GPS for MTB (and other bikes)

Hi,

I sold my Garmin Edge 1000 as I found it a bit big and wasn’t using the navigation like I thought I would.

Any recommendations for a smaller replacement?

Been looking at a Wahoo Element Bolt as has been recommended, but wonder if anyone has give it any all weather MTB abuse? Only people I know who use them are road riders.

Anything else out there that’s good? I like to know speed, HR, trip etc. and simple upload to Strava is a bonus. Also use it across a few bikes.

I’ve got a Lezyne Super GPS which works well – had it for around 12 months.

Will also take HRM and speed/cadence sensors.

Have used in it some pretty rubbish weather too – including downpours of biblical proportions – still going strong.

The app is pretty easy to use and syncs well with Strava.

In the ‘recommend what you have’ the Garmin 130 is working well.

Neater than the Super GPS and much more choice of mounts. Great screen, Similar battery life.

Katie’s Lezyne always seems to read a signfiicantly shorter distance than anyone else records for a ride – a few km less over 40ish km.  I’ve just switched off Glonass (ie back to GPS only) to see if that’s causing the difference.

Thanks guys, I’ll have a look at those.

Lezyne Super GPS: does that take ‘other brand’ HR and cadence sensors? (i.e. my Garmin ones)

Anyone got experience with the Wahoo?

Garmin Edge 520 no issues in 2 years

I have the element bolt. It’s a great little unit.  Happily takes a battering from the weather and mud.  I run a K edge stem cap that allows the bolt to be ran with a short stem.

Ant+ and Bluetooth are common standards for sensors so you can use any sensors (in theory) with any brand of computer

After a lot of reading and forum trawling just ordered the Elemnt myself today, there is a little difference between the two in terms of not just size but indicator lights and for me (more importantly) battery life if your planning epic rides.

Like others have said if you know a platform always tempting to stay with it but also it depends what you want – what you really, really want ;) and need from your GPS for your own riding.

Best wishes,

James

Another vote for the Garmin 130 here, I replaced my Edge 520 with it as I wanted something smaller/simpler with better battery life.

The only slight downside is that since doing that I’ve discovered the Edge 520 now has directly compatibility with Trailforks whereas the 130 doesn’t.

Really helpfull, thanks guys!

Another Lezyne Enhanced Super GPS user here, works well. I had an initial blue tooth / ride sync issue but did an update and this has fixed that.

Previously I had a Garmin 810 and a 520. Had too many rides where they would power off mid ride, wouldn’t connect to my phone and also would get rides that were a straight line saying I had averaged 70mph with a max speed of 700mph. Battery life on my 810 wasn’t great. The 520 I had for 1 week before sending it back, I did two rides and had an issue with both of them, powered off on the first ride and the second ride the data didn’t resemble the ride itself.

For the £100 I paid for the Lezyne its been 100% reliable with recording rides, connects to my non Lezyne heart rate monitor and to my cadence and power sensors on my wattbike. Very simple to use. Battery life is really good, I no longer have to charge it after every ride, must get 12 hours out of it at least. Just a bit of a fugly device – but as I said, for £100 it does the job well.

Lezyne Super GPS is my fav. 1 year and still works fine. I strongly advice to try it out.

Lezyne Macro GPS user here. Shows all ride info on the go by cycling through different configurable screens. Totally happy, excellent 12 hour plus battery life, syncs ride to app on phone then share it to Strava. Run it under the tap for a clean with the pot brush when it’s caked in dried on mud. Spare mounts available nice and cheap for each bike, so just clip it on and go.

Breadcrumb trail display is great for those “are we nearly there yet?” moments…

I had a Garmin 510 which was fine for the 3 years I owned it. It died a few weeks ago and refused to turn on or charge.

After some research I bought the ELEMNT BOLT and couldn’t be happier. It has the same water and dust proof rating as the Garmin and the small amount of moisture it’s seen has been OK.

It is however so much nicer to setup and use. It makes the Garmin look difficult to use, temperamental and not very responsive. It is a different take on what a cycling GPS device is though – the required use of a smartphone could be a deal breaker for some but for me it’s a genius idea.

I’ve got an Elemnt Bolt – swapped to if from my Garmin 810 – and use it both on and off road.

It’s been great – no crashing (unlike the Garmin :evil: ) and I’ve certainly had no concerns about its robustness for mtbing.

If you’re that way inclined, the way it shows your progress on Strava segments against your pb or the KOM time with the leds is great in not actually needing to focus on the screen while doing the segment (does need a Strava premium account though) to see whether you’re ruling the trailz.

I’ve recently bought an Wahoo Elemnt Bolt.

Just to follow on from the comment above about required use of a smartphone – you need the smartphone to set the device up, but you do not need it with you to operate while riding; it doesn’t piggy back the GPS/data signal from your phone or anything like that.

You can use the phone on the fly though to send a new route to the device though, and it will do all the text message/call stuff that Garmins will do (I think).

One thing the Elemnt doesn’t have is bike profiles – so you can’t have road bike, hard tail, full sus profiles, for example & assign different sensors to the different bikes.

A final comment – if you shave a tiny amount of plastic of the tabs on a Garmin mount, the Elemnt will fit. I have done this to two of my Garmin mounts, so I have a mount on each bike (Wahoo one on my road bike & modified Garmin ones on both mountain bikes). And the Garmin still fits on OK, with no apparent loss in security.

Yeah, did the same on my Garmin mounts. No issue though it doesn’t twist into position quite as positively

I’ve got a Cateye Stealth 50. Covers all the bases you need . Also have a hrm and an ‘out front’ mount  as I lost the original stem mount, and my stern is too short for it now anyway. Was thinking of selling it as I stopped stravaing a couple of years ago. Was thinking around thirty five quid of you want? I’ll wash the hrm strap before posting, obviously!

Thanks! I’m leaning towards the Wahoo. Odd that it doesn’t have different profiles for different bikes, but I think that will work OK for me. Garmin mount mods are definitely a bonus!

Use a cheapo phone – sub £1000! Plot route on laptop using GPsies.com. Follow route on phone using Great Britain topo maps app – for better live map view. Runs on GPS so no need to have phone data connection on…

Recommend Motorola moto E 2nd gen for good battery life.

Update: I went for the Wahoo. Love it. Really simple to set-up and faultless so far. Navigation good too.

My Lezyne Super GPS works perfectly and now even brings up live texts and emails. If only my eyes were good enough to read them without having to dig out my glasses!!! The battery life is excellent, probably well in excess of 24 hours actual use but I always recharge it when it gets to the 50% mark, no idea why…Simple to follow navigation and definitely weather proof, had a couple of hours soaking today !!! The app is straightforward even for an old technophobe….