Your Garmin help, please

It doesn't turn off, it just locks up, so whatever was on the screen stays there but the thing is totally unresponsive. I have to hold down the power button for ages until it reboots.

very interesting, keep us posted, probably all top secret stuff but... any idea when the testing phase will commence?

any kind of device offering stability and ease of use is very welcome... still very pissed off to have my 800 quit (and 3 other 800's as well) during a 24h/500 ride. luckily the 'simple' 500 of rider #5 did record the whole thing.

I've swapped out the overly-detailed Talky Toaster maps for https://www.velomap.org/

So far the 810 hasn't locked up but I've not used its navigation so not a true test yet.

Exactly this happened to me last night.

I was (meant to be) on a recovery ride after Mondays race (yes there was a number on my back). So didnt care much about recording it. Except Im a couple hundred meters off a climbing Challenge (Strava = Serious biz). Plus I was recreating a moment in the race when I popped horribly, after starting a steep Climb With the frontmen, and getting over excited. I hadnt quite managed to pop myself. But I'd fecking hurt myself 3 times in name of curiousity.

I stopped to answer my phone.

Started riding again, and noticed my screen was frozen. I pressed every button. Nothing. Came home and had to hold Down the Power button for around 20 Seconds. Then restart it.

Not a big deal as such. But this shit from a watch that COSTs fecking hundreds is just frustrating.

You don't have to keep justifying your sportives and strava habit to me.. :P

Dont underestimate my need for justification from strangers on the internet.
checks facebook 'likes' from last ride

Is this a result of the latest updates though. Its been solid up till now.

Sorry, don't do much FB.

Mine was crashing on 3.4 and 3.6 so the problem is deeper than firmware version.

Bollocks.

My last update did all sorts of weird shit. Such as activating the Activity tracker, and removing the Nice watch face I'd downloaded. Nothing important. Just made me suspicious.

Thats on my 920xt.

A mate With an Edge 1000 and some vectors. Had some metrics disappear. Then suddenly Return without him actually doing anything or another update occuring.

So I wondered if the Garmin cats were being partuculary mischevious of late.

Wait, I'm talking about a Garmin 810 bike computer, what are you talking about? One of those tri watches? No idea about their issues I'm afraid.

I've heard good and bad things about 1000s. They're too big and don't have enough battery life for me to bother with though.

Yeah. It would obviously be a different update strictly speaking.

But as you described the exact problem I had last night. I just wondered if it was an issue they've kindly shared across Devices.

For those With the 1000. It seems the Lock-screen issue is a recurring one.

what's the deal with garmin's vs bryton's? Was told that Bryton's are better because they're not so locked in as the garmin's? Any truth in that?
I've got a garmin 805 that I can't get to work, and some new money about to burn a hole in my pocket so which garmin/bryton should I be looking to get? Reliable, turn by turn navigation and decent screen..

Many thanks

Do you want maps installed so it will (re)direct you on a new course if you go off your planned route?

probably, I think that was where the bryton was supposed to be superior...
ideally I'd like it to (re)direct me back onto my route...
The closer it is to using a sat nav, the easier for me.

I use a 1000, and a big backup battery.

It is generally OK but still on any decently long ride it will freeze, or decide to stop doing route guidance or generally other stuff that makes me want to stuff it up its own backside. Generally at night.

I don't think I have ever done a long audax where I haven't come across someone at the side of the road saying "Can I ride with you for a bit, my garmin is shafted"

When the 1000 freezes does it also become unusable and try to lose/corrupt the existing ride data? (Which is what the 800 seems to do beyond a certain point)

A freeze resolvable by restarting the unit I can sort of grudgingly live with, but having the unit totally brick itself 100 miles from home and/or, upon getting home, finding it's also 'lost' the longest rides you may ever do is a bit of a cock punch.

long distance isn't problem for me on my 1000 doesn't crash. Trust it in that sense.

But it's so shit at navigation.

routing guideance.

This x100. Mine just stops routing for no reason. I'm going to complain to garmin seriously today and get them to refund me. It's a totally faulty product not fit for use.

The navigation on my 1000 is appalling. The function where it creates a route is amazingly bad. A few times it has become confused if it goes through a place twice sometimes it will just send me straight back to where it started, or just keep sending me round in a circle. It's ability to predict the length of those rides is utterly laughable too, the last time I used it to create a 60 mile ride the distance to complete the ride just kept rising despite no wrong turns being taken.

I was looking to buy a garmin but the message I am getting from reading this thread is that they are unreliable almost to the point of not being worth it. I mainly wanted something for navigation and basic stats (not bothered about heart rate, etc.).

Any thoughts if i should get one at all, or go either (a) android phone or (b) non-garmin alternative?

The 800 does that too. I found this out doing the 3Down audax where the out and return routes 'almost' touch and the stupid piece of shit Garmin sent me back to the start via the return path!

Great device if you want to do extra miles...

The garmin is not that bad, the problem is that many of us are quite reliant on them and it's a fucker when they crash, lose data or misbehave.

I know this. They're great generally. I've navigated thousands of miles trouble-free with them. It's when they go wrong, it's 4am, you've been riding for 20 hours, you're in the middle of nowhere, you're tired, lost, angry. When they fail then, oh boy do you remember it and of course you're gonna vent about it every possible chance. Fucking 810 >>>

^they do usually work, which makes the time when they totally betray you all the harder to accept.

If Garmin could at least crack the "perform consistently" thing, that would be progress- I'd take a "works 100% of the time" dumbed down version of the 810 over the "will fuck you when you are most reliant on it" latest and greatest version.

I would like the functions of a garmin with a user interface that makes any kind of intuitive sense, thanks andyp.

This is all why I just follow a track on the map page. No routing choices for the GPS to do, and crashes are very rare (I believe that most, but not all, of the crashes are related to routing). Doesn't stop you going off route though, and requires some getting used to.

Routing is hard, especially for a small embedded device like a GPS that has limited processing power (more processing power == shorter battery life).

The closest I got to getting it to work was on my Edge 705 which supports GPXX files (note the extra X) where you could have thousands of routing points via GPXX extensions. Before the GPXX extensions you were limited to a handful of routing points, which gave the GPS freedom to come up with weird and wacky routes between points, especially when the map data is awry and won't let you go down obviously fine roads (either because it thinks you can't get through or there's some weighting attached to the road to dissuade its use for bikes).

With the GPXX extensions I'd have a point to travel through every 30 yards or so, so the routing algorithms had little choice, but it wasn't like trying to navigate against a GPX track where it badgers you with "Straight on in 30 yards" every 30 yards FOR THE ENTIRE RIDE.

However, I finally ditched routing as it was just shit at picking up where it left off if, for some reason, I did detour from the route (closed roads, nip off to a shop/petrol station, etc) or turned the GPS off and back on again at a control. And when tired in the middle of a long Audax the last thing I want to be doing is trying to remember how to trick it into playing ball again.

I now get everything as a track, split itup into out/back routes if there are any shared roads near the start/finish, or chunks based on days, and then display them on the map page, zoom it in to about 100m or so and then keep an eye on that.