Your Garmin help, please

yeah, i've had mine work for about 10 hours without the backlight on, with heart monitor on it.

good tool to have, just don't do any downhill Mtb riding with them as it shakes the shit out of them and they will stop working..

Good to know. Really want it for road riding so I can download routes and ride against the times of other guys on the team virtually.

Actually a 605 would do as I don't care about cadence and have a HRM on the Forerunner 305 anyway, if anyone has an upgrade wish and one going spare?

^ Bear in mind that the 605 doesn't a barometric altimeter either so the elevation profiles of your ride can sometimes be less accurate than the 705 (if that's important to you).

^ Bear in mind that the 605 doesn't a barometric altimeter either so the elevation profiles of your ride can sometimes be less accurate than the 705 (if that's important to you).

Cheers, but not really I think - the 305 is the same, and is surprising accurate, once you use elevation correction on upoad to Garmin Training Centre, and possibly otherwise.

What's the leap ahead with the 8 series over the 705?

^ Bear in mind that the 605 doesn't a barometric altimeter either so the elevation profiles of your ride can sometimes be less accurate than the 705 (if that's important to you).

the 705 ones are shit anyway.

just bought a Garmin edge 800, and i'm slightly irked to see that the country lanes down here in surrey don't show up on the map in it.

Do i need to buy an expensive map package from them?

i've seen that there are some free ones about to download - will they do the trick?

any other tips for using it with a Mac?

all help much appreciated.

Hi Nimhbus...your complaint is a common one.

People often don't realise that most Edge packages only come with basemaps which are quite frankly useless.

If I were you I'd give openstreetmap a go. IMHO its as good as the Garmin maps...pretty much 100% complete for roads in the UK but poor for paths and tracks should that be your thing.

Heres the link:

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Map_On_Garmin/Download

I'm sure there are alternatives but thats the only one I've tried and in comparison with the Garmin maps easily does the trick.

yes, that was the free one i found.. good to hear that it's good enough, thanks.
i always stay totally on road, even if most of them are country lanes, they aren't paths and tracks.

so, tell me something else. how do i set up the 'ghost rider' to race against myself on a set route?
i went out and set a time today on one of my routes, but i can't see how to save it as a favourite or a course or whatever.

If you use a Mac, I really recommend Ascent software. Download the free demo version from http://www.montebellosoftware.com/
and I pretty much guarantee you'll be impressed enough to shell out the £30-ish for the full version.

For everything Garmin related a really good source of info is this guy Frank Kinlan's blog, mostly 705 but does have a section for the 800 and a lot of the functions seem to be similar. I found it really useful when I first got mine and still refer to it.

If you like, you are welcome to borrow my Garmin map for a weekend to compare.

Right...I'm hardly the most experienced Garmin man but try this.

I think you can only use virtual partner in simple workouts and courses. If you have a GPX route you want to run as a course, you can run it through a converter to get it into CRS format for tranferring to your Garmin. I used to use this site

http://www.gpsies.com/convert.do

Mapymyride is planning on allowing you to export to CRS but they've been saying that for ages.

If you've riden a workout already, you can just right button click on it in GTC and say create course. I think it then uses your speed performance for the virtual partner but I could be wrong.

Top tip: You might want to consider turning off course recalculation on your Garmin. I found that now and then, when using mapmyride, the directions would be wrong...once the garmin detects you are off course (when garmin map and mapmyride map conflict slightly) it tends to go a bit crazy although that was the 705 not the 800

Or as chompy says, listen to somebody who knows what they are talking about :o)

What maps do you have on your sd card if another map as well as the base map try disabaling the basemap and only enabling the other map found this worked with the Garmin Navigator Map that came with mine.

But when I used the Openstreetmaps found it would not give directions on the main screen just had to follow the track on the map screen OK during the day but a bit of a pain at night

just bought a Garmin edge 800, and i'm slightly irked to see that the country lanes down here in surrey don't show up on the map in it.

Do i need to buy an expensive map package from them?

i've seen that there are some free ones about to download - will they do the trick?

any other tips for using it with a Mac?

all help much appreciated.

Steal one. Stick it on a memory card. City Navigator Europe is a good one.

Is there anything to stop you copying a garmin SD card? I've never tried!

I dunno, I think the ones you buy have some sort of unlocking procedure.

If you were to download one from the internet then my understanding is that the lock is cracked and you can copy an .img file to your own SD card and use it as required.

Allegedly.

From what I have heard.

If you like, you are welcome to borrow my Garmin map for a weekend to compare.

Right...I'm hardly the most experienced Garmin man but try this.

I think you can only use virtual partner in simple workouts and courses. If you have a GPX route you want to run as a course, you can run it through a converter to get it into CRS format for tranferring to your Garmin. I used to use this site

http://www.gpsies.com/convert.do

Mapymyride is planning on allowing you to export to CRS but they've been saying that for ages.

If you've riden a workout already, you can just right button click on it in GTC and say create course. I think it then uses your speed performance for the virtual partner but I could be wrong.

Top tip: You might want to consider turning off course recalculation on your Garmin. I found that now and then, when using mapmyride, the directions would be wrong...once the garmin detects you are off course (when garmin map and mapmyride map conflict slightly) it tends to go a bit crazy although that was the 705 not the 800

thanks for the advice.. i think the 800 loads GPX/TCX? at least, you can load them up into Basecamp or whatever it's called, and send them from there.

i have to say it all seems, on the face of it, a bit clunky..maybe once i figure it out it'll click into place.

thanks everyone for all the advice, i'll be looking into the suggestions and software - cheers

i had no idea Garmin husbandry was such an involved business.

it does have to be said, Garmin are staggeringly bad at providing any help at all at getting going.

for example ( and as someone in the software design field, this staggers me) the user manual, that might tell you how to connect to a computer, download maps or whatever ; is only stored inside the Garmin unit itself.

No CD in the box. there was a quick start guide, but that just really tells you how to fit the cadence sensor and go for a ride.

So, to find the manual, you have to work out that you need to connect to a computer over USB, know that to do this you must do it with the garmin OFF then switch on once connected, then rummage through the rather technical looking internal folder structure on the unit and find the PDF, buried two levels down.

i mean, is that some kind of fucking joke?

just bought a Garmin

There's your problem right there.

i have a edge 705.. shit for navigating, but great for recording everything from route, speed, altitude, pace, HR etc.. I always carry a small OS map of the region in any event. i really can't be bothered with buying / cracking maps.. sad but true.

it also took a while to work everything out, without a manual.. much patience on the PC too.
still not sure it was worth the money tbh.. maybe the 800 is better, and not sure you can transfer any data from the 705 either :(

If I'm going on a route I have never done before and want navigation, I plot the route using ridewithgps.com then upload the .gpx file into the GPX folder on the Garmin. Then when it comes to ride, choose "Where To?">"Favourites">"Saved Rides" and pick my ride. Takes a little while to calculate but works fine.

so, tell me something else. how do i set up the 'ghost rider' to race against myself on a set route?
i went out and set a time today on one of my routes, but i can't see how to save it as a favourite or a course or whatever.

Menu > Training > Courses > Create New

You should now be able to pick a ride from the ride history and make this into a course.

Then you can ride the course, making sure you've got the Virtual Partner turned on

Just got an 800 myself - agree with the pants documentation - unbelievably cr@p really. For pre-planning routes, don't you just load a GPX/TCX into the NewFiles folder on the Garmin - it then seems to convert it automatically and they're listed in your courses folder on the unit itself. Got mine with OS maps but will be loading OSM road maps from talkytoaster - apparently routable.

I was all up for sending it back after it took 20mins to find satellites first time (user error). But have to say, first ride out with turn-by-turn navigation was f$$king ace - great not to have stop every 5mins to check out 10 pages of printed maps on a new ride.

I've used the 705 a fair bit. It does appear that the guys at Garmin enjoy making your life as difficult as possible. Stick with it though, once you know your way around it they do work pretty well.

Just got an 800 myself - agree with the pants documentation - unbelievably cr@p really. For pre-planning routes, don't you just load a GPX/TCX into the NewFiles folder on the Garmin - it then seems to convert it automatically and they're listed in your courses folder on the unit itself.

Just reading about this - looks like they've introduced that with the 800 - you drop the file into the New Files folder and it works out where to put them based on what the file type is.

Bear in mind that you can't get turn-by-turn navigation from a Course file (TCX / CRS) - you have to upload a GPX to get turn by turn.

^ TCX works fine too.