Garmin Edge 520 Bike Gps, Base

Garmin Edge 520 Bike GPS, Base

• Offers in-ride challenges through Strava live segments ; Water rating is IPX7. Reports cycling-specific VO2 max and recovery time when used with power and heart rate
• Pairs with compatible ANT+ indoor trainers for data display and control.Battery life up to 15 hours
• Tracks Functional Threshold Power (FTP), watts/kg and cycling dynamics when used with Vector or Vector 2 power meters. On-device segment compatibility for dynamic and engaging in-ride competition
• Connected features: automatic uploads, live tracking, smart notifications, send/receive courses, social media sharing, weather
• Display resolution is 200 x 265 pixels. Android requirements is 4.4 os or later. Bluetooth 4.0 or later. Apple requirements is ios 10.0 or later, compatible with iphone, ipad and ipod touch

Buy Now : Garmin Edge 520 Bike GPS, Base

Brand : Garmin
Category : Electronics,GPS, Finders & Accessories,Sports & Handheld GPS,Cycling GPS Units
Rating : 4.5
Review Count : 1339

Garmin Edge 520 Bike GPS, Base

• I got this a bit over a month ago to replace an Edge 305 that had developed the annoying battery bounce problem. I am quite pleased with the 520. A number of the negative comments others have placed here just don\'t jive with my experience. Could be updates have fixed earlier problems or some could be due to users not bothering to learn features.Out of the box I was a bit surprised how small it was. However, the screen is plenty big enough, helped by the fact that all the buttons are on the sides, so the top is almost all screen with a modest bezel. Symbols on the bezel identity the location and function of each button.This doesn\'t come with a manual, but it was easy to find online and download as a PDF. In fact, I had looked this up even before I ordered this to get a better idea of features. It was pretty easy to setup and, and unlike earlier units I have had, you don\'t set up profiles for different bikes, just your own personal profile.There are many screens available and each screen is somewhat customizable. Th main screen shows the big 3, speed, distance, time; but can be set to show a wide range of other data. I currently have it set to show 7 fields, and I think you could have even more, if you wanted. Even when there are two fields per line, the digits are of a good size and easy to read, even with my tired old eyes. The screen is quite visible in sunlight, even without the backlight on. Riding on forested roads and trails can give a bit of a problem, but I find moving my head a bit to change the viewing angle solves the problem for me.Other screens are \"themed\". There is one to show data from the current lap, one to show data related to elevation and grade, and so on. You can choose to enable or disable these screens to fit your own needs. For example, there is a screen for power meter data, and since I don\'t have a power meter, I have disabled this. Scroll buttons on the lower left side allow you to navigate through the screens.I don\'t have a smartphone but the Garmin app works fine on my iPod Touch. Syncing is easy and works fine for me. I have also transferred courses via the app wirelessly. Of course, you can also sync and transfer on your computer via the included USB cable.I like the fact that the Virtual Partner is always on. You don\'t have to load a course or workout to use it. However, I have had a few idiosyncrasies with VP. One time I was racing the VP home on a ride. When I finished, the VP screen showed I had beat it, but the main screen showed I was a bit slower than the speed of VP. There is also a course where for some reason, the VP will suddenly falls about 10 or 12 minutes behind me when in fact there should not have been much if any change. However, to me this is a minor problem, most of the time VP seems to work fine.Probably the one shortcoming for this is navigation. The included map is only the most basic. There are online open sources for more detailed maps, but be aware there is limited storage space and no slot to ad a memory card. I downloaded a map tile which includes my home area, but it would have used up almost all my storage, so I haven\'t transferred it. Loading a course will get you a map of the course itself, but little if any of surrounding areas. There is some ability for turn by turn, but I haven\'t used this yet. But I don\'t use navigation much if any. This device is many intended to track rides, not for navigation through unknown territory to to find your way to the closest pizzeria or pub. If you want something to track your rides without spending extra money for detailed maps and navigation features, this could be the unit for you. If you\'re big on navigation, you\'ll probably want to look at something else.As far as accuracy, I haven\'t had a chance to compare it with a certified distance. However, I have some standards courses I ride frequently and have measures with a variety of units, including several different magnet on wheel units as well as both an Edge 305 and 604, and all show the distance to within one or two hundredths of a mile. Such variance could well be due to slight variations in the exact path you take rather than anything the fault of the unit. Take some corners on a different line, make your turnaround a bit early or late, and you will come up with a little bit different distance actually covered.Battery life seems to be quite good. With my other Garmin, since I had to connect them to the computer to sync, I was in the habit of leaving them connected and they were always charged up. Now I go for a week, perhaps as much as ten hours, and I still have 50% to 60% charge remaining.Included in the package are two of the quarter turn handlebar mounts, a number of the stretchy bands to attach these, along with one out front mount. I have three bikes I ride with some regularity so I am good to go with these. It would be easy enough to move one of the handlebar mounts if and when I want to use a different bike.This has ANT+ connectivity and I do have a HR strap. It was easy to link to this in setup and the strap connects quickly to the unit when getting ready to rideIn short, if you\'re looking for a GPS unit to track your rides and a variety of data therefrom this maybe the unit for you. However, if your looking for something for detailed navigation the. You should look elsewhere.Update: I just got back from a 6 day ride on the Katy Trail here in Missouri. The daily mileage varied from between 35/40 to just over 50. With rest stops and the like thrown in there was probable as much as 6 to 7 hours daily spent on the ride and I would leave my unit turned on the whole time. Each night the battery showed around 40% to 60% left. So I figure the battery life is plenty long enough for all but the extreme ultra-distance rider.
• I\'ve been a fairly happy user of an Edge 500 for about 5 years, and decided it was time for an upgrade. I skipped the Edge 510 because I didn\'t like the larger size. The Edge 520 is just a tiny bit bigger than the 500.I was hesitant about the screen given what I\'d read about it, but am happy to report it is easily readable in direct sunlight, and with the backlight on (I just leave it set to 50% or so all the time), visibility in shade is fine too.In terms of features, it\'s been an interesting mixed bag. The map was one of the things I was looking forward to (the built-in basemap is terrible... search on Google for DC Rainmaker\'s instructions on how to replace it with a much more detailed map for free). I rarely ride in unfamiliar areas, so I didn\'t need it for practical reasons... I just thought it would be fun to have a map to look at every now and then while riding. But I quickly discovered that this was silly, and turned the map page off (of course, it\'s still there if I need it, and I do think it will come in handy when I do organized rides out of town once or twice a year.On the other hand, ConnectIQ... this feature is something I didn\'t even pay attention to when I was making the purchase decision, but has ended up being probably my favorite aspect of the Edge 520. Basically ConnectIQ is a feature that lets you download \"apps\" from Garmin\'s site that are installed, generally taking the form of improved data fields that you can utilize. For instance, there are several different ones that give you a graphical representation of heartrate zones (see attached screen shot)... I find it quicker and with less thought involved to glance down and make sure the needle is in the middle of the green (aerobic) zone 3 rather than using just a regular numeric HR field. Unfortunately, at the time of this writing the firmware version that introduced this feature to the Edge 520 had just become available, and suffers from a significant bug. Some of the ConnectIQ apps are configurable, meaning they have settings that can be changed, but this must be done either from the Garmin Express app installed on your computer (with the 520 plugged in), or through the Garmin Connect app on your phone. But I was not able to get to the ConnectIQ configuration page from the iPhone app (times out), and though I can access the settings on the computer in the Garmin Express app, any changes to settings there are not saved to the unit for some reason. I\'m sure this will get fixed quickly.I\'ve also found that the Garmin Connect iPhone app is a huge battery hog when it\'s actually being used (to make changes to settings, view activities, etc.). But interestingly, I\'ve found that the app does not actually need to be running in order for there to still be full functionality. If the app is running when I turn on the 520, and the 520 connects to the iPhone, if I then manually quit the app on the iPhone, the 520 announces that it has lost the connection to the phone... BUT if the app is not running when the 520 is powered on, it still connects to the phone and delivers weather info, text messages, phone call info, etc., as well as automatically uploads rides to Garmin Connect when complete. If the app was running when the 520 is powered on and you subsequently quit the app (thus breaking the connection to the phone), you can either turn the 520 off and on, or on the Bluetooth status page you can disable/enable Bluetooth to prompt a re-connection.Probably my biggest problem has been with calorie computation accuracy. The standard disclaimer applies... any heartrate-based calorie calculations are just educated estimates, and if you want a more accurate figure on how many calories you burned, you need a power meter. I\'m not really a serious enough cyclist to use a power meter, so the HR-based calorie count is an important feature for me. Now, usually when people write a review about a newly purchased fitness device and complain about calories, it\'s because they think the calculated calorie burn figure is too low compared to their previous device (and I guess it\'s psychological... we\'d much rather believe that we are burning 1200 calories per hour of riding rather than a more realistic 500 calories, so therefore we automatically assume that the lower number is the one that is wrong). Unfortunately almost all of these devices over-estimate calorie burn, sometimes massively. This is especially the case with devices that do not use heartrate. In my case, however, I found the Edge 520 to also be over-estimating my calories considerably. A reasonable (but probably still a bit too high) estimate is about 30 calories per mile of moderately-paced riding, but the Edge 520 was showing about 45 calories per mile. I had a similar problem when I first got the Edge 500, but was able to tweak an \"Activity Class\" setting to bring the calculation down to around 30 calories per mile. But the Edge 520 features an \"improved\" algorithm that is claimed to no longer need this Activity Class setting, so that was no longer an option for tweaking the calorie burn estimate. I did find, however, that reducing the setting of my weight on the 520 to about half of what it actually is resulted in a more accurate calorie computation.Another issue... setting HR zones is poorly implemented. You can make these changes directly on the 520 itself, or it can be done through the Garmin Connect app or the Garmin Connect website. The problem is, these three different options are inconsistent in terms of how these zones are defined, leading to much confusion and aggravation.And I partially agree with some of the other reviewers who expressed frustration with navigating the menu system... it just seems like all the buttons are in the wrong places. However, I\'m willing to chalk that up to muscle memory from years of using the Edge 500, and am guessing that this will go away after a month or two.All that being said, I do like this unit (now that I\'ve figured out how to bring the calorie count under control), and look forward to its continued improvement via firmware updates.

Location:

Share :