# Garmin Edge 810



## DWill (Aug 24, 2010)

Got my new 810 this week, loaded it up with maps and got a couple of rides on it. 

Seems to be faster at getting a fix and so far hasn't dropped reception anywhere. 

I took it off the stem put it my pocket, worked perfect, put it in my hydro pack, worked perfect, I turned it on outside took it into the house, walked through the house it worked perfect. 

The Bluetooth works well and doesn't drop the connection. The weather function is hooky and somewhat useless but I saved time at the end of my ride by uploading to Garmin Connect and editing my ride at the trail head while drinking a cold beer before heading home. 

The live track function works well too and is useful if you ride alone but of course if you don't have cell reception it won't work. 

Other than that there's not a huge difference between the 800 and the 810.


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## heyyall (Nov 10, 2011)

Thanks for sharing. Besides the weather, what do you think of the app and the connectivity? 

I'm leaning towards the 510. I think we are still a few weeks out from an reviews of products in the wild.


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## herrhaus (May 29, 2009)

I have been sitting on the fence for quite a while. I had money (and still have $$) all saved for an 800, then got cold feet last year. With all the negative issues that I had read about lost signals, the route navigation issues (not being able to get turn-by-turn directions when road riding), poor visibility of the screen, etc........I just gave up and I continue to use my trusty Cateye cycle computer in conjunction with RidewithGPS. 

I would like a GPS unit that has a basemap for the several times when I ride in unfamiliar areas (we travel a lot). 

So, I'm really interested to hear how well the new 810 works over that of the 800. Please share.


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## ziscwg (May 18, 2007)

herrhaus said:


> I have been sitting on the fence for quite a while. I had money (and still have $$) all saved for an 800, then got cold feet last year. With all the negative issues that I had read about lost signals, the route navigation issues (not being able to get turn-by-turn directions when road riding), poor visibility of the screen, etc........I just gave up and I continue to use my trusty Cateye cycle computer in conjunction with RidewithGPS.
> 
> I would like a GPS unit that has a basemap for the several times when I ride in unfamiliar areas (we travel a lot).
> 
> So, I'm really interested to hear how well the new 810 works over that of the 800. Please share.


I have the 800 and it's not without it's issues. Although, I have never had any issues with turn by turn directions, I have had some signal issues on fast descents on tree covered canyon roads.

What may push you over the edge is any good discount you get on an 800 now that the 810 is out. The features of the 810 surely don't tempt be enough to upgrade.

I have used my 800 many time for trails that I want to take, but are unfamiliar with.


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## DWill (Aug 24, 2010)

heyyall said:


> Thanks for sharing. Besides the weather, what do you think of the app and the connectivity?
> 
> I'm leaning towards the 510. I think we are still a few weeks out from an reviews of products in the wild.


I'm finding that I use the blue tooth features every ride. So far I've had zero problems with the 810; I have 10 or so rides with it now.

The live track feature works well as long as you have cell coverage of course. It is truly "live track" whomever is receiving your track get it until you end the ride, then it gone. The track isn't saved and can't be accessed after you end the live track session.

I don't know yet what happens if you lose cell coverage during your ride, I haven't had that happen yet. My assumption is that the track will pick up again when you get a cell signal back as long as you don't end the ride/live track session before you get a signal back.

I use Garmin Connect to log my rides and now use the blue tooth feature to upload my rides when I'm done. In fact I've enabled the "auto upload" feature and as soon as I hit save on the 810 my ride is uploaded.

So far it hasn't missed a upload, though I don't delete the rides until I check on GC to be sure they are there just in case. But as I said so far it hasn't failed.

The weather feature is nice, but I wouldn't consider it a great feature. It works as long as you're connected by blue tooth and have a cell signal. I haven't found it particularly usefull.

I've subscribed to the sat maps and down loaded images of the areas I ride to a 32GB card in the 810. The maps images are actually pretty small (at least what I grabbed) even in the highest resolution available. One thing I find weird is that I down loaded several images into base camp; each image is its own file with its own name etc.

However when I transferred them to the 810 they went into one file. The issue with that is that file contains the names of each of the individual I image files. The 810 displays all those names as the file name and it is impossible to then read the map name on the 810 as they all run together.

Easy fix is to just load the one image of the area you are going to ride in. But that's kind of a pain plus the upload speed from base camp to the 810 is pretty slow at least for Sat images which is all I've used so far.



herrhaus said:


> I have been sitting on the fence for quite a while. I had money (and still have $$) all saved for an 800, then got cold feet last year. With all the negative issues that I had read about lost signals, the route navigation issues (not being able to get turn-by-turn directions when road riding), poor visibility of the screen, etc........I just gave up and I continue to use my trusty Cateye cycle computer in conjunction with RidewithGPS.
> 
> I would like a GPS unit that has a basemap for the several times when I ride in unfamiliar areas (we travel a lot).
> 
> So, I'm really interested to hear how well the new 810 works over that of the 800. Please share.


I can say that I am completely happy with the 810 so far.

It's pretty easy to see even in bright sun light with or without the back light on. The back light does help though and you do have to turn it up bright in sun light if you use it. But I find I only use it to help with the maps. It doesn't help that I have Dat images loaded on my 810 they are dark in areas of trees and the back light is useful to view them.

I also have a screen protector on my 810 so that adds a bit of "dimness" to the display. But even with all that its still pretty easy to see the data screen in sun light without the back light.

I have yet to have the 810 drop sat reception other than in a tunnel that is a little over a half mile long and a few hundred feet under ground through a mountain. Even under dense trees it works. I can turn it on in my house away from windows and it gets a signal.

I haven't used the turn by turn navigation because I don't ride on the road; but I have used the 810 to follow a track I've been given by someone else and uploaded to the 810 through Garmin Connect. That feature worked very well, the 810 lead me from the trail head to the track and alerted me if I got to far off the track giving me directions to get back on the track.

I'm not sure what the problems with the 800 were; but so far the 810 has been problem free for me. I don't regret at all spending the money on it.


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## BoostN7 (Dec 6, 2010)

DWill said:


> I'm finding that I use the blue tooth features every ride. So far I've had zero problems with the 810; I have 10 or so rides with it now.
> 
> The live track feature works well as long as you have cell coverage of course. It is truly "live track" whomever is receiving your track get it until you end the ride, then it gone. The track isn't saved and can't be accessed after you end the live track session.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the insight. I'm looking at getting a cycle computer and will probably end up with a Garmin 810


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## Lemmywinks (Sep 11, 2012)

I picked up the 510 bundle at REI last week and really liked it. After doing further research I decided to return it and upgrade to the 810 for the slightly larger screen and map capabilities. 

Is there a thread or guide available detailing the best maps to use for offroad? This piece has me intimidated still.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

GPSFileDepot - Free Custom Garmin Maps, Ximage hosting, tutorials, articles and more for your GPSr to start.


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## Lemmywinks (Sep 11, 2012)

Thanks NateHawk. I was going to PM you today if I couldn't find anything.


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## weaverwins (Dec 28, 2008)

my 810 refuses to do livetracking... ive done the firmware update but its being a turd. have heard of plenty of others that it wont work for as well.


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## csledd281 (Aug 21, 2009)

I am trying to figure out what I want to purchase as this will be my first GPS unit (currently own a CatEye). I road and mountain bike and really wanted the maps feature for in case I got lost while road riding. I was looking into the 810 with no bundle. In order to see small roads or side streets, do I have t purchase any maps? Reason I ask is I noticed the 810 bundle comes with City Navigation


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## herrhaus (May 29, 2009)

I just bought an Oregon 450t for many of the same reasons as you. See this thread: http://forums.mtbr.com/gps-hrm-bike-computer/garmin-oregon-450-vs-edge-800-a-650537.html


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## slocaus (Jul 21, 2005)

csledd281 said:


> I am trying to figure out what I want to purchase as this will be my first GPS unit (currently own a CatEye). I road and mountain bike and really wanted the maps feature for in case I got lost while road riding. I was looking into the 810 with no bundle. In order to see small roads or side streets, do I have t purchase any maps? Reason I ask is I noticed the 810 bundle comes with City Navigation


Look at GPSFileDepot - Free Custom Garmin Maps, Ximage hosting, tutorials, articles and more for your GPSr or Free worldwide Garmin maps from OpenStreetMap for free maps, and make sure they have routing information compiled into them, some do not.


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## csledd281 (Aug 21, 2009)

I was reading that the 810 and 510 do not allow tcx files, but do allow uploading gpx files. Anybody see a big concern by that? Does GPX allow for the turn by turn navigation?


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

no. .tcx was simply a modified version of .gpx to allow for a bunch of fitness metrics to be included without violating the .gpx schema. Garmin created .fit to be a more efficient means of carrying not just geolocation data, but fitness data. My Forerunner 310XT uses the format, and it can communicate with my Tanita scale and transmit the scale data to Garmin Connect just like the 510 and 810 can. .gpx would not allow that kind of functionality. Not to mention temp data (from the tempe sensor), speed, cadence, power, or the extra swimming metrics collected by the qatix and the 910XT.

.gpx was only meant to contain GPS data. Garmin still presses .gpx into service for other things beyond the intent of its schema, and some programs won't like the extra data in the file. So it is what it is.


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## slocaus (Jul 21, 2005)

csledd281 said:


> I was reading that the 810 and 510 do not allow tcx files, but do allow uploading gpx files. Anybody see a big concern by that? Does GPX allow for the turn by turn navigation?


GPX files can be uploaded as routes. Turn by turn navigation requires a map on the head unit with routing data included, it does not depend on the uploaded GPX. When navigation is selected, the GPX data is read by the GPS, and turn by turn output IF the map has routing information coded into it.


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## Lemmywinks (Sep 11, 2012)

Garmin released the 2.40 firmware recently which does add tcx support according to their release notes.



csledd281 said:


> I was reading that the 810 and 510 do not allow tcx files, but do allow uploading gpx files. Anybody see a big concern by that? Does GPX allow for the turn by turn navigation?


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