Your Garmin help, please

to be fair I think that my frustration with the 810 is 60% poor UI design, and 40% me being impatient and not having time to sit down and learn how to use it. The 705 UI wasn't great, but at least I knew where everything was.

Trouble is - 95% of the time I don't need a map (probably more like 99% actually) - so a 510 is tempting... but for that 5% of the time I do need one, it seems dumb to pass up that functionality.

There isn't any chance of me springing for a 1000, and it seems that the 810 is superior to the 800.. so... 810 it is I guess.

Can someone explain how to get a course up on the map of an 810 without 'doing' the course? I just want routes up on the map, without my activity starting and stopping with that route (does that make any sense?).
On the 705, you could look at saved rides and select 'show on map' - this is all I want. I don't want turn by turn cues.

You just turn off turn by turn then.
It the settings when loading up the map.

A saved ride is not a course but: that was an issue when I wanted to make a course from an history activity on the 705 yes on the 800 no.

Basically on the 800 you can not ride a history activity which you can with the 705.

My replacement 705 was £70 or something from Garmin. Get that.

The only thing that the 800 does better is navigation which can be funny (like in really good) sometimes.

What about if I want to make a tcx activity from a 705 into a route on a 810? It doesn't seem to see the .tcx file I drop into the courses folder.

I don't want another 705.

You are right there. Goes into new.

Drop it into the Garmin/New Files folder. It'll convert it into a .fit course file when it boots.

No luck - did that, but it doesn't show up in courses, and then when I plug the garmin back into the computer it's nowhere to be seen?

Does it have to be a TCX? I always drop .GPX files into the NewFiles folder on the Garmin 800 and they disappear from there and are then available in the Courses bit after you've unplugged the unit.

Ended up uploading to ridewithgps, kicking it out as a gpx track, putting it back on.. and now it works

I hate garmins

Correct.

But find a better option.

There isn't one. Same reason I'm still using a Mac for work.

Urgh UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN!

TCX offer so much more navi-info than GPX, if no map is installed.

I have maps. OSM maps are free so if you have an 800, 810 or 1000 without any maps installed you're doing it wrong and should give me your Garmin.

Good :)

For any course you can select always show on map.

Even if a map is installed I find a TCX offers more fidelity- GPX in the 810 means for some courses the Garmin does not follow roads, which is not useful

Thanks for sharing.

That's more likely to be due to the creator of the track, no? Mine will occasionally beep off course at me because whoever point the points in did a rough old job. But I don't recall my 800 not following roads. I'd still be lost in the Chilterns somewhere if that was the case.

My process was:

Create route in ride with gps
Export as GPX
Save in new files folder
Give 810 to me Julie to go and ride the course
Find out afterward that the GPX was saved as points which the Garmin was then meant to navigate between using the installed OSM set, but didn't- instead the 810 tried to straight line between points leading to total confusion
Saved same file as a TCX and it was absolutely fine.

.