These look pretty good little units. Good price too.
EDGE 500

Has anyone got one or heard much about them? I'd only use it to record routes, but would want like to be able to use it when doing the SDW this year to follow the route as last time I did it I missed the odd turning. Would it cope ok with that?

It's a nice looking bit of kit. A replacement for the edge 305 in my mind. You can't plot routes, but you can save a route as a course file and use that for navigation. It's also compatible with power meters to keep the very serious roadies happy.

£150 buys you state of the art bike computer – not sure how good it would be for navigation though.

Yeah looks nice, I used the edge 305 last year on the first 30miles of the Southdown's way and it really made life easy just follow the arrow!!

it really made life easy just follow the arrow!!

That'll do nicely. My wedding anniversary Friday, so I'm going to cheer myself up and order one.

You can't navigate with it though, it's just a cycle computer which uses GPS to track your speed. You can't put routes on it or anything.

I think they're rather expensive for what they do, just use a decent computer with a wheel mounted sensor!

You can't put routes on it or anything.

I'm not so sure. You can put courses on which you can then navigate IIRC.

Hmmm… You can put courses on, but I don't think it shows a map to navigate from, all it has to do on 'courses' is say you're x miles ahead/behind your previous attempt.

Hmmm… You can put courses on, but I don't think it shows a map to navigate from, all it has to do on 'courses' is say you're x miles ahead/behind your previous attempt.

Aahh I see. Shame, as it would have been a good replacement for my 305.

It does have a screen like this

This looks a bit like the 305 screen no? I've got a 500 sitting at Beyond waiting for me to pick up.

Then I take it back, that's all you want.

It looks the same as the 305 in that you can follow the course from these screen shots

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=36728&ra=true#

Too slow 😉

I think it has most of the features the 305 does, its ANT+, smaller and cheaper. If you don't want actual maps its seems ideal.

looks like me and jamesp have done the same ride!!

Prop rad single track gnar wasn't it 😉

Sure was. You minced down it like a big girl from what I remember.

Sounds like me 😛

The 500 has a few software issues according to the Garmin forums

I thought I read the 500 can do "courses" but not "routes" (which the 205 and 305 can do).

If I'm right the 500 can show a "course" and you can follow it, and I guess it beeps when you go "off course". What I thought it couldn't do, which the 205 and 305 can, is to follow a user generated "route". By route I mean a series of linked waypoints which when you use to navigate it gives a beep each time you are approaching a waypoint and flips to a screen which shows the direction of the next point.

Basically from what I read the 500 seemed a downgrade from the 305 (and even the 205 if you are not interested in heart-rate or cadence monitoring).

https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?t=5225

From that thread, it looks like the 500 will follow a planned route (eg something you plot out on your computer/get from the web/etc) – "course" and "route" are just names for the same thing really as far as Garmin goes.

Sounds like it's worth waiting for the next firmware update to come out first though!

Is it?

I don't think you can plot a 'route' and then upload it and go for a ride. But you can save a route you've done in the past, a 'course' and follow it again. I guess at the point at which you can download these the line between routes/courses is rather blurred, I guess as above a course doesn't do turn by turn?

There is definitely a difference between a "course" and a "route" as far as garmins are concerned. This is what I was talking about;

http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-431497.html

This thread seems to talk about the missing navigation features on the 500;

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=551805

A course just draws a line on the screen and it's up to you to keep to it. A route gives you turn by turn guidance.

In that forum thread, the last post was from a guy who mentioned uploading four routes and discussed getting lost when the thing crash when on one of the routes that he wasn't familiar with – sounds to me like you can based on that.

As you say, it doesn't do turn by turn but I never find that particularly useful on my Garmins anyway as it's usually pretty clear on the map.

EDIT – Sounds like Timmy's got the difference but at least for me, that makes little difference.

I've got one, and its great.
Can do courses, so you can either use a previous ride, or create a route from mapmyride or other places and then just follow the line.
Not used courses offroad, its dead easy on the road, but you may miss turns etc cos there's no reference points on the map.
The altitude is pretty random, and it froze once, but other than that i've had no issues at all.
I really like it, dead handy and i even use when im out running, just stick it in my back pocket and it tracks nicely. The receiever seems to be a lot better than the 305 cos it picks up a single very quick and doesnt lose it unless its really dense forest.
recomended!