Recommend a bike computer

Hi folks,

My wife wants to get me a new bike computer for Christmas and who am I to get in her way...

I currently have a Garmin Edge 130 but it is very basic and is fairly tiny. I would like to upgrade it.

Something with a bigger, colour display that I can pair with a power meter.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. I don't need anything top of the range but am happy to pay for something nice.

Thanks in advance.

Ryath

Garmin Edge 530 for €190 on amazon. I'm tempted myself, my Edge 800 is a bit of an antique at this stage I have it for 9 years. Battery life is still decent though only uses about 30% on a 3/4 hour ride. Ant only is a bit of a faff though for uploading. The tabs broke on it earlier in the year and I haven't got around to getting the repair kit so have been using my Garmin forerunner to record.

An Edge 540 or 530 plus isn't to far away I'd say, will have USB C which is a big plus. I'm really trying to banish micro usb leads from my life! Will be twice the price though.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Garmin-Cycling-Unisex-Adult-Black/dp/B07RZ95D6L

Luxman

id second the 530 , as its on the way to be replaced by Garmin the price is dropping. Very happy with mine, decent screen size , colour , very fast CPU compared to older models. dcrainmaker gave it the thumbs up.

MyDarkArts

I'm just after ordering the Garmin 530, I haven't used it yet so can't recommend it, though the reviews seem positive.

What I will add, is that I previously had the Garmin 820 and would recommend to avoid the touchscreen models. They're more expensive and the onscreen controls basically unusable when wearing gloves or it's wet out. (In spite of what they might promise.)

crosstownk

Be sure to give consideration to a Wahoo ELEMNT Bolt. Solid computer with a decent companion app. I much prefer it to my previous Garmin 520 Edge. Similar price range.

Mundo7976

I'm looking at the bryton s500 myself. I see a couple of YouTubers using it & I like the look of it!

iwillhtfu

Another vote for the Garmin 530 it's basically the do it all bike computer. I don't see the need to change to anything else unless you're doing a lot of touring and want a bigger screen but in that case I'd jut use komoot on the phone.

I did look at the wahoo which seem decent but I have always used Garmin so saw no need to move away to something that is no cheaper but doe seem equally good. Basically the bike computers apple v android.

I wouldn't bother with Bryton unless it was a bargain price. I don't know anything about them but hard to compete with the two above in my eyes unless it's on price and in doing that you sacrifice quality.

Macy0161

I had the first version of the wahoo bolt, but moved back to Garmin with the 530 this time last year. I'd gone for the bolt because of battery life, but Garmin have sorted that out (and you could add external battery).

A couple of things I've been disappointed with - the crash detection is a bit overly sensitive on my one (had to turn it off), and Climb Pro can be a bit delayed. I've to test whether that is strava maps or it happens with routes created in Garmin too.

Luxman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119871842#Comment_119871842

Agree on teh crash detection, it went nuts one day when I stopped to check my phone and I hadn't figured out how to set it up. The climbpro feature I love, haven't really noticed a delay in it.

Macy0161

Climbpro seems to be a bit hit and miss, admittedly mainly on imported from strava routes created by others (like club spins).

Luxman

I tend to built my own routes with ridewithgps and import them. I don't really like the Garmin route builder.

JMcL

Another vote for the 530 - I can't fault mine. I've been using it for about 6-7 months now having mislaid the 520 I had before. Mapping and routing work well (I'm using it with Komoot)

That said, I wouldn't say you'd go far wrong with the Bolt either if there're better offers to be had

CantGetNoSleep

I have both the 530 and the 1030 - the crash detection is much more sensitive (and more difficult to cancel an alert) on the 530. I also had to turn it off

MyDarkArts

Far too many false positives on the Garmin crash detection for it to be useful. Any sort of slightly abrupt stop, for traffic lights or such, would set it off.

I've also had to turn it off, about a dozen times now. And I've never once turned it on.

07Lapierre

I've the Garmin 830..basically the 530 with a touch screen. Very happy with it.

gn3dr

Yup. Garmin 530. Very happy with mine.

crosstownk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119872321#Comment_119872321

Agreed. The Garmin route builder works but is cumbersome. Ride with GPS is much better and syncs directly with Wahoo. Not sure what the current sync/compatibility is with current Garmin units.

sy_flembeck

Having got tired of Garmin unreliability I switched to the Hammerhead Karoo and then the Karoo 2, which is my current device.

Absolutely by far and away the bast and most reliable GPS unit I have ever had

Luxman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119875236#Comment_119875236

once you have your ridewithgps route, then export the file, it sends it to you Mac/PC, the go to Garmin Connect website and import it from the the Mac/PC. Sounds cumbersome but for the amount of routes I plan it only takes a few minutes.

JMcL

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119875236#Comment_119875236

Ride With GPS I'm not sure, but Komoot syncs very nicely

Thanks to everyone for their recommendations. I always prefer to get real recommendations, and find the ones I get here to be excellent.

In the end, I went for the Garmin Edge 530 after considering all the options. It has pretty much everything I need.

Thanks again.

Roberto_gas

Had the bolt v2 but moved to 530 as i had to stick with garmin ecosystem to get training stats aligned to my fenix.

Like the 530 so far have not used it much