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My 500 is probably around 4 yrs old and the battery is flaky, have done the full discharge a few times but it can last between 3 and 10 hrs....
So, looking at replacements.
My criteria are :
Need speed, distance, cadence, laps, ave speed
Mainly road use
I don't do strava, but I'll upload to Garmin connect to record a ride if interesting
Current 500 is paired to 2 bikes for cadence.
So would an Edge 25 be best option, or something else ?
At the risk of me sounding like a cracked record: Wahoo Elemnt Bolt.
You don't need to upload to anything really, the Wahoo app records and saves all your rides. Although if you want turn-by-turn course following you'll need to sync with courses saved on RideWithGPS. Vanilla course following if sync with Strava.
10 years of Garmin use and now been on the Wahoo for about a month, almost exclusively on road, and would never go back (unless it explodes). So much easier to set up and use. YMMV as always...
The 520 will do all of that and if you use the Talky Toaster maps it actually becomes usable to follow a course. I went with it over a 25 as it is better if you want to follow a course than the 25 especially once you've changed the basemap.
Thanks, the 520 offers a lot more than I need, but will have a look at it, along with the Elemnt one..
I really like my edge 25 but it might feel like a backwards step from the 500.
It's compact, neat and minimal and will give a solid 6-8hrs (with glonass off) but there's no easy way to attach a powerbank on the move so if you're doing longer rides battery is a limitation.
It can display all the fields you mentioned, and pairs well with sensors (I have garmin HR and cadence sensors) but you won't get all those fields on a single screen.
You get two screens (plus a third for HR if the sensor is detected) and you can either manually change screens or set it to auto-scroll (three speed settings for scrolling).
It will apparently do navigation, but I have never tried it the screen is Diddy and I would rather go with a map TBH.
Syncing via Bluetooth with my phone after a ride means I never have to faff with the laptop...
Also worth noting, I have avoided firmware update, it seems stable so I just ignore the connect notifications, if it's still working I would rather not chance garmins tender touch with software...
It's a basic unit at a competitive price, if that's what you want it's pretty good, but I think it's worth looking at the competition now...
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Just ditched my garmin 25 awful battery life less than 4 hours if it was cold, with every switched off.
Bought a lezyne macro for less than the 25 cost for three times the features.
I've just bought a Wahoo ELEMNT, too soon to give much of a verdict.
It's replacing an Edge 25 (that will soon be for sale). The 25 is a good data collection device / mini-computer, but using it for navigation is difficult. Not only is the screen a bit too small, I found getting routes into the right format to be a bit too much faff. (it's also just breadcrumb navigation, no use if you move slightly off route)
Grant, if the battery is still good on that 25 I'd be interested....
Another vote for the Garmin 520 here which I bought to replace a 500 with said flaky battery. It will automatically sync with your phone and upload rides to Garmin Connect and hence to Strava if required. Put Open Streetmaps on it and its good for navigating a route.
Replacement batteries are available for the 500 along with instructions on how to replace them. I keep meaning to try this with mine to revive it as a backup for the 520