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Tech Garmin Edge (520/800?)

kyoazu

Maximum Pace
Nov 5, 2014
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I think it's time to move on from using my phone for Google Maps and Strava and get a dedicated cycling computer.

I'm looking for a cyclocomputer that has maps of the local area and road by road directions and uploads to Strava. I don't really care for anything else. I spoke to a few people and did some research online and the Edge 510/800 seems perfect. If anyone is selling an English one, pleasewrite a message here or send me a PM. Thanks!
 
I think it's time to move on from using my phone for Google Maps and Strava and get a dedicated cycling computer.

I'm looking for a cyclocomputer that has maps of the local area and road by road directions and uploads to Strava. I don't really care for anything else. I spoke to a few people and did some research online and the Edge 510/800 seems perfect. If anyone is selling an English one, pleasewrite a message here or send me a PM. Thanks!
The 510 doesn't do maps. You can get a breadcrumb line to follow but no maps. The 520 does have maps on the other hand. Yesterday, Canyon bikes was selling the 520 for 25,000 yen in a sale. I believe it was for 24hours so not sure if it has already finished or not.
 
You don't really need base maps nowadays. Load in a planned route from RideWithGPS and follow that. (That's just how I do it; use my phone if I get properly lost)

If you want maps though for defo, then yeah the 510 ain't going to work.

520 may or may not do your head in if you want to follow the route on the go, and zoom in and out as you ride.
 
Cheers for the info guys. I don't mind going without the maps function as long as I can plug in the location of a certain place and it'll give me a route there.

The 510 doesn't do maps. You can get a breadcrumb line to follow but no maps. The 520 does have maps on the other hand. Yesterday, Canyon bikes was selling the 520 for 25,000 yen in a sale. I believe it was for 24hours so not sure if it has already finished or not.

That would have been perfect! Looks like I was too late...
 
The 520 mapping capability is very limited. It will overlay tracks on a map but will not navigate to a location like you want to do. The memory available for maps is also small so there's some faffing required to get a usable map onto it.
http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2015/07/garmin-edge-520.html

Look at the Edge Touring, 800 (if you can still find one), or 810 for navigation / mapping.
 
faffing required

Even worse when you try to zoom in while you are riding. 810= tap the touch screen anywhere to activate the + / - buttons, then tap them to zoom in and out. Simple and easy. 520= press down the button on the side, scroll up through a menu to get to the zoom option. Press the side button again, scroll through menu, button press, button press, different button press. Oh, you have just missed the turning / skidded off the road. Shite and ill thought out.

tl:dr - 800 or 810 for mapping is the way to go.
 
I kinda spoiled @kyoazu a couple weeks ago.
We were near Kita-Kamakura and he mentioned going to Daibatsu, so I went to POI, clicked it and followed directions.
We felt lost, but ended up at our destination fairly quick.

Edge 800.
 
tl:dr - 800 or 810 for mapping is the way to go.
Edge 1000 screen redrawing and startup time is much better than either 800 or 810. However, despite the increase in processing power, calculation of routes in Tokyo is still very slow.

Edge Touring is like the Edge 1000 but without all the performance/sensor palaver, and correspondingly cheaper.

Do you want/need maps in Japanese? If so you have to get something here, as units bought from Europe/US will not support Japanese script. Otherwise you can get a unit from overseas and use an English map of Japan.
 
Care to elaborate on the actual manifestation of these two points? (Honest inquiry; wondering what you mean, as I have never used a 1000)
Startup time: From hitting the on switch to acquisition of a full satellite fix, i.e., ready to roll, is typically about 10 sec faster with the Edge 1000 for me.

Screen redrawing: when navigating and the zoom function is on, or generally when changing direction the map redraws much faster, so I miss fewer turns while waiting for the GPS to catch up with me!
 
Thanks for the info all; very useful stuff here.

Even worse when you try to zoom in while you are riding. 810= tap the touch screen anywhere to activate the + / - buttons, then tap them to zoom in and out. Simple and easy. 520= press down the button on the side, scroll up through a menu to get to the zoom option. Press the side button again, scroll through menu, button press, button press, different button press. Oh, you have just missed the turning / skidded off the road. Shite and ill thought out.

tl:dr - 800 or 810 for mapping is the way to go.

If that's true you've sold me on the 800/810 alone with this. 520 sounds like a UI nightmare.

I did some extra reading and it seems like the Garmin 1000 is a tad bit more expensive (£60 according to this review) but the battery life on the 1000s apparently isn't so good. Can anyone pitch in on their experiences?

Eitherway if anyone has an Edge 810 or 1000 for sale, do let me know.http://sportivecyclist.com/garmin-edge-1000-vs-edge-810/
 
800 = Amiga 500 Kickstart 1.2.
810 = Amiga 500 Kickstart 1.3
1000 = Amiga 1200 Kickstart 3.1
520 = Amiga CD32

800 = Playstation2
810 = Playstation3
1000 = Playstation4
520 = VirtualBoy

800 = Dexter Season 7
810 = Dexter Season 4
1000 = Dexter Season 1
520 = Dexter Season 8

800 = Tesco
810 = Sainsburys
1000 = Marks and Spencer
520 = Home Bargains

You get the idea.
 
I'm not really sure why you would want to zoom in or out. I've had my Garmin 500 set at 120m for the last couple of years and never ever needed to zoom in. Perhaps the 520 is different. I guess you might want to zoom out if you want to find out where a road goes to though.
 
Erm...

1. There is a zoom function on every Garmin. It is implemented very well on the 810. It is implemented terribly on the 520. Regardless of whether you personally use the zoom or not, Garmin have implemented the same feature with very different functionality on two devices. The 520 came out after the 810, but has a worse implementation of the same feature.
2. Zooming in; when you are riding a new route, or don't know the way, and there are two roads very near eachother, etc.
3. Zooming out; when you want to see how many kms there are left until a certain point / until the end of the ride / end of a climb, etc.

Every GPS system has a zoom function, be it in a device, or on a computer screen.
 
Okay, was gonna stay out of this but what the hell.

520 user here, coming from 510 before that 500 before that. 520 is the perfect unit for me. I hated the 510 touch screen and find the button operation on the 520 perfect for me. Bonus is it got both smaller and lighter than the 510 with bigger screen. No problem using zoo function for me with or without an active route. It's obviously not the unit for you if you want to navigate on the fly as it doesn't support stuff like typing in an address and navigate.
 
Erm...

1. There is a zoom function on every Garmin. It is implemented very well on the 810. It is implemented terribly on the 520. Regardless of whether you personally use the zoom or not, Garmin have implemented the same feature with very different functionality on two devices. The 520 came out after the 810, but has a worse implementation of the same feature.
2. Zooming in; when you are riding a new route, or don't know the way, and there are two roads very near eachother, etc.
3. Zooming out; when you want to see how many kms there are left until a certain point / until the end of the ride / end of a climb, etc.

Every GPS system has a zoom function, be it in a device, or on a computer screen.
Huh ? I didn't say there wasn't a zoom feature. I know my 510 has a zoom feature, I just never use it. I have set the zoom scale to 120m and that is perfect for any navigational situation. I have had it set at that scale for the last 2 or so years and never adjusted it. The only time I ever have any problems with my 510 is when we come to a fork i the road. As I only have breadcrumbs to follow, it's sometimes difficult to see which road to take , the left or right. At this point, I usually ask @saibot which way it is, he quickly looks at his map, and within one or two seconds, he tells me which way to go. If I had the 520, I would always have it set to around 120m zoom. At that scale, I can see where I need to go in plenty of time.

Regarding zooming out to see how long it is to the end of a climb, I would just use the elevation chart which shows my position on the climb. I also have a field on my Garmin that tells me how many km I have til the end of the ride.

@kyoazu I'm sure if you got a 520, you would need to set it up for you and you would be really happy with it. I've seen @saibot use his with absolutely zero problems, week in week out. He didn't like the 510 before that due to its touch screen. If I was to buy a new unit tomorrow, I would go with the 520
 
Okay, was gonna stay out of this but what the hell.

520 user here, coming from 510 before that 500 before that. 520 is the perfect unit for me. I hated the 510 touch screen and find the button operation on the 520 perfect for me. Bonus is it got both smaller and lighter than the 510 with bigger screen. No problem using zoo function for me with or without an active route. It's obviously not the unit for you if you want to navigate on the fly as it doesn't support stuff like typing in an address and navigate.

The zoom on the 810 takes two taps on the screen. The 520 takes multiple button presses and menu navigations. This is slower and more fiddly, and therefore objectively less well implemented. If you are happy with the 520, then that is great for you. I am not debating that. This does not change the fact that the 520 zoom function is not implemented as well as the 810. I am not the only person saying this; CyclingTips review points this out, as do various users on WWs, etc.

Out of interest, what specifically did you not like about the 510 touchscreen?

Huh ? I didn't say there wasn't a zoom feature.

I know. I was pointing out the fact that every GPS system has a zoom function, and therefore the implementation of said zoom function can be objectively compared across devices, which is what I was doing.

leicaman said:
I know my 510 has a zoom feature, I just never use it.

So you are not able to offer criticism of the zoom feature based on personal experience then are you. It is irrelevant to your personal usage, which again is totally fine, but for people who do use the zoom function heavily (because it is a feature, and therefore can be used), the 810 is far far easier and faster to use.

leicaman said:
I have set the zoom scale to 120m and that is perfect for any navigational situation. I have had it set at that scale for the last 2 or so years and never adjusted it. The only time I ever have any problems with my 510 is when we come to a fork i the road. As I only have breadcrumbs to follow, it's sometimes difficult to see which road to take , the left or right.

So it isn't perfect for any navigational situation then, is it.

leicaman said:
If I had the 520, I would always have it set to around 120m zoom. At that scale, I can see where I need to go in plenty of time.

Apart from when you need any detail, like a fork in the road, for example.

leicaman said:
Regarding zooming out to see how long it is to the end of a climb, I would just use the elevation chart which shows my position on the climb. I also have a field on my Garmin that tells me how many km I have til the end of the ride.

The elevation profile can indeed be used for this (I do that a lot too, and it is really useful). This is a different feature to the one being discussed though.
 
I am not debating that.
I'm not debating anything at all, just supplying my experience with this "impossible" to operate zoom function. Since the OP seems to want a computer for navigating don't think the 520 is the computer from him to start with, but according to my experience the zoom function is not the reason for that.

Again, I'm debating/saying that 520 is better than anything else. So my distain for the garmin touchscreen is irrelevant.
 
I'm not debating anything at all, just supplying my experience with this "impossible" to operate zoom function. Since the OP seems to want a computer for navigating don't think the 520 is the computer from him to start with, but according to my experience the zoom function is not the reason for that.

Again, I'm debating/saying that 520 is better than anything else. So my distain for the garmin touchscreen is irrelevant.

Where did I say it was impossible to use? I said it was implemented badly, in comparison to other devices in the same series.

Fine if you think the 520 is the best for you. I have already said that.

And to be clear, I never said you were debating anything!

Touchscreen though; if your disdain is irrelevant, why mention it in the first place? I was genuinely interested as to why you didn't like it; was wondering if it was a general preference against touchscreens, or something particular about how it works on the 510. That's all I was asking.
 
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