Santa wants a bike computer! Help!!!!

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Sarah
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Joined: Sat Jul 16, 2016 5:51 pm
Location: Lancashire

Santa wants a bike computer! Help!!!!

Post by Sarah »

Hi all.

I need some tech help please. I have read thru previous posts and started making notes, but here goes....

My partner is building a new bike and wants a bike computer for Christmas. I have no idea about such toys, but I think features we want would include, not necessarily in order;

good for off road routes
able to cope with changes mid route
able to run maps for off road tours in other countries; Europe, Morocco, USA
good battery life or back up [AA or power pack ok]
nice screen [our eyes arent getting any better]
do they still have memory card slots to expand storage ?
some bike type features; speed, distance etc

Budget is flexible for the right tool.

I have looked at
Garmin Edge Explore 1000 [poor battery and difficult to use on the fly]
Garmin eTrex30x/Oregon [with seperate bike computer]
Wahoo Element/Bolt

I am wondering if I would be better with a basic computer and a proper GPS unit. Or just a phone mount ?

What would you get ? or do you like ?

I will still be taking a paper map on trips...

Thanks, Sarah
Sarah
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johnnystorm
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Re: Santa wants a bike computer! Help!!!!

Post by johnnystorm »

Don't forget the Wahoo Roam. Also Bikeinn have the Edge 530 for £222. I love my Wahoo but the off-road mapping in the UK might not be to your liking if you want os style maps on screen.

Don't even consider a Lezyne! :lol:
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In Reverse
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Re: Santa wants a bike computer! Help!!!!

Post by In Reverse »

A right old can of worms Sarah. :-bd

People use all kinds of GPS units to achieve what you've decribed above. Most of the ones on the market will do very similar things with minor differences that will come down to personal preference.

I use a (fairly old) Garmin Edge 810 to do all the things you're looking for. I've used it for multiday tours on and off road, home and abroad. The latest version of that is the Edge 830, which costs about £330. You'd probably get the last version, the 820, quite a bit cheaper, especially if you can find a Black Friday/Cyber Monday type deal.

Many units, Garmin Edge included, will take a memory card and that's generally the easiest way to get maps onto them. Maps can be downloaded for free from http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/

Remember when talking about battery life the likelihood is you'd be taking a power bank with you for charging things on the fly, this makes battery life something of an irrelevance unless you're literally spending weeks away from any sort of civilisation.
ScotRoutes
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Re: Santa wants a bike computer! Help!!!!

Post by ScotRoutes »

Garmin eTrex30x/Oregon [with seperate bike computer]
Why?
redefined_cycles
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Joined: Tue Sep 20, 2016 8:19 am
Location: Dewsbury, West Yorkshire

Re: Santa wants a bike computer! Help!!!!

Post by redefined_cycles »

Wahoo bolt or roam looks right up your street.. especially abiut the maps abroad as they're all free but you just need a wifi connection to download/swap em about as there's not expandable storage (which is a good thing cos less clutter means seamless use IMO and expereince)
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johnnystorm
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Re: Santa wants a bike computer! Help!!!!

Post by johnnystorm »

redefined_cycles wrote: Thu Nov 28, 2019 5:10 pm Wahoo bolt or roam looks right up your street.. especially abiut the maps abroad as they're all free but you just need a wifi connection to download/swap em about as there's not expandable storage (which is a good thing cos less clutter means seamless use IMO and expereince)
Wahoo Elemnt comes with World mapping pre-installed. The only countries not included are China & Russia to save on storage space but they are free to add if you need them.
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redefined_cycles
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Location: Dewsbury, West Yorkshire

Re: Santa wants a bike computer! Help!!!!

Post by redefined_cycles »

johnnystorm wrote: Thu Nov 28, 2019 8:03 pm
redefined_cycles wrote: Thu Nov 28, 2019 5:10 pm Wahoo bolt or roam looks right up your street.. especially abiut the maps abroad as they're all free but you just need a wifi connection to download/swap em about as there's not expandable storage (which is a good thing cos less clutter means seamless use IMO and expereince)
Wahoo Elemnt comes with World mapping pre-installed. The only countries not included are China & Russia to save on storage space but they are free to add if you need them.
Aha... I remember the issue now. Problem is that they take up alot of space. Then on one ride when my device (Bolt) became 'memory full' it was either the spare maps or the loaded routes as the ride data had clogged it up a little. I pressed 'delete maps' as I couldn't afford to lose the preloaded routes (was on a 230 miler rosd mission I think).

Then I ended up noy being able to reload the maps I needed as I had no wifi connection in the middle of Englad somewhere and had to use the breadcrumb and just about made it work (1st world problems).

Hence when I bought the Roam I ensured to use the app to delete any maps that I dont need (like Khazakastan and Pakistan and others thats take lots of data space for example) and this way hopfully I'll not have that issue again.

Back to the point, yes @johnnystorm is totally right and why the Wahoo is such an ace investment.

Regards off road... it did the bb200 nicely without missing a beat (loss of gps but seems that was a Nato issue that was probably also meeing with some garmins)...

:-bd
Lazarus
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Re: Santa wants a bike computer! Help!!!!

Post by Lazarus »

Garmin eTrex30x/Oregon [with seperate bike computer]

Why?
My thoughts as well as it is a cycle computer and you either want to see how fast /far you have gone etc or where to go but not both at the same time.

I use a mini GPS cycle computer for local as I am not going to get lost and can think of no reason to have both with me.

I use a garmin [Battery powered] but I doubt there is much difference between the units in use as they all work
The only realchoice is batteries v Internal.Eithe way you need a power bank and in my case as usb chargers [ 44 gramms weight and £2 from china]
Daveysnaps
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Joined: Sun Oct 06, 2019 7:10 am

Re: Santa wants a bike computer! Help!!!!

Post by Daveysnaps »

Does anyone have experience with the Garmin 1030?
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