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As my edge 1000 has decided it doesn't want to share my last couple of rides, it's looking like I could do with a new one. The Edge was hand me down, I had to replace the screen on, as strava sucks the life out of my phones tired battery. I've only ever used it to record rides but did 'like' the idea of following routes using it. What are the better options available at them moment, without too many bells and whistles?
Factory reset the device and see if anything improves?
I use an Acer xplova x5 evo, seems to do alright for my limited use of it.
I've got an Edge 530. I had an 800 (good) and 810 (rubbish) before that. The 530 is great. It's not got a touch screen but you can plot a route on your phone/tablet/pc and easily send it to the Edge, and can pan and zoom using the buttons. The battery lasts for days*, it's easy to follow routes on, route calculation happens really quickly*, I've got no complaints with it at all.
*Unlike the 810.
Someone on here got one of these:
Refurbished Edge Explore £125
Or amazon if your prefer for a few quid more....
https://amzn.eu/d/jfLBPc V">Edge Explore on Amazon £132
I've got one and bar the battery life I've been happy. I think I need to play with the settings and screen brightness as 6hrs is OK but doesn't really live up to the "explore" tag too well...
Still happy with my etrex for pre plotted nav (IE following the blue line) simple with no bells+whistles just an os map and a line.
But I don't pretend it's any good as a tracker and use my Fenix for that.
I’ve got an Edge 530. ..... The battery lasts for days*
Really? they say 20 hours. But then the Edge 130 I've got now says up to 15 hours. Maybe I've had 10 out of it, but 2 years old on a cold day (maybe about 5C) it hasn't been more than 5 hours.
@johnnystorm Edge explore claims 'up to 12 hours' so I'd not plan on doing a whole lot of exploring with it....
WTF Garmin can't actually spec decent sized batteries on their devices is beyond me. I've taken my 130 apart and fitted a replacement battery that's supposedly twice the oringal capacity. It fits (just), but will remain to be seen whether it actually delivers as I've had very mixed experiences with Chinese Ebay lipos. But Garmin could have specced this size battery to start with for marginal extra cost.
Someone on here
That was me! The Edge Explore is OK. For a first time user of hike GPS like I am, it's OK. Screen size isn't great though. If I ever need something else a larder screen will be a priority.
If you only actually use it to record rides then there's much cheaper options. It's got decent battery life, connects to bluetooth/ant+ sensors and uploads rides via a bluetooth phone app.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004987576521.html
WTF Garmin can’t actually spec decent sized batteries on their devices is beyond me.
The solar edge is available, as is the battery pack for anyone who wants more power. The vast majority of users don't find 12 hours limiting so I guess they dont want to up costs by putting bigger batteries in. I've had 24 hours of tracking out of a solar instinct
https://www.garmin.com/en-GB/p/571552
The new Edge units are pretty good but for simplicity out of the box I'd go for Wahoo. I went from Wahoo to Garmin partly because I fancied a change and partly because the Garmins have better deals on them. I'd switch back to Wahoo today if money wasn't a factor. They're far more intuitive and you don't need to read the manual to achieve simple tasks. Even stuff like zooming in on the map requires multiple steps. It's one button press on the wahoo.
Really? they say 20 hours
Sorry, I mean rides over multiple days, not literal days (72 hrs+) of constant recording.
E.g a 5-6 hour ride that left me with at least ~75% battery. The 810 would have been on the last 10% after that. A friend had a similar experience with (I think) an Edge Explore but he's now also got a 530 and is really happy with it.
On the 'not wanting to share rides' front, I've experienced this with my Etrex.
After a lot of messing around, it seems to be related to how many recorded rides are in memory.
Try clearing out some of the older ones.
Another vote for Wahoo.
Another vote for Wahoo.
I've had loads of garnins but the batteries are terrible.
Moved to wahoo and won't go back.
If it's just recording then pick up a cheap wahoo bolt v1. I have a roam v1 bd it's great. Easy to use, does everything I need it to do and the battery lasts even when following a route.
IME Garmin products are a world of software pain. The hardware might be good (I suppose) and the advertised functionality is impressive, but whenever I want to do something beyond just record a ride I run into problems, and Googling reveals that dozens of others have the same problem. I bought an Edge 830 over a Wahoo because of the better map screen, but I question my decision all the time!
I had to replace the screen on, as strava sucks the life out of my phones tired battery. I’ve only ever used it to record rides but did ‘like’ the idea of following routes using it. What are the better options available at them moment, without too many bells and whistles?
Replace phone battery and/or an external charger for the phone?
I don't use Strava but I do use Komoot sometimes both for route planning and recording. If its just recording I'll switch the screen off anyway and stick it in a bum bag... turn by turn is as good as I'd want on Komoot...
I did look at some minimalist GPS I was advised on here but my main concern is I can use komoot at arm length and still see the colours well enough to follow the navigation without having to stop and put on reading glasses
Yeah, I've 520plus and TBH it's a PITA. If it doesn't want an update (it always wants an update), then it'll be a pain trying to get it to see the phone it's connected to. I use Komoot (for my sins) and the Garmin will generally have a hissy fit for a couple of mins before working.
I moved to Wahoo with a Bolt v1 ages ago, and now run a Bolt V2. Overall the bolts just work, however there are some concerns. I am finding battery life terrible after some of the latest updates. Over summer I got over 12 hours off of a charge, at the moment I'm getting about 8 hours.
The live track can be weird. A couple of rides ago it stopped when I 20 minutes into a ride and never restarted, even though I didn't pause or touch anything.
The biggest worry is that Wahoo is in a very bad financial state, so it will be interesting to see if their whole ecosystem will survive.
I am looking at a newer Garmin to replace my BoltV2, maybe a rumoured 540 or 840.
I have a couple.
Original Edge 800 still going strong. Did a battery replacement and its working well.
Bought a lightly used Edge 1000 from ebay Small Stuff as it shows ebike data from my Levo. Its working well too. I just use it for nav, trip data and ebike stuff. Mapping is OpenMTB maps on both, not the Garmin basemap.
No issues with Garmin Express linking to either of these using a Macbook Pro.
What @bails said without the 810 🙂
I had an 800 that served me well for years. Then I crashed and didn't realise it had fallen off then couldn't find it when I went back.
Went with the 530 over the 830 as I ride year round and it works better with winter gloves. Panning around a map is much better with a touchscreen, but I tend to pull out the phone with the OS maps app if I want to check out options on the route.
There seems to be quite a bit of variability with seemingly similar models e.g. 800 good, 810 bad, 520 bad, 530 good. But the 530 hasn't really given me any problems in the last year or so. I can create courses in Komoot, Strava (and Garmin Connect of course) and they seem to magically appear on the device. It even has a option to find the device (including making it beep when you are close) which might come in handy one day 🙂
I'm still living my Edge 530. I don't have any problems with it. Battery life is good. Now it's setup the way I like I rarely have to fiddle with the more obscure menu options. I also accept that there's a bit of a learning curve as it's just so feature-rich and configurable.
The 540 should be out imminently so the 530 may be available at a sizeable discount soon.
Sorry if I missed this above but my 1000 stopped working via bluetooth to my phone which is how I had it uploading (app installed on phone) so I swapped it to using WiFi and that works fine
My Garmin stops talking to anything else when it needs an update. It's generally co-operative when it's happy, but it's a sure sign - if it's not talking to other devices. Update time
I eagerly waiting for the release of the 540, my 820 battery was lasting about an hour (daily use for several years) and I bodged the replacement and killed it. If they dont do something soon ill just have to go for a 530 but i'm trying to avoid the micro-usb horribleness of it.
One bonus of using a Garmin Etrex, is that it uses AA batteries, so you'll never have to deal with a 'tired' battery no longer giving as many hours of use as it used to.
Carrying a couple of spares is no real burden, and you can always pickup extras in petrol stations etc.
If you are using a Garmin device, I can also recommend the maps available from Talkytoaster - especially for off road riding.
Yeah, I still have an Oregon 600 and it's my first choice for extended trips on account of using AAs, though the advances in battery packs have made that mostly redundant.
Dammit, how am I going to know how much bike battery I have left now 🙂 🙂
@johnnystorm Edge explore claims ‘up to 12 hours’ so I’d not plan on doing a whole lot of exploring with it….
You definitely won't get 12hrs if you actually use it for navigation. Not without a powerbank.
I've got an Edge 530 and tend to use it more for tracking my rides than navigating. I've got an old Etrex Montana that's much better for navigating with it's big touch screen and OS maps. However, the 530's battery does last for multiple rides, and as well as having it linked to Strava (so my friends can see I'm still alive and kicking), I have it linked to Trailforks.
On Sunday's wee spin around my local haunts 'Le Tour de Plean Park et Torwood' on my Orange 4, I was pleasantly surprised to see that while stationary, the screen was swapping between my bike computer data (a handy wee thing I also like is that it can display my e-bike's battery status), and the map display that was actually showing all the 'trails' that folk have uploaded to Trailforks. I think it can do this with Strava as well, but I don't have a subscription for that.
I quite like the way that you can download apps onto the device. Still my favourite is beers earned. I tend not to look at a lot of the calories burned / fitness increased nonsense it displays. But beers earned on a ride? Now that's a useful statistics!
Still not replaced my misplaced Lezyne Mega XL that has massive battery life (~48 hours), there were great deals before Xmas on Garmin Edge 530s for ~£160, but now lucky to find them cheaper than ~£240.
Cheers ppl, great suggestions, to answer a couple of the comments..
I have tried reseting the device & updating it, but it just stays stuck syncing or preparing. I seem to remember needing to mess with the drivers in device manager & something about changing the MTU to a mass storage device, but have yet to crack it. I did locate the ride history and deleted out all the ride but have yet to test it again (I don't hold much hope). It was already connected to my wifi, though as I reset this, it's lost the settings & can't put it back with the app....
"as it shows ebike data from my Levo." if you notice Renton's comment above 😒.. my Garmin would connect to my old '19 Levo, my friends '19 Levo, Renton '22 Levo but not my '22 Levo.. which was very annoying. I take it the 530 won't do this?
My phone is an apple, which the lightning port is rubbish & easily damaged, but it has put me onto the idea of a battery integrated onto a case, cheers.
So it sound like the 530 or Wahoo Bolt are the front runners GPS wise, cheers all.
Plan B would be update the 22 Levo via mission control. I just did this and it updated the display, motor and battery. Maybe that would re-establish the bluetooth connection?
If it helps the Wahoo Element Roam (V1) is reduced to £180 at Evans… tempted myself now
my main concern is I can use komoot at arm length and still see the colours well enough to follow the navigation without having to stop and put on reading glasses
I think a GPS like Wahoo is much more legible than any phone, a simplified view of trails and junctions is very easy to follow especially with turn by turn directions. Wahoo are either black and white or muted colours which works very well
Still my favourite is beers earned.
I've just downloaded this! much more useful to me that what my cadence is or my Vo2! Cheers.
spooky_b329
I think a GPS like Wahoo is much more legible than any phone, a simplified view of trails and junctions is very easy to follow especially with turn by turn directions. Wahoo are either black and white or muted colours which works very well
Worth a look as my eyesight isn't getting any better... The komoot simplified on my phone is mainly** just an arrow and direction (LEFT/RIGHT/FOLLOW etc.) white on dark grey and whilst I can't actually "read it" properly the fuzzy LEFT and fuzzy Arrow etc. is good enough... and the fuzzy bit underneath is how far but that's mostly is it 1,2 or 3 figures rather than being able to read it.
Beyond that (ability to see a direction and order of magnitude as to when to turn) I don't see the need for an additional device (other than battery) as all I ever do is either record or follow routes on it.
The displays on Wahoo are really good, high contrast and super simple. You can also have permanent backlight with only a marginal reduction in battery life too. Garmin have somewhat followed suit but Wahoo is still better imo.
New edge 5 and 8 leaked the other day. Looks like they're both smaller than current bodies but Garmin claiming increased battery life (hahahahahahahaha) and sounds like both will have a 'solar' version which might actually give a properly long runtime but is much less useful in winter when the cold is killing battery runtime and, for the 1000, added more than the cost of an Edge 130 to the price....
Why put big battery in for a few quid when you can charge >£100 for solar....
Not checked today, but yesterday, Amazon had the Edge 130 Plus for £100 and the Edge 530 for £180.
I think their spring sale ends tonight.
I'm half tempted to try Garmin for the Climb Pro feature, albeit you have to tell it your route before heading off and in previous years I might spontaneously tackle an extra hill, but with gold loyalty and a basket discount code I could buy a Lezyne Mega XL for £143 at Merlin.
Not to mention I've not read the Edge 540 leaked specs yet.
but with gold loyalty and a basket discount code I could buy a Lezyne Mega XL for £143 at Merlin.
I've just received a Lezyne super-pro to try out as a non-Garmin alternative.
My initial impressions are pretty positive, noting it seems like the navigation features really need a connected phone to work best, where my edge explore despite its awful battery life has pretty good offline routing. I've not gotten hands on with a Mega XL but from what I can tell it's essentially a scaled up version of the super pro(?).
I am keen to try the mega XL, but I'm a bit over-run with GPS devices currently and will need to decide if I want shot of the Edge Explore, to buy another Garmin or stick with Lezyne for a bit, it all comes down to the navigation being up to snuff and battery life...
Edge 540 looks good but I'm doubtful about initial pricing, Garmin don't sell their new toys cheap, which of course makes the 530 tempting again...
Edge 540, 540 Solar, 840 and 840 Solar specs were released (leaked?) earlier this week.
Various roadie sites have posted an overview
Highlights seem to be...
Solar versions for 540 and 840
Climb Pro changed to work predictively if not following a route
UI changed to mirror the 1040
Basically, both are a smaller version of the 1040 with significantly less battery range.
Edge 1030 Plus can be had with a price match to Wiggle from Millets. That makes it £315 dropping it into the 830 price range.
Is the battery on the 1030 rubbish or am I getting mixed up with the Explore?
I have the 1030 plus, I find it great. The screen is a decent size. The battery life for me has been good, did a day out from about 9.30am to about 7.00pm, still several hours in the battery, screen on the whole time. I have no idea if it runs the full 24 hours promised, as I have never run it that low. You can get an extra battery pack (silly price backup, or was when I bought the main unit) or if not wet/raining you could I guess run it from any USB power bank.
You can set up multiple 'profiles' for route type / ride type. This includes route planning for cars and pedestrians and in fact I use the unit more for recreational walking than I do for the bike at the moment. Its been very good for that.
The mapping has loads of options, can choose a flat map or shading for contours etc and options to avoid certain road types. You can search for handy things like shops, hospitals and suchlike and it can search for addresses (at the time of purchase almost none of the bike sat navs could do this, its very handy).
Some of these features may be of less interest to those who love smart phones, but I hate them, so searching on the sat nav is good, with no phone call intrusion into the recreation part of my life.
The flexibiity of how it is set up is enourmous. I found it a bit ovewhelming on the first day or so and the manual pdf lacks massive of useful info that could be in it. YouTube is a friend here.
I cant comment much on the sports / health recording as I dont use that and dont bother with the various monitors you can buy and link to it.
It will work out all sorts of other things without the add ons, you can get a huge range of info on the screens, layout and content all chosen by yourself (such as hill grades, ave speed, estimated time to arrival at chosen point, laps, tons of other stuff).
Or you can just have a single bit of info on a screen page.
Its so flexible. A really handy thing is it will display 'sunrise and/or sunset time', great when deciding where to walk or ride in the daylight left or when to pitch or fold tent.
I really struggled to bring myself to pay for what was at the time Garmins top bike Sat Nav, the battery life and screen size were the pushing factors plus it was in a sale. It was a huge investment for me as I am not flush with money. Now, what must be a couple of years later, it travels with me almost every time I leave the house as its so useful/fun for walking and biking.
I feel, despite the horrible initial cost, that I made a really good choice when I got it (relief!!!).
If you have no patience with researching and setting up screens (pretty much a one off) it may not be for you.
Not to derail the thread, as no doubt others will find it useful, but my 1000 finally updated after 10 attempts and is now working again.. still probably need to replace it sooner rather than later
Last year I bought an Edge 530 and I have been very pleased with it, battery life is very good.
I do need to sit down and read the instructions to get the most of it, but the turn by turn navigation is very useful.