1st ever post so hopefully I've done it correctly.
I received a price camel alert this morning, only a few $$ off the cheapest price according to camel history ($291.91 a few months back)
Just ordered one for myself
CamelCamelCamel.
Can someone share why you would buy this over just using your phone? Especially when you can download offline maps?
I used my phone for a year or so and I got sick of it draining the battery plus the phone would heat up in the sun on the hot days.
Less risk of damaging your expensive phone as well if you have a crash or accidentally drop your bike etc
And phones don't last very long with the screen and gps on
You dont have the cigarette charger connected to the phone?
This product is intended for cyclists to use while cycling not for drivers to use while driving in case you didn’t know that.
Yea like who ever buys bikes without ciggie lighter and ashtray, right?
@nuker: Not everyone is a cyclist and Montyjpm may have a Garmin GPS for car use? Believe or not my wife thinks Garmin is an unknown brand that makes low quality products. Let’s just say we all are different might be due to our different experiences.
Mostly for durability in outdoor elements and standalone GPS having longer battery life and option to switch out batteries. If you are doing a short half day hike in non-extreme weather then no real benefit tbh especially with a portable powerbank.
Deal is also OOS
Out of stock?
Website and app both say in stock for me as of 2 seconds ago
Yes, weird the website says Currently unavailable when I posted my comment above and when I checked just now.
it's designed specifically to interface with you bike gear, run maps, display relevant data etc. in a much smaller, less cumbersome and clumsy-looking unit than a huge smartphone attached to the Stem.
I have a cycling computer and have used for years, I have never used the phone for such things. The cycling computers have all the relevant data screens and maps installed, saving your phone battery for times that you need it.
Also the cycling computers do better in direct sunlight, I've had my phone turn off multiple times when it gets too hot, plus I wouldn't want my phone out in the rain no matter how "water resistant" they say they are. Then should you crash your phone is more protected in your back pocket than on the bars.
Apart from that you look like a numpty with your mobile on the bars :P
A phone can't connect to a power meter.
actually it can. most sensors now (including power meters) have dual ANT+ and bluetooth connectivity so you can pair it with apps like Wahoo on your phone.
Sorry, correction, it can't connect to all power meters. I have two power meters, and neither have Bluetooth.
@prhino: Many Samsung phones e.g. Galaxy S series from S6 onward and some of A series have Ant+ support. It seems strange to me as I'd guess that 99.99% of owners would never use that feature.
ahh so this is more for cycling then?
Yep.
Can someone share why you would buy this over just using your phone? Especially when you can download offline maps?
It's a GPS designed for cycling, and can be used with a variety of sensors including cadence, speed and heart rate. I think it will also work with power meters and Varia rearview radar system.
Best answer. Thank you!
Phone is fine for occasional/causal riding around.
But if you do regular rides, definitely get a GPS unit. It's compact, durable, more weather resistant, requires less power. Also ANT+ is more robust than Bluetooth, though I've heard some Android phones have ANT+ hardware, but not iPhones.
because the producer has called the tune - now the consumer must dance
Plenty of valid reasons to use this over your phone bud
One reason could be connections to accessories.
ie. cadence sensor, power meter, speed sensor, HRM, radar, di2.
A lot of these instruments use the ANT+ protocol and a lot of phones dont support ANT+.
Plus the display for these units are integrated with all of the above.
I am not sure if the phone, you can display all of the above.
ie. you might need a separate app for each of the above.
eg. there is a radar app for the radar, and a HRM app for the HRM etc…
but I am not aware of an app which would show you your power, HRM, cadence etc…
Clicked website just now, still showing available.
Mind you, I prefer Wahoo over Garmin.
GPLama seems to think the new Hammerhead is even better than Wahoo.
YMMV.
My take away from that video was that it has "potential" to be better, but as it stands it's underbaked. Either way, the mount is really stupid for the hammerhead, I'll stick to Garmin / Wahoo for now
The US version of the Edge 530 is loaded with US maps so if you want to use Australian maps you'll have to load them from OSM or some other mapping site that allows them to be saved in Garmin's map format. I'd guess the UK version only has UK maps also.
THIS is probably why you shouldn't but Garmins overseas. A mate of mine bought this back in the Nov/Dec sale and till now he hasn't found an Aussie map that is good enough. FYI, he also couldn't load the proper Garmin map ("shared" by another mate with the exact same model but bought locally) on his unit.
You get free map from OpenStreet maps and load them to your device. I did that to my 520 many years.
I purchased my 520 from wiggles and it was shipped directly from Garmin AU. It didn’t come with AU maps.
Paid $20 for official maps.
Definitely recommend Open street Maps. I travel overseas often and will download the region I need before leaving Aus. Works for any country. The maps are free, routable, mostly accurate and you can select the type of map (contours etc).
it's worth noting that I tried open street maps earlier this year and tried to generate an aussie map. Due to the way that the requests work, you get in line and have to wait for them to provide you a generated download. The line at the time i tried was more than a year long 😅
Yep - I bought this back in Nov (Amazon UK), and found it didn't come with Aust maps. I ended up using some website to extract OSM in the right format to load them in. It can be a slight hassle.
DC Rainmaker has a good (if old) guide to getting maps for Edge headunits.
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2019/08/how-to-install-free-maps…
http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/ hasn't been working for ages
Server status:
osm.pleiades.uni-wuppertal.de/garmin/, queue = 156181 requests (~650.8 days), status = OK
sn21.pleiades.uni-wuppertal.de/garmin/ not available!
bbbike is what I used last week.
@anthem29: yes that's the one I used too, I couldn't recall its name until your comment.
And that's the issue with going down this route, relying on 3rd party/open-source tools that might just stop working, and the chance of them becoming stale increases with time. But the worst case is just buying the maps from Garmin so I'll see how long I can hold out.
That's a great price, tempting but my 520 is still working fine.
It seems this is just the head unit, without any sensors.
It will connect with the existing sensors on your bike if you are just upgrading the head unit.
Cheers OP, had the 520 for a few years, took this opportunity to upgrade.
Good price, good head unit.
This might be off topic but can someone please share some recommendations for car gps? Reason for this is my partner has recently got p plate and according to vic law no phone is allowed even for navigation purposes. Thanks!
Garmin Drive 61LM, LM means life time map update. It's $176 from Good Guys Commercial, may be able to price match in store.
The smaller 51LM (5" instead of 6") is $129.
Thank you!
see below about touch type, plz
Garmin Drive 61LM has resistive touch display. You want capacitive touch unit, like Garmin DriveSmart 66, I paid $320 using discount from BUPA health insurance.
Might want to double check but I'm pretty sure you can use a phone to navigate if it's securely mounted for example with a windscreen sucker thing
Not for P plates.
Ah
@BarneyKB: Yeah sadly not for P plates, although I don't see the difference between a mounted GPS unit and a mounted phone. Better be a good kid and avoid a fat fine thay pays for 2 GPS units :D.
There are usually plenty of used Garmin Nuvi's (Garmin's car GPS's) on eBay. Best to get one which has "LTM" or "LM" in the title (Life Time Maps) which allow free map updates.
might as well get a headunit replacement for carplay/android auto?
Yeah that was one of my options as well…My concern was that my 2016 Honda hrv has a side camera and I am not sure if aftermarket carplay/andrioid auto units will be able to work well with that…
Wouldn't it make more sense to get something like this instead? https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003378666512.html?spm=a2…
but its not aero. Aero is everything!
Definitely not Pro dude!! You'll be laughed out of the coffee shop!
Briggs Court Ahead :)
Would this be suitable for motorcycles?
Not sure why you would want to record you motorcycle ride.:)
If anything, you don't want to record the ride. :D
If you want to, you can. I used to the do that with my old Edge 705.
But only to record the routes to help with future planning. It's not suitable as a navigation device, because the screen is too small and not light up all the time, also it doesn't have Bluetooth audio to integrate with helmet comms unit.
Seen more motorcycles using smartphones mounted with quadlocks instead.
There are motorcycle specific ones, phone doesn't work with gloves, though newer gloves have conductive tips.
Yep, right here. Have a quad lock stem mount for my GSXR.
All my gloves apart from the race gloves have conductive tips.
You may need the vibration damper to protect the camera.
Wow learnt something new here didn't realise my semi recent gloves had this
You might be better off looking at the Beeline Moto if you're after something compact.
Edge 530 appears finicking with navigation. Would rather stick to my Garmin 51.
So from comments here it sounds like this won't come with an Australian map preloaded? So have to add AUD$28 to download the Australian maps from Garmin?
Correct, no Aust maps - my firsthand experience.
You can find the maps for free - the map data is from OpenStreetMaps, they need to be converted into the Garmin file format. The website that does it is bbbike - https://extract.bbbike.org/
on the website you select a rectangle around the map area you need, and it emails you once the batch job is complete. you then copy the map file over USB into the Garmin.
Thanks so much! And thanks OP, bought one.
Ordered one
awesome, thanks for the post. I got a second hand Edge 500 seven years ago; has served me well but is a bit shonky sometimes.
This will be great for the road commute and for new trails on the MTB.
Maybe I'll start using the heartrate strap again
huge upgrade on the screen too - so much clearer + lots of features with Trailforks now
Good GPS, I did a 14hr / 323km gravel race with navigation map loaded, HR and power meter connected and still had around 40% battery life left. Without even using the extend battery features.
323km gravel race! I'm curious which race it was? I'm currently building my base to attempt endurance type events
Why the neg on z00n's comment? I'm curious too.
Just did a 6 hour endurance race around a race track and my 520 didn't go below 80%. They are good devices.
Brisbane valley rail trail - end to end x 2 https://www.brisbanevalleyrailtrail.com.au/event/brisbane-va…
Strava segment for it - strava.com/segments/24341821?filter=overall
Well done, that's really impressive!
Good outright price. Just paid $375 for Australian stock (wanted local warranty and native AU maps)
For casual fun users, this is only good if prices was lower.
This kind of devices are geared towards enthusiasts, causal fun users riding around nearby cycle lanes for a couple of hours can just use the phone.
This is about as inexpensive as you can get and still get all the goodies a real bike computer offers compared to a phone. It's virtually the same price as Garmin's entry level 130plus or Wahoo's Bolt. It has all the cool stuff like Climb Pro that a phone doesn't.
Anything cheaper than this and there really isn't any advantage compared to just using your phone on a quadlock mount.
Wonder if this gets the firmware updates in Oz, coming from UK. I bought an Edge 500 from Taiwan, and it wouldn't update the firmware in Oz. I could find firmware updates on Garmin Taiwan website and download, then update manually via desktop app, but it stopped working after a certain version. Almost like updates were geo-blocked.
Should be fine. I monitor the 530 forum and there are always ppl from the UK posting about the latest firmware updates - https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/cycling/f/edge-530
The Asia firmware page hasn't been updated in a long time - https://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=1492…
Trying to be good and resist this deal! No need to upgrade from the 520 really. Trying to be content. :)
Likewise, but I resisted, mainly because the 520 serves all my needs. I use it to record my rides, not so much for navigation.
Yep me too. If I get a bit lost, I just pull out my phone. The 520 still records everything I need it to. But yep, battery life is not great. But good enough.
I was happy with my 520 but the battery life when using a course just wasnt enough for the long gravel rides i started doing. And couldnt risk running out of juice when i relying on the map in the bush. 530 has fixed that issue.
Got my Edge yesterday. Just set it up.
I downloaded map of Australia using https://extract.bbbike.org/ (I manually added points to polygon around Australia)
Format: Garmin BBBike (latin1)
Or you can download the same file while it's still available:
https://download.bbbike.org/osm/extract/planet_114.773_-35.3…
Simply copy gmapsupp.img from inside the zip file onto the device's garmin folder.
Did you end up removing the UK map? Do the UK maps still show up as installed on Garmin Express?
I ended up just buying the official maps and I've loaded them on there fine but it's still asking me to manage the UK maps. Just can't seem to get rid of GE showing them (even after a reset of the 830)
Nope, I just left it on there. It's not just UK, it's all Europe. There's plenty of space to keep. I made a backup of all the files just in case.
Can a bought from the UK 530 be used in Australia? Is it just a matter of downloading the maps into into the unit?
Amazing price. Very good unit.