Garmin Edge 530 for navigation

Hi
Looking to upgrade from my current Garmin Edge 25. I can get (I think) a very good deal on the Garmin Edge 530 mountain bike bundle. Main uses will be ride tracking, fitness tracking (with chest HRM) and navigation. This last reason is the primary reason for upgrade. I want to be able to import GPX files, either from online route guides or generated in OS Maps and then have turn by turn directions when I’m riding in unfamilar locales.
I’m interested in people’s experiences of using the Edge 530 for nav. Is it a fairly straightforward experience to upload routes? Are the directions clear and accurate on the head unit?
Please don’t recommend other brands or models. The deal I think I can get is specifically for the Edge 530!

Navigation is fine. The map is a bit basic compared to the 1030, but it is pretty easy to follow a preloaded route.

Worth managing your expectations for navigation – basically as you go down this list navigating with a Garmin gets more problematic.

on road
off-road?
bridleways across a moor
Singletrack in the woods

Used one today with a gpx route loaded, absolutely awful awful awful. It’s going straight on ebay..

It wouldn’t follow the route and was very slow in locating, and frequently freezing up

My old 810 was fantastic compared to this pile of crap

link for ebay 😉

I’ve always just followed the purple line. Never bothered with turn by turn.

I use a 1000 for walking and it’s ok across the moors but I plot the gpx files before I set out over an OS map.

It could be worth considering the edge explore which I think does everything you’ve mentioned, has a bigger screen and comes in cheaper.

https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/p/611996#specs

My experience with a 520:
Yes you can easily follow a blue line with your purple dot, if that’s the limit of your navigation needs.
Lack of memory means problems with base maps. And if you use the default road map it is very sparse, and also the vectoring is very widely spaced, confusing if you are near, but not intending to cross, a major line like motorway or railway.

Turn by turn is useless on anything mtb or gravelly – software cannot distinguish trail turning left, and junction where you should go left. Not a garmin problem, an everything problem.

I find the Edge 530 great for following a route on or off road.  It is the same experience as the 830 but with buttons rather than a touch screen the downside of which is it’s a faff and the upside is no problems with rain etc.  When it comes to browsing the map the small screen and manic button pressing are not great but for following a route no problem at all.  I really like the Trailforks integration but that is very dependent on Trailforks coverage in your area

Edit: re the post above, the 520 and 530 are miles apart on the navigation front, the 520 was way more basic

I’ll echo RB – use a 530 for nav both on and off road and it has been great – usually plot a route using Strava, hit save. When I want to ride, go out to the garage power on the unit and then by the time I’ve finished faffing with putting shoes / helmet gloves on the route has syned to the unit and away I go. Also used the trailforks integration in Scotland in the summer and it was excellent.

I only discovered recently, but to update the maps (including trailforks) you have to plug the garmin into your laptop and sync through garmin express. All other updates are delivered over the wire (either bluetooth or wifi) but maps specifically has to be done via USB.

I’ve had both a 520 (for a couple of years) and a 530 (for the last six months or so)
The 520 was effing useless for navigation… yeah, it showes a pre-loaded course overlaid on your map of choice (a tiny area as it has ludicrously small storage space). If you drift off course, you are screwed until you somehow manage to drift back on course.

Honestly, on road, the 530 isn’t that much better – the only real advantages are much greater storage space so bigger/more maps and the unit has zoom in/out and pan up/down/left/right controls but they are painful to operate as you have to switch modes between each action type.
(The 830 has a touch screen which, I believe, circumvents this problem but is more expensive).
Off road, though, the 530 is pretty decent as it uses Trailforks mapping and shows trail names at each junction – but how decent this is depends on how well mapped by Trailforks is in your area.
Frankly, though, I would be nervous of venturing into an area I’m not familiar with, with just a 530 to navigate by!

I use my 530 in conjunction with my phone and OS Map app. Like others I don’t use turn by turn, I follow a course with off course notification set to on. If you can get one at a good deal then do it. I also have an Oregon and an Edge 1000 but the 530 comes out every trip due to battery life and no screen issues in the rain. If I need to browse the map I use my phone. I’ve yet to find a gps that betters that experience.

I’m in the same boat as the OP, looking at the 520 plus or the 530, I am coming from the 130 which did the really basic breadcrumb, wasnt so tough to follow if you kept an eye on it but occasionally with some routes that cross over it was tough to tell whether to go left or right!

Like others I don’t use turn by turn, I follow a course with off course notification set to on.

I have survived doing routes on dartmoor and south wales doing this, I’m only looking to change as the battery life on the 130 is god awful!

@nasher have you listed your 530 on eBay?

I have survived doing routes on dartmoor and south wales doing this, I’m only looking to change as the battery life on the 130 is god awfu

I’ve just ‘out of warranty’ replaced my 130 as battery life had dropped to below a long ride when it was cold. Replacement seems better than the original 130 ever was (but FFS Garmin, just double the battery size in these. I want one that will do a weekend of riding – 16 hours or so – while actually using the features of the device).

530 battery life is meant to be significantly better then 520 (from what I saw when thinking about putting 130 in the bin)

530 also supports the external battery pack, pricey but allows me to use it on multi-day adventures

I’ve for the 530 with the mtb pack.

On road nav I thought was great – uploaded a gpx via the phone app in a short time and clicked go. Has the map to follow and the turn by turn was good. If it’s somewhere you’ve not been before the sharp corner warnings are good to have too.

I haven’t tried to follow an off road map just yet – but will do in the summer if we’re allowed to go further afield by then.

I don’t like the Trailforks integration with the buttons on the 530 – it’s very clunky and prefer to just get my phone out. The 830 with touchscreen would work much better for this I imagine.

I went from a 530 to an edge explore, much much better for navigation in my opinion.

I’ve just ‘out of warranty’ replaced my 130 as battery life had dropped to below a long ride when it was cold

@b33k34 how long does the new battery last? Did you do it yourself or send it off?

@oikeith

how long does the new battery last? Did you do it yourself or send it off?

replacement via Garmin

not sure – I’ve not been doing long rides at the moment – but it was looking like I’d get 10-12 hours even on a really cold day.

Whereas the old one was dropping to 80% almost immediately and didn’t make the end of a 6 hour ride at about 5C

@b33k34 was it pricey getting it done via Garmin?

I did a 4 hour ride with navigation few weeks ago, no sensors, GPS and Galileo and it died just before the end! I’m looking for something that will do 8-10 which led me to the 520 plus or 530.

I spent about an hour on chat with them answering stupid questions before they agreed to raises a ‘non warranty repair’. You send them the old unit, they send you a brand new boxed item (the complete retail package rather than just the unit including whatever ‘bundle’ items you may have originally bought it with). from memory I paid £85 for the MTB bundle.

Thanks for all the input. My Garmin source has got an 830 I can borrow to see how I get on with it before I commit to purchase, which is cool.
I’ll update this post once I’ve had a few runs out with it.

I find my 530 great for both on road and offroad (Trailforks) nav. Scrolling the map is a PITA without touchscreen but I rarely need to do that. Great battery too.

The only thing I can comment is the elevation data can be erratic at times.

Navigation on my edge 530 is absolutely fine, admittedly on road. It’s a vast improvement on my 520.

I have an 830 which is a 530 but with a touchscreen. Touchscreen is almost all bad: I would definitely buy the 530 if repeating the purchase.

Battery life is basically infinite. I can go for a four hour ride in the cold with a chest strap on and the backlight set low and constant so I can read it in the dark and the battery will still be above 90% when I get home.

I don’t bother trying to do turn by turn. I use Komoot and load routes into the unit using wifi before I leave. It’s clear to follow on the map, Komoot does a pretty good job of highlighting turns, so I can leave it on the data screen and have the unit beep and bring up the map when there’s a turn to be made. It will beep if I go off course. (EDIT: I realise of course the this is turn by turn. What I meant is that I don’t put in an address and ask it to take me there.)

Navigating in an active sense, ie looking at a map to decide where to go? Absolutely useless. Screen is far too small and the interface is terrible. I’ll re-plan the route on my phone using Komoot or Viewranger (both of which are excellent, and I have OS Maps for the latter) then just sent it to the GPS using bluetooth.

In summary: it’s great but has specific, significant limitations. Get the 530 not the 830, and pair it with a decent route-planning solution.

I have a 530. Navigation has been largely confined to following a pre planned route (I use garmin connect) but for that I find the background maps pretty useful. Trail maps show a frightening level of detail!

On the whole I’d say it’s a really solid proposition. Trivia:

-If I was buying again now and wanted to improve nav, I’d buy the 830. I didn’t think I’d use the touch screen because I didn’t think I’d need to be moving the map around. Quite often I find myself thinking it would be nice to just nudge the screen a bit over.
-The rerouting feature seems to be really averse to letting you join up further down the line. It does, but it takes a while to get over the ‘do a u-turn’ thing. Being able to move the screen a bit to check easily would help.
-Battery life is generous.
-It still has some of the classic garmin quirks in the interface that you stumble on and think ‘why on earth did they do it like that’ but it’s a whole lot better in that regard than the 510 it replaced (which, tbf, was mostly solid for me for 6 years of abuse, including being lost in a muddy puddle for half an hour).

I’m aware I’ve basically just said the opposite to growmac!