GPS

tenohfive

I'm on the hunt for a first GPS (sort of - I was previously using a TomTom GPS watch) for the bike and I'm pretty sure I know what I want...but wanted to check here first.

Basics - budget £100-200. Needs to do mapping, phone notifications and Strava Live segments a big bonus. Don't care about looks. Don't need compatibility with Di2 or lights/radar etc.

I came across this article recently which whilst not a full-on review, does at least speak quite favourably of the Lezyne Super GPS:
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2016/09/han ... puter.html
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/lezyne-super-cy ... e-solus_03

I like that I can change my mind about the route whilst out (open app, set new destination, pick the route and it'll follow it), that it's got all the mandatory features I want, that there's a barometric sensor, GLONASS and that it'll work with BTLE & ANT+ sensors (my S&C are dual, HRM is BT only.) It looks like a really solid unit. The Strava Live segments may not be as good as Garmin's (no ghost rider type feature as far as I can see.) But it's only £114, so for that minor niggle I'm not too worried.
That being said there aren't any detailed reviews of it - a few brief reviews, but nothing that would show up any long term issues. And the customer reviews on Wiggle seem mixed - the issue apparently being the Lezyne Android app.

The Wahoo ELEMNT has also crossed my radar. I can justify the extra £100+ if it's worth it, but I'm not sure that I'd be getting much more for the outlay?

Garmin. I don't speak Garmin, having generally shied away due to mixed reviews. But if I were to take a punt (and suck up the cost of a new HRM) then what should I be looking at - the 520?

So - as someone relatively new to cycling, is there a clear front runner and are there other factors I should be considering in which to pick?

kingrollo

Well most people use garmin, who do seem to be the market leader. But with a large user base your bound to get the odd complaint.

IMO - none of them are ready to perform quite like a car sat nav - accept that and think you will be fine.

timothyw

The Garmin 520 is certainly the equivalent that you would be looking at for what you want. Elemnt looks OK but price seems pretty crazy to me.

I've no Garmin axe to grind - I've got an Edge 200 and a 500, both are basically fine, but the Lezyne could well be worth a punt.

Be aware that you want the 'Enhanced' Super GPS (which you have linked at wiggle), not the regular Super GPS which was on fire sale on Black friday, but doesn't feature navigation. I don't know if it's a good sign that Lezyne have brought out a new improved model, or bad that they didn't bring improved features to the old ones. Naming scheme could do with work IMHO.

Bobbinogs

I think one key point is that the Lezyne does not (in itself) do routing, it relies on sending the info to a phone for the display. Hence, you will need both devices working and mounted somewhere visible even in cack weather. I have never bought into using a phone for GPS/tracking/routing, etc., because the battery life can be very hit/miss and the one device I want working throughout a ride (or at least, to work when I switch it on) is a phone. If I do an 8 hour ride, I don't want to be staring at my phone whilst it drops down to 5% power, etc., and I then get to choose between routing or the ability to phone if I need it.

Probably why I carry a very light cheapo (£10) Vodafone handset in my back pocket which is ultra reliable (since all it does it make/receive calls/texts) and battery life is measured in weeks.

londoncommuter

There was a thread on 520 v's Element a few days ago if you haven't spotted that.

dannbodge

I've just got the Garmin 520 and so far I'm very happy with it.

I use it with my current ANT+ Mio sensor and HR monitor (the HR was only £14 on eBay)

smoggysteve

Another for the 520 or if you want decent mapping the 810

tenohfive

londoncommuter wrote:

There was a thread on 520 v's Element a few days ago if you haven't spotted that.

I'd idly browsed it but not paid much attention after it devolved into a 'Garmin are rubbish,' 'No Garmin are great,'-fest.

There seems to be lots of talk of RideWithGPS being a bit of a necessity for turn-by-turn with the Elemnt. That puts me off.

Bobbinogs wrote:

I think one key point is that the Lezyne does not (in itself) do routing, it relies on sending the info to a phone for the display. Hence, you will need both devices working and mounted somewhere visible even in cack weather. I have never bought into using a phone for GPS/tracking/routing, etc., because the battery life can be very hit/miss and the one device I want working throughout a ride (or at least, to work when I switch it on) is a phone. If I do an 8 hour ride, I don't want to be staring at my phone whilst it drops down to 5% power, etc., and I then get to choose between routing or the ability to phone if I need it.

Probably why I carry a very light cheapo (£10) Vodafone handset in my back pocket which is ultra reliable (since all it does it make/receive calls/texts) and battery life is measured in weeks.

My understanding is that it's actually the other way round - a) the display is entirely on the bike computer, so the phone doesn't need to be visible, and b) from what I can see you use your phone to search for the address and choose the route, but once selected both the route and the mapping are pushed to the bike computer (this is from reading the manual.) So yes, you need to stop and use your phone - but it's not slaved to it RFLKT style. It almost reads that your phone is a glorified controller for entering a new destination, the rest of the time it's just...your phone. The GPS will connect to your phone for re-routing information if you go off course, that new data is then pushed through. Unless you turn re-routing off.

In any case I'm not scared of phone battery life - I don't own an iPhone.
My £35 Android smartphone has used less than 30% battery running the GPS constantly to navigate a previously entered route in Google Maps that lasted about 3 hours on the bike.
If you're worried about battery life though on your phone why not pick up a cheap battery pack? They weigh less than a PAYG phone.

frisbee

I've been using other people's Strava rides to set up routes on my Elemnt and I'm pleasantly surprised by how easy a bread crumb trail superimposed over a map is to follow.

A nice clear, detailed map available in front of you is a really good feature, I don't think the Lezyne has any sort of map and you just have to rely on the turn by turn.

tenohfive

I believe it's breadcrumb and turn-by-turn only, yes.
With that style of mapping Frisbee how does it look - is it your typical car satnav style third person perspective?
And can you set up your own routes from scratch without paying for RidewithGPS?

iron_duke

There are different levels of ridewithgps but setting basic routes online is a free service, or at least was when I egistered few years back, though seems you have to pay for the app.

wongataa

TimothyW wrote:

The Garmin 520 is certainly the equivalent that you would be looking at for what you want. Elemnt looks OK but price seems pretty crazy to me.

As the OP specified that they want mapping then the Garmin 520 is not so good. It can show maps but the amount is rather limited by the small amount of memory available. It also doesn't do turn by turn navigation. For maps the Garmin units to look at are the 810, 820, 1000, or maybe the older 800.

luv2ride

I have the Garmin 520 and whilst it does what I want very well, it's not really cut out for riding planned routes via the map screen. What about something like the Mio range?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Europe ... +cyclo+200
Their turn by turn mapping is their main USB, along with a large touchscreen display, simple interface and the "surprise me" function where you say how far you want to go and it creates 3 different routes to choose from. I borrowed one once and was impressed. Not sure what their software is like though...

Ascot17

Mio Cyclo 505 (used, to fit the budget).

noodleman

Iron_Duke wrote:

There are different levels of ridewithgps but setting basic routes online is a free service, or at least was when I egistered few years back, though seems you have to pay for the app.

Ridewithgps is free to use and so is the app, not that you need it if you've got a bike computer. It's also a lot nice UI than connect.

tenohfive

Luv2ride wrote:

I have the Garmin 520 and whilst it does what I want very well, it's not really cut out for riding planned routes via the map screen. What about something like the Mio range?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Europe ... +cyclo+200
Their turn by turn mapping is their main USB, along with a large touchscreen display, simple interface and the "surprise me" function where you say how far you want to go and it creates 3 different routes to choose from. I borrowed one once and was impressed. Not sure what their software is like though...

Can't connect in HRM or S&C sensors though.

Ascot17 wrote:

Mio Cyclo 505 (used, to fit the budget).

Looks like a decent shout but I'm a little wary of the fact that nowhere sells it; it looks to be effectively discontinued. Worth adding to the list though, thanks.

noodleman wrote:

Iron_Duke wrote:

There are different levels of ridewithgps but setting basic routes online is a free service, or at least was when I egistered few years back, though seems you have to pay for the app.

Ridewithgps is free to use and so is the app, not that you need it if you've got a bike computer. It's also a lot nice UI than connect.

Turn-by-turn only comes with their subscription service though:
https://ridewithgps.com/help/compare-plans

noodleman

Plot a route on ridewithgps and sync it to wahoo elemnt. Turn by turn and no subscription involved.

tenohfive

Ah cool, no reason to write off it off then. Thanks.

SME

I was in a similar dilema, and kept looking at the Garmin 520. I was put off firstly by the 'issue' (maybe not right word) about having to download maps for the areas you may cycle in - if I do a London to Brighton run, for example, it looked like I'd need to download 2 or 3 different map areas. Linked to this was a mention regarding the available memory for maps - if I took my bike on holiday (I often do when camping in UK), I'd have to load up different maps.

Secondly, I wasn't worried about having FTP testing, a VO2 Max calculation and recommended recovery time, and other training metrics, and wondered if it would be worth paying £180 odd for the unit - I thought about 2nd hand but they're going for around £160 on eBay (£20 more would buy new ????).

So... I took delivery of a Lezyne Macro GPS today. My S/C sensor is ANT+ & Bluetooth and I'll likely add a bluetooth HR monitor later, so I crossed the Enhanced Super GPS off the list (not particularly worried about altitude measurement on the unit, either).

I loaded a .TCX file on it today to follow as a breadcrumb trail - the route itself shows up as a dark solid line and your ride track is slightly lighter and laid very adjacent to it (sometimes the X was on top of the route). I knew the area I tested it in and I had one hiccup when two turnings were about 20yds apart, either the screen or GPS reaction times were slow and riding quickly took me past the turning a few yards! Apart from that I was well happy.

If you use their GPS ROOT site a destination can be put in and TBT navigation will be made - I'll likely try that out tomorrow.
I believe Lezyne are currently developing a route building feature akin to that of Strava's, so it should be feasable to plan a circular route rather than just navigate to a destination, but my facts could be a little askew here.

Hope this helps,
Steve

bungle73

Do you really need phone notifications? If you can live without those, then I picked up a second hand Garmin 800 on eBay a few months ago and it's excellent! Obviously, it doesn't do the Strava Live Segments either, but there are ways around that (Google it). Apart from those two it does practically everything the newer (and more expensive) models do.

On slightly related issue you don't actually have to shell out for the official (and expensive) mapping as there are some excellent free or, at least cheap, 3rd party maps available, particularly those produced by TalkyToaster: https://talkytoaster.co.uk/

frisbee

tenohfive wrote:

I believe it's breadcrumb and turn-by-turn only, yes.
With that style of mapping Frisbee how does it look - is it your typical car satnav style third person perspective?
And can you set up your own routes from scratch without paying for RidewithGPS?

Overhead map view with a chevron trail that shows the route, if you get to a tricky point you can zoom in quite a long way. I saved GPX files from other people's Strava rides, used the Strava labs too to convert them to a route, tweaked them if I needed to, saved them and they synced to the Elemnt automatically.

I think even the free Ride With GPS does turn by turn but I haven't tried it yet. I think if you set a destination on the app that is also turn by turn but again I haven't tried it.