Your Garmin help, please

If it works like the 800, it just says something about running off external power source and all else is normal.

I have a bulky portable charger somewhere. So i may test this. The clamp style charger connection on the 910xt is going to make on the bike charging a PITA. But an hour without visiable data wont kill me so long as it logging.

I'm looking at getting a garmin with the gps stuff built in. I just want to be able to get from a to b anywhere in the UK or mainland Europe without getting lost. Would a 705 be ok for this? They're dirt cheap second hand compared to say an 800 or 810 and I'm not sure I particularly need the added features of the newer models. Am I missing something that makes the 705 a much worse buy than the newer models or should I save myself some money?

my brother has 705 and does all he needs, i have 800 and in noraml riding is does nothing extra for me.hope this helps

Cheers Andy, I reckon for the saving of at least £100 I'll go for a second hand 705 unless anyone convinces me not to by the time the auctions I'm watching end.

I may sell my 705 for £60

705 does the same thing, just a lot slower. It takes ages to turn on and load maps/routes . Better battery life though

800 is definitely more responsive than the 705- not much in it other than that technically.

However- the new mounts are much better, give many more options, and are only available for the 800/810.

That would swing it for me.

What about the new garmin touring model? Seems to be great for people who don't care about cadence etc.

What about the new garmin touring model? Seems to be great for people who don't care about cadence etc.

From someone who has had one and returned it twice due to non functionality, I would wait a while until they have finished testing it on their customers.

#sickburn

The frustrating thing about garmin is their software, there is SO MUCH scope to do exciting useful things with software given their hardware is one of the best. My biggest complaint is Garmin Connect both web and phone app they're so horribly handicapped! Srsly garmin stop paying DCrainmaker and pay some software dude

#doublesickburn

I'm going to attempt to use my 800 today for actual navigation. Wish me luck. Will someone accept collect calls from Scotland?

Take a flare gun

705 takes too long to plot and recalculate routes. I could ride all the way across London and it would be continually recalculating the route, by the time it had recalculated it would have to replot as I had moved on. Whereas the 800 takes a few seconds to replot.

The interface via a joystick on the 705 is nearly impossible to use on the move, each time you hit a bump it jumps all over the place.

Get an 800 if possible. Was not convinced the social networking aspect of the 810 was relevant to me.

Turn off auto recalculate.

If you can find out how to do that with the 705's menu of unfathomoable lables and seemingly infinite depth.

Indisagree with DJ regarding the stick. Its curious how the physical input device on the 705 is actually usable whilst riding, but the software UI is so impressively terrible, yet the 800 and 810 suffer from the opposite affliction.

I find the 800 a breeze to use. It's a massive step forward from the 705.

Yes. The software UI is a vast improvement. They seem to at least have a vague idea of what you intend to do with the device. I find the touchscreen a step back though, but ymmv. With the 605 I could use the full feature set of the device whilst riding. With the 800 I cannot, and the screen gets damaged by dirt and made harder to read. The calibration is also sketchy.

Having said that the 800 is the least bad option.

I can use it while riding (with or without gloves, rain or shine). I only use two screens though so I'm not constantly fiddling with it or anything. I also make a point of not grinding any mud into it so the screen on mine is still pristine after tonnes of miles. Calibration?

It's hard to program the navigation whilst moving with the 800 but the main screens are fine... Swipe works surprisingly well for resistive-touch.

Has anyone installed the latest software update (v3.3) onto a Garmin 705 using OpenSource maps yet?

I'm having issues with mine giving low elevation readings, so was going to update the software with the hope this might sort it. However, history and a search of the Garmin forums suggests that the new software may still be full of bugs. It also wipes all your user data, which is a bit of a pain

Does anyone have any experience of dealing with Garmin repairs? I've smashed the screen of my Forerunner - it still works fine but the screen is fooked. Very annoying.

^ £67 for a replacement, with a turnaround of 5 working days. I asked whether there's anything I could put on the screen to protect it in future and they said no - surely you could use a mobile phone screen protector cut to size?

^ Hah - I'd just responded to that.

Any clear covering should help to some extent though.