Edge is entirely un-useable for MTB navigation. I, and many others have reported this since the 830 was first released. Any time I load a course that uses MTB trails, many of the trails randomly begin telling me "Make a U-turn"....over, and over and over and over. When I look at the map, I'm perfection on-course and following the route lines, with no need for a U-turn.
I assume this has to be due to most all the user-submitted trails on either trailforks or osm not being "snapped" together. I've spent the last month updating these for my area, but it could be another half year before it works its way to the Garmin maps. And who knows for sure if this is the cause? It's happened to me on literally every mountain bike ride in every state that I've used the Edge 830 for. The route map shows fine; no need for a U-turn in any of the instances. Once I hit the next trail, it says 'course found' once again.
Can't Garmin just update the FW to avoid this?! They sell the device with Trailforks data. The trailforks data is ALL like this without the trails 'snapped' together. Garmin is basically selling a device that doesn't do what it's supposed to do. I kid you not, the past two large rides I've had my phone get stuck in a loop from the Edge where the voice won't stop repeating "Make a U-turn, Make a U-turn, Make a U-turn". Needless to say, the people near me said they will never purchase a Garmin. I don't blame them, and I've never bad-mouthed the product to them.
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On top of this, about 1/4 of my rides, my Varia 510 radar light mode will randomly start changing modes, including "OFF". If I happen to notice, I can use the edge to switch the mode back where it needs to be. So I know the light network hasn't dropped. It switches itself between full on, blinking, off. I was doing a late night ride out in the country and several times looked back to see I had NO tail light out in the middle of nowhere with cars driving by. The edge told me it was still on blinking mode. I had to keep toggling to 'off' and back to 'blinking'. This is a HUGE safety issue. I would recommend anyone NOT use the Garmin light network and manually set the light mode on the device. If I do get hit, I'm leaving instructions for my family to check the light mode setting on the head unit before shutting it off, if the driver claims there was no tail light.
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And finally, every ride I've done that includes route guidance for more than a few hours with 1s recording has resulted in the Edge slowing to a crawl within a half hour. To the point where I have to spend up to 2-3 minutes just trying to swipe a screen and watch it try to render without glitching out. At times I have to shut the unit down and start over, resulting in my ride being split up on the saves.
And yes, I've done a full system reset every time the firmware has been updated and run the stock maps.
I just can't believe how the Mountain Bike "false U-turn" and light-mode bugs have not been fixed after all this time. It's really sad and reflects very poorly on Garmin. People who see this in group rides take notice, and they go to other brands.
