Digital Gee

After doing a bit of research and reading reviews and giving things a lot of thought, I find myself leaning towards buying a Garmin 510 to keep track of things instead of an iPhone app. But at $329, I'm reeling with sticker shock. That's over 1/3 the price of my Sirrus!

I like that I can use it on more than one bike. I like that there are no cables to set up. I like the battery life, and the amazing amount of things it can track. I like that I'm not using my iPhone battery. I pretty much like it very much, except that price...

Your thoughts?

BlazingPedals

The battery life is okay if you only do day rides from home. It definitely sucks if you do week-long camping tours.

redcon1

I bought my Edge 500 when the 510 came out and the 500 prices dropped.
A quick check of eBay shows the 500 base unit at $150 from Taiwan, add another $50 to get a Speed/Cadence Sensor.

So ask yourself if the wireless upload capability, (slightly) larger display, and touchscreen interface of the 510 is worth the additional cost. Those are the only things that the 500 gives away to the 510.

All in all the 500 is an amazing little device, I love mine. I'm sure the 510 is great also. For week-long camping trips, you're going to need some kind of power source like a USB brick charger. They are cheap now.

Digital Gee

I'm not planning on any extended camping trips...

Retro Grouch 

I have a Garmin but I don't remember the model name. I think it might "Les Cheapie" because it's the most basic one that I could find. I'm done with regular bike computers.

Basically, all I want from a bike computer is to tell me "about how far" and "about how fast". That's good because I don't trust the sea level function even a little bit. I'm thinking that the far and fast computations are pretty darn close - certainly close enough to suit me. It has some other functions that I don't care enough about to have even tried out.

I love it for all the reasons that you mentioned. Attaching wheel driven computers on recumbents is a little trickier than on conventional bikes. I like that I can mindlessly move it from bike to bike with no adjustments or programming. Do have to remember to plug it in now and then but that's within my technical expertise.

Gyrine

As someone else mentioned, I find the speed and cadence functions to be essential. But they do require a separate purchase. I paid $70 for the sensors as I recall. I don't move them between bikes but it seems like a 3 min job to undo the elastics holding them on the crank arm and rear hub and reattaching them to the other bike. Should not require a re-sync with the unit.

I know some people have had trouble keeping the data from each bike separate. Don't know if that's possible with the 510 or not. You might look into this before purchase if it's important to you.

I have had absolutely no issues with my unit - very pleased. One thing though, I had to download the latest firmware upgrade right out of the box, which was almost automatic when using Garmin Express to set up the unit in the first place.

You probably know this but Garmin hosts forums for each of their products and they are an excellent resource if you can't figure something out: forums.garmin.com

coastalrider

I like my 810. The first Garmin I have owned so no comparison to others. I don't use all the bells and whistles just cadence, HR, normal bike computer functions. I did use the maps for a short 3 day tour. That worked well. You can purchase the maps from 2nd parties much cheaper- I believe I got mine from the Ride With GPS website. I purchased separate sensors and mounts for multiple bikes. You can set up profiles for each bike. Unfortunately you cannot separate them in the Garmin software.

BluesDawg

I love my 800. If you just want the recording and don't care if the elevation and grade data shown during the ride is remotely accurate and aren't interested in heart rate monitor or other ANT+ add ons, the Garmin Edge 200 will track your rides and let you upload them to sites that will correct the errors. $130 MSRP.

Rick@OCRR

You're probably not planning any double-centuries either, but just in case you are, my friends with the 510 love it that their Garmin will record a double-century without a re-charge whereas my 800 needs a re-charge after about 150 miles.

Rick / OCRR

SA_Brak

I bought the 510 a year ago. I had my doubts at the time but now absolutely love the device. I'm not sure why people believe there is a need to buy the separate speed sensor because the GPS has worked flawlessly, never had an issue. I use the Course turn by turn directions for organized rides and has saved me from a wrong turn on several rides. Not having a pretty map doesn't bother me at all. If I need to pull up a map I can just use my phone. My wife appreciates the Live Tracking feature and it gives me some piece of mind when I ride the country roads near by house. Customizable screens are nice as well. It is a very feature rich device. I would recommend it.

redcon1

I forgot about the Live Tracking with the 510, that is a big upgrade over the 500 if that's something you will use.

Willbird

I ended up after some reflection buying a Wahoo RFLCT+ instead of an Edge 500. Overall I have been pretty happy with that choice, the Wahoo TICKR is a little erratic at times with phone in rear jersey pocket (LH rear is better than RH rear for some reason). A 2 hour ride is about 10% hit on Iphone 5s battery.

Using cyclemeter it is fairly simply to create your own RFLCT+ screen setup that suits your tastes, I created one that gives me the metrics I need in a font size I can read without having bicocals in the inserts I have for my WileyX.

I already had a GSC-10 speed/cadence sensor I was using with Trainer road and a laptop, and I wrongly presumed the ANT+ bridge in the RFLCT+ would let me use the GSC-10 with the IOS trainer road ap. So I replaced the GSC-10 on the road bike with a Wahoo Blue SC, and will put the GSC-10 on my hybrid.

The Edge 510 was really outside my budget in the near future, so it was RFLCT+ or Edge 500 for me.

I probably would have considered the RFLCT+ a lot sooner but I was getting the impression from pictures that it was HUGE, it is actually quite svelte :-). I will have the Iphone with me on any ride I do anyway.

bbbean 

Love my 510. IMHO, it has the sweet spot in features, size, and price. Live tracking and auto update are great features and well worth the upgrade from the 500.

spdracr39

I have a Garmin 500 and the 810. After using the 810 I realized the 500 was a waste of money. I would absolutely keep using the phone with a battery pack before buying the 500.

oldroadie48

Well, don't know if this will away you or not but a local Cat 2 or 3 racer and coach uses the 510 and he swears by it.

MikeD1

Love my 510. I think I found it on sale for around $275 last year. I think if you look hard, you should be able to pay less than $300 . . .

Deucer01

Love my 510. Had the 200 and 500 previously.

SammyJ 

I was real happy with my Iphone and cyclemeter, but my battery would not last for a 30 mile ride.

qcpmsame 

Now that you've purchased the N+1 I doubt you want me to tell you that Cannondale has announced that they will buy anyone that buys a new Evo or CAAD10 a Garmin. So I'll avoid telling you that.

Bill

Digital Gee

I appreciate that.

And I'm pretty sure I'm going to get the 510. Just want to do a little more thinking...

John_V 

Another vote for the iPhone, Cyclemeter and RFLK+ combination. If you optimize your phone settings to extend your battery life, you can ride a century and still have decent battery life left. I did a century and ended up with 42% battery life left on my 5c on a full charge. If you're going to carry a phone with you anyway, why duplicate the services?