Who said that GPS devices are only useful for car drivers? The bicycle is a viable, healthy and enjoyable form of transportation as well. The interesting thing about bicycles is that they allow you to go through parks, rough terrain and various locations where there are no road signs. This means that you’ll sometimes wish you had some form of directions. Cyclists have been asking for a proper GPS device for a long time now and it looks like Garmin finally decided to release a product that’s properly adapted to bikes. The global leader in satellite navigation has announced the release of a feature-packed GPS unit for cyclists, the Edge 800. The device offers accuracy and simplicity as well as a few extra features which can be used for tracking statistics and location. The Edge 800 comes after two other models designed for cyclists, the Edge 500 and the Edge 705. It offers the same usual features plus it throws in an intuitive touchscreen interface. It’s also smaller and sleeker than the Edge 705 despite including a larger screen.
The device offers a 2.6 inch display with a simple touchscreen interface. It includes several mapping options such as Garmin’s BaseCamp route planning or BirdsEye Satellite Imagery.
“Whether you’re on the road, in the mountains or around the city, Garmin’s touchscreen Edge 800 puts the most important information of your ride at your fingertips,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales. “Thanks to its simple mounting system, improved mapping and route-planning capabilities, and the GPS-based features that make wires and 
calibration obsolete, we can easily say that one Edge fits all.”
Garmin is now in its third year as title sponsor of the Pro Tour cyclists of Team Garmin-Transition. Of course, this allowed the company to work closely with the sport’s top athletes and better design Edge products that fit the needs of cyclists around the world. The company promises that the device works for the professional as well as the amateur, explaining that the cycling computer can be used to get a cyclists fastest time….or for the first time.
As mentioned before, the free BaseCamp software is also included and it offers users an easy tool to survey the terrain and plan their routes. It also lets cyclists view elevation changes. Once users have planned a route they can easily send it onto the cycling computer. Cyclists may also view Team Garmin’s featured rides and download, analyze and share rides of their own through Garmin Connect, a free online communicy which includes more than 30 million activities from around the world. The online community also displays metrics such as time, distance, speed, elevation and heart rate through a variety of map representations (street, satellite, topographic and elevation maps). Users may search for activities in their own area then try them by uploading the data onto their cycling computer. The Edge 800 will then guide the way.
“I can come back and do even more on the computer when I download it,” said Team Garmin’s Christian Vande Velde of combining Garmin Connect with the Edge products he used in consecutive top-8 finishes at the Tour de France. “It takes all the guessing out of everything in my training.”
The Edge 800 is quite precise because it uses information directly from GPS satellites. Thus it can accurately track speeds, distance, time, GPS location, elevation, climb and descent or calories burned through a given time. Precise climb and descend data is provided by the incorporated barometric altimeter which spots charges in elevation. For even more data, the GPS device for cyclists can even sync wirelessly with compatible third party power meters or Garmin heart rate monitors and speed/cadence sensors.
To get the highest level of topographic detail available, which includes maps comparable to 1:24,000 scale USGS maps featuring terrain contours, summits, routable roads and trails,
coastlines, rivers, lakes or parks, cyclists may also use a separate TOPO U.S. 24K DVD or microSD card. In towns the device proves of high value as well and an optional City Navigator mapping feature will provide detailed street maps, millions of preloaded points of interest or onscreen turn-by-turn directions to the destination of choice.
Garmin boasts with its latest achievement, the Edge 800 and declares that it has spent more than 20 years in developing technologies and innovations to bring the proper experiencefor cyclists. The company is currently a well known name in multiple fields including aviation, marine, outdoor and fitness industries as well as, obviously, automotive. The Edge 800 will be presented at the Interbike and Eurobike events. It won’t, however, be released on the market until October. It will sport a price tag of $449 or $649, depending on the bundle customers choose. Despite it not being available just yet, the device has already received several reviews and according to the testers it’s well worth the money.
