The Eurobike show opened today in Friedrichshafen, Germany, drawing 40,000 visitors and 1,600 journalists. This is where the trends on two wheels are set on a worldwide stage. And we couldn’t be more proud to be there showcasing Edge 800 — the first touchscreen GPS-enabled bike computer. Our booth will have an ongoing stream of gear-loving press and cyclists who want to be among the first to get their hands on this fine device. Once they start to play, they’ll discover there’s a lot more to the Edge 800 than good looks. Providing navigation and performance monitoring, it’s ideal for the “I wanna get lost but still find my way back” mountain bikers, the touring/commuting/recreational crowd and the performance cyclists, including the pros from Team Garmin. Congrats to Team Garmin’s Tyler Farrar for winning the sprint finish at the Vuelta a España today!

Last Friday, I had a chance to take the 800 out for its maiden voyage. This was a lunchtime ride with four cycling coworkers who’ve been collectively logging lots of miles from Garmin HQ. Needless to say, I didn’t have a chance to touch, tap and admire the Edge during this ride. I have to work my tail off to not get dropped by this group, but that’s exactly the way I like to roll. Our group included Owen, our lead-out man who rides for a local cycling team. Matt, who’s strong as an ox and I believe could pull me up the Tourmalet in a headwind. Scott, who holds a steady line ideal to draft off and probably has more bike miles logged than the rest of us put together and squared. And then there’s Ryan, who, in the span of about a month, ran his first half marathon, got hitched, biked across Iowa, signed up for his first marathon and committed to his first MS150 ride. Ryan was also Edge 800-equipped for this ride. Here’s a peek at our short-but-sweet ride in Garmin Connect.

From a Garmin insider who’s accustomed to our engineers pulling out all the stops, I have to say, our fitness team really outdid themselves on this one. The display is beautiful and crisp, the touchscreen very responsive. And knowing our design engineers have put this unit through the testing rigors, I’ll have no worries getting caught in the rain or subjecting it to the elements. Can’t wait to take it on a 70-mile ride this coming Monday. What better way to celebrate Labor Day than a long ride? Stay tuned for more Edge 800 news. And if you’re lucky enough to be at Eurobike this week, be sure to stop by our booth, A5-201. Or see us at  Interbike, Sept. 22-24, booth 2631.

It’s been a busy week for Team Garmin, which becomes Team Garmin-Cervélo in 2011. The team issued the following press release with more exciting roster announcements as Eurobike kicked off, marking the debut of the new touchscreen Edge 800.

BOULDER, COLORADO (September 1, 2010) — Slipstream Sports today announced six additions to the 2011 roster, marking the remaining Cervélo TestTeam riders to join the newly formed Team Garmin-Cervélo.

Roger Hammond (UK), Heinrich Haussler (AUS), Andreas Klier (GER), Brett Lancaster (AUS), Daniel Lloyd (UK) and Gabriel Rasch (NOR) will join teammate Thor Hushovd (NOR) in 2011. These seven will be joining Garmin riders including Tyler Farrar, Ryder Hesjedal, Christian Vande Velde, David Zabriskie and Dan Martin.

“Team Garmin-Cervélo’s roster will be strong and versatile,” said Jonathan Vaughters, CEO, Slipstream Sports. “All of these riders bring a lot of experience to what’s already a great team. I’m proud of what we’ve done since 2008, and I’m excited for what we’ll do in 2011.”

The creation of Team Garmin-Cervélo is still under development. More information, including an official team roster, will be released as it becomes available.

When we talk about how Garmin’s Forerunner 110 is meant to simply answer runners’ two most important questions – How fast and how far? – the answers get even easier when the runner is Ryan Hall. How fast? Very. How far? Very.

While Forerunner 110 is easy enough for beginners training for their first 5K, its GPS-enabled features are powerful and accurate enough for elite runners such as Ryan. Check out this video from Ryan’s YouTube channel (which is full of helpful training tips) and hear him talk about his favorite features … while he runs … uphill … at a 7-minute pace. Sigh. And to learn more about these easy-to-use features, visit our online learning center and watch Peg’s demonstrations in the short tutorial videos.

Thor Hushovd, Norwegian Road Race Champion, nine-time Tour de France stage winner and 2009 green jersey holder, will ride for Team Garmin-Cervélo in 2011. Team Garmin-Transitions and Cervélo SA announced last week they will join forces for the 2011 season to create a new team that will be known as Garmin-Cervélo.

“I’m proud to join Team Garmin-Cervélo in 2011. Cervélo has been a great supporter for the past two years and its partnership with Garmin feels like a good fit,” said Hushovd. “I chose Garmin-Cervélo because I have a lot of respect for what Jonathan Vaughters has done for cycling, because I think we’ll have a very strong, competitive team, and because I’ll be able to continue to work with Cervélo. I look forward to seeing what we can all do together next year.”

Hushovd started racing at age 9 and went on to win the under-23 time trial world championship and the under-23 versions of Paris-Roubaix and Paris-Tours. He turned professional in 2000 and is considered one of the best sprinters, time trialists, and Classics riders in the world. Hushovd has twice finished in the top three of Paris-Roubaix and will focus on a strong Classics campaign with Garmin-Cervélo.

“We are incredibly excited to bring Thor to the team in 2011,” said Jonathan Vaughters, CEO of Slipstream Sports. “One of our goals is to become stronger in the Classics, and adding a world-class rider like Thor will get us there. He’s an exceptionally talented rider and a great fit for our new team.”

“I’m going to focus my season on the Classics,” said Hushovd. “My biggest goal is to get one major Classics victory in 2011. I’ve come close over the past few years so I will build on that experience and hopefully, stand on the podium with my new team.”

The creation of the new team is still under development. More information, including official team rosters, will become available in the October timeframe.

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. 

Edge 800 will debut at Interbike (Booth 2631) and Eurobike (Booth
A5-201), where it won the coveted Eurobike Award for electronic
components.

In its third year as title sponsor of the Pro Tour cyclists of Team Garmin-Transitions, Garmin has worked closely with the sport’s top athletes in developing Edge products that can be appreciated by cyclists around the world using a cycling computer to get their fastest time – or for the first time.

“At Garmin-Transitions, we’re going to be on the cutting edge of technology, in everything we do,” said Team Garmin sprinting sensation Tyler Farrar. “Edge 800 can track all of our performance data, and it also keeps things interesting on training rides because we can use it anywhere in the world to plan and follow new routes – on and off road – and always find our way back to the start.”

Cyclists can view Team Garmin’s featured rides – or download, analyze and share rides of their own – at Garmin Connect™ (http://garminconnect.com), the free-to-join online community of more than 30 million activities from around the world. Garmin Connect displays metrics such as time, distance, speed, elevation and heart rate through charts and a variety of map representations, including street, satellite, topographic, and elevation maps. Garmin Connect users can search for activities in their area and try them by uploading the data to Edge 800, which will 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.”

Using information directly from GPS satellites, Edge 800 accurately tracks speed, distance, time, GPS position, elevation, calories burned, climb and descent. For even more real-time data on display, Edge 800 syncs wirelessly through ANT+™ technology with compatible third-party power meters as well as Garmin heart rate monitors and speed/cadence sensors. For extra-precise climb and descent data, Edge 800 incorporates a barometric altimeter to pinpoint changes in elevation.

Because Edge 800 requires no calibration, it can be switched quickly between bikes thanks to a low-profile, quarter-turn mount that fits easily on the stem or handlebars with tight-gripping rubber rings. Boasting a high-sensitivity GPS receiver with HotFix that quickly acquires and maintains satellite reception, Edge 800 displays temperature readings, changes time zones automatically, lasts up to 15 hours on one charge and alerts riders if they’re moving but the timer has not been started.

As powerful as it is for performance cyclists and speed specialists, various mapping options make Edge 800 an ideal device for singletrack exploration, everyday errands and casual commuting.

On the trails, using a separate TOPO U.S. 24K DVD or microSD card brings you the highest level of topographic detail available, with maps comparable to 1:24,000 scale USGS maps, featuring terrain contours, topo elevations, summits, routable roads and trails, parks, coastlines, rivers, lakes and geographical points. In town, optional City Navigator mapping provides detailed street maps, millions of preloaded points of interest and onscreen turn-by-turn directions to your destination.

Subscribers to BirdsEye Satellite Imagery can quickly transfer high-resolution satellite images to Edge 800 and seamlessly integrate those images into the onscreen maps to get a true representation of the surroundings. And Garmin’s Custom Maps can bring the details, labels and landmarks of your existing paper or electronic map to Edge 800 in just a few simple steps.

I’m always up for trying something new when it comes to fitness. So when I heard Coach Jenny Hadfield talk about ElliptiGO, an outdoor elliptical bike, I couldn’t wait to give it a whirl. The concept is brilliant — a device that replicates running, at a similar exertion level, but without impact. And, the best part, you’re not in a stale-air, sweat-infused race to nowhere. You’re outside, covering ground with the wind in your face and, quite possibly, bugs in your teeth. Want to see it? Here’s a video snippet showing the ElliptiGO in motion.

ElliptiGo ride, Chicago from Peg from Garmin on Vimeo.

My chance to ride the ElliptiGO came during my recent visit to the Garmin Store in Chicago for the event announcing our sponsorship of the Girls on the Run SoleMates program. Jenny Hadfield, Chicago-based coach, endurance athlete and author, was one of our featured speakers at the event and had offered to take me for a ride (or should I say glide?) on the ElliptiGO. Jenny, who’s a huge Garmin fan (at last count, she and her husband, John Bingham, have owned about 8 Garmin devices), has been using an Edge bike computer with cadence sensor on the ElliptiGO. When she wheeled the bikes into the Garmin Store before our ride, she instantly had a small crowd of gawkers. Customers, young and old, came up for a closer look and wanted to know where they could get one, what the bikes cost and what it was like to ride one. “It’s a fabulous workout and a lot of fun to ride,” Jenny told them. “The only problem is you might get bugs in your teeth because you’ll be smiling so much.”

I was more than a little anxious for our ride. Excited for the experience, nervous about maneuvering this bigger-than-a-bike device through pedestrian-choked Chicago sidewalks and streets. Jenny gave me some quick tips, assured me we’d be fine once we got on the Lakefront Path, and away we went. I pushed start on my Edge, pushed off, and in no time felt like I had the hang of this thing. About six minutes into our ride, Jenny checked over her shoulder and asked how I was doing. “I think I’m getting bugs in my teeth,” I shouted back. I felt like a kid who’d just ditched the training wheels. This was all-out fun, and I’m not sure what I enjoyed more — the ride, or witnessing all the head-turns we were causing.

Round trip, our ride was 14 miles long and our average speed was just over 11 mph. Check out the full stats in Garmin Connect, including cadence data recorded by Edge 705. As for the workout itself, I got a great cardio workout and felt like I’d truly worked/stretched the muscle groups that typically get really tight through running. Like hips and glutes. The ElliptiGO was the ideal cross-training workout for me since I was just returning to running after an injury had me benched for most of the summer. Jenny explained that one of the two guys who developed ElliptiGO is a former Ironman triathlete who’d suffered knee and hip injuries. Read their story of design by necessity here. See more video and stories about the ElliptiGO as well as Jenny’s recent appearance with her Edge-equipped ElliptiGO on Chicago’s Midday Fix. If you get a chance to take one for a test ride, go for it. Just be prepared for a few bugs in your teeth.