Garmin Edge 500 ?????

06townsonj

Hi,

Do you have a Garmin Edge 500?

What do you think about it?

Its Features and everything else about it?

Thanks,

gmb

Yes,

It's excellent. It's very easy to use, small, has lots of options re. screen configurations. I's compatible with ANT+ if power metres are what you are after and also HRM. The battery life is very good and you can download all the data to Garmin and monitor your progress.

Highly recommended.

gmb

Yes,

It's excellent. It's very easy to use, small, has lots of options re. screen configurations. I's compatible with ANT+ if power metres are what you are after and also HRM. The battery life is very good and you can download all the data to Garmin and monitor your progress.

Highly recommended.

Down the Road

Best piece of kit I have ever had. I don't need to look at a map on my rides and the download feature into Garmin Connect means I can look at what I have been doing and when. Love the rate of climb feature as it makes me appreciate just how fast the pro's go up hill

glasgowbhoy

Down the Road wrote:

Best piece of kit I have ever had. I don't need to look at a map on my rides and the download feature into Garmin Connect means I can look at what I have been doing and when. Love the rate of climb feature as it makes me appreciate just how fast the pro's go up hill

Yup, love mine too. Great bit of kit.
What is the rate of climb? Is that in the long list menu?

Down the Road

Comes up as Vertical speed in your list of Data fields. I put it on Page 3

pitchshifter

Does it tell you the gradient of the climbs?

Down the Road

Yeah Comes up as Gradient on the list gives you a rough idea in % You can also see how high you are and also totals of ascent and descent if you wish

twotyred

The good stuff

Compact size not much bigger than a standard cycle computer

Nice simple, secure and easy to use attachment system

Separate configurable screens- lap screen especially useful

Acquires satellites quickly

Works well with HRM strap and cadence/speed sensor- v useful on the turbo

Easy to upload info to Garmin Connect and Sporttracks


The not so good stuff

Display could be clearer- the window on the display is very reflective meaning a lot of screen contrast can be lost. Indoors I use the backlight to make the screen easier to read

Unreliable when following a course- keeps losing the course. I've not used this function much so this could be a user rather than equipment issue

Control buttons have vague operation when wearing gloves- OK without gloves.

Good review here which I've found to be very accurate

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2009/11/garmin-edge-500-in-depth-review.html

redvision

had mine for a few months now. its a good little gadget and does what it is designed to do very well.

personally though, if i was buying one now, i would save up for the edge 800. more features, more reliable hrm belt, and touchscreen is easier to use with goves than the buttons on the 500 (be very careful when wearing winter gloves with the 500 as when you press the start/stop button the device can unclip from the mount)

Down the Road

Same HRM belt in both and If you don't need the maps then save the money (double) and get the 500

I use mine in winter gloves with no problems at all.

And I have tested the 800 and although good would not get one

bramstoker

Its a step up from a computer and i use it mostly for the route tracking and recording, its a bit of a pain to swap between bikes, it would be nice if it associated its self with the cadence meter and swapped when it picked up a different one. If you have to many fields on one page it becomes unreadable while riding as the information is so small, The altitude readings can be plain wrong unless you set it from a start point, but small issues like this can be corrected with a quick visit to the garmin forums.

redvision

Down the Road wrote:

Same HRM belt in both and If you don't need the maps then save the money (double) and get the 500

I use mine in winter gloves with no problems at all.

And I have tested the 800 and although good would not get one

there is a different hrm with the edge 800. you get the new style softstrap. much better and more reliable.

as for the gloves, youre lucky. do a search on here and yourll see a few people have experience the unit unclipping from the mount when pressing the start/stop botton.
having said that, still a much better mount than the old style on the 305!

Down the Road

It has been the same belt for 4 months in both the 500 and the 800.
Can't do anything about numpties with fat fingers

redvision

Down the Road wrote:

It has been the same belt for 4 months in both the 500 and the 800.
Can't do anything about numpties with fat fingers

not sure where you got that from - the edge 500 package comes with the standard hrm strap - the 800 comes with the 'new premium strap'. its a massive difference.

and who hasnt got got fat fingers with winter gloves on???

Down the Road

Would you like me to open a box and take a photo?

glasgowbhoy

redvision wrote:

Down the Road wrote:

It has been the same belt for 4 months in both the 500 and the 800.
Can't do anything about numpties with fat fingers

not sure where you got that from - the edge 500 package comes with the standard hrm strap - the 800 comes with the 'new premium strap'. its a massive difference.

Wrong. The 500 in the bundle comes with the premium HRM.

redvision

dc rainmaker would beg to differ. plus my edge 500 package came with the standard hrm.

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/g ... view-27494

Down the Road

Ever heard of "old Stock"?????

redvision

Down the Road wrote:

Ever heard of "old Stock"?????

old stock?? its only been out since may!

clunkychunky

had both. upgraded to edge 800 recently (although it was faulty).
edge 800 is superb when it works.

just to add to argument, my 500 came with plasticy strap, edge 800 had the softstrap.

Down the Road

Hate to break this to you it was released in late 2009

And even so the new belt was put in the 500 I think back in August or so. So yes you may have old stock

redvision

Down the Road wrote:

Hate to break this to you it was released in late 2009

And even so the new belt was put in the 500 I think back in August or so. So yes you may have old stock

was it?? oh...well in that case i guess i have old stock (thanks wiggle). sorry for arguing mate. :oops:

hammerite

I know a few people who had the new deluxe strap who have reverted to the old one as the new one either stopped working or was throwing out erroneous readings - Max HR of 300+?

Down the Road

Seen this before on all sorts of hrm. Most common cause is your shirt or Gillet "drumming" in the breeze

Sounds a joke but have had this myself and if you kept the speed down the system worked upped the speed and it goes haywire.

SBezza

Down the Road wrote:

Seen this before on all sorts of hrm. Most common cause is your shirt or Gillet "drumming" in the breeze

Sounds a joke but have had this myself and if you kept the speed down the system worked upped the speed and it goes haywire.

+1 mine does it with the older style HRM strap, unless I use a tight jersey.

Also I can't see how anyone can unmount a 500 when pushing the buttons, you have to twist it off it's mount, not push it to one side :?

amnesia

I have the 500 (and older style HRM strap) and think it's brilliant.
The only problem I have had is when I forgot to stop it on the Sandbanks ferry and it thought I did 90mph across water... pretty sure this would have happened with any GPS unit that lost signal though. Had to edit the .fit file to make it look like I wasn't a superhero

06townsonj

Thanks for everybody's views!

Has anybody got any other problems with the Garmin Edge 500?
Pro's & Con's?
Does the Garmin Edge 500 have an auto-start/stop feature?

Thanks,

devoninbred

I found this fella's site really useful when looking around for my GPS http://www.dcrainmaker.com/ In the end I went with the Forerunner 305 as I don't just cycle

Finlab6

It has an autopause which stops the timer when you stop. Heard about some problems with this but works perfectly on mine. I love my 500.

AndyD2574

06townsonj wrote:

Thanks for everybody's views!

Has anybody got any other problems with the Garmin Edge 500?
Pro's & Con's?
Does the Garmin Edge 500 have an auto-start/stop feature?

Thanks,

Got everything mate...........auto start / stop, hrm, cadence, gradient, ascent, descent, all averages, all maximums, different bike set ups...........perfect ride / training compter.

Look hard and you will get a bargain. I got the black one with cadence and hrm for £170