Kurogashi

Or should I just upgrade my 4 year old flip phone to an iPhone or something?

Does the Garmin's mapping work well on say nature trails?

If I go off path, will the GPS point me back on course?

znomit

You want the 800 for that.

mvnsnd

Agreed, the 800 will do this, the 500 will not.

EnellCH

the iPhone apps (like Cyclemeter) are great...especially for stats and post ride mapping and tracking..or one the go map views once stopped. IF you want to see a dynamic GPS view with turn by turn, garmin 800 would be the way to go i think.

gregf83 

If you load a course into the 500 it will show you a map and you will be able to see if you are on or off course. It won't show you any surrounding roads or trails but if you just want to follow a course it works fine and will include turns.

Kurogashi

Thanks guys. I found this Youtube video and it pretty much cleared up any of my concerns. It gives me a general sense of where I'm going and I think that's good enough for me!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAEM26w0bgg

DropDeadFred

how do you go off course? how do you know you are off course if you don't actually know the course?

znomit

The 500 tells you.

It often tells you you're off course when you're not though.

MajorMantra

Do NOT buy the 500 if following courses is your main requirement. This feature is very buggy. Get the 800.

In every other respect, the 500 is great.

Kurogashi

What do you mean by buggy...
I was thinking of using the 500 just to give me a general idea of where I'm going and tell me if I ever steer off course. But if it's unreliable... then that's a problem...

Igo

Just as soon as this guy mounted the GPS on his steering wheel the video was over.

aham23

off course? do people who ride regularly actually get lost? the 500 is a great cycling computer. if you want to navigate you way around use a smart phone. later.

MajorMantra

The 500 tends to freeze or turn off in Courses mode. This is a well known problem on the Garmin forums and there appears to be no definitive solution.

Bacciagalupe

So far I haven't had any crashes. I keep the courses at around 50 miles, and prep them with ridewithgps.com rather than Garmin Connect.

I also usually carry a cue sheet as a backup, though I'd do that with any GPS unit anyway.

roadiejorge 

The way I figure it if I'm going into unfamiliar territory alone then I'd take my smart phone so the 800 would be overkill.

MajorMantra

I've found it crashes more consistently on longer rides, i.e. 60-100 miles. It may be something to do with the number of course points.

Phil85207

Keep in mind the battery time on the phones. If you are out for a while and run the battery down, now your out there without a phone or a gps. Just saying.

twodownzero

Maybe with the iPhone. I have an Evo and I can just replace the battery with a fresh one. They're cheap and fit easily into a jersey pocket.

Kurogashi

So does this freezing/lost data happen often? Has Garmin released an update for it yet?

If it crashes during longer rides, that's a problem. Main reason why I want to upgrade my cyclometer is so I won't get lost when I'm doing my century rides. I usually only remember my short routes, anything more than say 50 miles and my memory starts getting fuzzy.

Looigi

I used to live out West and had no problems with navigation. Then I moved to New England; millions of little twisty short roads, no landmarks, etc.. One of the first rides I did from my house was 25 miles over 27 different roads. I was printing out maps and following them. The thing is, you can't really hammer if you're constantly distracted trying to navigate and having to turn every mile or so. So I got a 705, download rides to it, and go ride. It beeps and shows a diagram for an upcoming turn, so instead of trying to figure out a map, you can ride fast and pay attention to traffic. Of course there are regular rides I do know, but every week I'm also laying out new rides. Also, I'll often go on group rides where we just follow the leader and there is no published route, so the 705 to records them and I can revisit them later or incorporate pieces in my own rides.

Shimagnolo

And he apparently also a video camera attached to the wheel!

aztimm

Great thread! I'm still using a Forerunner 405. It is designed for running, and I used to use it for that. For cycling it is ok...it runs into stack overload issues, so I keep the history clear.

I've been looking at the 500 and 800. The 705 and 800 look about the same price, I'm assuming the 800 replaced the 705?

I do carry an iPhone with me when I ride, but I'd prefer not to use it to track the ride. As someone else mentioned, there's battery issues, and if I need it, I'd rather not drain the battery. Especially for a long ride.

Kurogashi

The Edge 500 doesn't do that? I thought it records where you went and then you can review it later on the computer...

I guess my main concern is the freezing issue when going over 50miles. Any possible fix to this?

Bacciagalupe

Yes, it can do that, that's pretty much the whole point. You can also get a cadence/speed meter and use it with an ANT+ HRM.

AFAIK it won't crash if you are, say, doing a century off of a paper cue sheet. It's only the preloaded courses that have this issue.


Yes. Don't load in a course that's longer than 50 miles. If it's longer than that, break it up.

The crashes only happen with pre-loaded courses that give you turn-by-turn directions, not with tracking a ride with a paper cue sheet.

Kurogashi

Oh interesting.

At the end of the day, it'll show up as one big ride on the computer, right? So just making sure if I understand, I make a pre-loaded course map to the half way point (i.e. pre-loaded course A) then once I reach the half way point, I switch over to pre-loaded course B to continue/finish my century ride?

And any links/tips on making an effective paper cue sheet I can tape onto my top tube?