PSA Garmin edge explore

Hopefully good for somebody 🙂
£129 on Amazon at the moment. As far as I can tell they’ve never been that cheap before. I’ve been trying for ages to get something similar but they’re always that price used on eBay.

Same price in Halfords right now so extra 10% discount if you’re with BC

10% off Halfords via Blue Light Card also 😉

10% off with an AA card too!

Doesn’t the BC discount exclude cycling technology? It says it does on the voucher.

Argh! And I thought i got a good deal

Is this the one that talks to Ant+ or the version they decided to disable that for?
The description is vague and the answers in the Q&A are just one liners.
I prefer my Garmins to talk to a chest strap HRM and Cadence sensor…

Bit of research and yep it talks to Ant+, I’m certainly tempted, it’s basically the same price as an Edge 130…

Says European maps preloaded, does that include the UK? should do right?
Although is the mapping just going to be a bit bobbins anyway, and get overwritten with something better?

It works with a HR strap, I use it all the time.

Apparently you can connect other meters, and you can get third party apps to display the data but not record it. Not tried cadence.

The mapping does include UK and is pretty good. They are vector maps unlike the OS ones, and they are sometimes actually better than OS because there are more trails. Round here they also include some (but not all) of the cheeky homemade MTB trails. Routing is now good, unlike the older Edge Touring.

You can also change the amount of detail visible on the maps, which is useful, and you can route to addresses and POIs which is occasionally useful. I plan routes on Strava and there’s an app on the device that just syncs with them. I’m dead happy with it as a nav and recording device.

Ooops, ordered it…

Good Old DC rainmaker convinced me:

DCR review from ~2018

The nice man from Amazon has just placed one on my doorstep after I ordered it on prime day……blimey its bigger than I expected(fnaar)

This is tempting ,what is the real life battery experiences of people when following courses/routes with map screen open at a medium brightness? My old 800 struggles doing this for more than 4-5hrs I’m hoping this newer unit is an improvement ?.

interested too as my 810 only just covers a 70mile road ride with navigation

does it do pedal dynamics stuff with vectors? assume it does

does it do pedal dynamics stuff with vectors? assume it does

No, there is no power meter support. That isn’t what this computer is about.

This is tempting ,what is the real life battery experiences of people when following courses/routes with map screen open at a medium brightness? My old 800 struggles doing this for more than 4-5hrs I’m hoping this newer unit is an improvement ?.

About 8 hours for me if navigating, but I have the screen brightness lower than that. It does have a battery saver mode but I find it a bit glitchy.

I’ve been singing the praises of the Explore on here – mine must’ve heard me so it decided to freeze when out on a ride last week. Had to take a detour to get back up to 100km 😉

what is the real life battery experiences of people when following courses/routes with map screen open at a medium brightness?

The only time I’ve run it until it conked out, was 12 hours (with a switch to battery saver mode about halfway through). The times I’ve run it without conking out have generally pointed to similar runtimes.

As above, battery saver mode does seem to occasionally bring one or two Garmin Bugs out of the woodwork (different ones depending on what version of firmware you have).

I get 12 hours from my Edge Touring, hoping for similar from the Edge Explore I picked up earlier 🙂
It’s an immediate win over the Edge Touring by having a much nicer screen.

I ordered one that should be delivered tomorrow. Was gonna buy one at £180 a couple of weeks ago so well happy about this.

Mine arrived today. Not used it yet but touchscreen is responsive and komoot connected really easily. It has ant+ for whoever was asking.

Here’s a question, WRT battery life can it take a charge from a powerbank/dynamohub while recording/navigating?

TBH 8 odd hours would do me fine 99% of the time, but for a big trip a powerbank option would be nice, noting the poor position of the old fashioned power connector…

Here’s a question, WRT battery life can it take a charge from a powerbank/dynamohub while recording/navigating?

I can’t see why not, even my old 800 would do that.

I think it can charge whilst being used. I can check later.

Re battery life – you can use it with the screen brightness all the way off, if it’s at all sunny or bright, which helps. Also battery save mode works well for me. Screen stays off until you get to a turn or you touch it, then it goes off again.

It’s not a deal breaker TBH, and having skimmed the DCR review comments it looks like you can charge on the move…

I expect the shorter battery life over a 520 is simply down to having a bigger, brighter screen to power from about the same capacity battery.

I do wonder if this being dropped in price is a quick offload of units by garmin before a replacement comes out, perhaps something with more battery life and/or works with the 530/830 battery pack?

Yes, it’ll charge while running. However the port is on the underside of the unit, so you need to choose your cable/mount/position carefully.

Everything seems positive about this so I’ve got one on the way too – thanks for the PSA poe82 .

With regards to the turn prompting on it-I have always made my own GPX routes in an old Memory Map program,would the device smart enough in an offroad situation to know/guess and prompt that theres a turn coming up or does it need the route to have the information embedded in the GPX already , made by a specific app- like the Garmin ones for example ? If it is smart enough – I’m thinking it would really save/extend battery life.

Upgrade your base map too.

The base Garmin map is very out of date.

Look at TalkyToaster where you can buy maps (£11 or so). . TT’s maps include contours, rerouting etc without talking to the phone
https://shop.talkytoaster.me.uk/

Or the free one without the above
Free TalkyToaster map – https://shop.talkytoaster.me.uk/product/free-british-isles-map-ready-for-use-with-garmin-devices-nonroutable-contours

I have a Garmin Touring and it was very glitchy, bit better now. Hardly use it now as I prefer my 130, which if anyone is interested can be charged on the move.

Handy tip for transferring routes from Strava to a Garmin is to click the star icon on a Strava route (favourite it?) and the next time you sync your Garmin to Garmin Connect the route will now be on your device.

The device calculates turn by turn directions when you start navigating the GPX you’ve uploaded. Or TCX etc.

It’s optional though. If you don’t want TBT it’ll just display your route on the map and chirp if you go off course. But that’s also optional.

Thanks for the PSA – the USB port on my 810 has started getting a bit erratic, so been looking to change to something newer – have ordered and will see how we get on when it lands. Looks like it’ll do most of what I want a bike computer to do without all the fancy performance metrics that I’ve never used on my 810. I assume elevation/ascent/descent are interpolated from contour lines as no barometric pressure sensor?

is any9one using these for mtb route following? How do they rate them for that?

I assume elevation/ascent/descent are interpolated from contour lines as no barometric pressure sensor?

Correct. And a significant underestimate IME. I just ignore it now.

So I’ve just pushed the button on one of these. Will hopefully collect from Halfords later today.

I used mine on the commute to work for the first time today, just to get a feel for it.

I haven’t played with any settings yet – how do you get it to select minor roads over main roads?  There are loads of little country roads which shadow the main roads into my work but everytime I deviated it tried to reroute me back to the nearest main road. Does it make a difference if you download different maps like talkytoaster etc?

On the older device routing priority is fixed but the type of route for each road was in the map, and Talkie Toaster maps tweak these.

You can choose routing type but it’s not clear what the effects are – experiment.

Routing by default is done with trailforks, so popular routes get used. You can turn this off.

If I am using the device itself for route planning I put a couple of waypoints along the route to force it to go a particular way. Or I just use Strava etc to do it and get it how I want it. The device does not change a route you’ve uploaded to it, unless you deviate then it will route you back onto it.

is any9one using these for mtb route following? How do they rate them for that?

It’s pretty good at getting you places. It uses trailforks so if you are MTBing it should take you on well used trails. But I nearly always plan using Strava and the heatmap so I can understand the route a bit better. The few times I’ve used it whilst out, it’s been sensible.

It’s never going to be perfect for recreational riding, it’s not an MTB guide. It does as well as it can, but it’s got no idea of what you actually want out of a ride – if you just want to get somewhere or you’re looking for the best gnar. In the latter case it has no idea how to determine that because the data’s not really available. I mean it uses trail popularity, but I am often riding a road through a particular area beacause I just want to get home, even though there are good trails; or sometimes a trail is good in the dry but bad in the wet so I avoid it. This means that popularity routing is only a very basic tool.

Just received mine to (hopefully) replace an 820 which infuriated more than it was useful when it came to maps and navigation – hoping the larger screen (and higher resolution) will be an improvement.

Following on from the question above – what map / settings do people find best for following a route off-road? I’ve struggled to find a good combination that has sufficient detail but doesn’t lose the actual track in a mess of colour.. often end up wishing for my old 25 breadcrumb trail!

how do you get it to select minor roads over main roads?

There are a couple of settings: “Avoid highways” in the routing settings (which only avoids really major roads) and something like “Activity type” or “Ride type” somewhere, which gives you options like road, mixed terrain etc.

That said, I’ve always found you end up either being routed on big, fast roads with the “road” option or up sheep tracks with “mixed terrain”. There’s no option like “prefer minor roads” and if you deviate then you’ll need to go about a hundred miles off course before the “recalculate route” command finally figures out that you don’t want to be on the trunk road you’ve been deliberately riding away from.

It’s great for riding pre-planned routes, but if you like quiet tarmac then IME the on-device routing still sucks.

@bez it really does. I just played around with the settings on the way home and every single time when faced with a choice it took the most dangerous. There seems no logic either – seemed like it was programmed by a car driver who wanted to make the least turns to get home.

Also 3hrs of use on 50% brightness and I’m at 58% battery…oh and no temp field

Hmmmm glad I didn’t sell my 520

On the plus side the touch screen works very well.

Mine turned up today-and I like it so far,everything seems easier ,course installs( more than 2 at a time) ,clearer visually and snappier than my old 800 so heres hoping it does OK out and about .

Is there a link or have I missed the boat anyway?