My Garmin 500 has failed on me twice. One of the buttons on the first didn't work properly. The second one started to freeze up constantly so Garmin is sending me a brand new one to replace it. How reliable is the 800 with the touch screen stuff. I'm pretty sure I'm going to sell the Garmin once I get this week and buy a 800. Current owners please chime in.

Never had any real issues with head unit. I had issuse with the cadence sensor but sorted it out. I lik the fact it has 5 bike profiles even though i need only 2.

Thanks. I also like the maps feature of the 800 since I'm terrible with directions.

I've been using the 800 since last June (upgraded from the 705). The only problem I've had with it was the result of a dying battery in my speed/cadence sensor. From my experience, it's a solid reliable unit.

Decided to upgrade today. FYI, for those looking for a deal on a Garmin. Competitive cyclist has a code right now for 21% off. Code = GDT21

We have 10 Garmin 800s that have been getting lots of use on self-guided tours.

A couple of them had to be sent in to get repaired/refurbished, because they were shutting off spontaneously. But since we got them back, all of the units are behaving themselves.

The turn-by-turn navigation is working pretty well, after we switched to open source maps (Garmin maps don't cover many of the bike paths). The only issue is that the display is hard to read while riding fast on a sunny day. Garmin says beep beep (turn coming up), you look at screen, look at road, look at screen again, can't make out screen text, miss your turn.

Next thing to try is a glare eliminating screen cover. Might make it easier to read. Too bad the 800 doesn't speak the directions.

terry