Reasonably priced bike computers?

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Alex321

Veteran
Location
South Wales
Can I ask how you did that?
My app is pretty much dead for that kind of thing unless the device is on

There is a different app just for use on the phone. The elemnt App only works with the device.

This is the one for tracking on your phone https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wahoofitness.fitness
This is the Elemnt one which you use with the device https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wahoofitness.boltcompanion

I presume there are similar for iPhone.
 

Roadrat77

Active Member
Location
Birmingham
Get a used Garmin edge explore or Garmin edge touring. Probably pick one up for under £100.

The Edge 530 for me - covers everything the OP would need. Only thing that let's it down slightly is the screens a bit small for my peepers.
 

wafter

I like steel bikes and I cannot lie..
Location
Oxford
At the risk of labouring the point, perhaps the V650 hasn't been discontinued after all. It's listed in a recently updated Road.cc summary of budget head units, I see they're currently on dirty Amazon for £80 (or £100 with an optical HRM), and the model is still showing on some of Polar's global sites - most notably that for the Arab Emirates.

It's not on the UK site; but then that seems to only cover watches and reads like a cheap knockoff tbh; so I'm not sure what's going on there.

I wonder if they're still producing it but have pulled it from the UK market for some reason; with Amazon's stock being sourced from elsewhere. Tbh £80 for the unit alone seems like a steal given its functionality :becool:
 

Mike_P

Guru
Location
Harrogate
The Edge 530 for me - covers everything the OP would need. Only thing that let's it down slightly is the screens a bit small for my peepers.

And IME the less than easy to use Garmin software on it. Compared to my Elemnt Bolt v1 whilst the 530 is the better it gets accompanied by too many WTFs in use. Changing the default set up for navigating for example, cannot fathom how to get directions to pop up without changing the setting for each individual route
 

abcd efg

Über Member
Yes; the brand name is Polar. They do a lot of smart / general fitness watches (my ex had one and liked it, which is partially what put me onto them). They used to do two cycle computers but have boiled it down to the lesser-specced M460 now and are also apparently pushing their watches as suitable for cycling (with mounts for bars etc); although it seems that this isn't a market they're falling over themselves to target.

The V650 wasn't particularly popular when it came out and got middling reviews, however I think a lot of this was addressed later with firmware updates and changes to the support. I've found mine to be great; the biggest niggle being that it sometimes fails to detect the heartrate monitor and requires it re-adding.

Thankfully for now the support remains for the V650 (everything is managed through a web interface) and I guess that while the M460 / maybe other products exist so should support for the V650.

I was put off Garmin by reports of glitches and generally crap customer service / mercenary business practices (like withdrawing support for older products, essentially rendering them obsolete).

I'm not sure what else is on the market but if you wanted to buy used it seems that V650s are going for around £40-80 on ebay, which seems pretty good providing they're in good nick / still working and there are no issues with transferring the support to the new owner.

Providing support remains I suspect it'll be battery failure that eventually kills mine, however I'm careful to keep the charge within the ideal window for Li-Ion batteries (60-80%) and so far it's given sterling service over the 3.5yrs I've owned it, so based on this experience I'd not be unduly concerned over battery life of used units..

View attachment 648680

Just to note, I have found Garmin's after sales service to be tremendous. Couldn't ask for more or better support.
 
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