Garmin Edge 530 question

Yes - I’ve uploaded routes to mine. Usually made them up on strava which then syncs to the unit.

Yep, did a two day bikepacking event with mine earlier this year with mine, decent mapping and directions on uploaded routes.

Yeah, it'll do all of that.

Edge 540 should be announced in January so you may see some better deals on the 530 then too.

Not really sure what it's like on turbo, or exactly what you're expecting of it. It's a good all round unit though and there's very little it won't do.

If you want something easy to use I'd go for Wahoo personally. Again, no idea what it would be like on the turbo but I bought the 530 a while back when they were sold cheap and regret it a bit now. The Garmin is overcomplicated, fiddly to set up, and gets confused when you go off-route. It's a good computer but Wahoo is a better user experience out of the box.

Thanks everyone, with regards to the turbo, just looking to replace using my Garmin watch, connect to HRM, speed and cadence sensors and record the ride, not really a deal breaker as I can continue using my watch, and that is largely whilst I am planning on sticking with Garmin as I'm already familiar with their app and keeps all of my data in one place.

As I say the biggest use for me will be for the Dirty Reiver and Frontier 300 where the route is supplied as GPX file and e mailed to you and to plan bikepacking routes on komoot and transfer them across.

If you link Komoot and Garmin Connect then anything you plan in Komoot can automatically sync to the Edge. It works really well.

Thanks @scotroutes I will look into that.

Got a 530 and have uploaded maps to it that I've made on garmin connect. Use it on my rollers. Nice bit of kit

and gets confused when you go off-route.

I just turn recalculation off - the default is that if you go off route then it'll try to take you back to the point where you went wrong, but that is very rarely what I want it to do. Turning recalculation off means it just tells you that you're off course and then leaves the navigation up to you, until it realises you're back on track again when it picks up from wherever you happen to be.

And yes the 530 can get routes from all sorts of places, you can even just plug it in via the USB and copy the gpx file directly but going via garmin connect is seamless for me.

I just turn recalculation off

I've no doubt it works perfectly when set up the way you want it. I've had mine months and can't summon the motivation to work through the confusing menus. Phone app for the wahoo is much easier. The route recalculation really is woeful though - I think I might actually do it now - it rarely recognises when you arrive back on route, and even if you haven't left the route it has a tendency to tell you you're going the wrong way and to do a u-turn. I've only really used it on familiar routes so far, otherwise I'd have been going round in circles. I'd suggest that's the first thing you should turn off.

It is a good computer, and they generally have better deals than Wahoo. It's just more of a faff.

Also look at the Explore II - been really impressed with the Explore I got on a deal for £149 a few years back. Not missed any of the power metre/training stuff and I don't use it (also have an Edge 200 and 705).

It is a good computer, and they generally have better deals than Wahoo. It’s just more of a faff.

I know there is a Garmin vs Wahoo thang, but I have to report that there are two people I regularly ride with who have a Wahoo & whenever we go off route thier devices routinely crash. Dunno why. My Garmin never has a problem.

I had some crashing issues with Wahoo to be fair. It's one of the reasons I swapped to Garmin. It originally happened in only the most extreme circumstances, like running continuously for days. Then it got worse and would do it occasionally a few hours into a ride. Never found the cause. Tried resetting it and all the rest, not sure if it's a hardware issue, firmware update, or other... I'd go back tomorrow if it was resolved.

Yeah, there's a business opportunity out there for anyone sufficiently adept at setting up 530s...

Mine is good, does turbo with HRM, Cadence and speed sensors, good battery life, makes following routes easy.

But have never dared tried to set it up properly, I just live with the various quirks. Reliably following live segments would be nice (oh, and the comedy recovery period stats at the end, 72hrs for a 1hr Z2 session on the turbo? 🤣)

I’ve used my 530 indoors to control the smart trainer. You can turn a gpx file into a simulated route so that increases in gradient create more resistance.  Seems reasonably representative of real-world conditions (not accounting for headwind or rough terrain obviously).

The 530 is a great unit but needs a bit of tweaking / fettling with the settings to get everything ticking along nicely.

I just turn recalculation off – the default is that if you go off route then it’ll try to take you back to the point where you went wrong, but that is very rarely what I want it to do. Turning recalculation off means it just tells you that you’re off course and then leaves the navigation up to you, until it realises you’re back on track again when it picks up from wherever you happen to be.

This is one way of following uploaded tracks if you still need some navigation help from the unit, and there is another option called "Always show on map" where the track is shown on the screen as a line which you can follow manually.