What new Bike Computer?

Not sure if i saw a recent thread about this but if so point me in the right direction plz.

My old Garmin Edge 500 shit the bed the other day and i'm looking for a new bike computer. I know a lot of people use phone apps these days but i kinda like having real time stats in front of me while riding (mostly mt biking). Used to be concerned w mainly distance, elev gain and speed. Wondering if some of the newer touch displays w downloadable maps (ie trailforks) would come in handy so i don't have to dig for my phone every intersection at a new location.
price and size factors in so maybe not worth it for the higher tech stuff. what say ya'll?

the one with the fun button

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Originally Posted by Peruvian

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After some research I arrived at Wahoo Elemnt Bolt for the same reasons you describe, but have not had a chance to use it yet.

I love my ELEMNT Bolt, so easy, so intuitive. Garmin is finicky hot garbage.

I was probably the post you thought of in the other thread. I had the Garmin 500 as well and recently bought the Garmin 530. I looked at the Elmnts, but went with the 530 due to price and recent review from Rainmaker. It apparently does all the same functions as the Elmnt, but cheaper.

So far, the Garmin interface on phone and computer is much better then expected. I agree with the post above that Garmin used to be a hot mess. That seems to be much better. $300 at REI with the dividend back, so a good deal.

ELEMNT Bolt is $229, not sure you need to spend more than that on a head unit
YMMV

I bailed on Garmin few years ago for Wahoo, and am enjoying the Wahoo ROAM. I had an Elemnt at first but had a screen failure outside of warranty. I chalked it up to shitty luck, Roam has been rock solid thus far. Only complaint I have and its a minor one is that the front face buttons can be a bit hard to engage while riding.

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Originally Posted by buttahflake

I love my ELEMNT Bolt, so easy, so intuitive. Garmin is finicky hot garbage.

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This but Wahoo Elemnt Roam. I previously had a Garmin 530 which I unloaded on an unwitting buddy. The Garmin interface is like programming a Casio watch in 1995, and the LiveTrack is super unreliable (my wife really likes to check on my progress during night rides).

The Wahoo isn't perfect, but I like the ability to set up the screen from my phone rather than using clicky buttons on it. It's also a bit bigger than the 530, but whatever. I already used a K-Edge stem spacer mount, so changing over just required a $10 part. Biggest knock is that it doesn't come with a lanyard (you have to buy that direct from Wahoo for $10). It also doesn't let you automatically send out the LiveTrack link by text, just by email (although it gives you an option to share the link manually on your phone through whichever messaging app you'd like).

I have a Garmin 830 that I chose mainly because it has Trailforks on it.

As a bike computer (speed, distance, cadence, power, turn here now, etc), I think it works great. The battery lasts a long time. The screen is easy to read. The UI is fine. It has frozen on me mid-ride a couple times and needed to be rebooted, but it came back ok after reboot.

Trailforks on it, however, is not very good. The screen is really too small to navigate very well with. You're either zoomed out far enough to tell where you are and the screen is a spaghetti mess of trails, or you're zoomed in and all you see is a line showing the trail you're on. Not very useful. I still end up pulling my phone out to look at maps all the time.

If you pre-program your route it does fine with turn-by-turn navigation (including using trailforks), but I never do that on my mountain bike.

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Originally Posted by Andeh

the LiveTrack is super unreliable .

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I used to have this problem too. It's gotten MUCH better after one of last fall's firmware updates. I'd say it works 100% of the time on my 830 now.

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Originally Posted by elesquiador

I used to have this problem too. It's gotten MUCH better after one of last fall's firmware updates. I'd say it works 100% of the time on my 830 now.

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As of a week ago, it seemed to work about 30% of the time for me, with all the latest updates. It would start and send the link, but my wife would tell me when I got home that it showed me going for about a block then lose track. I suspect it's related to the shitty BT pairing between the head unit and the phone, coupled with my phone transitioning from wifi to cell service. Half the time when I would start up the Garmin, the BT to my phone wouldn't connect and I would have to toggle BT on and off on my phone to get them to pair again.

Garmin Edge 530 has been great for me. Use Trailforks for the MTB and RideWithGPS for road/gravel rides and the apps are great. Can sync rides to it without plugging in to the computer, which is really convenient.

Lezyne head units have been great for us. The battery life is fantastic (like 30 hours) and they have barometric altimeters so the elev gain is accurate. The downloadable maps are pretty decent, and show most of the trails in popular areas. No topo lines, though.

The best part is the price--way less than others.

I personally don't like touch screens for bike computers or watches, since I'm wearing gloves most of the time and they are spotty at best with them. Real buttons are reliable.

Iphone SE with Quad Lock mount, unless you don't care about navigation at all. Honestly being able to quickly look down at my bars, see what way to go and just flow with the trail has been a gamechanger. Much more willing to try out new trail systems, so nice not taking my phone out every 2 seconds (northeast, ton of trail splits)

I'm Team Garmin with a 510 that is still kicking, and also new 830. I also wear a Vivoactive 4 on my wrist.
I really like the Garmin Connect interface. My devices like heart rate and power meter always connect, as as well as my Strava and Zwift link to it instantly.

Bumping this up as my research has pushed me toward either the new Wahoo Elemnt Bolt (v2) or the Garmin 530. I have a single feature question for those who have the 530/830 regarding HR or power zones. On my Coros watch (which I'm using today), I can create a field that shows me with a little scale (see attached) what zone I'm in while doing an effort.

The Wahoo Elemnt Bolt uses the built in LEDs to do the same (different colors show you what zone you are in to my understanding).

Does the 530/830 have any way to show what zone you are currently riding in other than just displaying your power or HR values?

Thanks in advance,

Seth

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Sent you a PM about the Wahoo. I got a Roam to replace a 530 for MTB tracking, but the Bolt v2 wasn't out when I got it. I'd like to have the smaller unit since I'm not doing road/gravel riding and don't need the larger screen for mapping etc. I'd be interesting in trading down if you end up decide to go with a Wahoo unit.

For the Garmins, you can install apps (from Garmin or 3rd parties) to customize the display and add features. There seem to be lots of different power and/or HR zone apps in Garmin's "Connect IQ" app store, but I have never used any of them.

Liking my Wahoo Elmnt Roam so far. Easy to use with Komoot, Ride w GPS, Strava, there are numerous other apps it works with, auto upload after a ride almost flawless but sometimes do have to manual upload if my wifi is bad, which it often is. Also works flawlessly with my Garmin Vario, always alerts me when cars approaching from behind (sometimes get spooked on those long gravel rides when a truck creeps up from behind). I turned off rerouting, like it better that way. Also use their Kickr HRM, one configuration and done, easy peasy. Love that I don't have to hook my computer up to another computer to download, never liked the jumbly mess of Garmin stats or their UI.

I did find a flaw in their live tracking link. I have mine set to send an email link as soon as a start a new ride. Well as of late, the amount of vert listed is double for each of my rides. But the computer itself, and all data uploaded to apps is correct; it's just the live tracker ascending vert stats that are incorrect. I suppose I could let Wahoo know but they are really good about updates, maybe they'll fix this one soon.

Broke the plastic/composite forward mount a few weeks in, stupid crash on some dusty ass singletrack coming around a corner. But the computer itself was fine. Have been using the basic center mount now that comes with it and I actually like it. Having looked at K-Edge and wondered- if I had been using that mount, my computer might have taken the hit versus the mount (as the KEdge looks to be really stout). Is there a breakaway design with the K-Edge?

Yeah, the K-edge mounts use a breakaway disc that's replaceable for like $10. I've broken them with a Garmin before and it worked as intended (disc broke, not the tabs on the computer).

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Originally Posted by buttahflake

I love my ELEMNT Bolt, so easy, so intuitive. Garmin is finicky hot garbage.

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The elevation gain on my Garmin 530 sucks! It's way off every freakin time. My old 810 had no issues.

Does the elevation gain on the Wahoo work better?

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Originally Posted by funkendrenchman

The elevation gain on my Garmin 530 sucks! It's way off every freakin time. My old 810 had no issues.

Does the elevation gain on the Wahoo work better?

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i ended up w a Bolt mostly cause a co-worker was selling his slightly used one. i've run Strava w it a few times for comparison and they both seem close w maybe strava coming in 5% or so more elev gain than my bolt. haven't really compared to trailforks.

Bumping this one. Anyone have a bike computer that has fairly accurate elevation gain almost every time? Ready to swap out my POS Garmin. It's never even close.

Like my Bolt v2 for the most part. Elevations seems fine? But I'm not really sure what to compare it to as I've seen plenty of trailforks trails based of GPS tracks that seem to have totally wrong elevation. Really like that it charges with USB-C as I'm trying to eliminate other cables from my life.

Only thing I don't like is the lack of Trailforks integration. You can easily upload a route to to the Bolt (can do it all on your phone), but it has no way to just show you all the trails. If you are visiting somewhere with a spaghetti trail map, it is not going to help you much.

So if you are visiting an unknown area, you can download a "popular loop" type route and follow that, but there's no way to get any beta from the computer at intersections. If you want to know what that trail to the left is, you gotta pull out your phone.

It also can struggle somewhat when you end up off route (which given some trailforks GPS data is not the best can actually still mean you are 100% still on the trail). It will try to route you back, but it only knows how to do that with trails that show up in its own map data which are mostly just fire roads, well established forest service trails, etc.

On the road it is great. Maps and routing work well. It can do stuff like Strava live segments if you are into that (I assume it works fine, but I don't have a Strava subscription so I have never tried).

In an ideal word, you'd be able to download a full trail network from Trailforks and at a fork you could look down and see that the left fork is a green trail while the right fork is blue...and see the names if you are zoomed in far enough like you can with roads and "established" trails.

Oh, and there are pros and cons to it, but it might be nice if the Bolt supported tracking different bikes separately.

I hear garmin users complain about profiles, but as my stable has grown, I've been thinking about using something like ProBikeGarage via Strava to log mileage/hours on my bikes for maintenance...but it is annoying to go back into Strava and tag which bike I rode on every ride.

A menu on startup would be fine, but it would be super cool if the Bolt could figure it out based on which sensors it is picking up. Throw a cadence sensor on my road bike, a wheel-speed sensor on my FS, and no sensors on my hardtail and let the computer decide which bike I am riding.