[kinderje]

My trusty Garmin 500 is on its way out and I need help deciding what to get next. Not being rude but please don’t suggest Wahoo, Bryton etc as I am happy with Garmin.

I want to use navigation but can’t decide between 530 and 830 – is the 830 touchscreen worth the extra expense?

Also, any views on Edge Explore? I haven’t got a powermeter or cadence sensor so are the 530/830 not really worth the extra expense, or is the battery life of the Explore not as good?

TIA.

 

****UPDATE****

 

Thanks for all the advice I finally took the plunge and bought an 830 – managed to use my wife’s NHS discount and got one for £260. Now to start plotting routes and downloading them?

Topic

[Chris Hayes]

Get a Hammerhead Karoo II if

I’d take a look at the Hammerhead Karoo II if you have the budget.  It’s on a different level to the Garmins you’re considering, though a bit bigger.  I’ve found the touchscreens on the Garmins I’ve owned less than reliable…and the screen / map resolution less than adequate.  With the HKII you get iPhone level resolution….

[Miller]

wycombewheeler wrote:

as if a touch screen is a definiate upgrade over buttons

Opinions vary on that, of course, but I have 820 and 520 Garmins and I much prefer using the 820 with its touchscreen. The touchscreen doesn’t like heavy rain, then again neither do I.

[duncanap]

I agree – in the end I found

I agree – in the end I found myself using the “total ascent” field to see how much of the days climbing was left. It doesn’t tell you how steep things are going to be, but if you have done 2000m out of a day of 3000 m you know where you are.

I was also interested that my daily total climb was always less than the total claimed by the event organisers, and I promise I didn’t cut any corners….

[wycombewheeler]

Liam Cahill wrote:

I believe that the 830 and 1030 use a better touchscreen but I’m not sure if the 530 has caught up.

as if a touch screen is a definiate upgrade over buttons

[wycombewheeler]

1) longer battery life (i’ve

1) longer battery life (i’ve found using phone for navigation that it doesn’t last too long) so you don’t end up *somewhere* with no more navigation and also no means to call for help

2) keeping the phone out of the rain/spray zone, I have had one fail when mounted on the bars, even when it was functional water in the headphone jack can stop you making phone calls, as it tries to send audio to headphones instead of speaker

3) better pairing with sensors such as hrm or power meter 

4) with modern di2 you can switch between garmin pages using the buttons on the shifters, garmin can then also display di2 battery power level and selected gear.

[wycombewheeler]

I found it very helpful when

I found it very helpful when doing an endurance event with 10,000m of climbing (multi days) to see how far to the next climb, and how long it would be.

Sometimes it misses some, don’t know how the algorithm decides what counts as a climb, but it’s quite useful to see them being ticked off.

[wycombewheeler]

I’ve got the 530, before that

I’ve got the 530, before that had a 520, impressed at the OP keping a 500 going so long.

I’ve found the 530 to be very much better than the 510 and 520. I avoided te 800 prefering a system which would still work in the wet (touchscreens are generally bad when covered in water) and also for the longer battery life.

You have to decide if you prefer the better graphics and larger screen of the 830, 530 really does everythin I want it to, reliably and for a long time.

I have recently found routes that i personally create on strava seem to find themselves on my my garmin with no intervention, but befoe that I never had an issue with dropping gpx files onto the unit by connecting to PC, which seems to differ from the alchemy involved with wahoo, although wahoo ehtusiasts say this isnt the case. 

[Gimpl]

Can’t add anything to the

Can’t add anything to the advice – I will be devastated if/when my old 500 gives up the ghost!

[Stratman]

I used an 800 for years very

I used an 800 for years very happily until the on-off button broke.  (To be fair I’d covered many tens of thousands of miles with it). I couldn’t decide between a 530 and an 830, but I did use the touch screen quite a lot, and so went for the 830.  I’ve enjoyed using it very much, there’s lots of data (I do have a power meter) and the navigation works very well.  

[wtjs]

Agreed. DC Rainmaker and the

Agreed. DC Rainmaker and the Quantified Scientist channels on YouTube are very good on equipment. QS is mainly smartwatches.

[duncanap]

Forgive me if you know this

Forgive me if you know this site already – but I think this guy does really useful reviews for all kinds of electronics, he is a triathlete but seems to have a very fair and balanced approach to assessing devices. here is is guide to cycling gps units

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2021/11/best-cycling-gps-computers-recommendations.html

[duncanap]

The climb pro function only

The climb pro function only works if you are cycling on a “route” saved on the device, it will work if you upload a gpx file from a route planner, but not sure it works if you just ask the garmin to navigate you from a to b.

also it decides automatically what the climbs are, so I have had some weird splits, and some climbs (one was >800m vertical elevation gain) which did not qualify for some reason.

The only time I found it really helpful was on an event in the alps where I could see what was coming in the next few kms and pace myself accordingly – slow, very slow, or snail pace…..

[Secret_squirrel]

I have a similar dilemma.

I have a similar dilemma.  Want a better navigation device than my Lezyne Mega XL.  Stuck between 530,830 and Hammerhead 2.   Reason the Hammerhead sneaks in is I’ve seen multiple reviews stating the auto rerouting sucks on the Garmins. 
 

Anyone care to comment?

[kinderje]

Thanks for the info. Screen

Thanks for the info. Screen size is a definite factor which is why I also looked at the Explore – just not sure what the battery life of that one is like.

I also like the look of the Climb Pro function on the 530/830.

Decisions, Decisions!!! 

[kinderje]

I saw the same deal and was

Thanks, I saw the same deal and was very tempted. I haven’t used navigation yet (I know the 500 had basic breadcrumb type trails that I never used) but would like to start exploring a bit more.I’m not keen on using my phone as battery isn’t brilliant

Here’s hoping the new year sales bring prices down again!!

[Author]

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