New Garmin GPS products

[Rob3rt]

Other than suggesting that you read DCRainmakers in depth review (if it is configurable, he would probably have mentioned it, the review is very thorough) or download manual I wouldn't be able to comment. Hope you find out what you need to know.

 

[yello]

Robert, fret not, I wasn't asking only you and wasn't even expecting an answer from you! I appreciate entirely how you use your 810. I'd cut your name from the quote above to try and solicit response from others.

I'd already read through DCR's comprehensive review and whilst it answered many of my questions, there was no specific mention of how (or even if) the live tracking can be configured. I'm guessing it can't be - it's either on or off.

Downloading the manual is a very good idea though. Surprised I didn't think of that tbh, I'm getting old obviously!

For the record, DCR doesn't seem to rate the 510, saying it offers little (other than the smartphone connectivity) that the 500 doesn't have. Indeed, he thinks the size and weight go against it and the lack of bluetooth 4 limits it. There was some genuine questioning from him too about what Garmin is doing, as he feels the future is in a different direction. None of that really bothers me (on the face of it at least) and I remain interested in the 510.

 

[Andrew_P]

It's a real consideration for me. LEL = 90 to 100 odd hours on payg data roaming. That'd mount up!

Seriously though, if the live tracking was was less 'live' than 'periodic' (and configurable at that) then I'd be happy. Hence my original question.

To be honest I wouldn't have thought it gobbled loads of data, probably no more than an App like Endomondo. Endomondo offers live tracking already. I really do not see much advantage in the the 810 vs 800 for me the slight advantage is the auto upload. Currently there is £120 odd quid difference between a 800 and 810 I do not think the 810 is 120 squid better.

Taken from Endomondo https://getsatisfaction.com/endomondo/topics/how_much_does_it_cost_to_use_endomondo

The actual tracking through the GPS signal is free, but you will incur a minor cost from your mobile operator when using the tracker for online tracking because you transmit data from your mobile phone to the Internet. A typical workout (only tracking) lasting 30 minutes sends about 50 kb data, which should cost around US$ 0.05 or € 0.03 with an typical pay-per-use subscription (per MB). But if you use maps, receive peptalks or use other features which require data in the app, the data traffic will increase.

 

[yello]

Thanks for that LOCO, that puts it into perspective.I am perhaps obsessing about the cost aspect without looking at the math (as our US cousins say). I ought check out roaming data rates and go from there.

Btw, the 510 manual is light, perhaps unsurprisingly, on the connectivity aspect.

 

[Rob3rt]

^^ The main benefit (other than the bluetooth features which are of limited use to many) of the new 810 is the user interface. For some people this is not really a benefit, but for those who have several bikes and ride them in different ways thus wanting different amounts and different data on screen the 810 UI is much better.

I have all of my bikes listed as bike profiles and have 5 activity profiles: Indoor Trainer, Training (Road), Race, Leisure and Utility.

With previous Garmin units, you could have bike profiles, but all these did was seperate out the odometer for each bike, you would have the same data fields for all bikes and all activities, the new UI is very nice in this respect as it lets you quickly change it to suit what you are doing without manually changing the data fields. Understandably, many/most people probably can get away with 1 setup spread over the available pages, but I always found it to be pretty clunky and didn't like having too many pages of data so used to edit my data display frequently.

 

[Andrew_P]

^^ The main benefit (other than the bluetooth features which are of limited use to many) of the new 810 is the user interface. For some people this is not really a benefit, but for those who have several bikes and ride them in different ways thus wanting different amounts and different data on screen the 810 UI is much better.

I have all of my bikes listed as bike profiles and have 5 activity profiles: Indoor Trainer, Training (Road), Race, Leisure and Utility.

With previous Garmin units, you could have bike profiles, but all these did was seperate out the odometer for each bike, you would have the same data fields for all bikes and all activities, the new UI is very nice in this respect as it lets you quickly change it to suit what you are doing without manually changing the data fields. Understandably, many/most people probably can get away with 1 setup spread over the available pages, but I always found it to be pretty clunky and didn't like having too many pages of data so used to edit my data display frequently.

Out of interest what did you upgrade from a 705 or 800 or lower? I have been hovering over an upgrade half of me says stay behind the curve and get an 800, as Garmin are awful at product testing and the other half wants to leap in to the 810. I am pretty happy with the 705 but it is starting to play up a bit and the connection is getting corroded.

 

[Rob3rt]

Out of interest what did you upgrade from a 705 or 800 or lower? I have been hovering over an upgrade half of me says stay behind the curve and get an 800, as Garmin are awful at product testing and the other half wants to leap in to the 810. I am pretty happy with the 705 but it is starting to play up a bit and the connection is getting corroded.

Edge 500. I would not recommend any 800 users upgrade to the 810 unless you will definitely use the bluetooth stuff or derive a lot more joy from the new UI.

BTW, I do not think that the UI is worth the price hike, but, factoring in the out-front mount which I wanted (separate purchase with 800, I did have a K-Edge mount but it broke my Edge 500 so I returned it) the price difference was about £90-95 so I figured it was worth a punt.

Garmin also repaired my Edge 500 for free, which I sold, to limit the pain on my wallet.

 

[Andrew_P]

Edge 500. I would not recommend any 800 users upgrade to the 810 unless you will definitely use the bluetooth stuff or derive a lot more joy from the new UI.

BTW, I do not think that the UI is worth the price hike, but, factoring in the out-front mount which I wanted (separate purchase with 800, I did have a K-Edge mount but it broke my Edge 500 so I returned it) the price difference was about £90-95 so I figured it was worth a punt.

Garmin also repaired my Edge 500 for free, which I sold, to limit the pain on my wallet.

shoot I forgot about the out front on the 800 and 810, and it was one of the reasons I was looking too lol, better keep control of the wallet. Had Amazon still been converting Nectar points in to gift cards I would have ordered one Monday!

 

[Rob3rt]

I only upgraded because I was thinking about an 800 for ages, then my Edge 500 broke and I didn't want to spend up to 10 days without being able to capture my power data while they fixed it. The 810 released about the same time, so I thought, just do it. Turns out all my power data is underestimating now anyway because of bugs with the 810, which is a major annoyance especially as we are now 4 weeks out from my racing season kicking off, this may explain why I am so bitter about the 810! But it is not the only annoying bug, there are many, most I could shrug off, but not being able to capture robust power data is an absolute failure, it is a basic data recording function, just like capturing data from a cadence/speed sensor, it angers me greatly (the total investment on the power meter and the Garmin is not trivial - think along the lines of a fairly high spec carbon road bike).

Turns out that it underestimates on average 7-8W average and normalised power and is fairly consistant in doing so, so I can use the data to train, BUT I can not compare my data collected with the 810 to the data with the 500, which means I am not able to quantify my progress, it also affects my TSS and IF calculations and messes with the performance manager chart in WKO+.

 

[FreeFlow Bikes]

The Live Tracking feature is something that interests me. Do you know if it is configurable? That is (and I'm making a few assumptions here), I'm assuming it doesn't keep a data connection live for the entire ride so do you configure the updates for every x minutes, or x miles etc?

I'm thinking of something like LEL (1400km, 5 days) where the live tracking would be of interest to friends and family... but it could also be one helluva mobile phone bill!

As far as I'm aware you can't configure the setup of the live track facility.

Great review can be found here http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2013/01/garmin-edge-810-in-depth-review.html

 

[FreeFlow Bikes]

One thing I have noticed since upgrading to the 810 from the 705 is that the calories burnt is around a third less for the same workout.

Sure I read somewhere that the 705 calories burnt calculation was way out.

 

[david k]

Since I do not own a smart phone I will stick with my old trusty 500

i dont see the advantage, if you have a smartphone and have to use it to stay connected why use the garmin? just use an app for the smartphone

i have bith aand use my smartphone for short journeys and my 800 for longer ones

 

[david k]

One thing I have noticed since upgrading to the 810 from the 705 is that the calories burnt is around a third less for the same workout.

Sure I read somewhere that the 705 calories burnt calculation was way out.

id multiply the 810s by 3 to be sure

 

[Robeh]

my 810 give accurate temperature readings unlike my 500 which was at least a couple off degrees out....