PSA Garmin edge explore

https://www.halfords.com/cycling/cycling-technology/cycle-computer-gps/garmin-edge-explore-cycling-computer-701643.html

seemed like it was programmed by a car driver who wanted to make the least turns to get home.

TBF it probably was.
It could well be a porting/adaptation of some of their old car GPS software. Think about it, auto-routing is what a car GPS needs to do by default and the options on offer sound like the sort of thing you’d expect from one…

It follows Trailforks for routing by default. It puts you on the most popular route, not the quietest most scenic one. Take a look at the Strava heat map – many of the most popular routes are the big ones, for some reason. You can also turn this feature off.

Ordered an Edge Explore from Halfords yesterday. Picked it up this morning, got it home only to find box was empty!
Rang store they said come in and we’ll sort it out.
Go back to store but they didn’t have anymore in stock but could get one in for Thursday or I could have a refund and re-order from a nearby Halfords.

So I got a refund but now the price has gone up to £219, very frustrating!

Mine turned up yesterday, and is off to Santa. I’ve already got a 705 and a 200, but this will be way better for MTBing

Picked one up from Halfords yesterday for my birthday in November. Better get my wife to check it’s in the box!

In store it was showing as £229 but they honoured the online price and gave 10% off with Blue Light.

Mine has arrived.

It’s a lot of device for the money. I think I’ll be using the lanyard Just to be on the safe side with this one…

I also don’t think there’s much point in me having more than one data screen.

The touch screen is so much slicker to operate than on my 510.

The extra data screen is useful if you are doing laps or racing or something.

Maybe, and if this was your only GPS toy that might make sense, but this ain’t a device pitched at racers.

If I was racing (unlikely TBH these days) I think I’d actually want to use something smaller and more basic, unless we’re talking endurance racing but then the battery life becomes an issue again…

Basically racers shouldn’t be buying an edge explore, at least not for racing (IMO of course)…

Are people who bagged one of these still happy with them a few weeks on? Battery life decent? I’m a roadie and only concern about it is lack of barometer which would be a bit annoying if it’s massively out. Guess Strava correction will sort that post-hoc.

Missed the boat and thinking of getting one if they re-appear at the reduced price during the whole black Friday malarkey.

Edit – should have googled when thanksgiving is (26/11) before making this post.

I’m pretty pleased with mine, battery life is Just about sufficient for a solid day of riding or three 2-3hr rides.

I use it it with a HRM and a cadence sensor as these are the most useful measures of effort for me, and only bother to have total ride ascent displayed as an indicator…

I haven’t tried out navigation much yet though, I’m not sure how much following a route spanks the battery, or indeed how effectively plugging in a power bank Will extended it.

The touch screen is good, but being so sensitive I tend to lock it while on a ride as I only have one data screen up…

Good: touch screen, size of display, speed of rerouting, price (@129)  , accuracy of data even without a barometer.

Bad: battery life, no temp reading, battery life.

On the whole its a win at the price I bought it for but I wouldn’t have paid anymore and ultimately I think that 8 hrs is too short a battery as it won’t even last a full day riding in some circumstances. For that reason I will probably punt it on fairly soon.

On the battery life point, just as a non-scientific experiment last night I plugged in an cheapo mini power bank happened to have (1500mAh/1×18650) into the explore (not recording, just on with auto power off disabled).

It went from displaying 68% to 86% when I came back to it a couple of hours later and appeared to have drained and powerbank (or at least drop the current so low it couldn’t draw anything more) so +20ish% from something dinky enough to just tape to the bars might extend running time by a couple of hours (depending on use).

So a bigger, better (but bulkier) 10,000mAh powerbank should be able to fully charge it, but to that’s an Extra lump to lug about Vs the battery life of a newer 530/830… something to consider if you plan to use it for longer/multiday rides or actually exploring…

Only used mine once. In foul weather on a four ish hour ride. It performed brilliantly, showed me some great new routes in an area I thought I knew. Easy to follow route, screen was great. Used about 50% battery but was not in saver mode.

So a bigger, better (but bulkier) 10,000mAh powerbank should be able to fully charge it, but to that’s an Extra lump to lug about Vs the battery life of a newer 530/830…

Mine fully recharges from a 3000 mAh battery with plenty to spare. I get about 8 hours if navigating, 10 hours if not.

7/10

Upgraded with Talky Toaster Maps.

Been great when out on open, exposed moorland criss-crossed by occasional tracks (the Ochils). Change my mind, scroll the map, drop a pin on my newly-chosen destination and then follow the trail through the clag.

Navigation following a route is a bit prompt-heavy.

Certainly beats digging my phone out every few minutes for ViewRanger (and OS maps don’t show any of the trails I follow).

Food for thought, thanks for replies.

Hardly ever do a ride that would test the battery life if it goes over 6hrs, but if the battery deteriorates over the course of a year or two then it could be a problem. I don’t really want to be replacing it every two years. The lack of barometer is a minus too.

The edge 1030 for £300 looks worth it while these are going for £180, but maybe still tempted with the explore if it reappears at £130.

Are people who bagged one of these still happy with them a few weeks on? Battery life decent? I’m a roadie and only concern about it is lack of barometer which would be a bit annoying if it’s massively out.

I still love mine (can you tell?), but the lack of barometer never bothered me, I don’t think I need accurate readings.

The best thing about this device is what you get for the money.

The battery saver mode works pretty well, if you are concerned about battery, and given that I only use it when down to my last 10-15% it seems to make a very big difference.

Has anyone had any issues with their phone strugglng to connect? I’ve been having a few

I guess Garmin (still?) have issues with battery consistency.

Like I say, I’ve had 12 hours out of mine, navigating. That’s the only time I’ve drained it in one go, but I’m fairly confident mine performs consistently with Garmin’s claims, both in normal and battery saver modes. That said, my past experience of Garmin devices (notably Edges and Virbs) has generally been some way short of their claims, and it seems other people get quite variable results.

I think the Explore’s battery is something like 1200MAh or so, which means even a cheap single-cell USB battery (2600Mah) should easily fully recharge it. If you’re getting a 20% boost from a claimed 1500MAh battery then my suspicion would be that you have a crappy external battery.

Has anyone had any issues with their phone strugglng to connect? I’ve been having a few

Yeah, that’s a Garmin Connect issue I think. It was generally patch, then I upgraded the device to 5.2 and it wouldn’t connect at all until I re-installed and re-paired everything, now it seems better than before.

Has anyone had any issues with their phone strugglng to connect? I’ve been having a few

Have done once or twice in the past. Seems to be playing ball at the moment.

Fundamentally, as good as it is by Garmin’s standards, the Explore is still subject to their firmware bug lottery. I regret upgrading mine, which took me from one significant but mildly irritating bug to a more significant and quite problematic one which was almost the polar opposite of the first. (There is a third party website where old versions are archived, but they don’t go back far enough to include the version mine came with.)

OK so I’ve done 4hrs with no nav and I’m on 52%

Clearly my battery will not do anywhere near 12hrs

How does it work with Garmin – am I allowed to send it back under warranty? (bought through amazon)

Amazon are usually pretty good, just say it doesn’t meet the description or whatever the equivalent response is, fill in the comments to explain it, and you’ll probably be fine for a refund. If that fails then go to Garmin and see what they say.

OK so I’ve done 4hrs with no nav and I’m on 52%

Clearly my battery will not do anywhere near 12hrs

1. Li-ion batteries need a few cycles to reach capacity so give it a couple of weeks.

2. What screen brightness did you have it on? A quoted 12 hours is going to be on the lowest brightness. I find that it’s quite usable on lower settings. There’s also an adaptive display function you could turn that off.

3. You could try battery saver – it’s quite usable IME, you just need to touch the screen for it to come on.

“1. Li-ion batteries need a few cycles to reach capacity so give it a couple of weeks.”

I’ve found this not to be true of modern batteries. In my experience a crap battery is obvious from day one. I don’t want to faff around with settings to get close to a reasonable battery life really. The brightness was set to 40%.

Seems to be swings and roundabouts with garmin, my 520 has been excellent and the battery lasts if anything longer than the stated max.

I’ll use it till the end of the week but I’m not expecting the battery life to improve.

How are people getting on with theirs?
I’m about to pull the trigger on one but at £169 as it’s the cheapest I’ve seen it for months…unless anyone wants to sell theirs that is 😉. Does it come with an out front mount and if not how do you mount yours? It’s a lot more prone to damage there on a MTB as opposed to on a roadie…

Comes with a 1/4 turn mount that is bungied onto your stem.

Really like mine, it’s just the job. I bought a cheap mount from CRC that works. Never really explored what’s in the box.

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/lifeline-out-front-mount-for-garmin-edge/rp-prod155367

Mine is on its way back to Garmin at the moment. One of the tabs on the bottom snapped off, and Garmin are replacing it. I use it daily on an 8 mile commute. I charge it, and my lights, once a week.

I need to explore the functions to get the most out of it. Currently it is recording my activity, and that is it. I know that my Alfine needs a service…

Any one else experiencing a blank screen after starting to record? The unit is on and the track is recording (it beeps at turn intervals) but the screen is blank and unresponsive. It’s done it a few times now and it’s really annoying.. you have to do a hard power-off to reset it…

Any one else experiencing a blank screen after starting to record?

Is it on battery save mode? Sounds like it.

I’m wondering if Garmin know full well that there are yet more issues with the Edge Explore and are quietly letting it die off with retailers selling their stock off. That was the way that the Edge Touring went.

And I know how bad that is because I have one. I kept looking at the Explore when it was on sale and could never quite convince myself to buy another Garmin.

Is it on battery save mode? Sounds like it.

I think I’ve tried it with and without.. the screen doesn’t respond when you tap it in either case.

3 rides with my new EE. Not impressed with battery life. I bought it predominantly for off-road navving in new areas. I’ve done a 3 hr off road and a 2 hr road ride not using the map for nav, battery dead. Today I did a 3 hr roadie not using maps to nav from, battery down to 53%. This seems a bit shit to say to least. Would this stand up to a full day’s map navving in the Lakes? I very much doubt it. Read beforehand about the battery – some seem ok, some seemed like they had issues so bit of a lottery. Seems mine is a duffer – not happy. What can I do about it?

Sounds like you might have a problem but – how long did you leave it between those two rides? When you press the button it doesn’t turn off, it goes to standby. For me it can lose a lot of battery power in a week on standby. But mine is ok for probably 9-10 hours of riding. You could consider turning the screen down of course but I find battery saver mode pretty usable. It comes to live when you touch the screen or get to a turning.

What can I do about it?

Talk to Garmin of course, who else?

8 days between ride 2 and 3. It was def off and charged to 100% prior to today’s 3rd ride – lost half the juice in 3 hours whilst it wasn’t having to work particularly hard…

On Amazon Prime Day at £149

Today I did a 3 hr roadie not using maps to nav from, battery down to 53%. This seems a bit shit to say to least.

Since the last firmware update, I’ve had this problem on mine. However, the problem is the battery indicator, not the battery. My unit lasted about two hours with the battery showing 0%.

I’m on my second unit which has the battery display issue, it’s going back to Garmin. Hopefully will be third time lucky but I won’t be holding my breath

I did a 5.5hr ride a couple of weeks ago and it went down to just over 50% charge, with HRM and phone connected. Although the display brightness was way down, it didn’t matter as I can still see it in daylight just fine without the backlight.