Which Garmin do you use and why?

lawrence281

lawrence281

lawrence281

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In the market for my first cycling computer and keen to use it with komoot, preferably for touring and long distance cycling.

So to have good mapping, Bluetooth to connect to my phone Strava etc too.
Which of the Garmin devices would suit my description?
 
I have an 810 but have never used the map function on it and have heard a few negative stories about it being a bit rubbish. I have bought a Wahoo Element Bolt for my touring bike as it integrates with Komoot nicely within the Wahoo app. I haven’t used it yet but will use it for my ride from Edinburgh to Bucks in September.
 
Bear said:
I have an 810 but have never used the map function on it and have heard a few negative stories about it being a bit rubbish. I have bought a Wahoo Element Bolt for my touring bike as it integrates with Komoot nicely within the Wahoo app. I haven’t used it yet but will use it for my ride from Edinburgh to Bucks in September.
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Also read bad things about it not showing road names and making it hard to know when to turn. Will look Into the wahoo
 
Also another question but on my recent cycle, I struggled to get my to yi 4k action cam to stay strapped to my helmet, ever used a helmet mount somewhere? Cant seem to find one that's specific to helmets lol
 
Can't recommend the Wahoo Bolt enough - grabbed one after my 810 crashed and lost the recording halfway through a 316 mile charity ride - it had done similar on smaller previous rides and I just gave up on it. It also dropped connection to my speed/cadence sensors all the time - annoying during a Zwift session!

Haven't had a single issue with my Bolt :)
 
PinkFloyd said:
Can the Wahoo Bolt take imports of routes for offroad rides like are regularly shared on MBR etc, for example the ones in this article?
https://www.mbr.co.uk/routes/endless-singletrack-377902
I've got a Garmin watch I use for tracking right now which is handy, but the ability to do navigation especially away from roads would be a pretty great upgrade!
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Yeah, in multiple ways. You can sync all your routes from ridewithgps/strava or add a gpx file directly into the app, simply download it on your phone, open it with the elemnt app and it imports it and then it'll sync with the bolt.

Also you can create routes on ridewithgps which aren't tied to roads, the bolt will follow whatever route it's been given, it doesn't try and put you on roads.
 
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Garmin 810 with open maps works perfectly done several long distance tours and haven't got lost but i usually prepare my routes in advanced and just follow a line on the map, the device it's is the perfect size the 1000 was to big in my opinion, plus the 810 has a 10 hour battery life but often lasts longer but does depend on the weather.
 
petriodet said:
Garmin 810 with open maps works perfectly done several long distance tours and haven't got lost but i usually prepare my routes in advanced and just follow a line on the map, the device it's is the perfect size the 1000 was to big in my opinion, plus the 810 has a 10 hour battery life but often lasts longer but does depend on the weather.
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Yeah, I did a Derby to Manchester road ride using it and a 100 mile "Cheshire Ring"on the MTBs last year with almost 12 hours in the saddle, perfomed excellently and just needed a quick top up at one of the snack stops :)
 
Used an 810 for a couple of years. Crashy and unreliable despite several hard resets and warranty replacements.

Wahoo Elemnt Bolt for the last year. Zero crashes and an infinitely superior interface. It would take a lot to make me go back to Garmin.
 
Recently upgraded to a Garmin 1000 from my trusty 500 which I'd used for 5 years or so.
Only reason I did so was because there was a deal on at Halfords for it at £270, with cashback & selling my old one it actually cost me £150
 
I'm using a 1030 on latest firmware and it's excellent. I honestly wouldn't want anything less for touring/long distance. Live segments are great and the battery life is pretty staggering. Used for a 200 mile ride and still easily had me covered. There's a very minor bug that doesn't happen very often with the cadence sensor where when you pause a ride and start again, it doesn't always pick up your cadence for a brief time but it's fairly rare. Hung only once after losing signal, still managed to pause. Upon reset, ride still saved as paused so nothing lost, amazing tbh.

I wouldn't take too much notice of some of the reviews for such a product as they improve significantly through firmware updates and it's not just bug fixing.
 
I use the Edge 520, and work perfectly for me. As a racer (and occasional TTer), don't want anything too large sticking out front (like th 8X0 or 10X0). It's nice and tidy, not much larger than the trusty old 500. Does maps well enough, but only if routed manually on 'puter beforehand (rather than live). Plus it has actual buttons, rather than a terrible touch sceen that doesn't always work with wet fingers/gloves. Battery is 8+hours unconnected to phone, probably half that when connected.
 
I've had an Edge 800 since the end of 2012. Regularly used for nav with turn-by-turn (TBT) which is generally good. Difficult to know if a problem with nav is the Garmin or the map data. I've seen a navigation prompt saying turn right but the display on the gamin has a left arrow. TBT makes riding much less of a faff IMO - prior to getting the Edge I would print out a number of maps onto A4. As I like to stick to country lanes (with few signs), I'd end up stopping every 4th or 5th turn/junction to check and that becomes a real time waster.

It's had the odd wobble, most recently being this year when it just turned off at the start of the Tour de Yorkshire sportive but was then fine for the rest of the day. Only ever had a battery warning once which was when I was hoping to crack 200km for the first time (was down to 2% left when I got home at around 185km). I've got a USB power pack and short cable to sit in a top tube bag for when I get to try a big day out again.
 
FrenchTart said:
Used an 810 for a couple of years. Crashy and unreliable despite several hard resets and warranty replacements.

Wahoo Elemnt Bolt for the last year. Zero crashes and an infinitely superior interface. It would take a lot to make me go back to Garmin.
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Same here, ELEMNT now after 18 months of use/abuse with an 810 and utterly love it. Really won't go back to Garmin now!

My 810 would crash/freeze 50% of the time when using maps and would lose the ride 30% of those times crashing. Also wouldn't auto-sync over BT & would need 2-3 resets to sync ride to Garmin connect - which got very tiresome being a multi ride commuter. I don't miss the colour screen, the touchscreen or the poor battery life. Great device when it worked, painful & expensive paperweight afterwards. I've still got it and it won't stay switched on longer than 2 minutes without freezing. Was going to use it for MTB but not now!
 
Another who still uses their trusty old 810 and I'm one of those lucky ones who's never had a problem with it and it's used across 4 bike profiles with different devices connected on each bike. Strange how some 810s are obviously broken from scratch but others just go on and on.
 
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