My very first Garmin

[Tail End Charlie]

Learning how to use a Garmin is a bit of a black art, but well worth the effort. I have an older Etrex Legend and use it whilst walking as well. The main use for me is plotting a route at home and following it whilst out. I don't want turn by turn alerts, and upload it as a track, so basically just follow a highlighted line on the map.
I use Open Street Map or similar, which for cycling is better than Ordnance Survey, as zooming in gives more road detail whereas on OS you just get bigger letters, if you see what I mean. It's also free. I presume yours takes an SD card, I've have the whole of Europe on cards and they've worked faultlessly on holiday, showing footpaths for walking etc. I got them through the Garmin nl website.
One tip, make sure your mount is secure, and preferably use a lanyard as well, just in case the device jumps out. I came across a rider recently whose Garmin had jumped off the mount when he went over a pothole and pinged into the hedge. He never did find it.

 

[Dogtrousers]

As mentioned earlier, when you upload the ride later, it will give you your moving average speed. You've only 'lost' that data while you are riding.

Even with autopause on, your displayed average speed won't be all that accurate because of the lag. Back when I used to use autopause, I would often find significant discrepancies between what I thought was my average moving speed during the ride and what the log showed later - especially on my commute, with lots of stopping and starting at junctions and traffic lights.

Average moving speed is bollocks.

Having got that important technical point out of the way.. The Garmin has a trip computer in which it calculates the AMS, and uses its own rules for what is stopped and what is not. It also records ride data as a gpx file. Strava then applies its own algorithm to the GPX data to derive AMS and can come up with an entirely different figure. I know that the AMS that my Garmin trip computer gives me will be a few points lower than the value that RideWithGPS will award me when I upload the GPX file. If I upload the same track to both RideWithGPS and Strava they'll give me different answers.

 

[Dogtrousers]

One tip, make sure your mount is secure, and preferably use a lanyard as well, just in case the device jumps out.

This!!! ^^^^
From experience

 

[Julia9054]

Interesting to see that others have had trouble learning to use it.
I bought an Edge Touring a couple of years ago. Not really interested in all the average speed data etc but wanted to use it as a satnav/route planner as i have a crap sense of direction.
I just couldn't get to grips with it culminating in a massive row up over Saddleworth way one winter when i had plotted a route but decided to double back 200 metres to pick up some chocolate from a shop. This sent the thing into a hissy fit, it directed us into a small housing estate and round in a perpetual circle. I couldn't work it, hubby had forgotten his glasses so couldn't see it!
He uses it for recording ride data now and i want nothing to do with it!

 

[Pale Rider]

My edge is in the cupboard waiting to be ebayed. Crappy map, crashing, awful rerouting even though turned off, horrible little screen.

Replaced by iPhone and extra charger. Soooo much better.

Do people down there still use iPhones?

I suppose you tuck it into the top pocket of your Paul Smith shirt as you are riding your fixie through Covent Garden.

How very 1990s.

 

[ianrauk]

Interesting to see that others have had trouble learning to use it.
I bought an Edge Touring a couple of years ago. Not really interested in all the average speed data etc but wanted to use it as a satnav/route planner as i have a crap sense of direction.
I just couldn't get to grips with it culminating in a massive row up over Saddleworth way one winter when i had plotted a route but decided to double back 200 metres to pick up some chocolate from a shop. This sent the thing into a hissy fit, it directed us into a small housing estate and round in a perpetual circle. I couldn't work it, hubby had forgotten his glasses so couldn't see it!
He uses it for recording ride data now and i want nothing to do with it!

Yup that is one of the problems that I originally had. In a nut shell, to sort that out you need to turn of the re-routing.

 

[Markymark]

Do people down there still use iPhones?

I suppose you tuck it into the top pocket of your Paul Smith shirt as you are riding your fixie through Covent Garden.

How very 1990s.

Fixie? No, I can use gears and brakes.

 

[MiK1138]

Oh and the silicone covers are obviously so you can match it to your bike
View attachment 140909

yup mines matches my bar tape, also handy if you drop the garmin

 

[MiK1138]

Just got the Edge touring set from Halfords as well. Not had a chance to play with it yet but one thing that shocks me is that there is no eye to allow a tether to be attached. I don't know if these things ever come undone during a ride but I would prefer to have a securty string looped around the bars rather than risk the thing bouncing along the tarmac and being run over by a car!

been running an edge touring for about 2 years both road and off road and it has never come off the mounting and this includes a couple of crashes.

 

[Pale Rider]

Interesting to see that others have had trouble learning to use it.
I bought an Edge Touring a couple of years ago. Not really interested in all the average speed data etc but wanted to use it as a satnav/route planner as i have a crap sense of direction.
I just couldn't get to grips with it culminating in a massive row up over Saddleworth way one winter when i had plotted a route but decided to double back 200 metres to pick up some chocolate from a shop. This sent the thing into a hissy fit, it directed us into a small housing estate and round in a perpetual circle. I couldn't work it, hubby had forgotten his glasses so couldn't see it!
He uses it for recording ride data now and i want nothing to do with it!

Blimey Julia, you could have carked it getting lost up there.

It does seem getting fully to grips with a Touring is not easy, so it's a good thing I don't particularly want to.

I've just logged on to the website and my last three rides are all there, with maps and ride stats - I was impressed by that.

That info will remain private, average speed of 10mph, on an ebike, the shame of it, and it reveals I spend almost as much time sitting about as I do pedalling.

Elevation data recorded by the device is hit and miss due to it not having a barometric altimeter.

It comes up as 'corrected' on the website, and those figures do look more realistic.

About the same on one ride as the elevation recorded by mate on his 800, which does have an altimeter.

A lanyard has been mentioned by a couple of posters which was also something that occurred to me.

No attachment point on the Touring, although I suppose something could be bodged.

 

[ianrauk]

I have been up and down mountains and across countries with my Touring and 200. Over more crappy, bouncy roads then one could imagine, in all kinds of weathers and conditions. If the machine would to fall out of it's mount then I would say that I didn't use a decent mount or I didn't place it in the mount properly in the first place.

 

[Pale Rider]

I have been up and down mountains and across countries with my Touring and 200. Over more crappy, bouncy roads then one could imagine, in all kinds of weathers and conditions. If the machine would to fall out of it's mount then I would say that I didn't use a decent mount or I didn't place it in the mount properly in the first place.

That's good enough for me, although I have noticed my handlebar mounts have a more solid click in than the ahead one.

I suppose the device could bounce out during full-on mountain biking, but those fellas seem to fall off often so a Garmin might not last long anyway.