Garmin Edge Touring

ugo.santalucia

I've had a Garmin 200 for 6 months now... it does the job, but it has extremely limited memory and basically I have to shrink every GPX/TCX file reducing the datapoints and delete files regularly just to keep it working. It also has issues to "charge on the go" from an external battery.

So I was thinking it's probably time to "upgrade". The Touring Edge has an attractive price and seems to tick my boxes (long battery life and no race oriented nonsense) , but now the "plus" is out and I am not quite sure what is better about the "plus".

Anyway, rambling on... I am a bit concerned about using touch screen... does it work with long finger gloves at all?

Ideally I would like to stay with Garmin to avoid having to fork out more money for different mounts (it will go on 3 bikes), micro USB charging only cables (Garmin use Mini USB) and such extras that I already have.

I know the Wahoo Element is the must thing now, but I don't want it

rs6mra1

What is your reason for not wanting the Wahoo?

I didn't want to make the switch from Garmin but that is the way I am heading.

ugo.santalucia

I'd have to buy extra mounts at a cost.. also, it is more expensive.... I can get the Touring Edge for £ 140... the element is way more

wongataa

ugo.santalucia wrote:

I've had a Garmin 200 for 6 months now... it does the job, but it has extremely limited memory and basically I have to shrink every GPX/TCX file reducing the datapoints and delete files regularly just to keep it working. It also has issues to "charge on the go" from an external battery.

So I was thinking it's probably time to "upgrade". The Touring Edge has an attractive price and seems to tick my boxes (long battery life and no race oriented nonsense) , but now the "plus" is out and I am not quite sure what is better about the "plus".

Anyway, rambling on... I am a bit concerned about using touch screen... does it work with long finger gloves at all?

The Edge Touring has a resistive touchscreen just like the Edge 800/810. It works fine with gloves. The capacitive touchscreen Edge devices do work with gloves too. Garmin do know that people ride bikes wearing full finger gloves. The plus means you can connect a ANT+ HRM.

To compare all the differences look at the Garmin website.
Touring https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/p/134596
Touring Plus https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/p/143677

ugo.santalucia

wongataa wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

I've had a Garmin 200 for 6 months now... it does the job, but it has extremely limited memory and basically I have to shrink every GPX/TCX file reducing the datapoints and delete files regularly just to keep it working. It also has issues to "charge on the go" from an external battery.

So I was thinking it's probably time to "upgrade". The Touring Edge has an attractive price and seems to tick my boxes (long battery life and no race oriented nonsense) , but now the "plus" is out and I am not quite sure what is better about the "plus".

Anyway, rambling on... I am a bit concerned about using touch screen... does it work with long finger gloves at all?

The Edge Touring has a resistive touchscreen just like the Edge 800/810. It works fine with gloves. The capacitive touchscreen Edge devices do work with gloves too. Garmin do know that people ride bikes wearing full finger gloves. The plus means you can connect a ANT+ HRM.

To compare all the differences look at the Garmin website.
Touring https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/p/134596
Touring Plus https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/p/143677

Thanks!

I've never wanted a heart rate monitor, so I guess the "plus" is just a waste of 50 quid for me. Good to know touch screen works with gloves. Very tempted, despite some negative feedback online... it seems to be moslty from folks who use it as you would use a car satnav, which is not what I intend to do.

I seem to recall MarcusJB uses it and rates it and I tend to trust his judgement on these "long distance" things

andyh01

For me, I'm wondering what's the point of a dedicated cycle computer surly there's smart phone apps that you could use? My main need is navigation so have been considering Edge touring but then I think I can get maps/direction straight off my cheapish smart phone and just need a handlebar mount.. or am I missing something and the edge touring be better?>

timothyw

Dedicated bike computers can be left with their screens on for 10 hours plus (in the case of the 200, 24 hours is very doable)

Also, if you have your phone strapped to your bars you look like a Fred.

wongataa

AndyH01 wrote:

For me, I'm wondering what's the point of a dedicated cycle computer surly there's smart phone apps that you could use? My main need is navigation so have been considering Edge touring but then I think I can get maps/direction straight off my cheapish smart phone and just need a handlebar mount.. or am I missing something and the edge touring be better?>

If you want the display on all the time a phone will eat its battery very very quickly. These bike computers don't need backlights on in daylight and have low res screens which helps keep the battery life way longer - over 12 hours. Also in bright sunlight you will be able to clearly see what is on the screen.

andyh01

ah thank-you for the justification!

meanredspider

ugo.santalucia wrote:

I'd have to buy extra mounts at a cost..

A 2-second Google first hit says you wouldn't

https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!top ... R7MIEW83xQ

ugo.santalucia

Still a lot more money 200-250 Vs 140 for the Edge Toring

meanredspider

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Still a lot more money 200-250 Vs 140 for the Edge Toring

4.7 star rating vs 3.7 star for the Touring - I'd find the extra £50, especially as reliability is pretty important for your longer rides. But entirely your choice, of course.

ugo.santalucia

meanredspider wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Still a lot more money 200-250 Vs 140 for the Edge Toring

4.7 star rating vs 3.7 star for the Touring - I'd find the extra £50, especially as reliability is pretty important for your longer rides. But entirely your choice, of course.

I've read some reviews, mostly people unhappy about the "how to go from A to B" scenario... don't know, I have to look into the Wahoo, but it seems a pretty expensive piece of kit

ugo.santalucia

175 with Wiggle Platinum... more interesting...

meanredspider

ugo.santalucia wrote:

175 with Wiggle Platinum... more interesting...

Check CRC if you have BC membership too.

ugo.santalucia

meanredspider wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

175 with Wiggle Platinum... more interesting...

Check CRC if you have BC membership too.

Not anymore... might join what used to be CTC for insurance purposes, but no BC

andy9964

If you're not interested in the "sat nav" features, why not look at the 20 or 25. Both can be had for less than £100, and have 8-10 hours of life in the battery

ugo.santalucia

Andy9964 wrote:

If you're not interested in the "sat nav" features, why not look at the 20 or 25. Both can be had for less than £100, and have 8-10 hours of life in the battery

Not enough battery and same issues as my 200... basically they are not an upgrade, possibly a downgrade

ugo.santalucia

Folks on YACF say Etrex 20 and I fear they are right!

ugo.santalucia

oxoman wrote:

Ugo, as a touring owner I have to say don't bother with either the basic or the plus. I'm on number 2 myself first one the charging / docking port failed after a year so I forked out for a replacement through garmin exchange and that keeps switching off mid ride amongst other annoying problems. I have started to use my Samsung S5 and its pretty much faultless compared to the Garmin and it lasts longer. Mate had the plus version and it powered down after about 9 hours of route following doing a 212km audax. Won't buy another garmin till I hear that reliability is better, loads of other makes available at better prices now.

Thanks for the honest feedback... it seems these units are a hit and a miss... the simpler ones seem faultless... my old 200 doesn't skip a beat... shame for the inexistent memory, which can get clogged with just one 600 kbyte file

meanredspider

I've had load of Garmin stuff and I'm emphatically never buying any more.

My most recent miserable experience was with the car sat nav. I bought it because you can hook up a reversing camera which is really useful for hitching up the race car trailer on our stone drive where it's hard to shift the trailer manually. What Garmin don't tell you is, with the reversing camera connected, you give up digital traffic info. And the unit interferes with the car FM radio. So they sent me another lead (after 6 months of "investigation"). Finally got around to trying this new lead - the unit won't even find the camera. Effing useless and typical Garmin.

I just don't understand the company. They have the dominant market position and they have some great ideas. They just seem to be entirely incapable of executing in a quality fashion. Wahoo are just going to come eat their lunch from under their noses. And they entirely deserve to lose it.

ugo.santalucia

I have a Garmin car GPS... don't use it a lot, but it seems fine...

ugo.santalucia

Problem with the Wahoo is that it relies heavily on the app for the set up... I don't use apps.
I am also not convinced that a product designed for performance cycling and sharing online is suited to endurance cycling.

Folks on the Audax site swear on the Etrex and I have to say it makes a lot of sense... 25 hour batteries which can be replaced with AA, operationally simple and based on bombproof buttons... no fancy software and bluetooth/ANT+ nonsense... it's a chunk and aestetitcally horrid, but... it seems to be the one

robbo2011

am I right in thinking the Touring versions don't have barometric altimeters? Being someone who enjoys climbing, this would rule it out for me but I guess not everyone is so bothered about it.

robbo2011

meanredspider wrote:

I just don't understand the company. They have the dominant market position and they have some great ideas. They just seem to be entirely incapable of executing in a quality fashion. Wahoo are just going to come eat their lunch from under their noses. And they entirely deserve to lose it.

I get the impression that Garmin seem more interested in the sports watches and wearables market these days judging by the huge number of models and market growth. I reckon that bike GPS systems are not getting so much R&D investment and support.

The bike GPS market is there for Wahoo to take over.

ugo.santalucia

And I still think that Wahoo and others only offer products to monitor performance rather than guide you through a journey. Reliance to smartphones is a big no-no for me, firstly because I don't use one, but even if I was to get one, I wouldn't want it to be the interface to unlock a GPS functionality.

meanredspider

I can understand why you would think that, Ugo, and it may be that the eTrex is the right solution (as clunky as it is). That said, the world is moving in the direction of putting more and more interfaces onto smartphones. It makes perfect sense rather than replicating the functionality on numerous devices. It also means that personal computers are becoming redundant for this type of product (I don't remember the last time I used a PC for home stuff). There will be a time that you'll almost certainly need to bite the bullet. Either that or discover that the world is leaving you behind.

ugo.santalucia

meanredspider wrote:

I can understand why you would think that, Ugo, and it may be that the eTrex is the right solution (as clunky as it is). That said, the world is moving in the direction of putting more and more interfaces onto smartphones. It makes perfect sense rather than replicating the functionality on numerous devices. It also means that personal computers are becoming redundant for this type of product (I don't remember the last time I used a PC for home stuff). There will be a time that you'll almost certainly need to bite the bullet. Either that or discover that the world is leaving you behind.

I know...
I am not adverse to getting a smartphone, less keen to get glued to it like everyone else. At the moment I still have no real use for it. The main issue is having to rely on it for a long distance ride... knowing full well that it's not meant to support you on that.
Most of the GPS issues seem to be down to software rather than hardware issues, so I would like something that minimises software and maximises hardware... I honestly can't deal with a bugged software upgrades a few days beofre a big ride... I'd probably chuck the thing out of the window

meanredspider

I'm with you entirely. I resist changing software as much as possible (never yet updated any of my Di2 software). I may be wrong but I can't imagine you need a smartphone for a Wahoo during the ride.

ugo.santalucia

meanredspider wrote:

I'm with you entirely. I resist changing software as much as possible (never yet updated any of my Di2 software). I may be wrong but I can't imagine you need a smartphone for a Wahoo during the ride.

As I understand some settings are changed via the app... one of them being backlight... this is what I gathered from YACF. Being able to operate backlight settings over a long ride is critical.
Not sure why that would not be something you can do on the unit itself.

Then of course there is the unknown quantity that is "charging on the go"... so far I have found it problematic. These units (both Edge 200 and 25) seem to reject an external charger, even when used with a "charge only" cable... the message "external power lost" keeps popping up.

I would have thought this was a voltage problem when using AA operated chargers, but apparently an Anker unit does the same.
Obviously the Etrex works on AA, so that is not an issue

munkster

Re: Elemnt (Bolt in my case)... the backlight settings are changed (either "on", "off" or "5 sec") on the device. I never touch my phone while on a ride certainly not in relation to the Elemnt. In the main, after initial setup (which is fairly painless and a breeze compared to the antiquated Garmin menus) you only need the smartphone if you need to change any of the data fields on the screen which you prob wouldn't do unless you were sat at home off the bike anyway.

To give an idea of battery life I did around a 3.5 hour ride yesterday and was fiddling about with the screen a fair bit, the battery went from full to 70-75% in that time. I used it to navigate on some less familiar roads in the Peak too and it was fine. And that's coming from a former OS map devotee on the Garmin 800, 810, 1000 etc.

Anyway, as another very longtime (10+ years?) endurer of Garmin's quirks I won't be going back in a hurry.