[Griff500]

I am looking at buying a GPS, I am familiar enough with the various specs, but am particularly interested in users experience of reliability. Frankly, Internet search does no credit to any of the players I am looking at, with Garmin being generally trashed, Wahoo Bolt users complaining of black screen syndrome, and Lezyne having a few bugs. To reiterate, I am not looking for info on functionality, I can get this from website reviews (eg road.cc) I am particularly interested in reliability and longevity, in order to avoid owning another useless piece of plastic. Any good or bad experience here?

Topic

[Canyon48]

StraelGuy wrote:

Purely anecdotal but… I’m only one person but i had a Garmin Edge Touring Plus that was absolute garbage – froze, lost rides, reset mid-ride etc. I now have a Wahoo Elemnt Bolt that hasn’t put a foot wrong in the year and a bit I’ve had it.

My other half has a Garmin Edge Touring – it’s not great for the reasons you mentioned.

My Edge 25 has never had an issue.

[vonhelmet]

Is Garmin integrated with

Is Garmin integrated with ridewithgps these days? I find that feature invaluable on my elemnt.

[CXR94Di2]

I ditched Garmin for Wahoo
I ditched Garmin for Wahoo Elemnt. It so much easier to setup, alter settings and integrate with Strava or live linking. All settings are done from mobile phone. You can either connect phone at start of ride and have tracking, live Strava and messages/calls notification from phone or run separately, once home the Elemnt connect to home WiFi and upload your ride. I usually have phone connection, but not all the time

[jacknorell]

Wahoo Elemnt has worked
Wahoo Elemnt has worked perfectly for last 2 years.

A friend who does long audaxes switched from Garmin and is also much happier with it than his old Edge 520.

[stomec]

Another Edge touring user of

Another Edge touring user of 3 years – it has never given me any major problems. I’ve used a couple of the extra free apps for different data screens and navigation has always been faultless ie my mistake when I take a wrong turn. 

Battery life is an issue over 100 miles – last cut out on Dragon Ride at 135 miles. 

I’ve always thought it odd the Garmins have such a rep – perhaps inherited like the Grauniad for bad spelling?

[bikecation]

We guide with Edge Tourings

We guide with Edge Tourings and think they are very good. Turn off, turn x turn directions and turn off recalculate route and all you have to do is follow a pink line on top of a base map. 

[davel]

DoctorFish wrote:

StraelGuy wrote:

Purely anecdotal but… I’m only one person but i had a Garmin Edge Touring Plus that was absolute garbage – froze, lost rides, reset mid-ride etc. I now have a Wahoo Elemnt Bolt that hasn’t put a foot wrong in the year and a bit I’ve had it.

Same, do not buy a touring plus.  I have a elemnt now, rather than the bolt, but it has never gone wrong.

 

I have a Touring… let me down badly a couple of times (packed in when I didn’t know where I was). Cursed it, was about to bin it, stuck with it purely out of not bothering to get a replacement, and it’s been faultless since an update (I think) a couple of years ago.

Not a ringing endorsement… too unpredictable to recommend.

[sergius]

alanbboyd wrote:

Only a sample of one… have had an Edge 1000 for 4 years. Some bugs with the early software versions but it has been rock solid ever since. It has never crashed mid-ride or failed to record a ride. Navigation “just works”. Perhaps not a widely held opinion, but very happy with it.

 

Same here, my 1000 has been rock solid for the last three+ years.  I use it for occasional navigation but mostly just recording activities.  My wife really likes the Garmin LIveTrack as well so she knows roughly when I’ll be home. 

 

I did have to replace the Garmin HR strap after about 18 months, picked up a Scoshe arm mounted one which is brilliant.

[alanbboyd]

Only a sample of one… have

Only a sample of one… have had an Edge 1000 for 4 years. Some bugs with the early software versions but it has been rock solid ever since. It has never crashed mid-ride or failed to record a ride. Navigation “just works”. Perhaps not a widely held opinion, but very happy with it.

[srchar]

TheLonelyOne wrote:

Garmin’s expensive “soft” HRM strap that came with it is a POS and not fit for purpose, ceasing to work after a few months (original and replacement).

Tip: get a Polar strap. The Garmin sender fits perfectly once you’ve trimmed down the flange around the Polar strap’s press-studs.

[FatAndFurious]

I’ll echo drinfinity’s

I’ll echo drinfinity’s comments on the Edge 800. Garbage default maps but that’s easily fixed with open street maps, and instability encountered when using the SD card. I now save my rides to the “internal” storage and just keep map files on the SD, and that’s worked 100% since.

I’ve only one other observation about this old model, which might leak into later versions. Cycling up to the local high point with its barber-pole comms tower atop it seems to upset the stability of the unit,  so it might be susceptible to RFI. The display freezes but more often than not, the GPS recording seems unaffected.

Garmin’s expensive “soft” HRM strap that came with it is a POS and not fit for purpose, ceasing to work after a few months (original and replacement).

 

 

[Sniffer]

kil0ran wrote:

madcarew wrote:

I have had a garmin 500 for about 6 years. It works just fine all the time.  It has buttons, not a touch screen and is small and simple. It has limited use as a navigation aid, but as a training aid (HR, Power, Altitiude etc) it is really excellent. The altimeter (barometer run) is ridiculously accurate. I have no idea how they do it.

I’ve yet to find anyone who has had issues with their 500, and I think it’s where they coming from with the 130 – clear screen, physical buttons, compact size. Just seems to work…

Not getting rid of my 500 anytime soon.  Apart from having to plug it in to upload rides there are very few downsides.

[kil0ran]

madcarew wrote:

I have had a garmin 500 for about 6 years. It works just fine all the time.  It has buttons, not a touch screen and is small and simple. It has limited use as a navigation aid, but as a training aid (HR, Power, Altitiude etc) it is really excellent. The altimeter (barometer run) is ridiculously accurate. I have no idea how they do it.

I’ve yet to find anyone who has had issues with their 500, and I think it’s where they coming from with the 130 – clear screen, physical buttons, compact size. Just seems to work…

[madcarew]

I have had a garmin 500 for

I have had a garmin 500 for about 6 years. It works just fine all the time.  It has buttons, not a touch screen and is small and simple. It has limited use as a navigation aid, but as a training aid (HR, Power, Altitiude etc) it is really excellent. The altimeter (barometer run) is ridiculously accurate. I have no idea how they do it.

[kil0ran]

This sort of thing is why I

This sort of thing is why I steered clear of touchscreens and went with the physical buttons on the Edge 130. They’re responsive and easy to access, even with gloves on (obvs not tried full winter gloves yet). It does most of what the bigger Garmins do so seemed to be the sweet spot.

Undoubted upgrade in usability and reliability over the RFLKT+ and I get decent enough battery life for my use case.

I was all set to get one of the ELEMNTs and wary of the Garmin but the 25 I got for my son convinced me to go with Garmin this time. Hopefully a long-term user of the 130 as it does all I need and am ever likely to need.

[Author]

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