You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
I go out for a bike ride, pedal powered, aiming to be at the traffic free rather than MTB trail end of gravel riding, usually.
The only training I do involves LNER.CO.UK.
I can be out all day so battery life matters.
Currently have free Strava on phone and an ancient Garmin Edge 500 with a dodgy battery.
No interest in HRM, power or cadence.
Can modern Garmins be topped up in use with a usb power pack en route if necessary?
Anything else to look at, Wahoo, or others I may not have heard of?
Thanks.
When my 810 was playing up I bought an original wahoo and it was a revelation. That has since started playing up and in the meantime Garmin have caught up with integration and user friendliness. It's kinda an Apple/Android thing now. People rave about both but really they wouldn't miss much if the other never existed. 😉
I've got the edge explore 1 for a similar use case to your and like it. I don't doubt the v2 is even better. Remember there is a decent Garmin discount for members on here.
My 810 and Edge Explore will run off a battery pack so I can't see why a newer one wouldn't as well.
I'm more than happy with my Explore 1. Battery use can be a little heavy, but for long rides, the power save works fine giving over 8 hours navigation.
oooh watching this with interest. I'm still on the original edge touring that requires a USB lead to upload / download routes and rides, but the power button is on the way out. As per the OP, I don't care about ANT+ or training, I just want to be able to see where I'm going when Im riding somewhere unfamiliar, preferably with exicint info like how slow my average speed is. Touchscreen would be nice as my current unit is touchscreen and I just swipe from one side to switch to the next screen. Would be nice to have bluetooth so I can easily add / extract files
I've started looking at the garmin offers through STW today and am already overwhelmed. 540, 840 or edgesxplore 2? I'm leaning towards the latter but all input is welcome. Happy to look at other makes if there's a better offfer
Edge Explore 1 here. I concur with Fossy. I gather that battery life is better on the more recent version, but mine works fine in power save or connected to a power bank if touring or doing truly epic rides. Integration of Garmin Connect and Komoot makes uploading routes a breeze. Nice big screen for aging eyes too!
Another vote for Garmin Edge Explore.
They were just £130 at Amazon recently and are often available at CEX etc
Budget an extra £13 for a map from TalkyToaster.co,uk (British Isles TT HD Topo Pro )
The auto-route function is great too,
I was out exploring at the weekend in a local area with a mass of tracks and cycle paths. Dropped a pin into the map on the device and it then routed me there using maze of new-to-me trails. Brilliant !
I've also got my eye on an Edge 2 for the same reasons.
The battery on my Explore 2 is leagues ahead of my wife's Explore 1. Other functionality is pretty much the same with slightly different looking menus.
My only negative is that you can't change the ride profile names/types, you're stuck with the 2 defaults (3 if you include the "Trainer" profile).
My other half has an explore 2, it's bigger screen with much better battery life than our old explore 1. I haven't used it yet but she hasn't complained. Does all that Bluetooth stuff.
in the meantime Garmin have caught up with integration and user friendliness.
Have they really? Just curious as I'm very happy with my Wahoo Elemnt, but the other half has an Edge Explore and the gnashing of teeth every time she tries to upload / download / synch etc is quite distracting, while the Wahoo just does things seamlessly.
I've always felt that Garmin stuff is a testament to human adaptability rather than any sort of user friendliness, but maybe things have really changed? Do they still force you to use their godforsaken bespoke apps like Garmin Disconnect or whatever it's called?
I can be out all day so battery life matters.
My experience of the Explore V1 was that battery life started off poor and got worse, If my rides were all under 4 hours I'd have had no worries, but needing to carry a power bank and use the power save mode for a single days riding (6-8 hrs) isn't really acceptable (IMO), especially if you are expecting to use the navigation functions.
IIRC the claimed life for the Explore V2 was a bit better, but the 530 and 540 both offered a bit more more (smaller screen).
The impression I got from the Blurb was that the Explore V2 is now pitched more at E-bikers who'll plug it into their eeeb and hence the devices own battery life is largely irrelevant.
There's are two flavours of the explore V2 as well aren't there? One with and one without the pinout on the 1/4 mount for Garmin's proprietary (expensive) power banks (correct me if I'm wrong).
Good big colour screen, good navigation, piss poor battery was my experience of the 'Explore' series, and I wasn't as willing to tolerate carrying a power bank for single day(+) rides.
Based on my experience of the V1, I'd give the V2 a swerve.
I have a Garmin Edge Explore (v1) that I bought cheap a couple of years ago. I've used it a handful of times and now use my watch instead.
It's pretty much as new, if the OP is looking for a cheap one then drop me a message.
ANyone know what power adapter the V2 uses? the Edge Touring uses a Mini USB, hoping the Edge Explore 2 will ber USB-C? Also, does it take / need an external memory card? I'm using 16gb card in the Touring just in order to fit the base maps
Just had a look at the specs. Yes it is USB-C, it has 16gb memory but not sure is it wil ltake (or need) a card.
But...
Security Information
SECURITY UPDATES UNTIL AT LEAST (YYYY-MM-DD)
2024-07-13
https://www.garmin.com/en-GB/p/802162/pn/010-02703-10#specs
Really? this is a pretty new device, why is the guaranteed end date so soon? it's only a couple of months away...
Based on my experience of the V1, I’d give the V2 a swerve.
I had a V1 until I lost it in a muddy pond and replaced it with a V2. It's massively better. It's battery life is enough for all day rides and it's just much more pleasant to use due to being much more responsive.
Really? this is a pretty new device, why is the guaranteed end date so soon? it’s only a couple of months away…
I don't think it's guaranteed, in fairness to Garmin they often provide updates for longer than promised, but the Explore 2 was actually released in 2022, so Garmin being Garmin are probably looking to release an 'Explore 3' in what 2025-26ish? The V1 explore was released in 2018 and superseded within 4 years.
I'm still getting updates for my 2014 (?) Oregon 600.
That Security Update info was only added to all Garmin devices fairly recently (perhaps it was a legislative requirement?) and I'm pretty sure it just defaults to 24 months from launch date. In practice, it seems to extend well beyond that. I guess I'd be pretty relaxed about it given the data held on any of my Garmins, though I might feel different if I was using Garmin Pay on my Fenix 6.
What is the Security Update guarantee for similar products from other manufacturers?
I've got the Edge Explore 2 and it's way ahead of the Explore 1 that I had previously.
Seamless integration with my phone and Strava. Battery will easily do 12+ hrs. USB-C connector.
Do they still force you to use their godforsaken bespoke apps like Garmin Disconnect or whatever it’s called?
You can link Connect and Strava so I do all my route planning in Strava and that syncs to Connect and then to the unit in seconds, all wirelessly.
I mean, it still has some foibles, not least the incredibly annoying dual use of the phrase "make a U-turn" but it basically all works fine and has none of the performance stuff that I don't need.
Yes very pleased with my edge 2, big screen, low battery consumption. I do like the back to start feature, but maybe it's on all Garmin.
I'm looking at the edge explore 2, which I wil use for navigation, - can I view Trailforks on it?