Edge 1000

[LondonBikeCommuter]

Been thinking of getting one for a bit as I hate the 810 with a vengence.

Garmin has incresingly been releasing half baked stuff of late and was wondering if the 1000 was a usable bit of kit especially the navigation.

Any thoughts appreciated.

[freeflow]

You could be much better off with a high end smartphone such as an Xperia Z3 and run ipbike for gps routing and ANT+ stuff together with Osmand in the background for voice instructions. I've been running an Xperia X ultra as my bike computer/navigator for over a year now and wouldn't go back to the like of Bryton and Garmin (I have previously owned - Garmin 305 (died), 705 (lost) bryton 50 (Hr in gym only now)). I've seen some reports that suggest that the Z3 has very good battery life when used for on screen navigating.

Personally I'm looking forward to the Z4 ultra due out next year.

A new Xperia Ultra is currently about £200-250 depending on where you buy.

I've done 200 and 300k Audax with mine but it does need external battery support for such distances.

Ipbike and osmand both use offline maps so don't need a data connection.

[Mick F]

............ especially the navigation.

I wouldn't trust a Garmin device to navigate for me whilst riding a bicycle.

If you set it to navigate as an "automobile", you may be ok, but if you leave it in cycling mode, goodness knows what route you'll take and goodness knows how you'll get there.

IMHO, the best way of using a Garmin on a bike, is to produce a route online and transfer it to the Garmin before you set off.

ie Tell it where you want to go - don't let it tell you!

I like BikeHike UK as you can see the OS maps as well as the route maps.

[Tonyf33]

Surely a modern mobile phone even without an 'app' is more than enough unless you absolutely need to know every single possible detail of a ride like max/min/average power & heart rate, elevation climbed, calories burned etc. Do people just not plan their journey's in advance anymore? Is it too difficult to take out a bit of paper to check directions every now and again?
It's going the same as with sat-nav for cars personally.

[LondonBikeCommuter]

Thanks all for the replies.....
Looked at the mobile phone option but 2 things struck me with going down that route
1. New phone would mean new case and potentially new sensors i.e my current phone has Ant+ my next phone might not.
2. Its not a particularly 'cheap' option once you add on the cost of a case £30, battery pack £30 and app £5 especially when the Garmin option is around £75 and less hassle.

I did end up getting an E1000 performance edition for £372 which once seems good value even without pricing in a cost factor for the phone.

1 thing I wasn't able to find out was how good phone gps is in relation to accuracy in difficult situations and type of recording i.e 1 second or smart recording.