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My Karoo 2 has died. It's now melted its usb c port twice. But the second time it was out of warranty. So I need a head unit. it worked just fine but ut wasn't cheao and now I'm in the Garmin Family. Here are my thoughts so far. I don't plan to spend too much. If the Epix had an aways on option I might just strap it to my handle bars
Thoughts so far
Explore 2, this should be the obvious choice. But I think it doesn't feed data into the my watch metrics like body battery. In some ways I might not care. On the other hand it seems silly to have some actvities feeding in. I think by the end of the Karoo's life I was recording rides on my watch so they were recorded in Garmin
530 Cheapish and everone has one. WIFI for updates and more robust sync in the house. Does feed into Garmin stuff. But quite an old model and some reports of them getting flacky now
540 Same as the 530 but newer with an option to configure from your phone. PLus newer so hopefully will be current for longer. Usb charging. DCrainmaker didn't like it when it came out
No pwer meter. No need for strava live segments. This is mainly for navigation, recording oh and pulse for moderating efforts
The others options are more which doesn't rule them out, but I'd need a good reason to spend more. On the karoo scrolling the map never really helped, better to get the phone out. Plus as the screens need locking in the wet you need to be able to work form buttons anyway
I use a 530 with an Epix gen2. the 530 is only for navigation, you can extend the display to include data from the Epix but I can't be bothered with the faff.
I get quite grumpy with the 530 as zooming in/out isn't great and when following Courses downloaded from Strava etc. it can be real pain and sometimes isn't compatible with the source data.
I had the 530 first and TBH I wouldn't buy again.
Thanks Colin that’s useful
I've recently got and Edge 840 Solar. I put Talkytoaster maps on after reading all the recommendations. I hate it.
1) my eyesight isn't the best (not the Garmins fault)
2) hard to read in certain lights
3) hard to see exactly where the next turn is
4) re-routing if you miss a turn isn't great
5) zooming is rubbish
6) maybe I should have got a 1040
7) going to try going back to Garmin maps to see if the experience improves
8) oh, the OS and navigating around it is horrific
9) it does link up with my ebike quite nicely though
10) I don't really pair it with the watch (Epix) so can't comment on that
The epix thing isn’t about a direct connection. It’s just that the data from the edge explore is apparently ignored by Connect for fitness metrics
Clearly my karoo was better than i thought. Screen size i think i can live with because my eye site is bad enough that i need “old people squares”
I’ll keep looking….
540 is £217 direct from Garmin with STW members discount if that makes a difference I just picked one up for mrsfoo.
I always assume Epix owners have money to burn, so really it should be a 1050… 😉
I always assume Epix owners have money to burn, so really it should be a 1050… 😉
Not necessarily. Epix 2 £325 from H Samuel 👍
6) maybe I should have got a 1040
I have both 840 and 1040 (and an Epix ..) The 840 is i find a better size for bar mounting off road, but agree screen size is a bit compromised for old eyes. I use the 1040 on the road bike and although has same features really as the 840, things like climb pro data are much clearer, bigger, easier to see. I don't connect the Epix to the bar mounted unit, and I wear a HR chest strap, which is connected to the 840 or 1040.
I've got a 530 (and an epix from H Samuel), it was an out of warranty replacement for a 810 that died. It's ok, works well as a speedo, but for nav I wouldn't have another one without a touchscreen. 840 would be where my money would go I think.