Garmin Edge 800 GPS Unit Review - BikeRadar

The price needs to come down about 200 quid or it's just a rich man's toy.

You can buy online for £278

I'm left wondering after reading this review whether I should opt for the Edge 800 over 500? Though I read, in forums, the Edge 800 is still plagued with minor problems which haven't been entirely addressed.

From my experience the unit is not even water resistant - let alone water proof.

My less than a month old unit filled with water under both the touch screen and the next layer of the screen on a drizzly summer day ride here in Sydney and began malfunctioning. So far Garmin have not been unresponsive on warranty.

So make sure you avoid bright lights, don't get it wet, and never feed it after midnight.

does anyone if the mount lifts the actual unit up high enough to clear shorter stems? I'm thinking of getting one, but only if I can stem mount it on my MTB. I'm using a 90mm stem right now

What we really want is a single GPS I can use for everything ... car, bike, hiking, etc ... with full OS maps built-in ... not expensive OS area maps that need to be purchased separately and cannot all be loaded at one time ... then I would buy one, even at this price.

nbrus - apple make one of those, it's called an iPhone

nbrus - see [url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12756877]here[/url]

An iPhone isn't the answer ... it requires a contract plus you need to be within range of a transmitter.

Re the one gps for all. Not a perfect solution but I use a Garmin 500 for training and data recording and view ranger on my phone for OS maps and guidance using the gps (this is more when hiking but sometimes I come unstuck on the bike too and need to have a look at a map when you end up in places you haven't even heard of). iphone with its built in battery has limitations so I run Viewranger on an old nokia which I have 3 batterys for to give several days use. Failing that always carry a map and compass too

i,m pleased overall with the 800, but there are still some ongoing problems,ie with the firmware not ignoring the odd bad waypoint which can send you according to the map halfway across the road, also despite being able to set the starting elevation to a known value, on the last two rides the finishing elevation has been 8-10m below the starting elevation thats on a door to door route,and theres issues when using courses and routes,but hopefully these bugs will be sorted in firmware upgrades, when they are i could give the 800 full marks, but at the moment no more than 4 out of 5

Purchased mine last week and used it for the first time whilst out on the club run, my cadence magnet fell off at some point during the ride (despite having been zip tied and stuck to the crank) and on the return leg of our ride it kept shutting itself off! I don't know if this was due to the cadence magnet causing it to become confused after it fell off.

Have ordered another magnet, hopefully better luck next time.

I do have to say, on a positive note, that the amount of information you can get from the edge 800 is impressive, but 10 fields on one screen is too much, I would say 6 is the max if you want to read it on the fly without crashing!

nick-williams - I have mounted the Edge 800 on to my road bike stem and it is only 90mm.

I user this: http://www.sports-tracker.com/

Use it with my Nokia E51 and a separate GPS receiver (~£20). Cheap as Chips, no contract and it works just fine :^)

160x240 pixels? You must be joking. Even the Oregon has 240x400 and I thought that was low res. Welcome to the 90s?

I wonder when will the first GPS company realize that the era of the traditional units is over... Create the best cycling / navigator app for the Android and produce a waterproof, scratch-resistant body - and I'll ditch my ZTE Blade (resolution: 480x800, price: ~100 quid!) and buy that unit. Until then.... No thanks.

Agree about the price needing to be below 200 (although the whole of british isles for 50 quid as part of the package has got to be a no brainer..), and

what about those of us who are committed to the Viewranger (symbian phones using O/S) option;

will our maps load onto this system, or

will we be able to get converter software?

Way, way overpriced and effectively obselete. You can pick up a contract-free smartphone and bike mount for the same price (or less, a lot less in some cases) than the basic package here, which would deliver all the same features plus, well, it's a smartphone.

Maps, cadence and even bluetooth HRMs are all now commonly available for popular smartphone types (android, nokia, windows mobile etc.)

These types of GPS and phones are equally fragile, and as most of us take a phone for emergencies anyhow, I fail to see how a standalone bike GPS can be recommended apart from for real niche applications.

Actually, the Motorola Defy phone is IP67-rated, and costs about 250 pounds new. So now all we need is a killer app... good bye, Garmin.

I've got one and it's a great device. Amazing how many people are knocking it that don't own one.

Good luck with your smartphone battery lasting a long Sportive with the GPS turned on

I think its a great device - my one concern is that the seal on the micro usb socket is hard to refit and I wonder about its water proofness.

Contrary to what is said above you can get all UK OS maps on one card.

I can only assume that those people who say they could use a smart phone to do what this device does only go cycling on sunny days in summer. The garmin is far more resilient than any smart phone. You can also operate it with winter gloves on - can you do that with a smartphone?

i have had one for a couple of months now and its an amazing bit of kit..!

i also have an iphone but sometimes you need the right tool for the job.

i also have a proper camera and video camera (both things i 'could' use the phone for).

i have ridden in all weathers, on road and off, its got muddy, been dropped, etc and its still going strong...

i couldnt fit it on my 65mm stem but it fits the top tube just fine.

I have garmin 450 for all uses, car cycling mtb. You can add all the same cadence and power meters to it the same as the edge series. They are a lot more robust than the edge. Great bit of kit. Used to get me from airports to mtb holiday in Spain and France. Then used on the trail. Equally at home on my road bike where it works just like a normal sat nav. Brilliant bit of kit but only if you really use it.

All very well to say 'use a smartphone', but my experience is that the iphone battery lasts about an hour doing smartphone.

I'd be surprised if you'd get even a morning's riding out of any smartphone while running GPS.

sorry that should read 'the iphone battery lasts about an hour doing satnav.'

After a month's use I've had problems with the unit randomly recognising or not the computer for downloads, being unable to upload files, calculating routes over and over again when riding and sending me off route for periods, then finally two weeks ago a ride in the pouring rain has killed it. I'm waiting for a return on warranty but I'm back with my polar and not missing it at all. As seemed to be the case with the 705, again the 800 is a beta-version of a product sold to the public to test for them.

Just got replacement for usb rubber protector. The original part does not fits perfectly :-( Besides this problem device is sexy rugged, has very good accessories, great software, exactly meets my needs (training and navigation on foot and wheels) . Before I used iPhone apps but this is completely different experience now.

I understand we have to pay for rugged version, long battery life and Garmin know-how, it still hurts though..

I use an iphone 4 in a waterproof handlebar mount with Motion X. Using maps and navigation with Bluetooth, Wifi, 3G etc. turned off I get approx 4-5 hours battery use. With an external battery pack this bumps it up to 20+ hours.

When just tracking, I stick the iphone in my pocket and the battery lasts for eons. GPS receiver is absolutely spot on, haven't lost the signal yet.

Maps can be pre-downloaded so need for a signal whilst on the road.

Iphone works for me!

Bought one in January. It was very expensive and a tricky decision, new wheels and fork or this? What would improve my riding experience, and chance of enjoying the Etape Du Dales the most? I chose the GPS, i need better legs not bike, would i get my money back if i could? No.

Excellent piece of kit, great battery life, intuitive to use and set up, rugged enough for 40km off road in winter and it also worked fine at -8C in big gloves. It has almost single handedly motivated me into 500km of riding on and off road since it arrived.

Only issues so far:

* I have not found a way to get the OS mapping onto the PC so i can plan off road routes without the device plugged in, using the Garmin software.

* In heavy rain on sandy ground the screen protector i bought got very scrached as sand filled water splashed everywhere. Not a big issue, however the area around the buttons got silted up and temporarily stopped working. A bit of TLC and a clean and is working fine again. Next time i am somewhere where i encounter really wet sandy conditions, e.g. kielder or peaks it may go in my pocket for some of the ride.

* The USB/card protector does seem flimsy, however no issues so far.

* They could have got a better tune for when you finish a course! That really is back to the 90's :)

mrbodly you are right about iphone It works for me too. However iphone as an excellent and delicate phone is much more expensive not having HR monitor and cadence at the same time.

I use a smartphone with a power chimp external battery, so battery life isn't an issue for me. Where I do think the Garmin has a significant edge is it's download of training data - it's very good looking and informative. Would I spend £400 for that luxury though? Not now, but maybe in a couple of years if prices drop significantly.

Viewranger it is for the time being then...