It appears that Garmin have just released a new Edge unit specifically for mountain biking.
Link below if anyone fancies a look.
https://www.garmin.com/en-GB/p/1600117/
-- Edit --
DC Rainmaker review:-
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2025/06/garmins-new-edge-mtb-cycling-gps-review-hows-it-different.html
No touch screen… sad face.
currently have a button based edge and am desperate to upgrade to a touch screen. Had one previously and hate how clunky the buttons feel.
otherwise looks like a decent bit of kit. Could have some quite useful features if your looks to extract tenths of a second.
i like the feature of not having to pause for uplift. However it works that out?!
I'm the opposite...touchscreen puts me off. Buttons are a much better operation for me. Touchscreen doesn't seem as reliable in wet weather...bur suspect that has just been me.
Looks good. I don't like touchscreen either, bad mixing with wet gloves/crashes etc. Thanks for sharing!
Gah I just bought mrsfoo a 540 for her birthday next month (to replace her ageing 520) and she tells me she's seen a new MTB version she would like. I ask if she's sure she wouldn't prefer a 540, she tells me the MTB is smaller, has trailforks and better descent timing as if she's suddenly going to become all about downhill in middle age. Sigh off to Garmin.. no discounts on newer models.. rubs forehead.. gets credit card out..
I'm at work at the mo so will look for myself later, but does being a STW member still give discounts on Garmin stuff??
anyone know if the timing gate feature might show up on the existing 840?
That's a winner. Not that much smaller than an 540 50x78 vs 57 x85 but that's including the 'rugged case'.
Battery life "Up to 14 hours (demanding use) Up to 26 hours battery saver mode". *should* be enough....but you never know with Garmin. Silicon cases on the 530/40 are frustrating as they come off in an off IME. Downhill profile deals with uplifts automatically (in theory - will be interesting to see how it works if you're going to different locations in a van rather than the same uplift point)
Biggest barrier for me is the price - £340 seems a lot of money.
Is this just a ruggedised 540 or is there more to it? Not that I'm buying until my 530 goes off to join the 500 and 130 in the knackered Garmin graveyard in the bike cupboard...
anyone know if the timing gate feature might show up on the existing 840?
According to DC Rainmaker should appear on 1050 shortly, and probably 550 / 850 when they are finally released, so perhaps not 840.
Makes me wonder how different 550 will be from the Edge MTB, brighter display? There's a rumour the 550 may make an appearance at Eurobike the end of the month, in which case the MTB I just ordered might have to go back for one.
she tells me the MTB is smaller, has trailforks
I think the 540 should have TrailForks also (may have to load the IQ app).
Downhill profile deals with uplifts automatically (in theory - will be interesting to see how it works if you're going to different locations in a van rather than the same uplift point)
I read a great tip on PB that you can use the snowboard activity type to record rides and it auto pauses the uplift sections then you can change to a ride or whatever once uploaded
+1 for the touchscreen being a fiddly gimmick
The only thing it speeds up is typing in text, but the POI / Postcode search is so poor anyway it's not something I use. The rest of the time you're just there swiping away whilst it thinks you're clicking, or clicking while it thinks you're swiping, or having a hissy fit if you touch it in the rain, or randomly somehow changing the data fields (even though it takes twenty million actions to change it back?).
Especially whilst actually riding. Trying to jab your way though a list of courses or locations whilst the bike and handlebars are rattling around, and you have to look where you're pressing, no glance down, see the correct option is 3 clicks down and then navigate by feel.
Even on my Epix it's quicker and easier to navigate via the up and down buttons than it is my OH's Venu2 which forces the touchscreen.
I would have paid more for a 1040/1050 with a d-pad/stick control.
I would have paid more for a 1040/1050 with a d-pad/stick control.
Looks okay but much prefer a touchscreen. I won't be buying one anyway as I've almost stopped using my Edge in favour of a Fenix watch. Let me know when Garmin bring out a mtb watch...
😂
I was thinking something a little more like the Etrex range
Looks okay but much prefer a touchscreen. I won't be buying one anyway as I've almost stopped using my Edge in favour of a Fenix watch. Let me know when Garmin bring out a mtb watch...
Isn't that the Instinct?
I thought the Instinct was meant to be that?
Downhill profile deals with uplifts automatically (in theory - will be interesting to see how it works if you're going to different locations in a van rather than the same uplift point)
I read a great tip on PB that you can use the snowboard activity type to record rides and it auto pauses the uplift sections then you can change to a ride or whatever once uploaded
I read that too! As I understand it, that's only possible on watches as, Edge units are cycling-specific so don't have non-cycling activity profiles...
I'm another who hates the touchscreen. My old Edge 820 Explore would always get set off by rain / drizzle and it was clunky to operate with gloves. Much prefer the tactile buttons on my Edge 530.
Talking about the 530, I picked up the MTB-specific pack (comes with rubber case, MTB bar mount, remote, and speed sensor) for something crazy like £150 a couple of years ago from one of the German stores. That was including the unit as well, and it's served me well. Not sure there's enough new features in this one to make me upgrade.
I had a karoo. Don’t buy one the charger port melted twice. But one thing they got right was the interface. Basically the touch screen worked well. But if it rained you could lock it just use buttons. Lots of things in set up etc. are easier with a touch screen.
Apparently the 840 takes this approach. All the buttons of a 540 but a touch screen for all those jobs where that’s useful.
So i don’t think this is the unit for me
Humour me, why does a bike computer need a helmet? I’ve yet in decades of biking come close to damaging a computer that sits in the middle of a handlebar
Or is it just I don’t crash often enough ?
The new mount might be worth using with older computers. I prefer my explore 2 mounted on the top tube but have destroyed a couple of 76 projects mounts and lost the previous computer in a ditch/pond.
Interesting. As someone who’s in the market for a new Garmin Edge it appeals to me. The form factor is right, I don’t care about touchscreen and the MTB-specific features look useful.
The problem is that they’ve nerfed a load of the road cycling features, no power guide, workout productivity etc. Obviously that won’t matter to some but it means it’s not the right device for me. If the MTB-specific features come to the Edge 550 when that appears, I’ll be buying that but I’m not sure they will.
I'm another who hates the touchscreen. My old Edge 820 Explore would always get set off by rain / drizzle and it was clunky to operate with gloves.
The 820 was garbage in a variety of ways though, the touchscreen Garmins are far better now
Humour me, why does a bike computer need a helmet? I’ve yet in decades of biking come close to damaging a computer that sits in the middle of a handlebar
I cracked the screen on an 800 in an OTB, the problem is the computer its above the height of the bars so it's probably going to get hit if the bike lands upside down.
A roadie style out-front mount might actually help, but they're not fashionable. Top-cap mounts are slightly better if you've cut the steerer right down and have high-ride bars to give it a bit of protection.
The problem is that they’ve nerfed a load of the road cycling features, no power guide, workout productivity etc. Obviously that won’t matter to some but it means it’s not the right device for me. If the MTB-specific features come to the Edge 550 when that appears, I’ll be buying that but I’m not sure they will.
That annoys me between the epix and the edge. They're both contemporary of each other, yet give different metrics!
Come on Garmin, you've spent the money writing the software, I've spent the money buying the hardware, stop being a d*** about it. None of this new stuff requires more hardware, putting the downhill mode on new edges but not including it in the updates for older models just eventually generates e-waste for no reason. It's even more irritating as their models proliferate. Why can't I have all the 'cycling' specific stuff from the Edge on an Etrex? It's like buying a laptop to do some word processing, so you buy a fancy laptop with lots of RAM to future proof it, then being told you need to buy a 2nd laptop for spreadsheets because they won't sell or supply the software separately.
They manage to make Microsoft switching off windows 10 look good.
A roadie style out-front mount might actually help, but they're not fashionable
Who says? Careful you don't wear socks with your sandals!
Good to see the mounting tabs on the back are replaceable. Looks like that change was made a while ago, but I've only just noticed.
Good to see the mounting tabs on the back are replaceable. Looks like that change was made a while ago, but I've only just noticed.
Looks like the 540 has them - can anyone confirm? My 530 doesn't, and I've previously written off a 500 by shearing the mounting tabs (it was getting old anyway). This is a good change, anyway.
I'm not sure how we ended up with GPS computers costing up to ~£700 and how ~£300 is reasonable! 🤣
My Lezyne Enhanced Super GPS cost me ~£110 in '17 (side button rubber covers worn through now), my Mega XL ~£136 in '20 (cleverly dropped in last 2mins I was on train to Longleat Center Parcs in September '22) and my Super Pro £26 in the ChainReaction fire sale in '23. 😯
Come on Garmin, you've spent the money writing the software, I've spent the money buying the hardware, stop being a d*** about it. None of this new stuff requires more hardware, putting the downhill mode on new edges but not including it in the updates for older models just eventually generates e-waste for no reason. It's even more irritating as their models proliferate. Why can't I have all the 'cycling' specific stuff from the Edge on an Etrex? It's like buying a laptop to do some word processing, so you buy a fancy laptop with lots of RAM to future proof it, then being told you need to buy a 2nd laptop for spreadsheets because they won't sell or supply the software separately.
totally agree - from my point of view, my 6 month old 840 is kind of out of date as its missing these new mtb features. All I'm going to be using it for is mtb, and commuting (on my hardtail, a route I would describe as gravel).
I want the timing gates, and the downhill profile*
So should I have got this instead, probably. But I'm not going to spend the money again.
But if I also rode on the road, or even took training seriously on an xc bike I'd be disappointed to have lost all the below
"- No ’Search’ feature on-device in navigation
– No Training Plan sub-feature (allows you to Find Course/Workout/See Weather ahead)
– No Power Guide feature
– No Acute Load feature
– No Cycling Ability feature
– No Training Status feature (e.g., productive/etc…)
– No Load Focus feature
– No Race Event Calendar Feature
– No Primary Event Feature
– No ClimbPro Explore feature (lets you see nearby Climbs, but still has regular ClimbPro features)
– No WiFi (as seen on the Edge 540)"
So you would need two devices.
Which I bet someone suggested in a meeting as a good idea to increase profits but in reality its just pissing people off.
*ive tried the ski mode trick on a garmin watch before. didnt really work, even in morzine. if you had a traversey part of a trail, or you went too slow in a tech section, or god forbid you paused to wait for a friend it would decide it was the end of a run, and would need a good bit of speed or elevation drop to start the "next" run again.
I don't object to Garmin not rolling new features to old devices. They did more work than I didn't pay for, so why would I expect to benefit. My 530 works just as well as when I got it 5 years ago.
I do agree though, the missing features on the edge MTB seem odd. I was contemplating a one and the form factor is an interesting option, but the lack of training features might put me off.
I suspect Garmin play the same game as apple and try and make sure the next most expensive option is tempting in the hope most of us talk ourselves into the 1050 when we really would have been happy with a 530 with a screen update.
I suspect I'll end up getting a Karoo, which lacks all these features!
– No WiFi (as seen on the Edge 540)"
now that is a pisser. The 530 has WiFi too. And the phone connection is,typically for garmin, a bit random. Sometimes it lines up and gives me text messages. Sometimes even WhatsApp. Frequently it tells me about a the same Apple Pay payment time and time again
but rarely uploads a ride. Which takes forever anyway. Whereas the WiFi link completely reliably connects when I get home and uploads.
What slightly puzzles me now is why Garmin haven’t moved to a hardware + software model.
let you pick the form factor you want and then sell the functionality in packages.
-Road
mtb
navigation
training.
Updates that added new functionality could be chargeable
Agreed - the WiFi on my 530 is really handy and I’d not want to go without.
From the Garmin blurb I’m struggling to see what it does that the 540 doesn’t, apart from having less battery life for about the same price. I’ll watch the DCR video to see his thoughts but I’m really not sold so far by Garmin’s own attempts to sell the thing.
TBH the “ideal” MTB GPS device for me would simply be the (now long gone) edge 25, but with a bit more battery life, if I want navigation I’ll use a ‘full fat’ device, for a few hours rolling about the woods or a (way marked) trail centre I’m not going to be bothered about data or mapping on my bars…
I want the timing gates, and the downhill profile*
That and the Trailforks ‘Forksight’ enhancement sound interesting but I suppose timing gates go hand in hand with the faster 5Hz GPS recording and maybe that is a hardware limitation on x30 and x40 devices?
For just logging stuff, that was ideal.
I unearthed mine the other day as my instinct was playing up and it was just dandy for a couple of hours spin, just wouldn’t trust it to last more than maybe 4 hours now, apparently you can change the cell in them and people have apparently crammed in higher capacity batteries, it’s literally just a coin cell. Might still be work exploring as an option for me.
TBH the “ideal” MTB GPS device for me would simply be the (now long gone) edge 25, but with a bit more battery life, if I want navigation I’ll use a ‘full fat’ device, for a few hours rolling about the woods or a (way marked) trail centre I’m not going to be bothered about data or mapping on my bars…
Garmin make almost exactly what you want but in watch format. ie a Forerunner 55. A XOSS G+ will do a similar job without being a watch for under £20.
I don't object to Garmin not rolling new features to old devices. They did more work than I didn't pay for, so why would I expect to benefit.
Yes and no, previously they've carried on rolling out features to compatible devices.
The problem is more stark when you have N+1 garmin devices. My old instinct would ping data to connect, which would ping it to my edge 1040, which would then do come clever stuff to do with recovery and ping it back to connect.
The instinct clearly couldn't do a lot of that, it only had a tiny b&w screen for starters. But why they couldn't just have connect do the clever stuff seems to be purely because they need to justify the existence of the new hardware. It's only slightly improved with a new watch, now everything has to sync in the correct order or it won't update until overnight. And there's other limitations, like it still doesn't seem to like data from MyWhoosh in Connect and I'm beginning to wonder if it's because mywoosh emulates a 1030 and my 1040 is thumbing it's nose at it's poor cousin saying "well if you can't integrate that data into a training plan like I can then I'm not going to do it for you", ironically it has no problems with Wahoo SYSTM workouts!
Are Garmin doing it to protect their bottom line - probably
Are Garmin being a bit of a dick about it - also probably
What slightly puzzles me now is why Garmin haven’t moved to a hardware + software model.
The problem is what they're actually doing is selling cheap hardware bundled with expensive software. The hardware is on a par with 20 year old smart-ish phones, and to prove my point, scratch off the word vodafone and write garmin there and you've got a mockup that could convince most people it was the edge 1060 now with a sim card and a camera!
And when you've paid £400 for a piece of hardware that probably only worth £100 you might be forgiven for expecting some software updates. Like others I'd probably happily pay say £20 for "Edge software suite 2025" and accept that maybe only 95% of it would work on a 1040, and in a few years another £20 for whatever new features ran on old hardware untill eventually either the hardware died, or it reached a point where all the new features needed newer hardware.
Anyone know where Garmin manufactures their hardware? i.e. do they actually do their own manufacturing at their HQ in Kansas or do they contract it out to China/Taiwan/Far East?
(I'm talking about Edge units not marine or aircraft type units)
I'm not interested in the Edge MTB but maybe interested in an Edge 550/850 when they eventually arrive to replace both an aging Edge 530 with poor battery life and a newer Edge Explore 2 I currently own...
Garmin make almost exactly what you want but in watch format. ie a Forerunner 55. A XOSS G+ will do a similar job without being a watch for under £20.
Oh I am well aware.
My Instinct Solar is off being looked at for a possible battery replacement right now, that was what originally made the edge 25 redundant.
So I´ve got that edge 25 and my main device, the 540 (and a knackered 520 in a drawer somewhere), basically I am sorted for Garmins, I´ve also got a Lezyne SuperPro as well. Note these are all "general purpose" type GPS devices and very useful in their own ways, which is part of why I´m so sceptical about this "Edge MTB" I can´t imagine the few additional features it has couldn´t be implemented on their other devices (or won´t just turn up on a future 550/850) or are even much more than a novelty once you actually get up and running with a device...
Mostly I just want my instinct back now, if it is truly done for I´ll either get a Forerunner 55 (cheap and does HR) or an Instinct 2 (the obvious replacement for an Instinct 1), the Instinct 3 in it´s various flavours does not appeal...
I´m a little worried for Garmin, they seem to be bulking the product line up again rather than having a few good core products at key pricepoints they have a million options in all brackets to suit various random Niches... I bet their best sellers are still the non-sport-specific versions.
Anyone know where Garmin manufactures their hardware? i.e. do they actually do their own manufacturing at their HQ in Kansas or do they contract it out to China/Taiwan/Far East?
Taiwan. But I have heard Garmin operate their own factories rather than outsourcing.
I read a great tip on PB that you can use the snowboard activity type to record rides and it auto pauses the uplift sections then you can change to a ride or whatever once uploaded
Can confirm this works, rode BPW and set my 945 to snowboard and it only recorded the downs, once uploaded to strava flipped to Bike and it clocked all the segments.
For just logging stuff, that was ideal.
I unearthed mine the other day as my instinct was playing up and it was just dandy for a couple of hours spin, just wouldn’t trust it to last more than maybe 4 hours now, apparently you can change the cell in them and people have apparently crammed in higher capacity batteries, it’s literally just a coin cell. Might still be work exploring as an option for me.
@cookeaa - I've replaced the battery in my Edge 25 like for like (PD2430C1) and it's pretty straightforward. The bigger capacity ones are a bit thicker but according to this thread it will fit if you remove the foam padding.
Yeah I think I found that thread a couple of years ago, it is 8 years old now and the bonus capacity PD2440 linked isn´t apparently available in the UK, I recall shopping about and ultimatley considered it a bit much faff for a back-up device. I´m reconsidering it now, as I have it and it´s useful finding a 110mah PD2430 at a resonable price seems a bit challenging TBH (I think my google-fu is just weak)...
No idea how it behaves in wooded areas yet, but on open roads, the GPS on my Xiaomi Watch 5 Lite (£40 Amazon) tracks really well.
Arrived with 78% charge, I've done three short rides testing it alongside my Lezyne Super Pro (~2 hours) and on day 12 it still has 12% charge left.
Guess what, imediately after saying I couldn´t find any sensibly priced 2430 cells I found a pack of four LIR2430 claiming to be 120mah on amazon for £8.99, they arrived this morning and I popped one in the edge 25, juiced it up for a bit and went for a 2hour spin. so far so good, I´ll see how well it lasts. at the same time it looks like I´m getting my Instinct back fixed (crossed fingers).
So it´s back to being Over-garmined for me and no real need to buy yet more of their wares...
Watch as bike computer.
garmin make bike mounts for their watches too. Anyone used them?
https://www.garmin.com/en-GB/p/1221709/
and
https://www.garmin.com/en-GB/p/11078/