wardie

I have an Etrex Venture HC and was going to mount that on my bike. It does the usual sort of GPS stuff but was wondering what advantage would there be in buying a refurb Edge 810? I don't care about Heart rate monitor but like the small size of the Edge. I haven't used an Edge so I don't know where they are similar to each other and where there are differences. I do know my Venture will show speed, distance and routing. From what I gather the refurb Edge does not come with speed sensor. If it's a true GPS wouldn't it automatically show speed? Anyways those that have insight, knowledge please share. Thanks

wardie

Ok maybe if I ask this... what advantages would a bicyclist have using a Gar Edge 810 versus a hand held GPS??

Seattle Forrest

I'm guessing your etrex will be fine if you're asking. Reasons people use computers like the 810:

* It's smaller and more aerodynamic
* It will talk to a power meter
* It will talk to Garmin's rear-view radar
* It will create routes (on the fly) that avoid major highways
* Configurable data screens have the kind of stuff cyclists are interested in
* Virtual partner for pacing

A power meter is a $500+ device that measures the energy you put into your bike. People are starting to experiment with them for running but otherwise they apply to bikes and almost nothing else. So your etrex almost certainly doesn't understand the concept. But unless you plan to spend a lot of money on one, that shouldn't be a problem. The Edge series are bike computers though so they're pretty specialized and do stuff like that.

Steve B.

The 810 has more cycling specific functions built in then a generic model designed for other activities. Auto-Stop might be an example.

I just purchased an 810 as it works well with cycling specific maps (RideWithGPS) to give turn by turn, etc... It's also a decent (if expensive) cycling computer and does a seemless connection to the mobile smartphone app to upload a ride to Garmin Connect as well as get route maps from Connect.

There are current deals on a new model for $299. I'd go this route over a Garmin refurbished, even though the refurb is $250.

Drew Eckhardt 

I bought a refurbished 800 for $170 and am returning my 810. I'd still do that if the prices matched because the 800 has fewer serious bugs. Same case, same touch screen, same micro-SD card for maps, slightly different user interface. I returned an ELEMNT to get the 810.

Unlike the 810,
+ It does not spontaneously power down (I've had that problem)
+ It does not truncate .fit files causing Golden Cheetah import errors (I've had that problem)
+ It does not have the round-about bug where every riders' 810 crashes in a group while the 800 owners are fine (I didn't experience this personally)
+ You cannot accidentally delete a ride on termination - that requires work including a visit to the History menu or mounting it as a storage device then deleting the file.
+ You get per-bike odometers with a programmable start which is useful when you're watching mileage for shift cable and/or power meter battery replacement.

0 It does not upload to Garmin Connect via your phone. When you need to plug it in for charging this isn't a big issue, and even with a dynamo hub powered USB port on my bike I don't consider this significant.
0 It does not do "personal records" like fastest 40k time trial. Many of us only care about power over various durations because that doesn't vary with wind/traffic conditions, and we get that from our software.

- The battery status indicator doesn't give a percentage allowing you to easily extrapolate life remaining.
- The bottom line on your data pages is dedicated to a menu line so the text is a little smaller.
- You do not have activity profiles where each (ride, train, race, follow course) has its own set of pages. This is mitigated somewhat by a course timer page only activated when following one, extra used defined pages you can enable or disable with fewer clicks than it takes to calibrate your power meter, and ability to go forwards and backwards between pages.
- It does not do live tracking via your phone.

I don't use Garmin Connect, relying on ridewithgps to generate courses with custom cue sheets (notably where to refill water bottles) and Golden Cheetah for ride analysis. I upload selected rides to strava and ridewithgps for interesting routes "to the mountains from our office" or milestones "first double century. solo. unsupported." People more into Garmin Connect will be more aware of what's missing and important in that area.

Steve B.

Some thoughts:

"Unlike the 810,
+ It does not spontaneously power down (I've had that problem)"

Had this happen today when I pressed the button to start timing. Unit powered off. Going to watch this, if it happens again I'll return the unit.

"+ It does not have the round-about bug where every riders' 810 crashes in a group while the 800 owners are fine (I didn't experience this personally)"

I think this got fixed, from what I've read on a post. No round-abouts near me so not sure I'd ever see it.

"+ You cannot accidentally delete a ride on termination - that requires work including a visit to the History menu or mounting it as a storage device then deleting the file."

To discard you need to press Discard (instead of Save) as well as the checkmark as a "Are You Sure" response. So a two step process, so not seeing the issue.

"+ You get per-bike odometers with a programmable start which is useful when you're watching mileage for shift cable and/or power meter battery replacement."

The main screen where it says RIDE has the bike option right above it, so pretty easy to tell the unit which bike you are riding. The Connect report section can then detail mileage per bike and any other notes and comments.

"0 It does not upload to Garmin Connect via your phone. When you need to plug it in for charging this isn't a big issue, and even with a dynamo hub powered USB port on my bike I don't consider this significant."

The ability to create a map in Connect the morning of a ride, then have it upload the course to the 810 upon sync with my iPhone, as well as having automatic save to Connect via the phone after the ride, are crucial to me as I don't want to have to remove the unit from the bike, then take it upstairs and cable connect it to the computer. The Bluetooth sync makes this painless.

As well, I did the course creation today and followed that route this morning, so turn-by-turn seems to work.

Note that I have a week and exactly 4 rides on the 810, so my experience is limited and the jury is still out. I do find that so far - it's doing what I want and might be the best at what it does, potential bugs and all. Note as well that I went Garmin as I also use the swim watch to track my pool workouts. The watch with Connect is terrific, so once you buy into the Garmin Connect system, you're hooked and a Garmin bike unit is a no brainer.

Seattle Forrest

I've been using an 800 for more than 5 years now and I'll second that it's been hugely reliable. I'm a little disappointed to hear of Drew's experience with the 810, I've been considering that upgrade only because my 800 won't work with the radar system and I gather the 810 will.

Seattle Forrest

Can you confirm that it actually works the way you're describing? From what I've heard, telling the unit what bike you're riding does not result in that information being written into the FIT file and read out by Garmin Connect. Connect has gear tracking which can tell you how many miles are on your bike, but I believe you have to tag it manually if you use more than one bike. Are you sure I'm wrong?

Steve B.

As far as I can tell it works correctly. When I go into Connect - Gear, where I had already configured the bikes I ride, it's showing the correct mileage per bike since I started using Connect (Lame as the mileage is !). I have not entered this mileage data manually. The data of the bikes in Connect/Gear was ported to the 810, as I did not need to enter that data into the unit.

I did just tonight, notice a bug in Connect though. I was manually entering bike rides from prior to owning the 810 and using Connect. When I attempt to indicate which Gear/Bike, the list is not complete for the 5 bikes I ride, in the pop-up window. So the Gear report as to mileage is only showing mileage as tracked on actual 810 rides.

Drew Eckhardt 

People report that it's "less frequent" but still there with the current 5.0 firmware.

It's surprising what happens to electronic devices inside jersey pockets. I had my 800/810 fields change from touch screen activity (the 800 has a lock, 810 does not to prevent that), and sometimes trigger the buttons on my Roku remote during trainer rides. I expect that at some point the two situations would combine.

Other people like to stop their computers when entering a store/coffee shop/etc which brings up the 810 "discard/save" touch screen, and pocketing the computer at that point to prevent theft could easily drop the ride.

Steve B.

Well yes, people can do that but it's not how the unit was designed to function. Auto Pause works and simply stopping and pressing nothing pauses the time. And in any event, to discard you still have to look at the unit and press the checkmark. I suppose that could happen while in a pocket, but I can state as a new user I'm not seeing this as a reason to not want to use this unit.

And FWIW, on a test ride this AM, the unit selection of Gear from the Ride screen, specifically that bike I was riding, did not port that info up to the activity in Connect. I have to check, there might be another place to select Gear that I used last week.

The method of creating a ride in Connect, saving, BT connecting the mobile app to the device and downloading the course, following the course with turn-by-turn all working as desired, then saving the ride and seeing it in Connect, all worked perfectly.

Steve B.

And....

All was well, following a course created in Connect, TBT working, etc...

As I come to a stop in my driveway at the end of today's ride, the unit spontaneously powers down

Ride data lost.

Call to Garmin and I was a bit pissed, they have me dump some potentially corrupt folders - Courses, Activities and something else from the unit, while it was USB connected to the computer.

Suspecting a corrupt course and all I can ask is "Really ?, a course created on your very own website ?, dumps the unit ?.". Maybe a problem with the BT connection, Yada, Yada.

If it does it again, it's getting returned, which is a shame as it otherwise works exactly as I wanted.

Drew Eckhardt 

Yeah, Garmin software is completely consistent with the abundance of engineering talent in Olathe, Kansas.

4am Saturday I finally got out the door for my monthly long ride

20 miles in I accidentally turned off my Edge 800 when messing with the back light. Turned it back on, it worked normally, and I thought nothing of it.

70 miles along my 800 turn guidance started lingering until I touched the screen to dismiss it, Garmin software has glitches, I can live with it.

After 87 miles I loaded by second route. The behavior continued, although maybe I should power cycle when something like that happens.

After 148 the screen flashed white and it turned off. Did the same on every reboot, although there was a brief suggestion to hold reset to save my ride. I did that, it got back to normal, and everything looked fine with the summary showing 148 miles. No problem, my ride was there like Edge 500 when my USB charging cable came loose while riding with my Edge 500 and it went into host mode.

Today when I loaded that ride it had just the first 20 miles up to the power event, that's what the file length reflects, and that's what other software sees in the .FIT although its internal summary says 148.

I reloaded the current course, hit "go," and navigation resumed. The distance to course point field and cue-sheet weren't updating; I just figured it wasn't happy joining that course 4 miles from the end.

Loading the next course those glitches continued. On the first try I got a diagonal line that made no sense, next time it navigated me a few miles north, and on the third try it navigated me along my course although those fields weren't updating.

A few miles in I noticed my distance was still zero. Apparently, when you're "navigating" with a course loaded it doesn't emit the "movement detected, hit start warning."

With just 3.5 hours of sleep the night before, riding for most of 18 hours including 12,000 feet of climbing, and having eaten minimal real food in that time my brain was not in a good analytical state. OTOH, the navigation glitches weren't all bad - 197 intentional plus those bonus miles made it a double century.

Next time I'll probably save a ride per course and splice them together afterwards (ridewithgps.com will export a combined .tcx, as will gotoes.org).

I really hope Wahoo makes the ELEMNT usable. They didn't have a product manager to suss out how people used bike computers so they could chose the right features and test cases, but were looking for one with a linkedin job posting and should do fine in the future.

wardie

guys we're off topic I just wanted to know if the Etrex Venture would work as a bike computer? I have an iPhone 6 that I could mount and some friends have replaced their GPS on motorcycles with their phones is this a reasonable option for touring. I have one of those battery sticks in the evnt I am getting low on voltage.

highrpm

You can definitely use the eTrex on your bike.

I mostly use mine when I ride dirt bikes on trails up north here in Michigan, but I have used it as a cycle computer and really liked it.

Nowadays, I cycle mostly in places that have a phone signal, so I use the Cyclemeter app. But if I were to venture further out, I would use the eTrex for sure.

wardie

highrpm thank you

Steve B.

Your question was essentially answered in the first two replies.

We just felt sad that a good question such as yours should have so few posts, so in fine BF tradition took the subject off topic.

As a thought about an iPhone/Android phone as an alternative to a dedicated GPS bike computer, two issues you can run in to are A) Waterproofness and B) Battery life. You can add a stick to help with battery life but where do you mount it ?. So you need to figure that out. You can get a Lifeproof case for water, but they are expensive.

Then C) The screens do not work as well on phones in terms of visibility in bright sunlight and D) on the Garmin and others, the touch screens work when you are wearing full fingered gloves. With an phone you need a special set of gloves or need to take off the gloves.

Just some thoughts