BikeRide

I’ve been using a Garmin 705 cycling GPS this season and still just figuring out all the capabilities of the unit.  Now Garmin is introducing a new touchscreen unit.  I’d love to test out one of these.  Here is the press release from Garmin:

In announcing the new Garmin Edge 800 cycling computer today, we took the best of Garmin Edge technology, added a touchscreen color display and made route planning easier than ever before with a one-stop shopping for creating, previewing and downloading routes to ride. New mapping options such as Garmin’s BaseCamp route planning and BirdsEye™ Satellite Imagery make it perfect for training, touring and riding on the trail.

“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.”

Building on its popular GPS-enabled predecessors, Edge 800 is smaller and sleeker than the Edge 705, yet features a larger 2.6” display with a simple touchscreen interface. And while Edge 800 gets its streamlined design from the ultralight Edge 500, the color display and versatile mapping options make exploration more enjoyable and efficient than ever. The latest version of Garmin’s free BaseCamp software (www.garmin.com/basecamp) gives users an easy tool to survey the terrain and plan routes. BaseCamp lets users plan and preview routes – along with viewing elevation changes – and then send those routes to Edge 800, Edge 705 and Edge 605 as courses to follow.

Read the full announcement with more photos from Garmin