GPS tech (Garmin, Hammerhead, Wahoo, RWGPS, etc)

I have been wondering similar as the usb port cover of mine has broken off so sooner or later water is going to get in and ruin it

In the end I've recommended just that one. I had the V1 and was clunky but solid

Running watches. I've had several Garmin Forerunners and they've been... ok (the heart rate sensors never work properly). I'm thinking of buying something new with mapping for e.g. longer trail events.

Go for the forerunner 955? Or take a punt on a coros, maybe the pace 3?

You can still search for routes, just that it's now under the Explore menu.

https://burlycross.wordpress.com/2023/10/13/garmin-edge-explore-2-is-brilliant-for-distance-cycling-external-power-mount-pin-outs/

Looks like a neat way of powering a 1030 as well with that power bundle thing.

Not in the same way and not to get the results to display in anything like the same way as far as I can see

Is there a garmin or other smart watch that anyone can recommend that does the trick for cycling? I mostly just want something to track rides without caning my phone battery. Occasional squizz at a map to ensure I’m heading the right way. Don’t really care about fitness data or power metrics or anything like that. I do a lot of walking as well, so feel like forking out for a dedicated cycling computer will leave me with a hole for that, and I’d rather get something that can cover both.

I have a Fenix (5x) which I use for all that. Has on device mapping so you don't need your phone. Although mapping on a phone is a lot easier as the screen is bigger.

What do you want for walking? The Fenix would be the best for navigation, but it has a lot of features you won't get the most out of if you don't wear it regularly.

bumping this as I am shifting my garmin to my friend and I will be a-garminised by next week :(

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I used a 520 to death, so immediately jumped at this gen when it was released earlier this year.

The 540 and 840 are exactly the same, other than a touch screen on the 840. They have the same button layout. So if a touch screen is not something you're interested in, then you can save £100 there. Personally, I'm not sure how intuitive the interface would be for button only, but I'm sure it's perfectly possible.

There's a lot on the x40 that I don't use. The personalized trainer system I don't pay any attention to, live segment notifications, a few other things. But that's ok... no harm them being there.

I've used mapping, and it's perfectly serviceable.... shows the map, gives me directions, tells me if there's a sharp hairpin or busy road up ahead. The climb pro works well, detailing elevation profiles of hill climbs on a pre defined course... it's nice to know what's coming up. The live version of that (when not riding a course) I found a bit hit and miss... sometime it wouldn't give details of a significant hill I'm actually on for some unknown reason. The flexibility of data screens is pretty good, and the IQ store (crowd based apps) has some interesting tweaks one can add (despite it being a shit show for discoverability)

Battery life has been excellent, but I was used to a 520 what lasted for like 3 hours before 0%. I dunno.... 15+hours I guess. I did a 24 hr race round Nurburgring with only minimal topping up.

Can't authoritively comment on the solar version, but I'd hazard that unless you're in a super sunny climate and doing multiple day ultras... it's probably not worth it.

Obviously I've got buyers biased here. I like it well enough. But it is expensive... £350/£450 is a lot for a bike computer. I rationalised the price in my head; as it really is the only one I use and I used the last one for 8 years (well beyond it's life time). If you've other edge's you intend to carry on using for other types of riding... the 540 way overkill. Especially only for commuting or sunday cafe trips. You could easily pickup a 530 for a shade over £200 (although even that's probably also too pricey in these hard times).

And I'm sure other brand of bike computers do similar for less. No idea how polar, wahoo or hammerhead compare feature/price wise; but I did look briefly at the Magene computers as they're super cheap in comparison. Worth investigating at lease.

TLDR: I dunno, I like it... but it's expensive.

Thanks so much.
This is what I call helpful review :)
Love lfgssss community

Edit: I’ll reply better after work. Sorry

Back: Again, thank you for your kind and detailed review. I found it very useful. The main reason to change is to help my friend but also willing to explore the gradient climbing stuff and the training platform. I am not into the solar version (damn living in the UK :P) so I'll go for the 540.

Thanks again Phil.

Basically navigation and recording. Fenix looks like it would be good, but very expensive and I'd likely be spending for features that I don't end up using. Wondering if maybe just carrying a cycle computer around in my pocket would be the way to go for the hikes. The watches are pricy.

I've just had a proper go at trying it out on the computer for the first time, previously had only really used it on the phone where it's terrible on useability compared to the old "Find" system. It's actually not awful in its own right and has some useful aspects including the visual comparison on the map of the listed results, but it's no way a replacement for "Find" if you ask me, at best it should be an alternative alongside.

For example there's no way on "Explore" to change the order it's listing the results, so you can't choose to filter by age, distance, elevation etc. at all as far as I can see...

Sounds similar to what Frank complained about. I didn't use Find too much - mostly when looking for audax routes when an organiser doesn't provide files. So my use case is pretty much "find me a thing called x". I probably used to sort by distance or age to find the oldest/newest and compare them to find the most correct version. Maybe they'll add sorting soon. I can't imagine it's too difficult, since they had it previously.

Gotcha - my use case is normally "I want to ride [X] distance from this starting location, and do loads of climbing along the way... what have you got that I haven't already thought of or got bored of..."!

My other use case, that I've asked them before to consider (and probably mentioned more than once in here) but they didn't seem to understand - which I'd far rather they sort but have given up on - is adding a "finishes within [x] distance of [Z]" to go with the "starts within [a] distance of [B]". Partly for the "I'm going to this person's house / this pub / this country park with my family, and I want to ride 70 miles and end up there... what have you got?" situation and also for the surely not too much to ask (and not entirely hypothetical) "I want to ride from Lands End to Okehampton and need a route, so anything that is the right length but doesn't end up in Okehampton is completely useless to me!" situation...

Looks like there's a "Sort By" on the RWGPS Explore list now.

Oh nice will check it

Not claiming sole credit but I emailed them about that and a few other things, and they have been very responsive. Got into a conversation with a couple of their devs and they genuinely seem to be trying to fix my concerns.

Key issue for them is that 'Find' is a very old page written in old code or whatever that they will struggle to support for much longer so they will have to replace it, but they will keep it as long as they can and are trying to get as many of the features that people value into 'Explore'

The other issues I told them about were only 10 results per screen, not displaying total number of results (they say they can't do that because ^), lightbox obscuring the routes when you select one, and probably a few others too, mostly related to the ability to find stuff quickly.

Fundamentally I am sure that they are listening and want to fix it but I suspect 'Explore' is a fundamentally flawed design so, however much lipstick they can slap on, it will never quite match the functionality of 'Find'.

This is my last email to them, if anyone has similar views would certainly be worth taking up with them.

"Thanks for this. 
I've just had a look at the new version now. Tl:Dr is that it's a bit better but still not as good for what I want as find. 

Good. 
It is good to have the sort function back. It's also good that I can now edit the url to fine tune things, say if I want routes within 20km rather than the options given, it to go to a particular page of results quickly. Also it seems to be a bit quicker than it used to be. 

Things I still don't like are:
It doesn't tell me how many results there are without me scrolling through all the screens. I can't see why you don't add this as I imagine it would be easy. 
I don't find the display very clear, with 10 routes on top of each other. It's not easy for me to see where all the overlapping routes go. Then when I click on one, a box comes up and hides it!
I can't right click on a route and open it in another window. This means I can't select 3 or 4 routes to make short list and have a closer look at them. Or maybe I can do this, but not if I have the filters open. 

So, it's better but still not as good as what it's replacing. Normally when I am looking for a route I know where I want to start from and which direction I want to go in.
What is so good about the old find is that I can very quickly scroll through a lot of routes, see clearly from the thumbnail what the ride looks like, in particular which direction it is heading in, and make my short list. I can get 20 rides per screen, rather than 10, (even more world be better) which I can skim in a couple of seconds to see if they go where I want to go. With explore I only get 10 rides per screen, it takes much longer for me to review them as they're all muddled up on top of each other, and its much more cognitive load for me to deal with the interface. Please keep Find! "

With Filters open, you can click each route you want a closer look at and then open in new window on the "View Full Route" link.

https://ridewithgps.com/find still exists by the way.

RWGPS are doing route reviews:

" It looks like you’ve been doing some riding out there. Help fellow riders find the best routes by providing a recommendation.

Emitremmus - End of Summertime
Stevenage, England · 108.0 km · 964 m
Rode on Oct 29, 2023
Review This Route

Now that our library has grown to include millions of routes, sifting through them all to find the best option to ride can feel a little overwhelming. This is where we need your help. Your route reviews and insights will help your fellow riders and the community at large, while also helping us deliver a better product.

Note: Route Reviews is a Beta feature; meaning that we are testing it with a small selection of riders and your feedback is important to us. "

The buttons on my FR 910xt just rotted off.

Worth trying to fix (like I did with my edge 810 when the button rotted off), or assign it to the e-waste bin of history.

https://ridewithgps.com/find still exists by the way.

Yes, they said they would keep it open for as long as they could, while they try to improve Explore ^

RWGPS are doing route reviews

I saw that, but can't see it going anywhere because most rides won't have reviews, and who has got time to plough through text reviews, let alone write them?