[Closed] iPhone Quad Lock or Dedicated GPS

The 11 is one big slab of a thing to mount on a bike! Added to that, the screen won't work well in rain or with gloves (the newer Garmins do), and you've got the choice of either using an app that keeps the screen on all the time (eating battery, though I'm guessing the 11 is better on that front than earlier iPhones) or presumably having a faff to unlock it (does Face ID work with cycling bins and a helmet?). And as you say, if you crash it can get pretty expensive.

For around £60 you should be able to pick up an Edge 810 (or 800/Touring, but they lack Bluetooth), and frankly that's a perfectly usable unit.

I assume you want navigation?

Do you use additional sensors like cadence and power? If not then the Garmin Explore range might be a good option. Maps and records and costs significantly less than the full Edge version. Reviews are mixed but then Garmin devices aren't exactly brilliant generally.

Another option is to get in contact with Garmin. Even out of Warranty they will help. They have offered refurb units at a reduced price in the past. They are as good as new. ALthough I believe more recently the price has gone up. I got an 800 replaced for £60 about 5 years ago. 12 months ago my friend was quoted £120 for a 1000. Still cost effective though.

Stages, Polaris and Lezyne make units but no idea on how good they are.

I’m in similar position at the minute. I’m using the voice navigation from Komoot with my phone in my pocket for parts of the ride I don’t know.

It’s doing the job until I can buy a new Garmin unit.

Phone on handlebars is silly. I'd go with a small, cheap(ish) Garmin. eg. Edge 25. Something like that will perfectly well tell you when you need to make a turn. If very occasionally you need more help than that then getting your phone out of your pocket/bag is easy enough. I don't see that the any benefit of having maps in front of your face at all times outweighs the annoyance of a hulking great phone (or dare I say it any big GPS) on your bars all the time (IMHO).

Phone on handlebars is silly.

Ordinarily I'd agree, until we went to Holland last year, when I was forced to buy a phone mount as the lack of hills around to even get a sense of direction pickles your head!.

Got one from Decathlon in the Hague, still use it commuting now as my bluetooth headphones work better than with a phone in my pocket.

Saw the Beeline got posted the other day, am considering this myself for a small/cheap computer/navigator

Saw the Beeline got posted the other day

Just got back from a quick testdrive of mine. Bought one of the 'moto' variants, originally to get me to Circuit de Catalunya for the Spanish MotoGP and then down to a mate's house near Orihuela but that's all been shitcanned. Switched it to 'cycle' mode, uploaded a .gpx I knocked up and headed out. It's a great wee thing. Small enough to not seem clunky on the handlebars but the screen is plenty big enough for the way it displays directions. Nice and accurate instructions, waterproof, battery would last the claimed 30 hours as far as I can tell, links to Strava if that kind of thing is your bag, baby. There's no map view option on the beeline itself although the app shows either map view or compass view if you need a recap. That's probably its only downfall: you need to have your phone with you as the beeline takes directions from the app via bluetooth, so you can't use it as a standalone GPS navigation thing. Apart from that I really like it and at £99 for the 'velo' version I think it's pretty good value.

I’ve cracked the screens on a couple of older Garmin edge models when crashing. Certainly wouldn’t want £800+ phone on my bars.
Reckon you’d be able to pick up a 2nd hand garmin Edge 520 or above fairly cheap now.

I’ve run a quadlock on my road bike bars for ages.

I don’t use it for gps though. It’s just a handy place to keep the phone on a long ride. The quadlock case is pretty robust.

Going off at a slight tangent, has anyone used the SP Connect device? I can't get a Quad lock cos my phone is an older model.

Thanks for all opinions.
I didn’t like the idea of putting my phone on the handlebars.
I’ve had the Garmin for over 10 years and never got on with it.
Every time I open my Mac Garmin wants to run another update before I can even get on my homepage.
Might save a few weeks and go Wahoo Roam.

Cheers

If it's just a battery, about £10 gets the lower hull section and a battery from eBay and its a simple swap. Same with screens. YouTube is great for how to change these bits out.

I've been using my phone for navigation for the past five years and for road it's certainly better (in my opinion) than a dedicated unit. The reason it's better is that the map detailing is better, there's a wider array of customisations that can be carried out using the software and it's one less item to carry. For instance to save power the software can have the screen only turn on when approaching turns. That's with teh addition of voice instructions which again saves battery power. The screen is the main power hog.

I used my Z3 compact for the TransContinental Race five years ago. It is a great phone for that purpose as it has a very good battery life, it's water resistant and the usp of that particular phone is that it has a magnetic charging port. There's an inherent loss of efficiency when using wireless charging so direct charging is always better. I made a water proof case with a watertight DC socket screwed into it and the cable goes into a rectifier to be charged by the dynamo. I've adapted it since then with a three way switch to redirect or share power with the lights.

For off road it depends how rough the terrain is. For instance for something like cycling from one end of New Zealand to the other (Tour Aotearoa) it was fine since there was a variety of on road and off road sections.

For something like the Highland Trail Race perhaps not so since the average speed might not be enough to charge the phone.

South Downs Way end to end was fine too. I have a dynamo setup on the MTB too or at least I did have until I sold my Sinewave Beacon (there's something better on its way).

As far as on the bar security goes I see no problem with it. If it's hanging out the front then that could be an issue (though it hasn't for me) but QuadLock will enable the phone to hang over the stem even using their out front mount, in reverse. The QuadLock system is very high quality (and expensive) but doesn't have the range of items that SP Connect supply.

I've a new phone now (cracked the Z3 compact when it was in my pocket during a crash!) and so have ordered the SP Connect system to test. They have two mounts; one out-front and another for mountain biking which looks interesting as it has a kind of shock absorber on a shorter mount. I can't tell you how the quality compares to QuadLock yet but I'll soon find out.

I do also use a Garmin Oregon but only off road where the majority of riding is on very rough trails. Everything else then I use the phone leaving the Garmin at home.

Let us know how the SP Connect shapes up please.