snoopy20

Hi,

The 800/810 has a transflective screen which is quite readable in sunlight. Can anyone confirm if the Edge Touring uses the same screen?

Cheers!

Andrew

njkayaker

The Touring has the same screen.

The 800 works better than the Touring does.

What do you think the Touring will do for you that the 800 won't?

snoopy20

Works better how?

I have the 800 but it's faulted. I don't need any of the fancy ANT, lap timing stuff, just the basic "where am I map" and occasionally routing. I'm aware the Touring has a reputation for lacking at the latter but I assume this is down to the poor maps that came with it (some sort of OSM cycle maps in the UK). If I load NT maps it should route as well as the 800?

njkayaker

I wonder what's wrong with it. When it worked, how well did it work for you? Maybe, you should pick the devil you know.

It lost track of the turn guidance once in a while. And, when you restarted the course, it thought it was at the start of the course for the turn guidance instead of picking that up where you were.

Basically, it ran into problems too frequently and it often wasn't possible to get it back to a usable state (by restarting the course).

It also doesn't support "course points" (that might not be something many people care about).

It also didn't let you display tracks (when using another track for navigation). (That might not be something that many people care about).

My riding partner had the Touring and I had them sell it and replace it with a used 800.

I get the appeal of the Touring. I suspect that Garmin might devote more effort into fixing software problems in the more-popular units (the ones with the "fancy" stuff).

The Touring also has some interesting "create a route" features. You can create a route from multiple stops (it's kind of a pain to do). It also will calculate a few alternative routes and let you choose one (based on elevation). It was also able to calculate loop rides. I'm not sure how much people end up using these features but one issue is that they are hard to review on the unit.

No, it's not the maps. I'm basing my conclusion with using the same maps on the 800 and the Touring.

Maps can be a problem but you can determine that a problem is due to a map problem (and fix the map!).

The NT maps are designed to be usable for motor vehicle navigation. The 800 (and the 810) were also designed to be usable for motor vehicle navigation (odd but true!).

The Touring is designed only be used for cycling. That means it might have issues seeing major roads ("Motorways" in the UK/"Highways" in the US).

I never tried the NT maps on the Touring.

snoopy20

Given they use the same hardware I can't see Garmin modifying the software "crippling" it for road use. I imagine the apparent difference is due to the 800/810 coming with NT maps and the Touring some cheaper OSM derivative (probably on the hope the user will upgrade).

Garmin maps don't have a notion of cycle routes, I think in the touring they switched cycle routes to be major road flagged to allow them to be routable, which in turn required deflagged the major roads.

njkayaker

They didn't "cripple" it. These are cycling computers. Not many people used them for motor vehicles.

The City Navigator (CN) maps were always an extra cost. The units were sold without maps or in a bundle (with maps) that cost extra.

Including OSM maps is cheaper.

All of the newer units come with the same OSM maps.

The OSM (often) include cycleways that the CN maps will never have. So, they have an advantage beyond just being cheaper.

People have been using OSM maps for years on the units. I doubt many people will upgrade.

One problem with the CN maps is you have to pay for updates (I suspect many CN users never upgrade the map).

The OSM maps aren't perfect but, generally, they are good enough. The quality can vary alot depending on location.

Yes, basically.

snoopy20

Agreed neither the NT or Garmin's TOPO maps have cycle routes, but the OSM routes don't offer perfect routing, the level of POI or post code searching. So for someone that has Garmin NT maps already (ahem) and doesn't need the fancy workout features the Touring is the better value.

I assume the Touring like the 800/810 allows the working map to be chosen, so sticking both on an SD works for me. I'm only after one of these three devices for the transflective screen which they dropped for the 820.

njkayaker

The OSM routing is fine*. The issue is if the OSM data is up-to-date.

* I have seen issues with routing in the UK through roundabouts on A roads. The problem there is that A roads are classified as highways (which are not treated as allowing cyclists). But that is more of a "how the device map is built" problem.

The newer units (including the Touring) use a separate map for POIs and address lookup. I don't think that map uses OSM data.

Yes, you can use other maps on the Touring.

Iride01 

Tourings are not made anymore to my knowledge. So any you buy are remaining stocks. They also are for cyclist that pretty much are only interested in having navigation feature. Heart rate is the only sensor you can pair them with AFAIK.