I’m a fairly casual cyclist doing mostly road/gravel cycling with random spurts of MTB trown in the mix. I’ve been using Garmin forerunner watch as my stats gatherer, but recently I’ve been toying with the idea of buying a dedicated cycling computer.
So my question to you, the gurus of the cycling world is, what would be the best option for me? My budget is around 300€ and I’d like it to have navigation capabilities. The two main candidates I’ve been looking at are Garmin edge 530 and Wahoo Elemnt Bolt v2.
I really like the look of the Wahoo, but I’m pretty deep into the Garmin ecosystem due to my previous watches being Garmin’s.
So what cycling computers do you guys use and what are your recommendations?
While I am really happy with my Garmin Forerunner 955, I would not say the same about my Edge 830. The hardware is fine, battery life is great, screen looks good, feels solid. But the whole software part of it feels like it is straight from 2005. Slow, intuitive, the menu structure is a mess.
If you want something that ‘just works’, go for the Wahoo. If you want intergration with Garmin Connect, you could upload the .fit files via USB.
That’s definitely Garmin for you. I’ve had forerunners and edge computers since fr205. Good hardware but shitty software. Still, I’ve tried others like wahoo and always ended up with Garmin again. Currently on an edge 1040 and a fr965, 15 years later and I still get lost in the menus.
Went with the Wahoo at the end and couldn’t be happier. Everything seems to work great including navigation and connection with my hr monitor. Integration with Connect is also super easy, Wahoo automatically uploads the ride to dropbox from where I can upload it to Connect.