-

I don’t use mine and never have so its as new. I’ve lost the magnet though – make me an offer I can’t refuse an its yours – my email is in my profile… 😀

Here’s one to get you going of the British Isles

http://talkytoaster.info/ukmaps.htm

There’s loads more here:-

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Map_On_Garmin/Download

Any good for off road use?

Sent you an email kryton57.

out of interest, does anyone know if non-garmin heart rate straps are picked up, eg polar?

cheers 😕

You need an ant+ protocol HR strap – so Polar won’t work.

Hmmmm! Late home & busy all evening has meant that I haven’t ordered one yet.

One question to anyone who knows…
My mate has got an older Garmin; the 305 I think. It does the route thing of giving you a line to follow on the screen & I think a heading when you get to a waypoint; although it might just tell you if you are deviating from the programmed route.

I assume that the 500 does this, but I read a review (I think on Bike Radar) that said that it didn’t have this functionality and was pretty much a glorified cycle computer aimed at racers. I then found another review that said you can load maps to it and follow it….

Don’t really want to buy it if it is just a glorified hi-tech cycle computer….

Thanks for heads up guys, ordered 800.

Got a memory map 2800 going cheap now if any ones interested!?

Mike

To the OP, my thanks!

Massive thanks OP ! – Gosh you have saved a lot of £££ to a fair few people tonight. Its surprising how many people can all of a sudden find a couple of hundred quid at the most expensive time of the year 😳
Got mine for £253.79, thanks to frogstomp for the voucher code : NUSDEC11
and i also got a extra 4% off going through Quidco…..

I almost pushed the button, then remembered mortgage, car service and MOT, guess i’ll have to stick to getting lost

I assume that the 500 does this, but I read a review (I think on Bike Radar) that said that it didn’t have this functionality and was pretty much a glorified cycle computer aimed at racers. I then found another review that said you can load maps to it and follow it….

You can’t load maps, but you can load routes, so you follow a line basically, and if you manually input them you can do turn by turn navigation..

You’re all welcome 🙂

Sorry for causing more expenditure at this time 😉

I was going to PSA it after I ordered mine but by the time I got round to doing it that evening, they’d sold out…

warton – Member

….and if you manually input them you can do turn by turn navigation..

Really? How/explain please?

Manually create the route (using Garmin Connect for example) and then download to the Garmin.

Another question – I’ve read a lot about .fit files. Is this the only file that the 500 will accept?

Can I upload a gpx route to the 500?
Or is there some software that will convert it?

But Jase, how does it differentiate from the “line drawing ” of following a route? I assumed he meant thet it would “point” left/right?

Are you saying if you manually create the route you get a left/right symbol, whereas if you follow a predetermined route you/someone else has ridden before thats NOT created manually you just get a line to follow?

I must say I thought you could only follow a ‘breadcrumb’ trail on a 500, although Warton’s post seems to suggest otherwise. How does it know that you’re coming to a proper turn though? Surely it doesn’t have the software for that?

I’ve only used it a few times to follow a route I manually created on a website first(can’t recall the site but it wasn’t Garmin as they didn’t offer the feature at the time).

It does only show you the line but does bleep when you need to turn.

It knows you are comming to a turn as the route was cretaed using a ‘proper’ map.

I would be very suprised if the 500 did give turn by turns – like njee20, I thought it was just a breadcrumb line with a little pointer as to where you were. Which is fine, if you’re happy with that & take a seperate map out with you.

It does, I’ve used it (see above).

Jase – does that only work for road based rides then, not off road, if you’re using a website to create it? I guess the 500 is seeing significant changes in direction as a waypoint & alerting you when you get close.

I assume that the website used to create the route inputs the waypoint and the 500 simply recognises this and performs the alert.

I guess if you create an off road route and create a waypoint it would recognise this but purely guessing.

It works well enough on the road as even though there is no map, when it alerts you to turn its usually quite obvious where the turn is. Off road this probably wouldn’t be as obvious if there were trails everywhere.

How does it know that you’re coming to a proper turn though? Surely it doesn’t have the software for that?

It doesn’t. you need to manually add a turn when creating the route on something like bike route toaster

linky

Briliant.
I’ve got fed up with my Mem Map 3500 going wrong all the time, so it may get replaced…

Could i buy one of these & add 1;25000 for my local area at a later date?

Too much hassle for me. I’m using mine (on a unknown route basis) for road and find that following the line is easily indicative of left or right. I have actually followed a long route before but have a unknown 100k in the device which I may ride next Tuesday (Turkey Fat reduction plan).

FWIW I wouldn’t use it in the woods, only for longer rides where I don’t need to know which piece of 5 pieces singletrack to follow every 200m, but just the general direction to follow. If I neeedded that I’d buy the 800.

My edge 500 has just been deliverd. Thanks very much for the psa cp.

and thanks for the deal on the additional sensor Kryton57. Now sorted for both my road bike and commuter.

Another question for those who have the edge 800,
those openstreetmap links posted by cp above have downloads of jpg map files of all sorts of countries.

If I download a jpg and bung it onto my miniSD card, can i put this into the edge800 and will it read it? does it know how to locate the all the jpg maps relative to GPS?
i guess it wouldn’t do satnav type routes, just show you where you are right?
so does that mean that the 1:50bundle OS has more map data in?

thanks! 😛

no, it’s not the jpg you need – that just gives an overview of what’s included. You need a .img file which are linked to… and it needs to be a ‘routeable’ one.

Dear OP
I love you

Cheers OP, finally found something the missus can buy me for xmas 🙂

Being delivered Thurs and opened Sunday 8)

Darn… out of stock now!

Anyone had their order confirmed yet
They’ve taken my money, but still shown as processing

confirmed, delivered and fitted to the bike tonight 😀

I expect mine will be sent tomorrow as I’ve selected delivery for thursday, missed wednesday slot by 8 mins 🙁

Just helped myself to a 500…happy crimbo to ME…well thankme verymuch.