I'm planning a 400+ round trip from Home (Beverley) to Whitehaven and up the coast, on up to Carlisle area and across to Newcastle following Hadrians Wall and then return home, a good round trip over two days, the bags packed ready, sleeping bag and bivvy bag, I'm away fishing this week, next week I have odd shifts at work, so it may be the week after. Also I'll be on "The Old 240" in August.
>>There is a difference between a satnav for a bike and a satnav that can be mounted to a bike<<
Whats the difference? apart for one you hold in your hand or pocket which is of no use at all unless you keep pulling it out to look at!!!
>>Thank you for pointing out Zaclaws post, perhaps since you are so knowledgeable you could find out how his 800 is setup. Setup options which directly affect recalculation. He doesn't mention what map is loaded, perhaps you could find that out too.<<
Recalculation is totally porked in a Edge 800 and no matter what your settings are it will not work, if its turned on, upon commencement of setting of on a course it will constantly redirect you back to the beggining, no use whatsoever, Garmin has never tried to fix it, and the only advise is to turn it off. The "800" cannot even be relied upon to give you warning of a turning at times by flashing up the map if your on a data page unless your actually constantly checking your map, but to have it on constantly drains power, ok on a short ride, no good on a long one, but on a long ride, you can remain on a data page and when you see a possible turning coming up, switch to the map, but then it can take ages for the map and course to refresh, by which time your at the possible turning and in the dark as what to do? Splitting up a course into smaller segments alleviates that problem though
I have five maps on my "800" four different OSM maps and also Garmin City Navigator, only one of which will be enabled and also carry if needed OS discovery map which may be ok to use in the open country but in built up areas along with that pathetic purple line to follow on the "800" its as much use as tits on a bull as the purple line is just lost amongst the clutter of the OS map. At least on the Dakota, it has the compass page to help you keep on route at difficult times, it was ommited in the "800" but reinstated in the "810", another Garmin cockup.
On the 600K ride, the "800" had changed my uploaded route on the first day near Malton, taking me well off route, but on the second day at Fulwood, once again changed the route and it took me the wrong way from the checkpoint, I ended up at a series of rounabouts and the purple line just went round them all and no guidance whatsoever and no way could I work out where the purple line did go, roughly in my head I knew it should head towards Blackpool, but there was no sign of it. "800"'s changing uploaded routes is a common problem, my work around is to plot my route in mapsource on the same map and settings that I will ride the route on for 100% compatability, but sadly the "800" has a mind of its own at times and will change it on occasions
Once out in the country just following the Blackpool roadsigns, I tried to plot a direct route with the "800" to the checkpoint in Blackpool as I had them stored as locations, but it just would not happen, despite coverage of the area I was in with all my maps, all I had on the screen was a large blue square covering the area I was in, and also I kept getting an error message saying, "no routeable maps/roads" (something like that) and I tried all my maps in frustration so all I could do in the end was follow the road signs on a busy road. Yet oddly enough when I got closer to Blackpool I retried it, no blue square and on the original map it worked perfectly again with no problems but got me off the main road and through Blackpools streets.
My choice of the Dakota was based on my poor eyesight, it has the same size screen as an "800" and I knew that I would be able to see it properly unlike the smaller Etrek screen which I know is highly regarded for being an excellent cycling satnav.
The way it is now is, my "800" will be used for fast training runs on local roads and the Dakota for long rides out of my area when navigation is essential and errors in the route cannot be spotted as easy as on my own patch.
As for the Edge "800" being the best cycle computer, it is far from it, it is a training device with a satnav incorporated and sadly Garmin have not got it right, and untill they do they should just stick to making pure Satnav devices. Just looking through the Garmin forums it can be seen the amount of disgruntled Edge users, 500's 510's, 705's, 800's and 810's they are all the same problematic regarding navigation. The 705 though does get recomended at times and is reputably better than the "800" but I have no experience of it so cannot comment on it. A friend I ride with who has one says its a pile of junk with frequent lockups but others say its good..
it's £20 it's only going to be useful for a couple of weeks while i get used to the route, but it suits my purposes.. in all honesty if i didn't already have a wahoo blue speed/cadence monitor and other cycling apps, i would have bought the garmin.
