I don't own a Smartphone. Would a Garmin Edge 810 be wasted on me?

[slowmotion]

I'm sorry to trouble you good people but I know very little about GPS systems. Much as I love paper maps and map reading, I think I might try GPS for the first time. I would like to pre-load maps and other peoples' routes, and get route instructions along the way, as well as downloading my actual route to my own computer afterwards. I have zero interest in "sharing" anything at all on social media. I don't own a Smartphone.

Well, that's the background. Do you think that I would be foolish to buy a Garmin 810, given that I just want to plug it into my laptop/desktop by a copper lead? (Can I even use copper????)

Thank you.

 

[Angry Blonde]

Deffinatley buy one, the maps function is great on them, beat thing ive ever bought, store all your data etc on your pc, you dont need a smartphone

 

[HLaB]

You can also get a bluetooth dongle for the pc if you want to be wire free.

 

[ColinJ]

Definitely buy a GPS, but if you are not bothered about extra features, why not spend half the amount and get a cheaper model which will do what you want to do?

 

[young Ed]

nah save the pennies. do you want cadence? do you want heart rate?
look at garmin touring ( i have this and it is great!), touring plus and 800
https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/cat...77&compareProduct=134596&compareProduct=69043
Cheers Ed

 

[slowmotion]

Definitely buy a GPS, but if you are not bothered about extra features, why not spend half the amount and get a cheaper model which will do what you want to do?

I read that the route-finding functions on the cheaper Garmins were pretty bad, that's all. No, I don't want all that cadence and heart-rate stuff either, just some really good maps etc.

 

[ColinJ]

I read that the route-finding functions on the cheaper Garmins were pretty bad, that's all. No, I don't want all that cadence and heart-rate stuff either, just some really good maps etc.

I don't like the idea of a gadget deciding the route so that has never been an issue for me. I plot my routes on a digital OS map at home and use a cheapo ancient Garmin to follow them.

 

[young Ed]

go garmin edge touring then.
£180 i think on wiggle

maps and in a pinch i have set it to a favourite that i have set at home and it does that fine. only thing that doesn't work is the round trip routing, you enter a distance and it gives you 3 routes that take you in a loop starting from where you are and ending up where you are, sounds great but in practice it doesn't work although i have only tried it once so i might have just had bad luck? in any case i never find any need for this as i just plot routes on strava or garmin connect and export them to my garmin (PM me is anyone ever has any trouble with this as i can now do it blind folded with my arms tied behind my back!)

one thing though, what operating system are the computers you plan to use running? as in windows xp, vista, 7 or 8 or linux of some sort or apple OSX etc
Cheers Ed

 

[JoeyB]

No point getting the 810, find a second hand 800 or the touring as mentioned above.

 

[slowmotion]

go garmin edge touring then.
£180 i think on wiggle



one thing though, what operating system are the computers you plan to use running? as in windows xp, vista, 7 or 8 or linux of some sort or apple OSX etc
Cheers Ed

I may as well fess up! My two PCs are on XP and the laptop is Windows 7..

I'm seriously bad. Will anything work with that lot?

 

[ufkacbln]

List what you want - mapping, navigation, route planning on the go etc
List what you think you will want in 6 months

Compare the Garmin models and buy the one closest to these lists

 

[the_mikey]

If you really don't want the Bluetooth option then try a garmin 800, I wouldn't bother with a 500/510 if you want mapping though.

 

[JoeyB]

I may as well fess up! My two PCs are on XP and the laptop is Windows 7..

I'm seriously bad. Will anything work with that lot?

My Edge 800 works fine on all of the above.

 

[cyberknight]

I may as well fess up! My two PCs are on XP and the laptop is Windows 7..

I'm seriously bad. Will anything work with that lot?

my garmin worked fine with xp, i just upgraded to win 7 .

 

[sidevalve]

Forget all this electronic cack. Buy a few maps - make up a route and get out there and have fun [even if you get lost a few times]. The electronics will be out of date in a year the memories of good rides will last for ever.