Garmin 520 Edge

[Johnno260]

Hi everyone, who has one of these, and how good are they?

I am tempted but I would like some real feedback from here before I decide.

I assume you get speed etc as well as they live Strava data, do you need a sensor on the front wheel or is it all via GPS?

 

[vickster]

No sensor with a garmin unless you want cadence

Assume you have to pay for live Strava (premium)

You can configure to what you want on screen, speed distance, time, temp assuming it's same as the 800

 

[Johnsop99]

Was lucky enought to be given one on my birthday in September. All the basic info comes from GPS with nothing extra attached to the bike although you can add cadence. speed & heart rate monitor sensors. I am using the cadence sensor attached to a crank arm and speed sensor attached to the rear hub. If you are a Strava premium member you also get access to live segments and live tracking. Live segments generally work well but it does occasionally do strange things. Live tracking is excellent for the OH's peace of mind. After 3 months I've finally got it trained to have a cup of tea ready as soon as I get back home! There are so many other features that I am still finding. The screens are fully customisable so that you can see the info that's most important to you. You can also set it up for different bikes, I have one setting for the road bike and one showing slightly different info for the MTB. Ride info is automatically sent to Strava when you save a ride so no more plugging a cable in every time. When connected to your mobile it will display the number of anyone calling you so you can decide whether to stop and answer it or ignore it and continue riding. Overall very happy with it and I'm sure you will be to if you go for it.

 

[Johnno260]

ah ok, I had a cheap bike comp but it got dropped, I won't pay for Strava Prem so I wonder if this is overkill, I can use the free strava segments via my phone and get a wireless speedo maybe.

 

[Ajax Bay]

If you have a GSC10 (Garmin Speed Cadence) that will do cadence (the 'C') - little magnet on the pedal spindle end (left crank). Relies on GPS for speed but you can use it on a turbo with a magnet on the rear wheel (spoke) and either manually input the wheel circumference or it will auto-calculate the circumference from the GPS speed data (and you can take that indoors and that will provide the 'S'.

If you just want speed, wide range available, wired and wireless, with Lidl/Aldi probably cheapest source.

 

[Johnsop99]

Don't need a speed sensor it will be calculated and displayed from the GPS, the optional speed sensor is very slighty more accurate though but not essential.

 

[vickster]

ah ok, I had a cheap bike comp but it got dropped, I won't pay for Strava Prem so I wonder if this is overkill, I can use the free strava segments via my phone and get a wireless speedo maybe.

That would be much cheaper. I only got a garmin because I wanted the turn by turn on the go mapping, which I don't think the 520 does. I don't even use it for Strava as has to be attached to PC, phone direct upload (maybe the 520 has bluetooth)

 

[Joffey]

I got a Garmin 520.

You can upload maps to it - it will not do turn by turn navigation but you can view the map on the screen as you ride and navigate around like that if you wish. It also makes following courses (uploaded from Garmin Connect) easier.

Strava Live Segments are pretty good but you might find that after a while you become bored of them.

You can use Strava Beacon on the Garmin 520 now - it's coupled with Garmin Live Track - quite handy if you cycle on your own.

For the above Strava things to work you need a Premium membership - I pay £3.99 a month and don't miss it.

The 520 is a great bit of kit and used my many pro-teams. I don't regret upgrading to mine.

 

[Lozz360]

After 3 months I've finally got it trained to have a cup of tea ready as soon as I get back home!

Bike computers have certainly come on a long way recently!

 

[Lozz360]

I got a Garmin 520.
You can upload maps to it - it will not do turn by turn navigation but you can view the map on the screen as you ride and navigate around like that if you wish. It also makes following courses (uploaded from Garmin Connect) easier.

I have the 520 and it does turn by turn navigation when I am following a course. If I use the navigate to home function it just points the straight direction to home which is OK-ish.

 

[Milkfloat]

Garmin Live Track works without Strava Premium and you can also load Strava Segments manually onto the device, so no need to pay for Strava Premium.

 

[Johnno260]

Is the screen backlight?

 

[Milkfloat]

Is the screen backlight?

Yes and you can decide how long you want the back lighting on for and its brightness.

 

[Aravis]

I've been using a 520 since October. I started with a 200 in February, and that has never missed a beat. I always knew I'd want to upgrade fairly quickly, and it was a tough decision. Although in many ways the 520 was the least obviously suitable for my needs, I gained the impression from what has been written both here and elsewhere that of all the contenders, the 520 is likely to be the most reliable. Certainly the 810, for similar money, seems much more prone to freezing.

I'm now running the two in parallel, for the moment still using the 200 as the recording and upload device, whilst following my route on the 520. I'll probably switch in the New Year, after which the 200 will be purely backup.

The big inconvenience with the 520 is the lack of a card slot, which means that although you can use open maps to provide satisfactory mapping, you have a limited area of coverage due to the small amount of memory available. If you go elsewhere in the country, you have to remember to swap in a new map before you go and put your normal one back in when you come back. For touring I think this would be a compromise too far.

Having acquired the two units for about £240 in total I reckon I have a good cost-effective setup. I thought the battery life of the 200 was excellent, but the 520 seems even better. It looks as though it will last at least 15 hours when following a route, maybe as much as 24 hours when not. That's with backlight on permanently at 30%, which I find bright enough to be comfortable.

I have little interest in many of the features - live segments for example - but live tracking could be useful one day. If I had my time again I'm not sure I'd make the same decision - either the 1000 and 820 would make my life easier - but for the moment I don't think I'm missing anything other than greater convenience in some areas.

One final thing - I did have a small problem when my planned route was blocked by a road closure, and I had to divert along a road which formed part of my planned route, yet to be ridden, but in the opposite direction. My ride data started updating in fits and starts, but when it did update, it always seemed to be complete. The problem went away once I was out of that situation. Maybe I'll set up a test to see if it happens again.

 

[Ajax Bay]

Don't need a speed sensor it will be calculated and displayed from the GPS, the optional speed sensor is very slighty more accurate

This is not the case, actually, as I attempted to explain in this post, unless you have manually provided a very accurate wheel circumference to the Garmin. Otherwise the computer assumes that the GPS is correct and 'auto-calculates' the wheel circumference (which means they are both as accurate/inaccurate as each other), and uses that with the speed sensor, if you use it on a turbo (say), or want to switch the GPS off (battery saving?).