Thinking of buying a garmin edge 25, I’ve thought long and hard about this and I think it does everything I would need of a computer.
So owners. Are they as good as reviews say?
Any downfalls?

Very good, though if you want the external sensors & better battery (25 is about 5 hours) I’d go for the new 520 bundle which is about £200. You can also add crank power meter to the 520 in future.

I like mine…

Nice and discreet rather than a great huge smartphone like device hanging off your bars.
Navigation is enough really if you know the rough lay of the land, I always carry a real map anyway!

I’m in the like camp as well. It’s not perfect – if you want to look at all your data scrolling through screens can get annoying. The navigation is just about enough, mostly useful for “you’ve obviously gone the wrong way”. It’s teeny tiny though, which makes it great for chucking into a jersey pocket and recording rides when I don’t have a pack on. My biggest bug bear is that you can’t put standard GPX files onto it – all routes have to be manually created on garmin connect, the worst bit of software in the world.

The best bit about it is once I got garmin, bluetooth and strava to all play nicely together, all I have to do is open the garmin app on my phone and it syncs my ride onto strava right away.

It was even small enough that I used the rubber band stem mount to make a ghetto gps watch, so I could record my runs and pace myself a bit better.

I love mine. I only wanted something small that i can use to keep an eye on distance, average speed, vague guess at elevation data, and the time.

I’ve put it on a K-Edge top cap mount which it fits on perfectly so no rubber band mounts or zip ties.

Its limited, but its worth it for being so small. the screen is actually very good too. you can have 3 fields per screen and 3 screens that you can scroll through.

It sounds like it’s ideal for me. I don’t mind checking my data at the end with a cup of coffee, so I can download onto garmin connect then see the data all at once, I only need speed,distance,time etc whilst I’m out on the bike, it’s a bonus that it’s ant+ to as I like the idea of having a cadence sensor

Forgot to say that this will be in my road bike, still ok?

I’ve got one – great for most of the riding I do, but I’ll have to keep my old 705 for really long days out.

I decided against the 25 due to its propriatory charge cable, I think its a modified running garmin without a strap which is no bad think but I like the ease of use provided by a generic usb charger on the other models.

My close vision is also getting worse so the bigger screen on a 520 works well and generally I’m please I spent the extra.

propriatory charge cable

That is one reason i got it. I’ve had so many devices develop faulty usb ports i’ve given up with them. as long as you make sure the conacts are clean and dry before you connect it up, no issues.

in the market for one of these too. i have zero interest in power meters or HRM’s and i wouldnt really use the navigation either. just want a small device to track my rides and display a few basic stats. bit worried about the 5hr battery life tho – i thought it was more like 8hrs??

The propitiatory cable put me off a lot and the limited memory space finished it for me. I liked the idea but for me needing to clear the memory often was a concern. I could see myself forgetting and running out of space during a ride or on a long weekend trip. Got the 520 instead and very happy with it.

I rate mine.

Primarily wanted the course following function without having to go to a fully mapped unit. It is basic but I’ve not had any real issues on my road or CX bike. Not tested it on complex off road stuff like round the woods though.

Only negative thing is Garmin Connect and Express, absolute GARBAGE!!

all routes have to be manually created on garmin connect,

The above isn’t true though. You can load from any source as long as you convert it to FIT format with gpsies.com. You can then simply drag and drop the .fit file to the NEWFILES folder on the Garmin within Windows Explorer. It will then appear as a course on the device. The only problem I’ve noticed with this method (it’s done it once) was the dist-to-end function didn’t work whilst on the ride.

You do have to use Connect to upload to Strava if you want to use the Bluetooth method, alternatively you can upload direct on a computer.

Not used HRM or cadence sensors so can’t comment on those. If you’re not arsed about the Bluetooth connectivity the 20 would be just as good I guess.

I have an Etrex 20 and have navigated some pretty overgrown paths in Europe and UK. It is superb once i got my head round it. I guess the 25 will only be better and easier to navigate the menu.

Another happy user here. I just wanted a small device to use with strava, the edge 25 ticked all the boxes for me – Bluetooth to sync the ride to my phone via garmin connect which syncs with strava automatically. I also use the k edge top cap mount which is great.

convert it to FIT format with gpsies.com

If this works properly then I will be very grateful. I’m on OSX and never managed to make any of the conversion tools work properly. This might strike off one of my main complaints about it.

Quick question… I’m a bit worried about losing mine in a crash, has anyone managed to fit a leash/tether theirs?

I know it’s unlikely but after seeing so many lost and found Garmin posts on here I’d rather have it attached a bit more securely. Chances of finding the thing in the dark/wet I’d imagine would be pretty slim!