Anyone tempted by the Garmin Edge Explore?

prhymeate

My 800 broke beyond repair today. I've always been happy with it, never really had a problem, records everything fine, routes perfectly etc. That said, I've ordered a Wahoo Bolt as that seems to be the default progression at the moment. However, a few things that will bug me about the bolt when it comes to navigation are no street names, no panning on the map and you can't really go off route and be redirected. Also, the screen is slightly smaller than I'm used to and I really find having a colour screen useful.

I just noticed the Garmin Edge Explore, which at £219 looks pretty good...seems like the main things missing are compatability with power meters and strava live segments, neither of which I use. My main concern is that a lot of the more recent Garmins that have come out since my 800 seem to be quite buggy and a lot of people like the Wahoo because 'it just works'.

Anyone in a similar boat?

sniper68

Don’t you mean Edge 820 explore?
I had an 800 and “upgraded” to the 820,three replacements later I sold it and got a Wahoo.I found it very problematic.Battery life was a joke(even when it wasn’t in navigation mode)touch screen was abysmal.
I’m sure Garmin will sort it,they always do,but for me 7 months and three units was too long.My mate bought it,sold it after a month and went back to his 520.

prhymeate

Sniper68 wrote:

Don’t you mean Edge 820 explore?
I had an 800 and “upgraded” to the 820,three replacements later I sold it and got a Wahoo.I found it very problematic.Battery life was a joke(even when it wasn’t in navigation mode)touch screen was abysmal.
I’m sure Garmin will sort it,they always do,but for me 7 months and three units was too long.My mate bought it,sold it after a month and went back to his 520.

I don't think so. it's just been released and only seems to be called the Garmin Edge Explore on sites. Looks like the 1030 minus the features I mentioned above. I'm aware of Gramin not being that great over the last few years but maybe the introduction of wahoo has made them sort their act out... who knows.

sniper68

Prhymeate wrote:

Sniper68 wrote:

Don’t you mean Edge 820 explore?
I had an 800 and “upgraded” to the 820,three replacements later I sold it and got a Wahoo.I found it very problematic.Battery life was a joke(even when it wasn’t in navigation mode)touch screen was abysmal.
I’m sure Garmin will sort it,they always do,but for me 7 months and three units was too long.My mate bought it,sold it after a month and went back to his 520.

I don't think so. it's just been released and only seems to be called the Garmin Edge Explore on sites. Looks like the 1030 minus the features I mentioned above. I'm aware of Gramin not being that great over the last few years but maybe the introduction of wahoo has made them sort their act out... who knows.

Just found it.
Same Garmin Touchscreen wouldn’t touch again.
Mmmm “up to”12 hours battery life....knowing Garmin that means 6hrs inreality!
Still not tempted.
My riding bud has just bought a 1030 as an upgrade from an 810.It’s early doors yet but it was glitchy on her maiden ride with it.She’s not tried it in the wet yet which plays havoc with Garmin touchscreens.

prhymeate

Sniper68 wrote:

Just found it.
Same Garmin Touchscreen wouldn’t touch again.
Mmmm “up to”12 hours battery life....knowing Garmin that means 6hrs inreality!
Still not tempted.
My riding bud has just bought a 1030 as an upgrade from an 810.It’s early doors yet but it was glitchy on her maiden ride with it.She’s not tried it in the wet yet which plays havoc with Garmin touchscreens.

Cheers. It's strange, my 800 has been no trouble so based on that I'd gladly buy it, but recent reviews of Garmin don't seem so great. It does have the features that I want that are missing from the Wahoo units though... :?

keef66

My Garmin Touring Plus is good at recording a ride, and it will give turn by turn directions when following a saved course or one created in RWGPS and uploaded to it. Seems pretty weatherproof, and it's survived bouncing down the road twice.

Occasionally it will just shut down randomly despite being fully charged, or suffer a route calculation error requiring a restart.

But it's the garmin maps and / or the routing algorithms which annoy me the most. Ask it to suggest a 30 mile circular route and it will give you 3 to choose from. But then it seems to go out of it's way to take in a tiny, pointless bit of cycle track, or an impassable footpath. Same if you ask it to navigate somewhere on the fly, or get you home.

So unless they have improved things a lot I probably wouldn't have another. If I was shopping now I'd likely try an Elemnt

deswahriff

....I got one a few months back to replace my old Edge 500 which eventually died, got a cracking deal in Halfords with my British Cyling discount too!....after a few glitches due to the update not loading properly (probably due to my slow internet), its been fine for what I need.
...turn by turn directions on a pre-plotted route, off-course warnings, "course found" when back on track, more than enough ride data for me..
..touch screen sometimes takes a tap or two to react, but no biggie, also battery life seems adequate for me - without taking any battery saving steps and using navigation, I was down to 68% after a 3 and a half hour ride...

...never used it to navigate on the fly though, I might give that a go sometime to see how it stacks up against my local knowledge!..

prhymeate

Is that definitely the new one that you have? I think the Garmin Edge Explore (not explore 1000) only came out in the last week or so.

Cheers for the reply though, I appreciate the info.

deswahriff

...it’s the Edge Explore 820...certainly not a new model, I remember my mate getting the same model last year...

ayjaycee

If you were that happy with the Edge 800 and it did everything that you needed it to do, just buy another one off eBay. They can be had for under £100 and if the battery life is an issue because of it's age, fitting a new one is cheap and, more importantly, a simple job to do. Problem solved.

luv2ride

https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/p/611996
Says not available until 3rd quarter 2018...

prhymeate

ayjaycee wrote:

If you were that happy with the Edge 800 and it did everything that you needed it to do, just buy another one off eBay. They can be had for under £100 and if the battery life is an issue because of it's age, fitting a new one is cheap and, more importantly, a simple job to do. Problem solved.

I did have a look on ebay but part of me also wants a new toy if I'm already going to have to pay £100 for an 800. Also, one problem with the 800 is that it can't upload without being plugged in, which is a feature I'd like.

Luv2ride wrote:

https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/p/611996
Says not available until 3rd quarter 2018...

It's already available to order at Cycle Republic.

DC Rainmaker has a review and a couple of vids. These are the main things that it is lacking compared to the 1030.

– No Strava Live Segments support (but you can upload to Strava and use Strava Routes App)
– No Power meter support (or power meter metrics like TSS/NP/IF)
– No structured workout support (meaning, download structured workouts like intervals to the unit)
– No advanced FirstBeat driven training load or related metrics (including FTP or VO2Max)
– No activity profiles (differing profiles for different ride types like mountain biking vs road riding)
– No WiFi sync (probably doesn’t matter much)
– More limited custom data pages (you can only have 2 custom pages, but they are fully customizable)
– No Varia display (and thus, no extended display mode for certain watches)
– No barometric altimeter (GPS based, plus post-upload altimeter correction)[/quote]

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2018/07/gar ... eview.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LJvZ71mgS0&t (showing the screen working in rain)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOvUJ7hoJfc&t (overall review)

mamil314

All the outrage and indignation pouring in.. without even a clue which model OP is on about. I would have bought this myself, easily, if it supported power meter

the_cyclist_of_catan

Love my 800. As long as I never actually try to use it for on-the-fly route calculation and navigation. But when I replace it, it will have to be with something that does WiFi uploading and downloading. Straws segments I can live without.

BikerGroveish

I had big problems with my Garmin Edge touring. I reluctantly bought a Garmin 1030. It’s actually restored my faith.

prhymeate

Well I ordered both to see what they were like in the flesh. Garmin is a bit bigger than I'd like and I'm not too keen on the white, I like the Bolt. The two main problems I've come across are that the Garmin struggles when I have my gloves on and the Bolt can't find a location using a post code or the name of the town...not great as both features are pretty important. I might just return them and keep an eye on ebay for another 800...

BikerGroveish

Prhymeate wrote:

Well I ordered both to see what they were like in the flesh. Garmin is a bit bigger than I'd like and I'm not too keen on the white, I like the Bolt. The two main problems I've come across are that the Garmin struggles when I have my gloves on and the Bolt can't find a location using a post code or the name of the town...not great as both features are pretty important. I might just return them and keep an eye on ebay for another 800...

The Garmin has a screen sensitivity setting. If you set it high it works better with gloves on.

prhymeate

BikerGroveish wrote:

Prhymeate wrote:

Well I ordered both to see what they were like in the flesh. Garmin is a bit bigger than I'd like and I'm not too keen on the white, I like the Bolt. The two main problems I've come across are that the Garmin struggles when I have my gloves on and the Bolt can't find a location using a post code or the name of the town...not great as both features are pretty important. I might just return them and keep an eye on ebay for another 800...

The Garmin has a screen sensitivity setting. If you set it high it works better with gloves on.

I'm not sure that is a feature on this model, it isn't in any of the settings as far as I can see. Maybe it's something they need to update the software for, like they did with the 820.

Think I'm going to return both and go back to an 800... maybe if I give it another 8 years there will be a better alternative.