Hi,
I’m about to buy a Garmin edge touring as I want a gps with maps for downloading new routs onto but after reading the horrible reviews I don’t know what to do. Are they really as bad as what people are saying? Have they updated software since? Or are there others options.

Cheers

About to sell mine if interested. Works well but gone 800 for more data and power.

Happy with mine – changed the standard maps for ordnance survey and good to go. I use bikehike to create routes for the road and mtb and load them on.
After 18 months+ use u wish I’d gone for the touring plus version as I’d like the ant+ features.

What about the new 520?

I recommended the 800 touring to a friend and he’s happy with it – it’s spot on for having a map to view or follow a route which is what he wanted.

If you want the more training focussed aspects then it won’t be so good. From what you’ve said you want it for though it should do a good job.

Bought one for my other half. She loves it – she can upload routes and follow a line on a map or have turn by turn directions if she wants. It records rides and you can upload to Strava – this covers 100% of what she wants it to do.
If however you want ant+ connectivity with HRM, cadence etc etc, then look elsewhere and spend more.

Horses for courses, innit.

I’ve had no problems with mine and it does everything I want it to do. The mapping is good and easy to follow, it uploads to strava easily through Garmin Connect and I use basecamp to create routes (have only done this a couple of times though). I didn’t want any of the extra features the 810 etc offered so it offered much better value.

Happy with mine for mostly road riding, following a GPX route – with the odd “get me home” navigation. It does strongly prefer quiet roads and cycling infrastructure so it can sometimes go a longer way when I’d rather just blast along a main road to get home.

They do need a couple of settings changing out of the box including the auto-rerouting which will drive you nuts otherwise.

Very happy with mine, if you don’t need/want training stuff like HRM, cadence, etc then it’s great.

I have the Edge Touring, to be honest it’s a bit curates egg.
It can work brilliantly, the turn by turn nav (like a car sat nav) worked abroad in the towns to get me to booked digs when touring. Still prefer maps out of town.
Full routes even set up on Garmin Connect are not reliable though. I did a 200+ km Audax using the nav, which was great until it decided that the set route wasn’t good enough and took me off on a different road. Which didn’t go past the next control…. Luckily spotted and had to backtrack a bit, but it has knocked my confidence in it. It wasn’t my only means of navigating round, and it certainly won’t be in the future. I do like it as a means of locating you accurately on a map, which is my preferred method.

I’ve got one, it works well and I’ve had no problems. It’s best at following a preprogrammed GPX track (as long as you turn off route recaculation), but I’ve used the nav too and didn’t die/fall off a cliff.

Follow these instructions to turn off the more annoying features:

Garmin Edge Touring

I wouldn’t buy another Garmin but have learned to live with my 800, the interface is clunky at best (like has this massive company never used a modern smartphone?!) the manual is very good at telling you what it can do without going into any specifics? thus it has taken a while to understand the quirks of the device such as loosing pre-programmed routes? getting it to change the line colour first time round or using the turn by turn function off road (oh yes it can do it). If you do buy one make sure you practice with it first before using it for any serious rides.

and it’s currently only £155.99 at evans
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/garmin/edge-touring-ec054707

Get an etrex 30x, higher res sunlight readable screen, standard AA batteries. 2500mAh rechargeables last ages. SD card so can load openstreet maps for free.

Yeah but it’s chunky so looks rubbish on the bike 😉

I have an edge touring and now I have fiddled with the settings so it just shows the (Ordinance Survey on a micro SD card) map, my route created in memory map and a little arrow to show where I am, it is excellent.

The default settings, and auto-routing, auto-calculate, auto-bitch, auto-throw-a-tantrum-and-stop-working features made it a nightmare to start but once those are switched off it has been excellent.

Bought to replace a Garmin dakota as something smaller on the bars.

I’m thinking of replacing my ancient 705 as the software keeps playing up.

Do you have to buy new OS maps for the Edge Touring or would it run my old Memory Map OS maps?

Thanks heaps guys,
So looks like once you have a bit of a mess around with the setting there a good thing. Will order one tonight as they are only £130 from Germany. Then will try work out how to get the OS maps on it.

Cheers