Garmin Edge 810

I haven’t been cycling long and seem to be one of these people that throws themselves into something buy spending loads of money on accessories, etc and not actually doing anything with it. I’ve got to be honest, this is what I thought I was going to be doing with this hobby but I’m still doing it and really enjoying it. Not only that but I have lost quite a lot of weight without changing that much in my life.

I have a coach, we will call him Mr Rider. He tells me I need to buy this, that and the other. The fact that he owns a bike shop in Retford, where I buy all of my stuff from might have something to do with it but he is generally correct and that’s because of his passion for cycling.

My passion is gadgets and a ride on my bike cannot be without some sort of electrical gizmo, stand up and bow… The Garmin Edge 810!

The Garmin Edge 810 has just been released, I found out about it because Alan Sugar tweeted how much he liked it and I wanted to buy the Edge 800 anyway ready for my Charity Bike Ride in Belgium. You, see you can buy a version of the 810 with European Maps and download courses that can be followed with turn-by-turn commands.

I also liked the idea of the information being uploaded to Garmin Connect, automatically because of the bluetooth connection between the Garmin Edge and my Apple iPhone. Not only that but there is a Live Track feature where you can share your current location and stats with your facebook or twitter friends.

On the website Garmin states a battery life of approx. 17 hours, all I can say is that I have used it for approx. 5 hours with the bluetooth connected and with cold conditions and I have around 87% of the battery left.

There are several different versions of the Garmin Edge 810 available, I went for the Performance and Navigation pack at £479.00. This got me a cadence/speed sensor, heart rate monitor and the SD card with the maps on it. I got Bike Pedlars of Retford to fit the sensors for £20 one Saturday afternoon, this way I knew it had been set up correctly.

You can have more than one bike, which is great for someone like with me with multiple bikes. Its easy to use and the touchscreen is great. I will post on-going reviews of this products as I continue

Download the Garmin Connect App available for iPhones and Android. Also I would recommend getting the better bundles, as adding these bits at a later date can prove expensive. Additional Cadence and Mounting brackets can be purchased off eBay cheap enough.

Also, you can’t go a miss without the right bike. The cheaper the bike, I find, the harder and less enjoyable it is to ride. I started with a £35 mountain bike from Tesco’s, moved up to a £180 Raleigh bike from Costco, now I’m riding a couple of different ones from Carrera, Moda and Scott depending where I am riding.

We’ve got no affiliation with Garmin and have not been paid to write this review. The Garmin has been purchased directly on their website by our own pennies. But we would like to point out, that if you should click on one of the links within this website we may receive a small commission.