First Impressions of Strava Live Segments on Garmin 810

I saw the notification that Garmin had released the update to the Edge 510, 810 and 1000 which provided real time Strava Live Segments last week and so over the weekend I updated my 810 and played around with them. These are some first impressions of using it with my 810, more thoughts will follow along with hopefully some better photos. For the sake of clarity Live is defined as a notification that you are on a Segment and times are based on the moment in time you sync’d. It does not give you Live rankings and you have to sync once your ride has finished to see the overall results.

So that said onwards, there are three components to this

1. Upgrading the device, this is easily down through Garmin Express. Just plug in the device launch the app and install the update. As with all updates the more you watch it the longer it takes, so just step away and come back in five minutes!
2. Selecting the Segments, this is done through Strava, I did it on a Windows PC. I haven’t figured out a way of doing through the Strava App on my phone.
3. Syncing the Segments, this can do through Garmin Express or Garmin Connect (on your phone). All you really need to do is launch Garmin Connect and sync it with the device and you’re all set. This does take some time depending on how many segments you have selected. You are also given the option of add local Popular Segments.

With that you are pretty much set and all you have to do is ride. So these are very raw first impressions, some of these may be wrong and others I am still fleshing out;

• The update was easy to install, but step away. A watched kettle never boils.
• When you approach a segment your screen automatically changes to give you a countdown to the start
• The countdown is useful, plenty of notice, it seems to kick in with about a quarter mile to go.
• As you can see below the screen is divided into 4 main sections; Your Segment PR, the distance remaining in the Segment, Time Ahead/Behind and a Map, the map shows the route.
• When you hit the start point of the segment you get a “Go”, when you get to the Finish line it tells you when have finished. There is a subtle difference on the map if you set up a target time in Strava, as it creates a Virtual Partner to ride against. More on that later.
• You need to have a Strava Premium account, without that you’re SOL, sorry!
• The graphics on an 810 are not the same on the 520, as best I can tell there are no bells and whistles on claiming KOMs etc
• You do not need to carry a phone for this to work, you are actually syncing to device and not relying on phone signal. Of course as Segments KOMs change your on-board data will go stale in time.
• If you have multiple segments starting at the same place, i.e. an entire climb and half of the climb only one segment will be presented, so far it looks like the longer one. This is very similar to how segments are presented in Strava online.
• When you go off a Segment you get a notification telling you that you are Off Course. This is similar to the Map Route technology.
• When you are on a Trainer in your garage and you are near the start of a Segment the device goes crazy telling you that, even if you turn off GPS, I had to disable the Strava feature on my 810 to stop it (or me) from having a meltdown.
• I didn’t have any Popular Segments go off. Several rides on the road and nothing?
• Segments are located in the Folder Icon, not in Settings, here you can enable, disable or delete syncd Segments when the Device is on but not in use
• Accuracy is a bit off, I rode the same Segment three times last weekend and it started in a different place each time?

Some very poor images, I have screen protector which does a great job or preventing good photos;

I will be updating/adding more as things come.