What's a good budget Garmin to get??

After Sunday’s 100 ride….I found after 5hrs and 20 mins of riding ( when I finished ) I only had 9% battery left on my iPhone from running the strava app

So what would you guys recommend is a good budget Garmin to get to do my strava uploads…or do they upload direct??
Thanks

I’ve got an Edge 200, the cheapest, most basic model. It does basic route finding, records routes and also acts as a computer. I like it but it does not sync via blue-tooth or WiFi so I have to plug it into PC, no biggy for me but I can see that annoying some people.

Budget is a bit of a moving target 😆

I’ve Garmin Connect on my phone and computer, I’ve linked my Strava account with the Garmin Connect account so that when the unit syncs with Garmin Connect it’s automatically forwarded to Strava. I still have to edit the title to something witty as it just names the activity according to the location.

The Edge series are aimed at road cyclists whereas units like the Oregon and Dakota get used by tourers and have bigger screens but have maps. If you aren’t interested in HRM, cadence or power then any of the low end units will do. I’ve a 510 which does have those facilities but you don’t have to use them of course. I’ve no experience of the newer units like the 520, etc. Check out DC Rainmaker.

The Edge series are aimed at road cyclists whereas units like the Oregon and Dakota get used by tourers and have bigger screens but have maps

nonsense

Edge 800/810/1000 all support OS Maps

Oregon/Dakota run off AA batteries that you can get anywhere, hence why tourers sometimes use them,

simple thing is to answer these

do you use a HRM/Cadence/Speed Sensor?

if no will you ever use any of the above?

200 has just been replaced with the 20,

they do a 25 which looks the same but supports ANT+ which lets you run the stuff listed above

Garmin 200 from Aldi for 39.99.

where?? Has that been redcued? They were 69 in aldi.

After Sunday’s 100 ride….I found after 5hrs and 20 mins of riding ( when I finished ) I only had 9% battery left on my iPhone from running the strava app

Run it in airplane mode.

@dirtyrider I know that the 800/810/1000 support maps but they aren’t budget devices (well not for most people) which is what the OP is asking about.

neither are the Dakota or Oregan 😆

Garmin Edge touring here –
Pretty happy with it..

Had an Edge 200 and it was perfectly fine though navigation was very basic – now running a 500 that a mate gave me after he upgraded to a Touring. Navigation is still pretty basic, but I’ve done 10 hour rides and still had plenty of charge left over.

iPhone battery life must be one of the biggest contributors to Garmins success though 😉

Well the Oregon is in the same ballpark as the Edge 20 and has mapping, the Dakota is in the 810 price range – I couldn’t remember which way round the pricing went.

I think the OP needs to list the features they need and those they’d like to have and go through all the available models to find the best match. I’ve not checked DC Rainmaker’s site to see if he has such a table but that would be useful.

Edge 20/25 look to have shorter battery life than the older Edges – “up to 8 hours” claimed. The 25 will certainly be less if using bluetooth.

fwiw, I used my 810 to navigate me the 10 miles to the start, then had live tracking (uses bluetooth connection to phone for uploading the data) going during the 6 1/2 hours it took me to complete and it was on 41% battery at the finish. My iPhone 6 was on similar battery by the end too.

Fundamentally it’s choosing:

– do you want bluetooth for live tracking / uploading via your phone?
– do you want navigation with maps?
– do you want to pair a heartrate monitor?
– do you want to pair speed, cadence, power meters, etc?

Budget goes up and up depending on how many of those you want.

I should really knock up a flowchart, I’ve had a couple of mates asking similar recently.

I’ve got a 500, but if I was buying again I’d get an 800 or touring simply because following a course you don’t know off-road can be a bit difficult without proper mapping and a bigger screen, but for £80 in an Amazon deal it’s good for recording rides and tracking info.

Edge 200+OS paper maps for me.
Thought I’d lost it so went to Aldi and bought another as per nobeerinthefridge only to find it yesterday under a pile of papers, not somewhere I had looked. I thought it was lying somewhere in Ae keeping my sunglasses company 🙄

I suppose the features I would like are

Speed, candace, ghost rider, wireless upload to strava…..anything else is a bonus….I don’t really know anything about garmin…I still use a cat eye V2c

Or get an android with a nice big battery. My oneplus one does 9 hours of Strava. Borrowed a mates Edge touring yesterday. I liked it but the battery only lasted 9 hours of directions. I think the battery might be buggered.

If height gain is a measurement you’re interested in the 200 isn’t very accurate and can be 15-20% out from my experience. The 200 uses gps data where as the more expensive models use barometric.

Assuming my 800 and my friends 500 (which are usually within a couple of %) are accurate.

I have 510 but given that I don’t use a lot of the functions on it and having tried the 810 which has better mapping but for me nothing else I’ll go for a Touring Plus next time, good mapping and altimeter

Anyone with the new 20/25 able to give an idea of how small they are in units of “shortest stem they will fit on using standard mount”, 55 mm?

Not got one of the new ones but they are tiny, think fitting on a short stem would friend a bit on the stem.

20/25 is basically “old school bike computer” size… Id’ say it would fit on a 35mm stem!

The bluetooth on the 25 is BT4.0 so shouldn’t impact battery life too much – certainly I was using live tracking and nav for 4+hrs and the battery still shows ~1/2 full when I completed the ride and sent the data via bluetooth to Garmin Connect via my phone without plugging anything in or messing about.

The bluetooth also gives you notifications about incoming calls and texts so you can decide whether or not to ignore that call from work without looking at your phone!

I wouldn’t use the 200 with the smart sampling GPS for mountain biking. Much prefer the 1 second that the 500 uses.

Id be looking at the new 520, for 200 quid nothing comes close to it for maps and features imo.

The 25 does an amazing amount in a tiny size, you don’t need a laptop everything works Bluetooth with a smartphone, so the moment you finish your ride it’s on Strava.

If you’re happy enough with Strava on the iphone at the minute, then just invest in a portable battery to keep the iPhone going longer?

If height gain is a measurement you’re interested in the 200 isn’t very accurate and can be 15-20% out from my experience. The 200 uses gps data where as the more expensive models use barometric.

This is very much my experience as well. In fact, enough to make me look elsewhere now for something else (more expensive :-()

I had the 500, which was great until it got stolen. Insurers replaced it with the 510. Don’t bother with the 510, it’s colour but in bright light it’s difficult to see and the auto uploads via blue tooth rinses the battery power.

The 520 screen quality looks a lot better but I would seriously take a look at the 25, way cheaper and does a heck of a lot. Forget about the 510 though.

Stick your phone on aeroplane mode when you’re using Strava so it doesn’t eat battery trying to do live segments and whatever else it does