The Edge: Any Way I Can Get It

I have been a long-time user of Garmin’s sports cycling computers, where I started out in 2006 with a Forerunner 301

I had problems off and on with the heart rate strap on the Forerunner (which was warrantied and replaced by Garmin once), and since Justin had the Edge 305, we decided to get me one of those to better help my training for the upcoming 2007 Counting Coup event.

In January of 2009, after having some Edge 305 battery connector/shut off issues, I upgraded to the Edge 705, with larger color screen, more options, better mapping, etc.

My 705 has worked flawlessly in the nearly 2 years that I have owned it. It’s gone through wind, rain, sand storms, mud, heat, dry, all with no issues. It’s been to New York, Texas, Quebec, and gotten me through endless training rides, races, and fun social spins.  It has even helped us navigate in unfamiliar locations while driving in the car!

I had looked at the Edge 500 when it first came out, but didn’t see much of a reason to change from the 705 to the seemingly smaller/lighter/more no-non-sense 500. When the Edge 800 was debuted and we checked it out at Interbike this past September it definitely looked and sounded really cool! Next generation of cyclocomputer for sure.

So where is this all leading?

Well, I was lucky enough to get the chance to try out the Edge 800 last week, though have only used it for one ride.

First impressions: This thing is sweet! It is super easy to set up with the touch screen. It makes it much quicker and more user friendly to set up initially than the Edge 705. The 705 is good to set up as it has multiple buttons and menu options with the navigation button, which makes moving through the screen quicker and easier than the 305 was. The screen on the 800 is backlit, but in my early use I didn’t see a way to change the display contrast. However, using it outside in direct sunlight the contrast didn’t need to be changed at all “for me”. To turn on/up/off backlighting is easy, similar to the 705 by pushing the power button briefly.

The only thing I had to Google to set up the unit was finding a way to edit the “Data Fields” screen, which is now called “Training Pages”, but a simple search sent me to Garmin’s forums where I then was able to set up my custom fields.

Once set up, I had to read the manual to install the new stem mount hardware, but once I checked that out it mounted to the stem very easily. As the mounting hardware is only a few rings with the mount itself it is very easy and quick to move from different bikes. While you do get 2 mounts in the box, I have always struggled with sometimes grabbing an older bike off the rack and then having to cut zipties and move the mounts around. With the new system (which also comes with the Edge 500) all you do is remove the bands from around the stem and mount and move it to your other bike(s) as desired.

Anyone familiar with the 305 or 705 unit(s) will have no problems using and adapting to the Edge 800 right away. I used it on the bike for the first time during an my weekly interval ride and didn’t come across any issues in usage or visibility. Due to the novelty of it, I did remark more than once on the current temperature! Not a necessity, but I really am a geek so this is something fun to add to the riding. For what it’s worth, temps were around 63F, with a low of 59F that day.

There was one thing that I can do with the 705 that I didn’t see possible with the 800 and that was viewing the history of the ride while on the ride. The 705 always would give me that rides’ history, as long as I had hit the lap button. The 800 seems to only provide history data if you have reset the unit and cleared out that specific ride’s data. This may or may not affect others doing intervals if you want to see what your last HR/power info was for an interval, you’d have to completely restart the ride.

The map screen, which I didn’t need to utilize much, but did refer to a few times, was really cool. With the touch screen it provided a “ghost” options set that disappeared when the screen wasn’t being touched and reappeared once it was; the options were to move the map around or get to other settings. I liked how it provided the street name that I was coming up on also as it let me know what was next without me having to scroll and hover the cursor.

I immediately uploaded the ride to both garminconnect.com and TrainingPeaks. The file uploaded amazingly fast and seamlessly to both. Once I got home, however, I found I couldn’t import the .fit file directly to wko+. I’d never previously needed Device Agent to import the .tcx files previously. My only issue with this is that sometimes I don’t have internet access, and so would not be able to import the .fit file without Device Agent signing in to TrainingPeaks and importing it to WKO+ from there. Garminconnect.com also can export the .tcx file, but again, without internet access this isn’t possible. While Garmin’s Training Center (the software that comes with the units) also exports files, the program crashed on me the time I tried to do it. In its defense, I have over a year’s worth of training files in the program and all that info slows it down a LOT.

I also must say, I actually finally looked into a software update for Training Center, and was pleasantly surprised at the changes that have taken place since the iteration that I had been using for over a year and a half. TC now provides average and max power information for each lap, and the maps look a little cleaner as well.

One thing I was also looking forward to with the Edge 800 was the HR-based calorie computation. We all generally know that the calorie burn on cyclocomputers or online calculators is vastly off, somewhere between 33-75%. Using a wattage-based power kilojoule burn is the gold standard, and that is typically the number I go by when training with power (which the Garmin units utilizing ANT+ technology are GREAT for). I was interested to see what the HR-based computation came up, and was quite shocked at how much LOWER the calorie burn number comes out to be when compared to the kilojoule burn. As an example, the kilojoules burned from my CycleOps PowerTap came up as 1079 for 2.5hrs of riding (mostly easy spinning with a few short hard efforts); the calories burned came up as 669. A similar workout the week before with the 705 yielded 749kj and 1177 calories. I know there was a thread on this in the Garmin forums, but haven’t followed up. It was also a discussion regarding the Garmin 500 as well.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised with the 800. I had no real problems with the touchscreen with my bare hands on a road ride with wind and sun. I do ride and train in the rain, in mud, in wind, heat, etc. and hope to train with the 800 in these conditions, with different types of gloves. My extended review will be forthcoming.

In the meantime, I also this past weekend purchased a Garmin 500 at Rock N’ Road! So, here goes.

The main reason for adding the 500 to my toolbox was for a smaller, lighter, race-ready unit and the 500 fits that bill perfectly.

I got this unit Saturday morning about 2 hours before my cyclocross race. It was interesting try to learn a very different unit and get it set up for me with very little time. I will definitely say right off the bat, coming from the 800 only 2 days before the 500 is much more of a no-non-sense, no frills cyclocomputer. The menus are easy enough to move through, but coming from the touch screen and the 705′s 7 different buttons with the navigation I struggled a few times to get where I wanted to go and figure out how to move through the menu’s. With a little more time (as opposed to being time crunched in the heat before a race) I think it’d be easy enough to work through without issue. I was somewhat surprised that the HR and Power zones are un-editable in the unit itself, and must be transferred either from Training Center and/or garminconnect.com. I wasn’t doing a workout where I was looking at heart rate anyway, so didn’t have any issues there, but had I tried to do my interval based workout with the 500 without prior computer set-up, it would’ve made training really difficult to follow!

That being said, I set up my custom data fields and was pretty much ready to rock.

Being somewhat familiar with the 705 I moved through the menu’s and other settings with relative ease. The unit recorded all of the necessary information, and once in Training Center the HR zones came up without issue where they belonged.

The 500 also has the temperature sensor, though it seemed to me that the temperature on the 800 was much more accurate. In the heat in the sun the 500 seemed to read a little high for what the actual temperature was.

I did hit the lap button once on accident trying to switch screens, but realized what happened and then used the correct menu button every other time.

Additionally, the 500 utilizes .fit files, so I tried to re-learn how to import everything into the various databases that I use. Everything worked out fine after some searching on the Garmin forums and now I’ve got 2 files from the Long Beach CycloCross race as well as my flat road ride out through Box Canyon, which I can’t figure out how to embed!

In summation, I continue to love Garmin’s cycling computer products for personal use and plan to continue to train, ride, and race with them.

If you’re looking for a new cycling computer, definitely look into the 705, the 500, or the 800 as one of the above will certainly more than meet your needs.

In addition to making really good well-lasting products, Garmin also stands behind their goods.  Their warranty program is great, and they also offer replacement program’s for products out of warranty or involved in “crash” situations.  Their customer service has been flawless for me more than once, and very easy to use the few times it was necessary.