garmin edge 810

[JamesW]

Anyone using a garmin edge as a sat Navy on their bike? Specifically is anyone using an edge 810 and are they any good for off road cycling? I was looking at trying to see where I might go for rides locally off road and I thought a satnav would be safer to help me find the correct routes.
I'm not that keen on using my phone and a navigation app as AGPS can be flakey if you go off road or don't have signal.
Also anyone able to advise on the risks of buying from abroad to save £100+? If I buy from Germany and have an issue worth the device will I have a different sort of warranty issue (bearing in mind cost would be >£100 on a credit card) from if I had bought from online in the UK or got halfords to price match?

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I'm not that keen on using my phone and a navigation app as AGPS can be flakey if you go off road or don't have signal.

The GPS signal comes from the satellites in the sky. It's totally independent of the phone signal. There's no difference if you're off road or not, or even if you're out at at sea where you're out of range of the phone masts. It still works.

 

[eBoy]

The GPS signal comes from the satellites in the sky. It's totally independent of the phone signal. There's no difference if you're off road or not, or even if you're out at at sea where you're out of range of the phone masts. It still works.

I've just looked up to see what a Garmin Edge is. Looks a smart piece of kit!

Cheapskate that I am, I have an old Garmin Nuvi on my little folder. Got an eBay handlebar mount for 99p inc postage (from China!) and it works a treat. I can check how fast I'm going, and it got even me round Glasgow last year!

 

[Izzyekerslike]

Anyone using a garmin edge as a sat Navy on their bike? Specifically is anyone using an edge 810 and are they any good for off road cycling? I was looking at trying to see where I might go for rides locally off road and I thought a satnav would be safer to help me find the correct routes.
I'm not that keen on using my phone and a navigation app as AGPS can be flakey if you go off road or don't have signal.
Also anyone able to advise on the risks of buying from abroad to save £100+? If I buy from Germany and have an issue worth the device will I have a different sort of warranty issue (bearing in mind cost would be >£100 on a credit card) from if I had bought from online in the UK or got halfords to price match?

I have the Edge 1000 and find it great with more features than you can imagine. A really great feature is that you can ask it to do a route of as many miles as you fancy riding and it will give you 3 alternatives and the amount of ascent on each route pick your route and it will guide you round. However if your not bothered for all the detail the Edge 1000 gives have a look at the Edge Touring. As to the warranty I would presume that the warranty is Europe wide... but you must ensure you have an invoice as Garmin will require this before accepting a unit for a warranty claim. Garmin's customer service is rubbish but there product are excellent.

 

[AlanJ72]

The GPS signal comes from the satellites in the sky. It's totally independent of the phone signal. There's no difference if you're off road or not, or even if you're out at at sea where you're out of range of the phone masts. It still works.

Actually the quality of the receiving antenna/aerial matters a lot. My phone can't get a GPS lock in the house, my Garmin Edge Touring (used off eBay for a good price) can easily.

 

[JamesW]

The GPS signal comes from the satellites in the sky. It's totally independent of the phone signal. There's no difference if you're off road or not, or even if you're out at at sea where you're out of range of the phone masts. It still works.

Sorry, been away from the internet for a few days.
Having spent some time working in the mobile phone test and development sector as well as more time in the general electronics test sector working on GPS equipped devices, I know what I meant when I posted my original question. GPS gives a good fix from the antenna, AGPS tends to be poor if the phone has not got a good network connection due to the inability tyo fall back onto a solely GPS connection only.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assisted_GPS
Having been out for a ride recently using just my phone, I am becoming convinced of the good features of the 810.
Does anyone else have any input please?

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Your intepretation of A-GPS seems to be incorrect. Phones have A-GPS, which makes them superior to an equivalant GPS without a SIM card. They can use the phone network to get a quicker approximate fix while the GPS is still trying to figure out where it is. When the phone loses its network connection, it then becomes the same as a standalone GPS, not inferior.

 

[JamesW]

Your intepretation of A-GPS seems to be incorrect. Phones have A-GPS, which makes them superior to an equivalant GPS without a SIM card. They can use the phone network to get a quicker approximate fix while the GPS is still trying to figure out where it is. When the phone loses its network connection, it then becomes the same as a standalone GPS, not inferior.

Perhaps you missed the part where it said " Some A-GPS devices do not have the option of falling back to standalone or autonomous GPS." Which reflects my experience of using my phone (which work have provided for me so they can get hold of me whenever they want - joy of joys).
None of the phones I've ever had have been any good at GPS in poor signal area.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

It's not surprising if they don't actually have a gps module in them. I'm talking about gps enabled phones that have a gps module in them like the Broadcom BCM47531.

 

[tillson]

Anyone using a garmin edge as a sat Navy on their bike? Specifically is anyone using an edge 810 and are they any good for off road cycling? I was looking at trying to see where I might go for rides locally off road and I thought a satnav would be safer to help me find the correct routes.
I'm not that keen on using my phone and a navigation app as AGPS can be flakey if you go off road or don't have signal.
Also anyone able to advise on the risks of buying from abroad to save £100+? If I buy from Germany and have an issue worth the device will I have a different sort of warranty issue (bearing in mind cost would be >£100 on a credit card) from if I had bought from online in the UK or got halfords to price match?

Sorry if I'm late resurrecting this thread. I bought a Garmin EDGE 1000 from a German company. I think this was about £70 cheaper than Wiggle and about £110 cheaper than Halfords. The warranty seems to be European and they have a UK service centre.

It has some great features (mentioned by others) and you can load Open Street Map onto it. These are highly detailed road and cycling maps available free for most places in the world and are much better than the standard Garmin maps. They have thousands of POIs so you always know exactly how far you are from Nandos. I believe they will load onto most Garmin devices capable of displaying a map. Have a read of DC Rainmaker's blog.