Garmin Edge 810 Bike Computer

If you are thinking about a bike computer and can afford it this is the one for you. I live alone and love to take long bike rides. My closest relative is 50 miles away. I love the fact that with the included smart phone app it can be configured so your loved ones can track your location in the event there is a problem. Saves your phone battery too. There is a bit of a learning curve to understand all the features but that is part of the fun. Configured correctly it will accurately track everything you need for a ride. The screens are also configurable to be customized for what you need. I have yet to see the problems others mentioned about not to visible in direct sunlight but I purchased this with the out front Garmin mount which allows me to tilt it up out of direct sunlight if needed. Would highly recommend you purchase this as a set with the city gps maps speed sensor and cadence sensor. Purchasing each separately will cost more.

I have used the Edge 810 extensively during the last 2 1/2 months. Here are my impressions: Pros: The Garmin Edge 810 is one of the most sophisticated cycling computers available. In addition to GPS positioning and navigation it offers extensive connectivity to heart rate monitors as well as to digital speed and cadence sensors. The display is highly customizable to show the data that you want to see during your ride, such as speed, distance covered, remaining distance, etc. Integration with Ride with GPS is good. The downloadable and free OpenStreetMap GPS maps work very well. Cons: As noted by others, the Edge 810 freezes and stops navigating frequently. I would estimate that about 20% of my rides are associated with a malfunction of the unit before the ride is complete. On occasion the freezing follows a shock, such as after crossing train tracks, and at others times there is no clear antecedent. After the unit freezes it is necessary to reboot the device. In most cases the ride data (distance, speed, etc.) are still available and can be saved. It is then necessary to restart the route. This is more than simply an annoyance. Route planning is important from a safety perspective. It is often not clear that the unit has frozen until many miles have passed. This can cause problems with regard to arriving at a destination before nightfall, before bad weather sets in, etc. It is very disappointing that Garmin has not addressed these problems. Recommendations: I would probably not purchase this unit again. Instead, I would look for a cycling computer with fewer features but with rock-solid GPS navigation. Updated 11/07/2015 There have been a number of firmware updates since I posted the review above. My Edge 810 is now much more reliable. I have not had any problems with navigation in the past two months. Update September 2016 After a few thousand miles using this device, my rating remains at a four. The software is now reliable. The following issues remain: 1. On occasion the data from my ride will become corrupted and is unusable by software such as Garmin Express and RideWithGPS. These files can be repaired using Matthias Krallmann’s Fit File Repair Tool, which I highly recommend. 2. The screen is hard to read under certain lighting conditions (both direct bright light and dim light). 3. On occasion the unit will repeatedly complain that I am off course when I am on course. This may be due to poor GPS accuracy.

I've had this for almost a month now and I absolutely love it. I have no previous bike computer to compare this to because I only used a phone app to track my rides. I am using it with the Bontrager Duotrap speed and cadence sensor and have no issues connecting them to the device. I also recently purchased a Garmin Virb and from your Edge 810 you can control it to start recording or you change a setting in your Edge 810 that when you start your ride the Virb will start recording. I am cycling for fitness so I made an "Interval Training" workout on Garmin Connect and took me about 15 minutes. It's not very difficult to make unless you have a complicated workout. I have no issues syncing the workout with Garmin Express to my device and I am using a MacBook Pro. They also made it easier to sync your ride to Strava. After uploading my ride to Garmin Connect thru my phone app my ride is already on Strava by the time I get in the house. It would have been great to have better maps on the device since it's being advertised as a GPS Bike Computer. Awesome device nonetheless!

I'm not a serious athlete, but using the 810 has allowed my wife and I to push ourselves during our normal rides to do a little better each time. Uploads of data to the Garmin Connect site are very simple, and the device integrates well with the smart phone apps. I have the cadence/speed sensor, and it reliably picks up the signal from that even though it's farther back on the bike than normal (we ride a tandem). Plotting out potential rides on the Garmin website and uploading them to the 810 also works very seamlessly. Battery life seems good, and there is a ton of customization that can be done on the data screens.

First of all, if you're looking at the 810 versus the 1000, I'd go with the 810. If you're even looking at the 810, I would go with the 810. The 1000 is too big and the non-resistive screen is too sensitive. If you're looking at the 810, I'd go with the 810 because there isn't really a competitor, yet. (Come on, Magellan!) That said, the 810 may have the worst software both in terms of UX/UI and reliability I have ever used on any product. I used a 500 for years, had the occasional Garmin-wonkiness (eating files after rides) but mostly had good success. I used it with three bikes (CX, road, and XC hardtail), some with speed sensors (both the newer and older models) one with a power meter (a Quarq) and all with a HRM (the Garmin premium sensor and a Polar strap... because the Garmin strap will fail on you). It wasn't great, often slow to get a signal, but without maps it wasn't as useful when I'd travel with my bike. So I bought the 810. Maps! (Note: you can get free maps for it, just do some Googling.) The maps mostly work. Occasionally the GPS draws you off of the trail or road(parallel to it), but that could easily be the maps themselves (I've used the Garmin maps, a few open source ones, really the Garmin ones are not worth paying for). There are, however, more serious issues with the device. 1) Long ride ANT+ issues. If I don't have a race on a weekend, I'll do at least one (usually two, one road, one XC) really long day. Like 5-9 hours total time, lots of climbing, etc. At some point (usually when I hit 70 miles on the road), it quits reading new ANT+ signals. I can be coasting downhill and my cadence will say 85 and power 300 (funny it's often after a climb). It will stay like this for the duration of the ride. I have tried resets and nothing seems to help. 2) Using courses. A few times I've done a race and managed to get the course (as gpx or tcx) before and attempted to ride some of it. Sometimes this works fine. Other times, the device will get hung up and even completely lock up, requiring a restart. Then, for some reason, it will recover the file BUT it will have trouble acquiring a satellite signal. To get it to work, I usually have to go into the GPS satellite view and let it sit there for a few minutes. Then it will finally get a signal. Unlike the 500, the 810 usually gets signal right away so it's weird that this happens. Last weekend I was trying to do a preview lap for an XC endurance race and this happened to me five times. It was very bizarre. 3) GPS lockup. Occasionally, I'll be climbing and it will quit updating elevation. I assume it uses a combination of barometric pressure and GPS to determine this, but I can climb sections of mountain roads that I know are a few hundred feet and the profile won't change. Sometimes it recovers, and I get a weird right angle in the elevation profile from where I rode. A few times, it's just completely hosed the file. 4) Bluetooth connection. I've used it with an iPhone 5s and got it to sync with the device for one week. For one blissful week, my partner could use livetrack and I could upload rides to Garmin Connect directly. For one week. Then it quit syncing. It has never recovered despite numerous resets. My iPhone uses Bluetooth fine with a Basis watch, two different bluetooth speakers, our Subaru's stereo, and a dongle for our home stereo. No issues. But the Garmin appears to be a lost cause. I have other complaints about how clunky and poorly designed the UX is (I do that for a living), but that is not nearly as bad as these other issues. Here is the thing, though. I have opened tickets with Garmin for each of those issues and only once got a reply. They have the absolute worst customer service in the industry, it seems. I have a ticket I opened 9 days ago that still hasn't been updated. Be warned. They suck. The bottom line is, it's a real P.O.S. For as much as it costs, it barely works. But, you will end up buying it anyway, because there really isn't a better option. Perhaps it's just hard to hire competent developers that want to live in Olathe, Kansas. Or competent customer service.

Bought this Garmin Edge 810 as a factory refurbished item, and the only way I can tell it wasn't a "brand new" item was that reconditioned items are sold with a special serial number. Big deal. I saved several dollars by doing this. As far as features and function go- this GPS bike computer is everything I wanted and more. I really like the ability to program 5 different data readout screens that can be paged through either by swiping to scroll to the next screen or by setting up the auto scroll option. This unit records all of the important ride stats and it couples with my bike's speed and cadence sensors that are both ANT+ standard. It also couples with my Garmin heart rate monitor. The GPS receiver keeps you on track when you download course data from online, and records any rides that you do so that you can upload this data and make maps for your future use. If there is any con on this item, it's so minor as almost not to mention, but in the spirit of objectivity here goes: I was a little disappointed that the unit only came with what Garmin calls the "base map." This map is a basic map showing the major roads, but lacks much of the detail I'm used to seeing on the Garmin for my Garmin automotive GPS. Of course you can download the latest versions of the more detailed Garmin maps (North America costs about $60) from Garmin's website. Along the same lines, the unit has a micro CD slot, and Garmin could include a 32 GB micro SD card to save you the time of ordering one.

Highly functional as a bike computer. I'd give it 5-stars if it allowed more flexibility for display fields. My old Edge 305 let me choose "pace" or "speed." It annoys me that the menus are geared towards cycling, only. Seems like an easy software change to allow more flexibility, but they don't. I can't help but think that Garmin wants you to buy their running-specific products for that. Whatever . . . it's still a great product. Connects with my iPhone and lets my wife track my long rides in real time with heart rate, cadence, map location. . . everything. Full telemetry - pretty cool, and more than just a novelty. I see it as a safety device in case I'm ever in a crash, as well as convenience for her ("when are you going to be back???"). :) Good battery life, easy to read in the sun, and waterproof. The Garmin Connect web-based logging app works MUCH better than the original PC-based app. My phone automatically grabs my workout via bluetooth and shoots it straight to Garmin after my ride. No more plugging into the computer. How cool is that? There's room for improvement, sure. But this has all the cool whistles and bells that make it a great computer for the techno-minded. The price isn't cheap, so I'll have this for at least three or four years (or more, as my Edge 305 still works great, and I've had that for six years). Can't wait to see a hi-res display on this.

I've been racing and riding bikes for well over 45 years and this is by far the best bike computer ever designed and made. It's a bit pricey, but well worth but it has so many design features that none of the wireless or wired computers have. I purchased the base model which does not come with maps, however, I went to the DC RAINMAKER site http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2013/05/download-garmin-705800810.html0 where he shows you in great detail how to install bike makes on this computer for any place in the world. It's a great site and it's very easy to get free maps and this saves you big bucks.